As virtual currencies continue to boom in the investment world, the recent dramatic price fluctuations are now producing early billionaires out of young investors.
Although most people believe that cryptocurrency investment is a risky one, its main end purpose is apparently to become a mainstream currency, offering an alternative mode of payment for goods and services.
The sector is by far attractive to companies and individuals daring to enter the crypto trading industry for financial rewards.
Recently, one of the last global firms to enter the cryptocurrency scene is UPS.
The company is looking into developing a computerized locker bank system. This is according to a filed application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office earlier this month. The application lists Bitcoin alongside a number of digital platforms like Google Pay and PayPal to be used as payment methods.
Presently, consumers are beginning to move away from using Bitcoin as mode of payment mostly because of its high transaction fee (the average transaction fee is around $30). Due to its fluctuating value, fewer and fewer people want to trade it for common items.
These factors also play into the reason why the amount of consumer complaints against cryptocurrency companies has risen within the last year.
With UPS's proposed modern locker system, any buyer or seller who is willing to use one of these lockers in a recent trade should leave their item locked into the UPS locker system (which can be rented) until the buyer picks it as their choice of payment, thus completing the transaction.
The UPS locker system will also be expanded to be used in trading regular packages via traditional UPS services through the said lockers. The different modes in which renters can use to pay for lockers were outlined to include cash transactions, credit or debit transactions, gift certificates and electronic payments from platforms such as Bitcoin, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal.
The most exciting bit in the patent listing is the addition of Bitcoin as a payment option to be used to refund customers alongside other typical modes of payment.
With a global shipping giant as notable as UPS taking part in the growth of cryptocurrency, this news can be seen as a positive sign for the industry. Amazon is also marketing its own new locker service, though the company has not yet confirmed the inclusion of cryptocurrency as a mode of payment.
Even more companies are considering different ways to integrate cryptocurrency into their services, especially where traditional fiat currencies work inefficiently for some customers. However, some countries are still fighting the virtual currency revolution, and the battle is expected to continue and intensify in the coming years.
But with the new proposed UPS locker system, a trend is expected where shipping companies-which make a crucial contribution to the global economy-are considering using cryptocurrencies as a mainstream mode of payment.
Earlier this month, FedEx also made a significant move in developing a blockchain-based platform for its daily business operations. It might not take long before the entire sector moves into the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry.
According to a report from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in 2017 alone more than 20 filed patents mentioned Bitcoin as a possible mode of payment, although it was a slight drop compared to 2016 when more than 50 patents were filed with Bitcoin as payment option.
Still, blockchain technology is certainly of interest for major firms throughout all industries. Last year, the number of applications for blockchain-related patents nearly doubled compared to 2016.
The move integrate cryptocurrencies by such a big global shipping company might seem surprising and bold by many, but UPS is not the only nor the first global shipping firm considering cryptocurrency as a mode of payment.
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