Swiss Online Giant accepts crypto! Digitec Galaxus Group, Switzerland’s first online retail store, announced that they would accept payments in cryptocurrencies. They will take Bitcoin as well as others cryptocurrencies like Ether, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.
Digitec and Galaxus released an announcement that stated that for purchases exceeding 200 francs, cryptocurrency can be used via a third-party service Coinify. Coinify, a Denmark-startup would convert crypto to fiat in real-time – this will help limit the risk to merchants from cryptocurrencies’ price volatility. With this message, it’s clear that Digitec and Galaxus will not hold cryptocurrencies themselves – however, allowing users to use cryptocurrencies is a step forward nonetheless!
Oliver Herren, the Chief Innovation Officer at the Digitec Galaxus Group, confirmed that their company was more into testing the crypto-integration than becoming its flagbearer.
“By using Coinify, we are not running into the knife,” he said, adding: “It is still not clear to me how blockchain is any better than other database technologies. The transactions are so far more expensive and slower than a normal payment method. Decentralization brings only cumbersome improvements. None of the blockchains scale enough. But maybe I have not invested enough time and therefore understand too little how the blockchain ecosystem works.”
Herren’s statement comes following the current bearish correction affecting the cryptocurrency market. Now in its 14th month, cryptocurrencies have shed a combined 1/3rd of their valuation. This hasn’t deterred all investors, as most see the potential for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. However, the lows have done a successful job in causing worry to merchants that might have otherwise adopted cryptos as payment.
Expedia, for example, quietly dropped Bitcoin as a payment method in June of last year. Reddit stopped accepting the cryptocurrency for its membership plans. Stripe did the same thing, labelling Bitcoin a tool for ransomware, not payments.
Bitcoin itself can be a source of some blame for this – at first, Bitcoin rose in popularity due to touting itself as a cheaper alternative to traditional payment processors. By the time it had become tested, Bitcoin was not able to process a high number of transactions like Visa or Mastercard. Now, the narrative has shifted to calling Bitcoin a store of value, like Gold. Perhaps this will give birth to a new derivative market?
What do you think about the adoption of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies by the Swiss online retailing giant? Have you paid for something recently with Cryptocurrencies? Would you? Yesterday, it was the South Koreans leading the charge for ways to forward mass adoption of cryptocurrencies – today it’s the Swiss! Let us know what you think on our Facebook page!
