Before diving into today’s topic of whether AT&T accepts bitcoin or not! Let’s understand the concept behind bitcoin. Before knowing how accurate it would be to use bitcoin as a payment method, it is important to have an idea about bitcoin & how it works. Most people have heard about bitcoin in the last 4-5 years and mainly because of the bitcoin boom that happened in 2021. It got a trillion dollars valuation. But that is not all about bitcoin, there is much more to know about it. So, first of all, bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency out there and quite stable compared to others. Bitcoin is a digital currency that is made on blockchain technology, the best part of this technology is that it is decentralized. Nobody would have access to control it, people use bitcoin to transfer money digitally. In that way, they can hide their identity and that’s why, it has become the biggest issue for the government because it is decentralized so, so any illegal transaction can be done in that way. Bitcoin was created by an unknown person in 2009 to provide security. DOES AT&T ACCEPT BITCOIN? The simplest answer is yes. AT&T becomes the first mobile carrier company based in the USA to accept bitcoin as payment. According to their data, they have a lot of customers who use cryptocurrency, and probably that’s why they started taking payments through bitcoins in 2019. Like a lot of companies, AT&T has also started taking payments in bitcoin through BitPay.
Here are some speculations on why a company like AT & T started accepting bitcoin as their payment method
There could be multiple reasons that a company starts taking its payment in bitcoin. If you would try to find out a few reasons why a company like AT&T had started taking payment in bitcoin, then one would come up with a lot of answers….
- As a company, it can take payments in bitcoin to expand its customers. If you have multiple ways to receive payments, then it might work in the company’s favor. Sometimes, a lot of transactions don’t happen due to a lack of alternatives. So, the more options there are for the customers, the more beneficial it would be for the company. And as an emerging company, you should accept new technologies that can deliver confidence to the customers.
- AT&T does its business in the mobile industry, the company mainly works as a carrier. And if a company works in this digital space, such companies should be ready to accept new emerging options such as taking payments in bitcoin.
- A company like AT&T may have started taking payments in bitcoin to create a sensation for the company. Because bitcoin is a technology that very few companies have accepted as their payment system. It shows that you, as an owner of any company, are ready to accept new technologies. There are a lot of customers who hold bitcoins and would love to pay in bitcoin. It sure expands your boundary of taking payments in different ways.
The issue with bitcoin as a payment method
The thing that most people are afraid of taking bitcoin as payment because of the movement of its price. It is very fluctuating, that’s why people might have doubts, what will happen if the price of bitcoin would go down after receiving payments in bitcoin? But if you focus wisely, then you can save yourself from losing its value. The thing you can do is you do not have to hold bitcoin in your wallet instead, you can withdraw that much bitcoin into your currency. In that, you wouldn’t have the fear of losing your capital.
But if you believe in that new technology, if you think that it holds some sort of value and will rise in valuation in the future because of the demand and supply, you may hold on to it. There are only 21 million bitcoins there. And because it is limited, the chances of getting a higher valuation are high. But It is entirely up to the individual and their awareness about bitcoin if they would want to hold on to it.
Conclusion
As a customer, you can now buy AT&T’s product and use its services by paying in bitcoin. It is an excellent move taken by AT&T to reach another level. Although a lot of companies are not using bitcoin as their payment method, we might be a decade earlier where using bitcoin would be very common but the rate of adaptation of bitcoin that we have seen in the last few years is inconceivable. Millions of people have started investing in bitcoin, and companies like AT&T, PayPal, and WIKIPEDIA have started taking positive moves toward accepting bitcoin and creating a digital place where everything will be based on technology.
