Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have lately come on the radar of regulatory agencies and monetary authorities across the globe. While many nations, like Japan and the U.S., have allowed transactions and permitted cryptocurrency exchanges to operate, China has been tightening the screws on their use.

Bitcoin transactions seek to operate more like cash: exchanged person-to-person without a monetary intermediary.

Bitcoin is not presently extensively accepted and need to frequently be used via an exchange.

Credit card companies are broadly accepted however charge fees.

Credit card also offer fraud safety that Bitcoin does not.

However, the general increasing acceptance of bitcoins is indicative of more and more global users willing to transact in them. The existence and continually increasing influence of a parallel, borderless economy which is out of control of any central authority is also placing the business of the traditional card and merchant payment service companies at risk.

From a time where everything was being dealt in fiat currencies to now, where an growing component is switching to cryptocurrency dealings, the associated services linked to fiat currencies are bound to feel the heat.