Consumers are increasingly turning to cryptocurrency as a secure, convenient way to pay for online purchases. Businesses offering the option to pay with cryptocurrency are already seeing an increase in their sales, and ultimately in their profits.

This is not the only way that cryptocurrency can increase business profits, though. Cryptocurrency is also revolutionizing the future of small business funding, and canny businesses are recognizing the value of the technology for everything from reducing fraud to signaling brand values.

In this article, we'll show you a number of key ways in which you can take advantage of this new technology to improve your bottom line. Some of these techniques make use of cryptocurrencies themselves, but others are based on the technology that underpins them: blockchain. Whilst the easiest ways to make money from crypto are to use it as a form of money, you can also use blockchain to make dramatic improvements to the efficiency of your business systems.

1. Branded cryptocurrency

A major value of cryptocurrencies for business, albeit one that is often overlooked, is the ability to create your own branded cryptocurrency. This may seem like an indirect way to increase profits, but it can be one of the most effective.

That’s because it draws on the huge popularity and enthusiasm for crypto at the moment: with so many people actively promoting cryptocurrencies as the future of online payments, launching your own is a sure way of driving traffic to your business, even if people only check out your brand out of curiosity.

2. Low-cost, convenient transactions

A more obvious, but no less effective, way of using cryptocurrencies to improve your business profits is to use them as a low-cost, convenient alternative to credit card payments. By using cryptocurrency, you can avoid the fees that card issuers charge for payments, and remove an unnecessary business cost. This is the approach taken by both parking reservation company Parking Access and airport shuttle booking company Shuttlefare, who recently added a Bitcoin payment option provided by BitPay to their websites.

Cryptocurrency is also more convenient for many consumers, because it integrates so well with their online lives. There are many online options and wallets people can use to securely store their cryptocurrencies and conduct everyday transactions from. Most smartphone users use their smartphones to text regularly, and that they are more likely to make a purchase via cryptocurrency if they are contacted in this way by a brand. In short: make it easier for your customers to give you money, and they will.

3. Reduce fraud

Both businesses and consumers can benefit from the added security that cryptocurrencies offer over traditional payment methods. In fact, cryptocurrencies are so secure that countries like Venezuela and Zimbabwe are using them to combat fraud on a national scale, and huge financial institutions like Deutsche Bank are turning to them to improve storage security and reduce the cost of money laundering.

For businesses, the security of cryptocurrencies has two advantages. One is that they can cut the raw cost of credit card fraud. The second is that consumers value the extra security and privacy they provide. By offering a secure payment method, you can reach customers who are concerned about sharing their credit card details online.

4. Systems and Logistics

Though cryptocurrencies are often thought about as merely a financial tool, the blockchain technologies that they rely on have a much broader application. If your business involves managing supply chains, for instance, designing a blockchain to manage this can make it much more efficient and much more secure.

This is because blockchain is designed to ensure the integrity and security of data when working in distributed environments. Unlike traditional supply chain management software, blockchain supply management systems don’t rely on a single, centralized log of products and suppliers. Instead, all of the companies involved in the supply chain can directly access the data held in the blockchain, and audit it for accuracy.

---

---

5. Signaling your brand values

In much the same way as launching your own branded cryptocurrency indicates that your company is at the breaking edge of new technology, even just accepting cryptocurrency as a payment method can be a powerful signal of your progressive values.

Signaling to consumers that you are enthusiastic about cryptocurrency allows you to take advantage of the hype that surrounds the technology at the moment. That’s why Long Island Iced Tea Corp. recently changed its name to Long Blockchain Corp., and immediately saw its stocks rise 200%.

There are other ways in which the marketing value of cryptocurrencies are apparent. Google’s Page Rank algorithm appears to take into account the ability to accept cryptocurrency in working out where a webpage should place in Google searches. Moz has determined that most clicks on search engine results occur on the first page. Implementing cryptocurrency on your webpages is therefore one of a variety of methods you can use to push a company to the top of the Google rank. That will drive traffic to your site, which will drive sales and then profits.

Crypto mining

Perhaps the most direct way that you can use cryptocurrency to increase business profits is to start a crypto mining operation. Even small businesses typically have vast amounts of computing power that sits idle for most of the day, and using your equipment to its full advantage can maximize your investment.

Businesses should also note, however, that setting up a mining operation is not as simple as installing mining software on their standard office equipment. There are many cryptocurrency scams out there that will attempt to infect your systems with cryptojacking malware, and use your computing power to make money for someone else.

In fact, this point highlights a broader one: implementing cryptocurrencies in your business should be done in parallel with a thorough cybersecurity audit, in which both your threat intelligence system and your encryption protocols are checked for vulnerabilities. Cryptocurrencies can have huge advantages for businesses, but you need to recognize that introducing any new technology into your business comes with added risk.

---

The bottom line

At the moment, these are the most effective ways that businesses can take advantage of cryptocurrency. However, it’s likely that even more applications for the technology will emerge as more and more people – and more and more businesses – adopt it. The ultimate promise of this technology is that financial and payment systems can be completely freed from centralized control. If this dream is realized, we are likely to see the emergence of an entirely new kind of business: one based entirely on cryptocurrency.

For now, however, most businesses will have to use cryptocurrency in parallel with “traditional” currencies. Deciding whether you should invest in blockchain technology is a personal decision, and the utility of this new technology will depend on the sector your business operates in. If your customers value privacy and security, adopting this technology is almost a necessity. On the other hand, you should be wary of investing in a range of new equipment and security solutions merely because of the hype.

In short, and as with any business decision, you should look carefully at the likely impact of adopting cryptocurrencies on the only metric that really matters in business: the bottom line.

---