Why Bitcoin is Cheaper and Faster
Lower transaction costs. The obvious and short-term benefit to using Bitcoin as compared with other clearinghouses like credit card companies, PayPal, and Western Union WU -1.46%, are the lowered transaction costs, averaging in at 1%, as compared with the aforementioned at 2-4%. “With Bitcoin we can take temporary deposits and refund the amount without incurring charges” says Alex Shapiro, founder of AmuseMi.com.The implications of the low cost transaction are wide ranging from micro-payments to peer-to-peer to international to the “unbanked’s” transactions.
Micro-transactions: Companies like PayPal implement a $.30 flat fee plus a percentage of the transaction as their fee. With a strictly variable pricing model, Bitcoin could open the door for the micro-transaction ecosystem to finally be economically viable.
Peer to Peer Transactions: The barrier to entry to create your own small business has come down and more small businesses are opening up benefiting companies like Square, and other SMB enablers. With Bitcoin, peer-to-peer transactions become even simpler.
International Transactions: International transactions have always been extremely challenging. Fees on both ends with foreign exchange risk in the middle, usually whittles away any profits. Similarly, sending money via wire or Western Union is also expensive. Dominic Paolilloof Brown Harris Stevens mentions how certain international real estate transactions, like condominiums, would be simplified with Bitcoin and could be advantageous especially in markets like New York where “all cash” is always a possibility no matter what the number is.
“Unbanked” Transactions: Without a need for infrastructure, Bitcoin can be an alternative for the unbanked community either domestic or abroad. Fees for check cashing can be upwards of 2%, double the rate of a standard Bitcoin transaction.
As more Bitcoin services rise, friction in the marketplace will decrease in both settlement times, currently about ten minutes, as well as in transacting.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2014/02/13/why-we-accept-bitcoin/