International Remittance/ Cost and Speed of Transaction
It is widely agreed amongst the companies that the quick and cheap international remittance without the regulations and fees of banks or governments makes Bitcoin useful. Five of the six financial service providers cited international remittance as useful “allow[ing] people across the world to trade Bitcoin” (FOREX), words to describe global such as “universal” (Monetas), and words to describe liquidity such as “flow” were common themes. Factors affecting liquidity have been defined by Crypto-Finance say “strong points off Bitcoin… Are no middlemen, hence less fees”, “fast deposits and withdrawals” (FOREX), “internationality” (Bitbond), “very low cost and borderless” (Pikapay), and “easy to accept, no problem, no questions, just a click and the coins are in your bank account” says Peter Liska of Yogiway. Just as sensible accounting and procurement saves a company’s money the financial benefits in a cheaper way to transfer money is a real and widely touted usefulness of Bitcoin.
As the number of people using Bitcoin has risen companies provide a much-needed service to this growing market. Jesse Heaslip, executive at BEX comments that BEX is a “company is based on top of Bitcoin…to operate a network of Bitcoin exchanges”. This “enabler” attitude was somewhat less apparent the companies providing goods, with zero of the two product merchants stating international remittance as a usefulness of Bitcoin although both merchants acknowledge that payments are easier with Bitcoin. This condition is perhaps due to the constraints of postal delivery which still burdens the exchange of physical goods. Whereas finance can travel down wires merchants still have to post the good thus incurring costs in customs and delivery, negating the usefulness of Bitcoin to the business as a whole.
Investment and trading
Of the three financial service providers offering investment services Crypto-Finance was the most vocal about Bitcoin’s usefulness in “providing higher returns”, “tremendous market inefficiencies that allow large profits compared to traditional markets”. FOREX and Radoslav Albrecht, managing director of Bitbond both offer FX trading services and loan/ credit services respectively are understandably more conservative of “potential for a lot of profit” which suits Crypto-Finance’s investment fund customers more appropriately. Due to differences in product offerings and service purposes the researched sample of companies only yielded one company which vastly advocated the usefulness of Bitcoin in investment and trading. It would be interesting to perform further research to see if companies practice what they preach, if Bitcoin companies’ financial investments are performed in Bitcoin also. This research would yield information about the companies’ sentiments towards the political and social environment surrounding Bitcoin and less about the technology or trade capabilities themselves.
Anonymity/ Decentralisation
Companies were sparse in their depiction of Bitcoin’s anonymity. As the historical image of Bitcoin has been involved in illegal activities, the researcher believes that legitimate companies wish to downplay Bitcoin’s shady past. Crypto-Finance and Chris Odom, CTO of Monetas have further stressed that Bitcoin is not actually totally anonymous.
It was apparent during the interviews with these companies that there was no real need for anonymity when conducting legitimate activities. Instead a freedom from systematic, bureaucratic and restrictive limitations and rules set by decentralised institutions controlling traditional money was a PU in five companies offering both products and services. “Real discontent with… Federal and international governments” (BEX), “libertarian” (Crypto-Finance), and “only God knows” (Yogiway) were the general sentiments expressed about current national currencies.
While the illegal and anarchist potential of Bitcoin is touted in the media Monetas talks about Bitcoin being “fully compliant with regulations”. Real legitimate companies like the ones interviewed view anonymity and decentralisation as increasing the liquidity and freedom for their customers not an avenue for untraceable illegal activities.
Innovation
BEX’s Jesse Heaslip points out the potential of Bitcoin innovation as an outlet for social movement, “it fits well with a lot of the philosophical political undertones that people who occupy Wall Street…” referring to the discontent described by many other companies in the previous paragraph. Discarding the libertarianism stance he goes on to say “the Internet is being used to connect people, progressive social change is just one aspect” of Bitcoin.
It should be noted that companies use Bitcoin regardless of a social movement. Some companies may use this financial medium with low transaction costs as this is the cheapest and fastest way to do business. Other companies may use Bitcoin to serve a market segment that have a political agenda/belief but no company in the research has stated that their company has been started on these fractious values. Instead it should be taken that innovation refers to the PU points described in international remittance/ cost and speed of transaction subheading and the companies’ opportunity to serve customers in a new and potentially global market.
The New Exchange 