Methodology & Samples

Three non-structured guideline one-to-one expert interviews were conducted via online video meetings. Both were recorded and transcribed according to Gläser and Laudel (2009).

The choice was made to interview one academic researcher who simultaneously operates a company in the industry, one person responsible for a merchant's payment systems, and a former long-time employee of a cryptocurrency exchange. All interview partners have different backgrounds and touching points with cryptocurrency, resulting in a diverse sample.

Secondary data was collected through various publicly available websites and whitepapers and analyzed with the help of an excel sheet.

Cryptocurrencies:

The primary data source is

CoinMarketCap

CoinMarketCap

A further selection process was conducted to reduce the initial sample of 100 to cryptocurrencies meaningful to payments. Therefore, a keyword analysis of the homepages was conducted with the main keywords being payments, currency, digital money, and fast and cheap transactions. Additionally, the self-portrayal and the primary purpose of the cryptocurrency were considered. Lastly, coins with outstanding blockchain capabilities regarding payments were selected. In this way, the original sample of 100 cryptocurrencies was reduced to 29. The upcoming Ethereum upgrade will also be included where applicable and is referred to as

ETH2

Data Sources:

Name, symbol, ranking, market cap, volume in the last 24 hours, the number of markets, Fundamental Crypto Asset Score, TokenInsight Rating, the number of wallet providers, consensus protocol, and estimated users were sourced from

CoinMarketCap

Payment Gateways:

A google search on the most popular payment gateways was conducted for payment gateways, resulting in a sample of 10 frequently mentioned payment gateways.

The data for payment gateways was directly sourced from their websites. The collected data includes name, fees, FIAT conversion options, direct cryptocurrency transfer, number of supported cryptocurrencies, a list of supported cryptocurrencies, and integrations.