It's no secret that most mainstream economists don't think too highly of cryptocurrencies. Not only have Bitcoin[1], Ethereum[2] and the rest produced the "greatest bubble in history[3]," but they're "neither a serious method of payment nor a good way to store capital[4]" — at least according to the Bank of America and Nouriel "Dr Doom" Roubini, respectively.
However, while traditional financial experts have spent countless hours complaining that the volatility[5] of cryptocurrencies renders them unviable as actual currency, it is possible to use them as money in a wide variety of places and to spend them on everything from pizzas to shoes.
But which cryptocurrency is the most usable as money? Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, the answer to this question is Bitcoin, simply because it's accepted as a payment more widely than any other cryptocurrency. But as this analysis will show, other currencies are being increasingly accepted by retailers and companies, and given their superior scalability, they may end up overtaking the original cryptocurrency in the coming months and years.
Bitcoin accepted here
There's no single authoritative list of all the companies in the world that accept cryptocurrencies as payment, although there are a number of aggregators and websites that offer a general overview of who is accepting what. The most helpful is arguably Virtual Coin Squad[6], since even though it doesn't quite boast the most extensive catalogue of merchants now accepting cryptocurrencies, it actually lists companies together with all the cryptocurrencies they accept. As such, it provides a clear insight into which cryptocurrency is the most widely used as a means of payment.
54 major companies currently accept cryptocurrencies, according to Virtual Coin Squad (although the real number is much higher), and only
