Is Bitcoin’s Merchant Appeal Fading?

While it’s safe to say that 2014 was a banner year for bitcoin in terms of merchant adoption – with the likes of Overstock, DISH, Dell and Microsoft entering the space – 2015 hasn’t quite started with the same bang.
Though rumors continue to swirl about a possible Uber or Airbnb entrance, the highest profile merchant to accept bitcoin this year has been a local subsidiary of global real estate franchiseRE/MAX.
Members of the bitcoin processing ecosystem seem divided on the state of this industry sector entering March.
Those contacted by CoinDesk all agreed that, after months of grabbing the lion’s share of headlines, big merchant announcements have been “tapering off” for bitcoin. But, while some voiced their belief that the current lapse in mainstream media attention will pass, others suggested it points to new challenges for merchant acquisition.
Akif Khan, vice president of solutions strategy at Bitnet, suggested this development says little about the underlying appeal of bitcoin as a payment tool:

This post was published at Coin Desk on March 13, 2015.