The cryptocurrency market has experienced a tough first half of 2018; yet despite this the CEO of PayTabs is of the opinion that digital currencies will continue to be used.
Abdulaziz Al Jouf, head of the digital payment solutions company, was speaking to Arabian Business yesterday when he made these comments. He went on to say that it was unlikely that digital currencies will be banned, adding:
“Cryptocurrency is here to stay. How this will happen? There are different dimensions and different directions where this will go. Keep in mind that until today, central banks are trying hard to ban [cryptocurrency] because they feel it is out of [their] control.”
Even though the use of cryptocurrencies are still being used among the masses as a way of making an ‘extra buck,’ Al Jouf believes that the market can solve bigger problems. His company, for example, processes transactions for digital currencies in 10 nations across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Asia. As a result, he believes that with the aid of exchange houses in Asia the use of cryptocurrencies can boost the remittance market.
“We’re working on a couple of projects in Asia on how to use cryptocurrency so that it’s still compliant with regulation. We’re working on speeding up the process of someone who wants to send money abroad from [Dubai] to the Philippines, for example,” he added.
Regarding the impact that the blockchain is making, Al Jouf thinks more could be done and that in its ‘current form’ it’s not doing anything. He said that he believes the technology will progress in some areas, but that it will take time for that to happen.
Interestingly, even though some are of the opinion that merchants aren’t interested in cryptocurrencies due to the market’s volatility, which could impact whether people use it to pay for things, others believe that digital currencies will produce a major impact on how we view money in the future.
Earlier this week, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, spoke in favour of Bitcoin and said that he hopes it will serve as a single global currency one day. Wozniak was responding to comments made by Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and co-founder of payments processing company Square, earlier this year.
In March, Dorsey was reported as saying that the world would end up having a single currency and that he believed it would be Bitcoin. Yet, countering that Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of fintech firm Ripple, claimed at the end of May that Bitcoin may end up being the ‘Napster of digital assets,’ as it paves the way for greater things.
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