Don't Plan to Buy Groceries with Bitcoin

The pandemic may have killed cash and checks, but don't expect Bitcoin to replace them anytime soon. That's what Global Payments CEO Jeff Sloan told Ellen McGirt and me on this week's episode of our Leadership Next podcast.

Global Payments provides the technology plumbing for a lot of e-commerce, and when the lockdowns began, its business boomed. "Cash and check is the enemy, and the pandemic accelerated the decline of cash and check," he said. "As long as you as a consumer are paying with something other than cash and check, we ultimately are going to get paid."

That includes Bitcoin. But using Bitcoin for everyday purchases is still far from being a reality, Sloan says. Why? "A typical grocery store, for example, has 1% operating margins. Bitcoin today is swinging 400 to 500 basis points a day. No grocer is going to take that risk even if it's, you know, same day or overnight or next night risk. It just doesn't make any sense as a risk matter."

But Sloan does eventually see a role for "stable coin" -- cryptocurrency pegged to the dollar or other currencies. "I do think there is a role for digital fiat currency in the United States. And globally, the U.K. has said the same thing, and so has China...As it relates to Bitcoin, I also think the idea of distributed ledger technology, of which crypto is just one example, also holds a lot of promise."

You can listen to the full interview on Apple or Spotify, and catch up on other Leadership Next interviews here.