In the wake of extremely slow bitcoin transaction confirmations and settlement speeds, fintech startup BitCart has moved to disable bitcoin transactions from its platform and accept Dash orders only.

The company said that Bitcoin’s immense backlog and slow transaction times were crippling its ability to provide a 24-hour turnaround to its customers.

“From a merchant’s point of view, bitcoin is extremely problematic. The backlog is vast and transactions speeds are terribly slow. I had to wait three entire weeks to fill two customer orders, simply waiting on the bitcoin network to clear. Bitcoin as a method of payment on BitCart is simply not sustainable and it's a nightmare from a merchant point of view; every twenty or so transactions the platform would stop working and we would have to reintegrate the API”, BitCart CEO Graham de Barra said.

Dash, on the other hand, has experienced a dramatic rise in 2017, up from a market cap of $77 million USD to $1 billion USD, and rapidly become the number one e-commerce and payments token. Its exclusive alliance with BitCart has triggered record demand for the gift card platform, with some customers making up to five separate Dash orders a day.

“Dash is by far the best e-commerce token in the world and it completely solves the instant transaction and settlement problems bitcoin currently faces. Since we integrated Dash six weeks ago, we haven't had a single problem. Dash is so easy to use from both a consumer and merchant perspective and since we disabled bitcoin, demand for BitCart has gone through the roof. Dash can handle incredibly high volume of transactions; in fact there doesn’t seem to be a limit, and every order is seamless”, he added.

BitCart gives shoppers access to more than 15% savings to Amazon, and soon Hotels.com. When Dash joined Bitcoin as one of the two accepted methods of payment on BitCart, it was responsible for 90% of orders immediately, the release said. In some cases, Bitcoin orders were taking three weeks to verify and settle.

“It’s a very promising sign to see Dash being used more and more for added value applications, especially in the payments space. Confirmation times and fees are very important issues in the industry right now, and Dash offers a much superior user experience than bitcoin. We expected the demand for BitCart to soar once Dash was integrated, and even more so once it became exclusive on the platform. We have a vibrant and growing community with a strong appetite for gift cards, a strong appetite for savings, and a willingness to spend in a timely and cost effective manner”, Dash VP of Business Development Daniel Diaz said.

Diaz added that Dash is growing at a rapid pace as “the network promotes itself in ways that are only possible in a self-funded decentralized organization”. 10% of the entire block reward goes to funding development and projects proposed by the network.

“As more and more people learn about Dash, services like Bitcart will grow in popularity and it’s great to see companies in the ecosystem do well as this invites other businesses to also adopt Dash”, Diaz added.

“I love that Dash invests in its own development, and invests in the development of services that use Dash through their unique funding model. Bitcoin has a severe lack of investment into its development and merchant tools, and that’s why we are leaning towards keeping bitcoin disabled on BitCart long term. The community want Dash to be the only thing to be used on Bitcart. It's in the name, plain and simple, its digital cash, and Dash is king,” de Barra said.