I want to touch on cryptocurrency and whether or not it’s a good time to implement it into your business. 

Raise the alarm! I know, you may not want anything to do with that scam-filled, degenerate ape, pixelated jpeg nonsense, but hear me out. (even if none of that made sense to you). 

Today, I’m not telling you to start accepting bitcoin, I’m not giving you financial advice, but if crypto is here to stay, I’m here to give you a working knowledge of what is happening so if and when it becomes mainstream, your business is ready for it. 

I want to repeat, it's okay if you don't understand it all. What's important is that you are hearing it once and are familiar with these concepts should your company be presented with an opportunity in the space. Today, I’m gonna go over what it is, how people are implementing it into their businesses, the pros, the cons, and what I personally think will be most relevant to growing your brand in the next 5 years. 

First, Cryptocurrency  sounds kinda shady right? But it’s really just named that because it uses encryption technology to control how it’s used. The biggest take away about cryptocurrency that people love is that it is decentralized, or rather, not created, circulated, or monitored by any central bank. All transactions are listed on a public ledger, or list for all to see, and it’s seeming to be one of the fairest (not safest), but fairest ways to trade and store wealth if you , say, wanna go full Ron Swanson and start burying your gold underground. 

Okay, so we know cryptocurrency is exactly that, it’s a type of currency. And there are different types of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and thousands of others, but how are people integrating these to their business, or rather, how and why are people accepting cryptocurrency, and should you?

Mainly, crypto gives you lower transaction costs, some even as low as under 1%. 

The coolest part though? You can now sell to anyone in the whole world. Anyone with access to their central bank to get funds, can convert their currency into bitcoin and purchase something from your store with that same low transaction fee. And the other plus is that cryptocurrency is expected to greatly reduce your chance of fraud. 

Now, those sound great, but you won’t find me accepting bitcoin anytime soon in my business. Why?

First, people aren’t quite bought in. If your business doesn’t dabble in art or the transfer of digital ownership, chances are, most of your customers won’t be ready for it yet. 

Second, volatility, from November 9 to January 9th, yes these last 2 months, the value of bitcoin dropped by almost 40%. Could you imagine if the money you accepted as payment all of the sudden dropped by that much?

Now if that hasn’t convinced you, transactions are a little slower, and if you haven’t heard, mining some crypto-currencies isn’t great for the environment. To be honest, I can’t foresee someone truly recommending you accept bitcoin as payment until volatility and sustainability are addressed. 

Okay, but all of that aside, that’s actually not the most exciting part of crypto and it’s effect on your business. Something that crypto enables us to do, rather than accepting it as a currency, is it can enable us to build a community.

You may have seen cartoon drawings of apes or pixelated portraits selling for millions of dollars, and thats really what makes the news, but it’s not really it’s true power.

These jpegs, or images are called NFTs. or Non-fungible tokens. Tangible meaning 4 quarters and a one dollar bill are fungible, meaning they have the same exact worth. These tokens are not comparable or interchangeable for anything else. And are listed on that public ledger we talked about earlier and they are assigned to your personal wallet when you buy one. Now, why does this matter? Having that token assigned to your wallet shows the world that you own that piece of artwork. 

Now, people are minting, or creating, NFTs and selling them as collectibles to their community. Gary Vaynerchuck sold 10,000 NFTs at a base of about $1000 each and they are now selling for $50,000 at a minimum with some going for $500,000. So what’s the point here Tony, you want us to start buying the new Privy NFT? Not exactly, The point is, that since it’s launch, he has provided an immense amount of value for his community while growing it considerably. 

Staples Center in LA just became the Crypto.com arena. Musical artists are beginning to sell concert tickets as NFTs and soon you’ll be able to attend these concerts with a virtual headset from your own home. Crypto currency has the capability to track every place, factory and farm your products visited before arriving at your customers door and in my opinion, the possibilities are endless. 

The point is, that while it’s still the wild wild west in the crypto space and people are making and losing huge amounts of money, Just because it’s new and not fully adopted everywhere, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be paying attention. Because what if, what if it becomes as impactful to commerce as the internet or instagram. Based on that what if, what I do recommend is keeping your ears open, and your ideas flowing because if and when cryptocurrency sees mass-adoption, you’ll be one step ahead of everyone else.