One thing most cryptocurrencies struggle with these days is ensuring they have some use to the average person on the street. That is certainly the case for most alternative currencies, including Monero. With services such as XMR.to, that situation becomes very different. This platform allows Monero holders to pay Bitcoin invoices using XMR at no additional cost. It is quite an intriguing concept that will benefit the long-term adoption of Monero as a whole.
XMR.To can be a Very useful Service
It has been quite challenging to convince merchants to accept Bitcoin payments in recent years. A lot of businesses still dislike the idea of having to deal with cryptocurenciies due to their volatility. However, most payment processors protect against volatility by converting incoming transactions to fiat currency right away. As a result, we have a small number of retailers accepting BTC payments, but when it comes to altcoins, the situation is very different.
Even the more popular alternative currencies, including Monero, struggle with merchant adoption. Changing that situation overnight will not be easy, though, as it does not appear there are too many merchants willing to deal with XMR right now. Using an intermediary service makes a lot more sense in this regard, which is exactly what XMR.to provides to the world. Any sites accepting Bitcoin payment snow accept XMR too, in an indirect way. The service lets users pay BTC bills in XMR base don the current exchange rate, with no additional fees to take into account.
Do not be mistaken in thinking this is a Bitcoin or Monero mixing service of sorts. Instead, it is a third-party service which wants to make Monero more useful to the average person. There are use cases for XMR other than just speculating on the price, and services such as XMR.to prove that point exactly. This platform has been around for almost two and a half years now and only focuses on doing one thing” enabling XMR holders to spend their funds at Bitcoin merchants.
It is always good to see services like these pop up. Many people underestimate the usefulness of various altcoins in existence. Monero tries to tackle anonymity, which makes retailers and merchants wary of the currency, whereas Bitcoin is transparent and better-known. Intermediary services are often a great way to improve merchant adoption for an altcoin without having to go through talks with the merchant themselves. After all, they still receive the payment in Bitcoin, without knowing anyone used a different currency to pay for the invoice in the first place. It’s an ingenious concept that can go a very long way, to say the least.
One thing that makes this service so appealing is how it does not charge any additional fees whatsoever. That is rather uncommon in the world of cryptocurrency, but for the operators of this service, it makes a lot of sense. Their goal is to make Monero more useful without invoking additional fees for the user. Additionally, customers can’t be linked to their individual payments made through XMR.to, except for the IP address used while accessing the platform. There’s an onion address available for people who prefer that extra layer of privacy and anonymity.
All things considered, the XMR.to service has a lot of potential to make Monero more appealing to the masses. Having a way to spend this currency through merchants who accept Bitcoin payments is a big step in the right direction. We can only hope to see this service become more popular over the coming years, as Monero is still rather undervalued and underappreciated at this stage. A more than valuable service for the XMR community and one that comes at no additional cost whatsoever.
