It is cliché to say that cryptocurrencies are volatile. In addition to the common reason of not understanding how cryptocurrencies work, volatility is the second most common reason most people have not adopted cryptocurrencies.

The cryptocurrency volatility issue springs from the fact that the entire cryptocurrency market is still relatively small, especially the number of people using cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies operate in a similar fashion to commodities in that the laws of supply and demand drive their prices. If people are buying, or just interested in buying, the price goes up. If people are selling, or are looking to sell, the price plunges. With a small market size, a small increase in demand can have a significant impact on prices, and vice-versa — especially if the commodity is under the spotlight, as is the case with cryptocurrencies.

In May 2017, researchers at the University of Cambridge estimated that just over 3 million people are actively using cryptocurrencies globally[1]. For reference, estimates from the World Bank indicate that there were about 7.442 billion people in the world as of 2016[2]. This means that just about 0.04 percent of the world population uses cryptocurrencies.

In addition, the small nature of the cryptocurrency market also gives power to “whales” to influence the prices. In the case of bitcoin, the whales control about 96 percent of the bitcoin supply with just 4 percent of the total existing wallets[3]. With such a skewed wealth distribution in the cryptocurrency market, it is relatively easy for the sentiments of a few to affect the overall market significantly.

The conclusion here is that by increasing the cryptocurrency market size, we can bring stability to the market.

GRAFT, (stands for Global Real-time Authorizations and Fund Transfers), a blockchain-based universal payment platform, believes that the most effective way to grow and stabilize the cryptocurrency market is to stimulate the volume of retail transactions conducted using cryptocurrencies. The blockchain startup has developed a number of solutions that will ease the adoption of cryptocurrency as a payment method.

With the Graft wallet, crypto owners can use any currency (fiat and crypto) of their choice at the point of sale, provided that the merchant supports it. Graft wallet also allows users to add their traditional credit cards, making it the first platform where cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies (and accompanying credit and debit cards) coexist seamlessly. Graft believes that if using cryptocurrencies does not mean users cannot use other currencies at will, more people will be compelled to adopt cryptocurrency. In addition to the flexible currency choice, Graft takes crypto transactions to a new level by settling transactions conducted on its blockchain in real-time. That is a huge improvement on bitcoin transactions, which now could take several hours to be settled. Unlike bitcoin transactions, crypto owners will not be the ones to pay the transaction fee, mirroring the traditional credit card payment system.

Merchants Do Not Need Separate Payment Infrastructure to Accept Crypto Payments

Graft has also developed integrations with existing payment terminals that makes it easier than ever for merchants to accept any currency their customers have, as well as gives them the capability to cash out using the currency (fiat or crypto) of their choice. GRAFT blockchain technology integrates the traditional payment solutions with cryptocurrency payment solutions to allow merchants to accept multi-currency payments using a single POS setup. This makes sense for merchants as it attracts a new class of customers to their businesses. In addition, Graft works with integrated software vendors, service brokers and bank exchangers to help merchants receive their proceeds on demand, in whichever currency they want.

The First App for Discovering and Enlisting Crypto-Friendly Venues

GRAFT team also developed the CryptoFind app to provide greater insight into the cryptocurrency demand spectrum to help with the continual development of its POS solutions. The CryptoFind app, which is available on both iOS and Android, allows businesses that accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment to be listed by category and location so that crypto owners can find them.

Graft Blockchain also offers 100 GRFT (Graft Blockchain native cryptocurrency) as a reward for listing businesses accepting or interested in accepting crypto (after it has been confirmed by the owner). In addition, enlisting a business to adopt the Graft POS or a Graft-enabled terminal to facilitate the acceptance of cryptocurrencies could bring up to 500 GRFT as a reward. There are also additional bonuses for listing multiple locations on the CryptoFind app.

The implementation of these features should help drive the transactional use of cryptocurrencies, and in the end, help to stabilize the cryptocurrency market.