Bitcoin's transaction issues are longstanding and notorious, and result from obstacles faced by all cryptocurrencies – scalability. As network traffic increases on the Blockchain, so transactions take longer and cost more. Other digital currencies, particularly Ethereum, have improved their network architecture, addressing these problems, while Bitcoin (BTC) continues to struggle, despite last year's hard fork to Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

When BTC went onto the Chicago futures markets in December, it suddenly became a store of value, often called "digital gold," rather than a P2P payments system. Decisions by companies like Stripe to stop accepting Bitcoin for online payments can only add to its problems, as people turn to alternatives. In South Africa, for example, most online retailers accept Bitcoin through a payment gateway called PayFast, which converts the payments into a fiat currency.

PayFast confirm that with Bitcoin, they are frequently paying... really quite slowly. They still support payment with Bitcoin, but are increasingly affected by the escalating delays in transaction confirmation times, and the additional costs associated with that. PayFast warn customers that to ensure completion of a transaction within a stipulated time frame will mean incurring higher transaction fees. If not completed in time, PayFast's transaction will expire before Bitcoin's transaction is confirmed, causing customer frustration as well as wasted fees.