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Card machine vendor Paymentsense commissioned a study in the UK among a national sample of 504 small business owners between January 17-21, 2018.

The company asked respondents to speculate on the future of cryptocurrencies for everyday use as a medium of exchange for small businesses. The results suggest that business owners are cautiously optimistic.

According to the research:

• 35% of SME owners expect cryptocurrency payments to go mainstream by 2020.

• 21% expect in-store adoption of cryptocurrency within a year.

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• 25% of SME owners believe cryptocurrencies will never get accepted and adopted.

• 13% of SME owners said they already accept cryptocurrency payments.

• 59% said they’ve considered making a cryptocurrency investment.

• 18% have already invested.

“It’s clear that cryptocurrencies are moving swiftly towards the mainstream,” said Guy Moreve, head of marketing at Paymentsense. “However, small business owners considering cryptocurrency as a payment option should be clear about how they can integrate it with their existing financial arrangements. Will suppliers or staff accept it? Can they pay local and national government agencies with it?”

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Paymentsense provides a range of card machine solutions for its SME (small business enterprise) customers, with all terminals set to accept Contactless, Apple Pay and Android Pay as standard payments.

Although Paymentsense sees its role in the crypto space as a merchant service provider that can hedge against Bitcoin’s fast volatility by settling transactions swiftly for its clients, the Lightning Network, designed for smaller payments, promises to be the definitive solution. If successful, it will give Bitcoin a huge face lift by effectively addressing its scaling issues and ramping up its speed. While the Lightning Network is in its early experimental phase, other payment systems, such as Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Dash, are vying for merchants as well.