35 MARCH 2025 WorldWide Drilling Resource® Drilling Into Money Not Boring by Mark E. Battersby Crypto’s Growing Profit Possibilities Cryptocurrency is all the rage these days. The number of cryptocurrencies is exploding and so is their adoption for acceptance, payments, and investment among small businesses. While every drilling operation and business generally accepts cash or cash equivalents such as checks, not every drilling contractor or operation accepts or makes payments in cryptocurrency. So how can a business join the growing number of businesses already accepting or using cryptocurrency? Some drilling contractors use cryptocurrency only to facilitate payments. This can mean simply converting in and out of cryptocurrency to fiat currency (money issued by a government and not backed by a physical commodity such as gold or silver) for receiving or making payments - without actually touching it. In other words, the business takes a “hands-off” approach, usually using a service provider to do the conversion, and keeping cryptocurrency off the operation’s books. Enabling cryptocurrency payments, such as Bitcoin, without bringing it onto the drilling operation’s books is the quickest and easiest way of joining the movement to using digital assets such as cryptocurrency. A third-party, acting as an agent for the drilling business, accepts or makes payments in cryptocurrency by converting into and out of so-called fiat currency. On the other side of the coin, accepting cryptocurrency requires the drilling operation or business to set up a digital wallet on one of the many digital currency exchanges. Unfortunately, cryptocurrency is an information-driven field with a relatively steep learning curve which might make it difficult to accept cryptocurrency. Utilizing merchant service companies, such as BitPay or Coinbase, can often help insulate the drilling operation or business against the increasingly common volatility by immediately exchanging digital currency for its cash value. In this way, cryptocurrency payments are made in real time for the currency’s current value. While cryptocurrency transactions eliminate cyber threats, such as stolen credit card numbers, the currency isn’t completely safe from cybersecurity threats. And don’t forget, as cryptocurrency and other digital assets continue to gain momentum, the Internal Revenue Service is taking significant steps to ensure all transactions, such as cryptocurrencies, NFTs (non-fungible tokens), stablecoins, and tokenized securities, are being properly tracked and reported for tax purposes. Researching both the ever-changing regulations and the many entities which facilitate making and accepting cryptocurrency payments should be a requirement for every drilling operation and business. Obviously, every owner and manager should learn and evaluate the potential impact of cryptocurrency on their business. Mark Mark E. Battersby may be contacted via e-mail to michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com
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