PaymentX: cryptocurrency payroll in the COVID-19 era

PaymentX offers unique functionality to help workers and companies struggling with the new business reality to invoice and process payments effectively.

Life has changed dramatically in the past few weeks. There is scarcely an area of our existences that the novel coronavirus has not touched. ‘Social distancing’ and ‘self-isolation’ have entered our collective vocabularies, bringing with them far-reaching disruption to personal and public habits.

Adapting to COVID-19

Responses to the coronavirus have introduced a series of tough new realities that the world is currently grappling with. For our purposes, the most relevant are:

• Working remotely has become the norm for a large proportion of the population. For some, this provides welcome respite from long commutes and high-pressure office culture. However, parents have been forced to organise work around caring for children who have been sent home from school.
• Unemployment, or employment insecurity, is rising. Despite unprecedented government and central bank action, businesses in many industries – including travel and hospitality – simply cannot survive without revenues for months. Many of those who have lost their jobs cannot expect to be re-employed in the same industries and will need to seek other opportunities.
• Looming recession. It’s now clear that the coronavirus will catalyse a sharp downturn, and potentially a long period of economic depression. Businesses will need to cut costs and potentially make new arrangements to source labour remotely.
• Market volatility. All major markets – including the currency markets – have experienced volatility not seen since the global financial crisis over a decade ago. The flight to the dollar has seen other currencies devalued, as well as the price of stocks and commodities plummet. In a crisis, the dollar is king, and this has implications for anyone who gets paid in other currencies.

It is currently unclear how long any of this will last. Social distancing is supposed to be a temporary measure, but may last for anything from several weeks to many, many months, depending on how long it takes to develop a vaccine or for natural ‘herd’ immunity to be established. The markets will need a sign of reassurance in the form of downward-trending infection rates and a permanent ‘exit’ strategy (i.e. not just short-lived suppression measures) before stability returns.

Facilitating borderless payments

PaymentX has much to offer in these circumstances. By enabling workers to invoice and get paid in crypto, and businesses to execute their payroll processes in crypto quickly and easily, the platform facilitates the kind of global working relationships that will become so important in the coming months.

As local economies grind to a halt under the weight of COVID-induced shutdown, the ability to source work and labour from a global pool of talent and businesses is vital. One of the chief barriers to this has always been reliable and efficient payment processes. Cryptocurrency provides the ability to make secure, fast payments, to recipients anywhere in the world, for just a few cents in transaction fees. Meanwhile, PaymentX enables businesses to make automatic payments in crypto against invoices for dollar-equivalent amounts – taking the headache out of calculating and executing invoice settlement. It’s even possible to settle multiple invoices with one click.

Opportunities

From reports from countries such as Italy, the current situation is dire and may get significantly worse before it gets better. However, the crisis has forced governments and individuals to rethink priorities, and there will doubtless be long-term changes to our society.

Alongside the benefit to the environment and a recognition that debt cannot rise unchecked without introducing serious systemic vulnerability to external shocks, people are spending more time at home and working for themselves, not as cogs in a large organisation. For some, this is difficult – especially with childcare arrangements – and they will welcome a return to normality. Others, though, may decide never to go back to their old lives. They will start new businesses, establish new routines and working habits and a different pace of life, and ultimately decide they prefer them to their old ones.

In terms of employment patterns, COVID-19 has really only accelerated a sustainable work movement that was already slowly taking place. When we finally return to business as usual, we will find our expectations of what is ‘usual’ have changed – with platforms like PaymentX providing the infrastructure for a new generation of home workers.

Stay at home and be safe!

PaymentX is an automated cryptocurrency payroll solution for your business. Pay the team using crypto in one click, send and receive professional invoices, set up regular payment dates – all quickly and conveniently!

Questions? Email us at help@paymentx.io

Comments? Email us at hello@paymentx.io