Hello everyone!

If you have looked over Opporty’s White Paper, you know that our goal is to become a global business marketplace and an expertise validation provider on the blockchain, to establish and grow trusted business relationships globally. Naturally, our goal is strongly associated with cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, and we do our best to encourage people, including verified companies at Opporty, to start using cryptocurrency.

Our first milestones have already been achieved. Two weeks ago, an Opporty verified business, Universal Accounting Systems, became the first accounting firm in New York to officially accept payments using cryptocurrency. We published a post about it here on Medium, and it even made headlines at Accesswire.

Businesses are gradually coming to realize that crypto payments may support their bottom line. Last week, David Treyster, founder of Hudson Law Group, reached out to the Opporty team, and chose to list his company’s offers in ETH and BTC as well.

At the same time, we realize that, although cryptocurrency and blockchain are surrounded by a lot of hype and noise, business owners and consumers are in no hurry to jump on the crypto bandwagon. There are multiple reasons for that.

Why Do Crypto and Blockchain Lag Behind?

Crypto and blockchain enthusiasts are well aware of all the benefits that these technologies offer, including accuracy, security, immutability, cost-effectiveness, and speed of operation — to name just a few.

Despite all of that, there are currently several hurdles preventing its mass adoption, such as:

Lack of trust. All the craziness surrounding Bitcoin, with its fluctuations and volatility, has eroded trust and raised concerns about the sustainability of new technologies.

Difficulty of use. While the tech-savvy can deftly create wallets, use private and public keys, and make ordinary transactions, most people are in the dark about such matters.

Lack of awareness. While big players and financial institutions are experimenting with elements of blockchain, most smaller businesses are not even aware of what blockchain is, never mind its technical capabilities and potential.

Regulatory pressure and uncertainty. Governments are scrambling to figure out how to approach cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Since concrete rules and regulations are not in place, many businesses do not want to risk it.

Efficiency of non-blockchain technology. Users in developed countries are content to rely on traditional, non-blockchain services in finance, banking, and other industries, and they are, for the most part, not interested in overhauling the entire system.

At Opporty, we understand that the general public relies on an established modus operandi that is a far cry from anything that crypto and blockchain currently have to offer. People do not know what blockchain is, and they are not inclined to switch from established payment systems and banking services that allow them to select and pay for specific products and services directly at companies’ websites.

Opporty solves this problem by implementing its smart widgets on the websites of verified companies who have listed their crypto-based offers at the Opporty marketplace.

Opporty’s smart widget with service selection and payment options

Smart widgets are placed at third-party websites, with no development activities required on the part of website owners.

Once the widget is placed at the website, consumers can choose from several payment options, including ETH and BTC. All they have to do is to select a payment option, fill out the transaction details and press “Order.”

With crypto-based services offered outside the Opporty marketplace and transactions processed off the platform, we expect to raise awareness about cryptocurrency and blockchain. On top of that, early adopters of cryptocurrencies will be able to capitalize by bypassing double taxation of their crypto holdings, meaning they will pay sales tax only, and avoid being taxed for crypto as equity.

Currently, Opporty allows payments in ETH and BTC, with Opporty tokens (OPP) to be added soon.

Opporty’s Verified Providers and Business Scoring

The functionality of Opporty’s smart widgets is not limited to the display and selection of crypto-based services listed at the Opporty marketplace.

As a business relationships ecosystem consisting of a Proof-of-Expertise protocol and a B2B platform for transactions, Opporty aims to solve the problems of trust and privacy in business transactions. This is partially done through smart widgets.

Opporty Score displayed below Verified Provider status

Thanks to its private blockchain empowered by PoE protocol, Opporty will collect and analyze data about business transactions and provider activities, and then use this data to calculate individual niche-based business scores for every provider on the platform.

By implementing the business scoring system on its private blockchain, Opporty will be able to kill two birds with one stone:

Partially hide transaction metadata to guarantee the privacy of selected transactions; Calculate the domain score of every provider, based on the actual quality of services provided.

Imagine that you need to hire an accounting firm to process your income tax returns. If you conduct your search like most consumers, you will check out accounting firms on Google, look through their reviews on Yelp, or even ask friends and relatives for referrals.

However, no one can guarantee that the company you selected will be proficient in processing your income tax return. They may be a great business overall, but lag behind in this specific area.

So how do you know exactly which company to choose?

Opporty’s smart widgets with business scores will help. Since the business scoring system calculates all transaction and activity details from niche-to-niche, you will see an Opporty business score individually assigned to each of the company’s services. Opporty’s business scoring system is highly beneficial to providers and consumers, making it easy to select the best provider for each specific service.

Plans for the Future — Crypto Wallets in User Accounts

At Opporty, we are fully aware that crypto and blockchain are not the easiest technologies to grasp, and their complexity is a huge deterrent to their common use. While the tech-savvy may have no problem figuring out how to create ETH wallets, manage private and public keys, make transactions, and decrease or increase gas, average consumers have no clue how to perform those functions.

Opporty is intent on taking a giant step forward to encourage mass adoption of cryptocurrency. Once our smart widgets, with scoring of businesses and their services, are visible on websites, we will work tirelessly to simplify the transaction process.

Presently, business owners and consumers must have their wallets set up to be able to pay for crypto-based services in BTC and ETH. We have already partially simplified the payment process, but the learning curve may still be steep for many.

In the near future, however, Opporty plans to enable the semi-automatic creation of crypto wallets in user accounts. The simple process will not take more than a few minutes. Users will not have to create and set up crypto accounts outside the Opporty platform. A short learning curve will encourage users to start using cryptocurrencies to order services, not only at Opporty, but also on other platforms. Users will be able to avoid the hidden pitfalls of blockchain use, moving the world closer to mass adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

Conclusion

With every release, we draw closer to our vision for the future, a world where businesses and consumers utilize the power of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. We are working tirelessly to make this happen, with crypto-based offers and smart widgets as our first step.

Stay tuned for more updates! Soon, we will explain more about Opporty’s business scoring system, Proof-of-Expertise protocol, wallet generation functionality, and more.