Apple Pay isn’t even here yet and, arguably, it’s already winning the war against bitcoin. Like the digital currency, Apple is disrupting the payments system, but people will probably use it more than they use bitcoin. Cupertino has carefully focused on three areas to make sure that happens: front-end experience, financial institutions, and merchants.

Apple nailed the customer experience side. For starters, it rolled out the system with the new iPhone, and with the announcement of the Apple Watch, both of which garnered unprecedented attention from the tech industry. It sold 10 million iPhone 6 models in the first weekend. The watch is going to sell in droves. Not all of these customers will use Apple Pay, of course. But many will. And far fewer people own bitcoin.

Then, there are the merchants. Apple snagged deals with major brands before Apple Pay was even announced. Retailers including Whole Foods, Bloomingdales, Staples, Walgreens and Subway are already signed up.

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The firm has also timed the system’s launch expertly: point-of-sale (POS) systems need Near Field Communication (NFC) capability to work, and POS systems that support these can be expensive.

However, many retailers will be mulling upgrades to their existing POS terminals anyway, thanks to a critical deadline next October, when US retailers will be required to use the chip-and-pin technology already available in major credit cards, as an added security measure.

Then, of course, there’s the iTouch biometric system, which will be used to authenticate the user. iTouch may have its detractors, but is a lot better than the current paper signature system in the US (which retail clerks won’t necessarily even check), and will likely be better than PIN verification too, which as security guru Brian Krebs points out are easily skimmable.

Apple Pay is however still anathema to bitcoin’s mission, which involves disrupting centralized control in the financial industry and returning real financial control to the user. Second, Apple is beating bitcoin in terms of the customer experience. Its ecosystem is exceedingly user friendly and customer focused.

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Apple Pay won’t obliterate bitcoin, of course, but it is going to shine very bright as a payment channel. It will attract large numbers of users with the convenience of instant mobile payments just as bitcoin faces its next major challenge: to move from being a largely speculative asset into a true currency, used every day by millions of users around the world.

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