Tag: BITCOIN PAYMENT

New York Mayor-Elect Will Take Bitcoin For First Three Paychecks

by NEWSBTC

Eric Adams, the new mayor of the city of New York, has once again publicly shown support for bitcoin. The mayor has long been in support of the cryptocurrency, saying he wanted to make New York the bitcoin capital of the country. His most recent show of support has only reiterated the mayor’s plan for the city.

Mayor Adams responded to a tweet from Francis Suarez, the mayor of Miami famous for making the city a crypto hub. Apparently, New York is in a race to make the city the cryptocurrency center for innovation over the city of Miami.

Related Reading | Ethereum Miner Revenue Outpaces Bitcoin In 2021

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Accepting Paychecks In Bitcoin

Investors and Entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano had posted on Twitter asking who the first politician would be to accept their paychecks in bitcoin. Mayor Suarez took advantage of this opportunity to show his support for cryptocurrencies by saying he was accepting his next paycheck in BTC. This is unprecedented as no U.S. politician has openly admitted they would take payments in bitcoin.

Mayor Adams responded to this with an even more impressive revelation. The mayor who had been voted into office on November 3rd revealed that he planned to take his first three paychecks in bitcoin. This move was made in a bid to one-up the crypto-positive mayor of Miami and show New York’s commitment to making it the crypto hub of the nation.

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“In New York, we always go big, so I’m going to take my first THREE paychecks in Bitcoin when I become mayor. NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait!” – Eric Adams, Mayor-Elect, New York

Bitcoin price chart from TradingView.com

BTC trading above $61,000 | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Making History

Mayor Eric Adams is only the second black person to be elected to the mayoral office of New York. His campaign revolved around making New York city an innovation hub, which resonated greatly with the younger residents of the city. His stance on crypto also drew the community to him. Now that he has won the race for mayor, Adams is focused on making the sixty a tech hub.

Related Reading | FOMO Beware: Spot Bitcoin Buying Volume Remains Low, Despite New ATH

Taking paychecks in bitcoin is unheard of but not a new concept in any way. Some payroll companies have also begun to offer options to pay employees in crypto. However, Mayors Adams and Suarez will not be receiving their paychecks directly in crypto as they are paid by the government.

They will receive their paychecks in dollars, which would then be converted into BTC. Suarez has in the past explored the idea of paying salaries in bitcoin. Mayor-elect of New York, Eric Adams, has so far not said anything to that effect, but the future of bitcoin looks bright in New York with Adams running the show.

Featured image from Bloomberg, chart from TradingView.com

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McDonald’s Begins Accepting Bitcoin as Payment Method in El Salvador, Starbucks & Pizza Hut Follow

by Blockchain News

McDonald’s, a major US fast-food company, has begun accepting Bitcoin as a payment option in El Salvador after the nation became the first to adopt the cryptocurrency as legal tender on Tuesday, September 7.

OpenNode, an industry-leading bitcoin payment processor based in California, confirmed the development, stating that McDonald’s in El Salvador is now accepting Bitcoin payments on the Lightning Network powered by OpenNode.

OpenNode mentioned that it has formed a collaboration with McDonald’s to start accepting Bitcoin payments. The two firms are working together to enable Lightning Network bitcoin payments at all McDonald’s locations in the country.

McDonald’s customers in El Salvador are now able to use Bitcoin to pay for Big Macs and other items on the menu at all 19 McDonald’s locations in the country and online and through the delivery app, OpenNode stated.

Julie Landrum, Head of Growth for OpenNode, talked about the development and said:

“We are incredibly excited to work with McDonald’s to help make adoption of the country’s Bitcoin Law an operational success. It’s just a massive opportunity to demonstrate the power of the Lightning Network for everyday high volume, low-value purchases at the most popular and successful fast-food chain in the world. Clearly another significant milestone on the path to growing the bitcoin economy…”  

Although McDonald’s seems to be the first major American firm to adjust to El Salvador’s cryptocurrency initiative, the OpenNode spokesperson stated that the Bitcoin payment company is onboarding multiple multi-billion-dollar businesses in El Salvador to start accepting Bitcoin payments.

According to Bloomberg reported Wednesday, other beverages and food chain restaurants, such as Starbucks and Pizza Hut also accept Bitcoin as the payment approach.

Embracing Bitcoin

On Tuesday, September 7, El Salvador became the first nation to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender alongside its existing currency, the US dollar. It allows citizens living in the country to pay taxes and other debts using Bitcoin and for businesses to broaden their payment options to the cryptocurrency.

However, El Salvador’s historic adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender on September 7 started with teething problems as the crypto market plunged. Bitcoin prices dropped from over $52,000 per coin to $42,830, its lowest level in almost the last year three weeks on Tuesday morning.  Bitcoin later recovered some of its value by climbing to the $46,957 level at around 1:45 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). At the time of writing, Bitcoin is currently trading at $47,070.88, still 10.87% below a day earlier.

Image source: Shutterstock

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Belgian startup debuts Bitcoin payments for parking tickets

by Cointelegraph

Seety, a digital parking startup based in Belgium, has introduced crypto payment support for parking tickets.

According to a report by DataNews on Thursday, the company which is one of the firms bootstrapped by Belgian accelerator program Start it @KBC has rolled out a crypto payment feature in Antwerp and Brussels.

Seety users will from Thursday be able to use Bitcoin (BTC) to pay for parking tickets in locations across both cities.

Apart from Bitcoin, customers can also use crypto like Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Litecoin (LTC), as well as stablecoins like Dai (DAI) and USD Coin (USDC).

Customers looking to use crypto to pay for parking space will use the “coins” to buy Seety credits on the company’s app platform. According to the report, using crypto will not incur any additional fee on the part of the customer.

The Seety app reportedly has over 355,000 users in Belgium and the Netherlands and is aiming to achieve an annual turnover above 2 million euros by 2022.

For the company, using crypto to pay for parking space is indicative of how cryptocurrencies will eventually gain greater adoption in everyday microtransactions. Seety expects crypto adoption to grow once tokens become more environmentally friendly.

Related: Visa will facilitate USDC payments, thanks to fresh partnership

Using Bitcoin to pay for parking tickets goes as far back as 2014 with the defunct Brawker app. These days, crypto payment options for microtransactions are becoming increasingly popular even though significant hurdles still stand in the way of more broad-based penetration.

Crypto credit cards and stablecoins are also helping to simplify the process of spending cryptos while making it easier for merchants to onboard cryptocurrency payment options on their platforms.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Visa recently stated that its crypto-enabled cards had processed over $1 billion in crypto spending in the first half of 2021.