Austria’s leading telecom service provider A1 to start accepting cryptocurrency payments. The service provider began supporting digital currency payments on August 19. With this development, the Austrian customers can pay in six major cryptocurrencies. As reported by tech news site Futurezone, the crypto payments are only acceptable at select seven stores.
The A1 payment solution is the development effort of Salamantex, Concardis, and Ingenico. Salamantex happens to be an Austrian cryptocurrency innovative start-up in the cryptocurrency space. On the other hand, Concardis and Ingenico are German and French payment solution experts.
A1 payment solution allows payment in BTC (Bitcoin), ETH (Ethereum), XRP (Ripple), XLM (Stellar) and DASH (Dash).
The seven A1 payment locations announced as per the press release are:
- Kärntnerstraße
- Wien Mitte The Mall
- Krems Bühl Center
- Graz Herrengasse
- Linz Landstraße
- Salzburg Europark
- Innsbruck Kaufhaus Tyrol.
Currently, A1 serves over 5.1 million mobile and 2.1 million fixed lines customers across Austria. The digital crypto payment platform is being tested across many store locations. This is an aftermath of A1 planning to drop its existing cash model. To expedite the cashless payment system, A1 will soon integrate Alipay and WeChatPay also.
Markus Schreiber, Head of A1 Business Marketing, stated that digital currencies are changing how businesses operate today. According to him, cash payment is becoming obsolete. While talking to Futurezone, Markus said the pilot will aid A1 to assess acceptance and demand of cryptocurrencies.
The payment solution will circumvent price fluctuations by partnering with the banking framework. As per the announcement, even the Austrian tourists would be able to make crypto-payments.
