Bitpay Chief Commercial Officer Sonny Singh, whose responsibility is to bring bitcoin to the masses and to small businesses worldwide, led a discussion about bitcoin, the importance of the block chain technology to banks, the rapid growth in VC investments, and the benefits of bitcoin for merchants and small e-businesses.

Bitcoin vs Internet VC Funding

Singh began his talk with a brief comparison between the investments in the bitcoin industry and internet.

According to Coindesk and PwC, bitcoin investments in 2015 have totaled US$916 million so far, a 262.5% increase compared to last year.

“You can see the rapid growth of the VC investments in the bitcoin space,” explained Singh; adding:

“The most important number is [VC investments have] gone up 3x this year compared to last year, and so having been based in Silicon Valley for 15 years, and seeing a lot of trends and companies getting funding, back from Google and Facebook and all that, we’re seeing the same kind of ecosystem being built.”

Payment volume

According to the data of Coinometrics and Statistita, bitcoin has surpassed global financial services and remittances companies like Western Union and digital money transfer and settlement platforms like Xoom.

“Two years ago, bitcoin wouldn’t have been on that,” said Singh. “It shows how much of a traction bitcoin has gotten in just over the last two years. It’s really come a long way and I imagine in the next two years, it will be much higher actually.”

Merchants & Global Users

Global establishments and merchants worldwide that have been accepting bitcoin for the last year or two have announced a positive growth in their sales revenue. Dell, for example, has reported a positive growth of bitcoin sales over the last year.

Dell also tweeted:

“If you’re a retailer, there’s really no reason not to accept Bitcoin at this point” t.co/pWYy7NnhXH via @nytimes — Dell (@Dell) July 18, 2014

Online retail giants like TigerDirect has also reported positive consumer feedback and growth in bitcoin sales over the last 18 months.

“According to Leeds, TigerDirect has been thrilled with its decision to accept bitcoin. Leeds noted that Bitcoin has drawn new users to TigerDirect, with 46 percent of customers purchasing with bitcoin being new users,” reported Bitcoin Magazine.

Today, multinational companies that have had great experience with bitcoin are trying to convince other merchants to accept bitcoin.

“12 months ago, people like myself were at conferences speaking to merchants out there explaining to merchants why they need to accept bitcoin. 12 months later, merchants like Dell, Overstock, and Microsoft are actually speaking to merchants now explaining the value of why accepting bitcoin is important. We’ve seen the ecosystem change quite dramatically,” explained Singh.