Most crypto users tend to stick to the most popular currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum for payments. Currently, Bitcoin payments account for around 86% of all crypto transactions.
Unfortunately, the Bitcoin network has so far proven to be too slow and volatile to be a practical global digital payment option. If you don’t convert funds immediately to a more stable currency, the payment you received might rapidly decrease in value the next day. Even though a lot of altcoins follow the trends of BTC in terms of price and volume, some of them have better features and conditions for crypto payments that should be considered.
Factors that keep people away from the leading currencies and, therefore, from the cryptocurrency market all together are high volatility, high transaction costs, and slow processing speed. However, there are other options on the market that set out to create a solution for these issues.
So which cryptocurrencies are best for payments?
Despite the popularity of BTC and ETH, there are other notable projects that, depending on the specifics of your payment requirements, may offer higher quality services. Let’s discuss some alternative cryptocurrencies, how they resolve common user concerns, and why they are a good choice for crypto payments.
Tether USDT (USDT TRC-20)
Tether was launched in 2014 and was originally based on the Bitcoin blockchain. The Tether network now supports protocols like Bitcoin’s Omni and Liquid as well as the Ethereum, TRON, EOS, Algorand, Solana, OMG Network, and Bitcoin Cash (SLP) blockchains.
According to market capitalization, USDT is the most popular stablecoin and the third most popular cryptocurrency. In April 2022, Tether’s USDT accounted for two-thirds of exchanges of Bitcoin by value.
The popularity of USDT as a payment method is mainly because it’s pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar and rarely fluctuates from the rate of 1 USDT = 1 USD. It’s a less volatile and more reliable way to hold crypto funds without their value changing. The speed of USDT transactions depends on the underlying platform, but the average exchange gets processed within 3 minutes, and there are zero fees for transfers between Tether wallets.
Ripple (XRP)
Ripple was started with the goal of enabling an outstanding international payments experience before Bitcoin even existed. The original RipplePay P2P network was launched in 2004. In 2012, it was upgraded with a Ripple transaction protocol that allows fiat and crypto to be exchanged.
Regarding total market capitalization, Ripple’s native cryptocurrency, XRP, is among the top ten. XRP is often referred to as “cryptocurrency for banks” because there are more and more financial institutions, businesses, and individuals who accept Ripple as payment.
The low fees and quick transactions are the main reasons for using Ripple as a payment method. The cost is only 0.00001 XRP per transaction, and it takes four-five seconds to be processed.
Solana (SOL)
Solana was founded in 2017 and it’s a smart contract decentralized finance platform that is now able to compete with Ethereum (ETH) in the DeFi space. Both platforms provide a wide variety of decentralized applications (dApps), some of which also have their own cryptocurrencies.
SOL is the native Solana token, and it’s currently ranked #9, according to CoinMarketCap. It is employed as payment for running smart contracts or other transactions, as well as staking, in which token holders can stake their SOL and earn rewards.
The Solana network is the ideal choice for merchants to accept stablecoin payments thanks to its high throughput of 65,000 per second and low fees, with an average transaction fee of $0.00025. In comparison, Ethereum can process less than 15,000 TPS, while the network’s record fee has reached $70.
Nano (XNO)
Nano is a zero-fee environmentally friendly digital currency. Due to the dual-transaction mechanism used, each transaction must be verified by both the sender and the recipient of the funds. This eliminates the need for miners and makes instant, feeless transactions possible.
Because of the block-lattice architecture used by the nano protocol, the nano blockchain should theoretically be able to scale indefinitely. There is also an entire ecosystem that is being built around nano that includes wallets, merchant solutions, and games.
There isn’t much that can beat zero cost instant transactions, so nano is the ideal currency for borderless crypto payments.
Dai (DAI)
DAI is another stablecoin on our list that is pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. It’s basically an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain that was developed by the Maker project. You can create the stablecoin on the Maker platform by utilizing unique smart contracts that issue or burn DAI. Depending on whether you want to create (or, to put it another way, borrow) it or pay back the loan and get your collateral back, which removes DAI from the available supply.
Besides being a secure and stable payment method, DAI also offers an efficient tool to combat the usual cryptocurrency market instability. Users can keep some or all of their funds in DAI during times of high volatility to reduce losses.
Additionally, it provides access to collateralized loans in a way that has many advantages over the alternatives currently available. Without going through any kind of approval procedure typical for traditional crediting systems, DAI users can simply lock up their digital assets as collateral and receive more DAI as a reward.
How to accept crypto payments?
It’s important to choose a reputable platform that has all the features that you need to send and accept crypto payments in the currencies discussed in this article. An easy solution is to use NOWPayments. It’s a platform that allows you to send and receive instant crypto transactions with fair and transparent trading rates and transaction fees. You can choose from 50+ cryptocurrencies while still keeping control of your own funds with instant payouts.
To start accepting payments, register an account with an email address, verify the email address, and add the wallet address where your payments will be sent.
After that, you will be taken to a dashboard where you can create payment links for the orders of your clients. You can also start accepting donations and join the referral program here.
Conclusion
While BTC and ETH are the most popular cryptocurrencies in the market, both networks often suffer from extreme volatility, high transaction costs, and slow processing speeds. Sometimes the most popular networks might not be the best choice for businesses or customers. The currencies we discussed today are less known but just as capable and secure as the leading coins. Some of them offer huge advantages, such as low volatility, small or zero fees, and speed that triumphs over Bitcoin and Ethereum networks. For your customers’ donations and payments, consider adding one or more of these options, or request that your favorite retailer begin accepting it due to the benefits outlined in this article.