World Travel Giant To Accept Bitcoin
While all eyes have been on crypto’s price action as of late, adoption has continued to chug along, slowly but surely. According to a recent press release published by the Associated Press, Corporate Traveller, a leading travel agency in the U.K., has teamed up with the Atlanta-based BitPay to accept Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets through its service. As Corporate Traveller’s U.K. General Manager explains:
We identified an increasing demand from our clients for the option to pay in bitcoin for business travel bookings made by our travel consultants… The blockchain industry is growing exponentially and we are excited to be able to offer our clients the ability to pay in bitcoin, whilst having the reassurance of our settlement from BitPay being in pounds sterling.
It isn’t clear if this payment option will garner monumental levels of traction at current, but BitPay’s Sonny Singh is optimistic that blockchain and the assets based on that technology will be a large part of the travel industry moving forward.
This marks BitPay’s second large partnership in the matter of a month. Late March, the cryptocurrency services provider revealed that it had teamed up with Avnet, an American Fortune 500 electronic component distributor, to accept BTC and BCH.
Adoption Swelling Across The Globe
Corporate Traveller’s sudden acceptance of BTC only cements the growing themes of adoption in the cryptoeconomy today. As reported by Ethereum World News on a previous date,
Just recently, reports arose that Kazuhiro Tokita, the president of the FSA-regulated exchange DeCurret, unveiled a system that would allow for consumers that hold a Suica card, which is used on East Japan Railway Company’s (JR East) metro and shinkansen systems, to top up their balance with digital assets. This is currently just a prototype/proof of concept, with JR East only considering the implementation.
But with millions of Japanese citizens actively utilizing JR East’s services as a way to get across their city, prefecture, and nation, many Bitcoin bulls and similar pundits are rooting for this move. It isn’t clear what cryptocurrencies the shinkansen operator will accept, if at all, but DeCurret itself is expected to support trading for Bitcoin, Litecoin, XRP, and Bitcoin Cash out of the gate, with Ethereum to be added down the line.
This is far from the only sign of adoption in Japan. In the nation, technology giant Rakuten plans to launch its own Bitcoin exchange by June 2019, technology shop Bic Camera accepts BTC, and fintech giant Mizhuo will be launching a digital asset called “J-Coin” in time for the 2020 Olympics.
It is important to note, however, that adoption hasn’t only been confined to Britain, the United States, and Japan — three of the world’s largest industry hubs.
In Canada, a small town, Innisfil, revealed that its government, with the Toronto-based cryptocurrency firm Coinberry as its partner, would be accepting Bitcoin as a way for locals to fulfill their property tax dues. As of the time of writing, residents of the town will see a crypto payment portal from Coinberry, a blockchain-centric fintech startup, that will allow for property taxes to be paid first in Bitcoin. Support for Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ripple’s XRP could be added in the feature, as long as this pilot sees some semblance of success.
It is clear that widespread adoption is rapidly approaching, but who or what will pick up Bitcoin next?
Photo by Nils Nedel on Unsplash
