The idea was there from the beginning. In 2008, in the very first line of the white paper, Satoshi Nakaomoto described bitcoin as electronic cash that would “allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.” That was bitcoin’s original purpose. Not to be a Store of Value, a tool for day-trading, or a means of getting rich, but to let everyday people actually purchase things like a cup of coffee or a pizza.

And bitcoin, of course, was eventually used to do just that. It started in 2010, when Laszlo Hanyecz, a Hungarian programmer, spent 10,000 bitcoins on a couple of pizzas. (In today’s prices, those pizzas cost around $260 million.) Later on, Wordpress, Overstock.com, Microsoft, and Wikipedia all began to accept bitcoin. So did a smattering of bars and restaurants and cafes. But this always felt a little niche. The idea of using cryptocurrency to actually buy stuff was so unorthodox, even wacky, that news outlets featured stories like Forbes’ Living On Bitcoin For A Week: The Bitcoin Diet, or CNNs I Lived on Bitcoin for 24 Hours.

If cryptocurrency-as-payment were truly easy and ubiquitous, there wouldn’t be playful articles about how hard it is. And that gets to the crux of the issue. The idea of “buying coffee with bitcoin” was quirky and fun but not mainstream. Not only Bitcoin, other cryptocurrency like Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, XRP have been used to make payments, but failed to take off as a widespread payment solution. None have truly caught fire in a mainstream way.

The reason for this lack of adoption? Let’s look at it from the perspective of users, merchants, and enterprises. For starters, especially in the early years, the extreme price volatility could give both customers and merchants heartburn. Just as Laszlo Hanyecz inadvertently spent $260 million (in today’s dollars) on pizza, it was tricky to know whether your crypto-cappuccino is really costing you $2 or $5 or $20. The early interfaces were clunky and confusing. Then there’s the speed issue; while bitcoin was originally conceived as a way to achieve instant financial settlement, the reality is that it could take 10 minutes for the transaction to be confirmed.

From a merchant perspective, adopting crypto as payment also had significant pain points. Since there were no trusted crypto gateway payment services, integrating a crypto payment system could require technical skills that merchants didn’t have. There were concerns that crypto payments could trigger capital gains tax. Cryptocurrency exchange channels were clunky or non-exististant.

For businesses and enterprises offering cryptocurrency payment solutions, they face yet another formidable challenge – navigating the intricate web of circumstances that vary from one region to another, contingent upon the differences of mobile payment developments locally. Enabling seamless fiat-to-crypto transactions on a global scale entails harnessing hundreds of regional payment channels, and this can be tricky to manage.

Finally, there’s the issue of compliance. Regulatory confusion made it tricky for companies to fully commit to crypto as a payment system – the aspiration to make cryptocurrency accessible to everyone is admirable, but it’s difficult to obtain all the licenses you need to legally operate, especially if your company spans across multiple countries.

While it’s fashionable to describe the current environment as “crypto winter,” the focus on price masks an important trend that’s bubbling under the surface. Cryptocurrencies are quietly, far from the spotlight, emerging once again as a payment solution. Crypto gateway payment services are now in place, and this time the infrastructure is better, the system works faster, the interfaces are cleaner, and savvy companies have cracked many of the industry’s problems. Perhaps most importantly, mainstream and trusted brands have entered the space, giving both consumers and businesses confidence.

PayPal, for example, recently launched its own dollar-pegged stablecoin. (This solves the price volatility issue.) Visa is working with Solana for a stablecoin solution. A MetaMask wallet can now allow crypto cash out into fiats like USD.

The process of “onboarding” has dramatically improved. Just look at Alchemy Pay, which has worked to make it easier for everyday people to get and spend crypto. Alchemy Pay’s “NFT checkout” makes it a snap to buy digital assets, they’ve worked with Visa and Mastercard to make it simple for people to buy cryptocurrencies in 173 countries; and their “crypto card” makes it easy to spend cryptocurrency on things like coffee and pizza. Bonus? The virtual crypto card gives some extra perks for merchants – it lets them use their own custom branding and logos, not have to worry about the bank acceptance process (Alchemy Pay takes care of all that), lets users pay in cryptocurrencies like USDT, USDC, BTC, ETH, and is accepted wherever physical cards are accepted. Alchemy Pay is also driving forward  cryptocurrency payments on a hyper-local level focused on emerging markets, such as supporting bank transfers for crypto purchases in Turkey.

All of those pain-points that enterprises had in adopting a crypto gateway payment solution? They’ve largely been solved. It’s a snap for merchants to add crypto gateway solutions directly to their current payment system, through easy-to-use plug-ins or APIs from solutions like Alchemy Pay Ramp. These solutions also slash the costs of both payment fees and developing a payment system – it’s now turnkey.

Perhaps most importantly, these new payment solutions have a focus on compliance. This is no longer the Wild Wild West. “Ensuring compliance is consistently one of the most significant obstacles in the cryptocurrency industry, particularly within the payment sector. We firmly believe that our dedication to regulatory compliance will ultimately lead us towards a broader vision – one where we can bridge the divide between traditional fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies,” said Robert McCracken, Ecosystem Lead at  Alchemy Pay. “This, in turn, will enable us to onboard a wider audience of everyday individuals.” To that end, Alchemy Pay has worked with governments and regulators to scoop up license after license, from the United States to Hong Kong to Lithuania to Indonesia.  (Crypto is global, so compliance needs to be, too.)

In September, Alchemy Pay made an official announcement regarding the successful acquisition of a Money Transmitter License in the state of Arkansas, United States. This notable achievement represents another step forward in Alchemy Pay's ongoing efforts to obtain essential licenses and regulatory approval around the globe.

Ultimately, thanks to these onramps and innovations from Alchemy Pay and others, the cryptocurrency payment sector is once again heating up. Real people are using crypto to buy real things. It took nearly 15 years of false starts, trial and error, frustrations, and $260 million pizzas, but we’re now closer to realizing the original vision of Satoshi Nakamoto.