Category Archive: bitcoin adoption

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Lightning Network in El Salvador and Lugano

Uncovering the Widespread Adoption and the Advent of the Lightning Network in El Salvador and Lugano

Acknowledging the unprecedented potential of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, El Salvador and Lugano are two of the most significant adopters of this remarkable technological breakthrough.

El Salvador & Lugano Propel the Bitcoin Adoption

As a cornerstone moment for the Bitcoin economy, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed on 28 October 2022 between the nation of El Salvador and the city of Lugano in Switzerland. Moving forward, the goal of the MOU is to increase the use of Bitcoin not only in their respective areas but also in the states and nations that are nearby.

Overall, the anticipated aims of the partnership include bolstering cooperation in education and research for both El Salvador and Lugano, assisting initiatives to promote the adoption of Bitcoin and other digital tokens in their respective regions, and encouraging the exchange of students and talent between the two countries.

Exploring the Innovation Brought by the Lightning Network

So far, the scalability of the Blockchain has been a significant barrier to the widespread acceptance of cryptocurrencies from their inception. The Lightning Network’s second layer introduces a cutting-edge solution to this matter, as it intervenes by processing transactions outside the first-layer blockchain mainnet while retaining the mainnet’s robust decentralized security model. By bypassing the official Bitcoin blockchain, the Lightning Network can grow Bitcoin transactions per second (TPS), charge reduced fees, and allow new use cases like micropayments.

In addition, the Lightning Network has the potential to bring financial inclusion and freedom to the developing nations involved, in part because it is a trusted and private network that does not require the participation of third parties or intermediaries. Moreover, it could also lessen the likelihood of governments enacting policies restricting the free flow of capital. It also helps people who do not have access to bank accounts by facilitating transactions in a manner that is almost instantaneous and free of charge, thereby making Bitcoin usable not only as a means of payment but also as a means of exchange.

How Lugano is Leading Crypto Adoption in Europe

Lugano appears to have the same goal as El Salvador: to have all local businesses routinely accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. However, Lugano does not appear to have the same goal as El Salvador of making Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency legal tender. Although Lugano does not hold such a position in Switzerland, the city of 70,000 people did launch its Plan B programme approximately seven months ago to increase the use of Bitcoin.

In March of 2022, Lugano announced that it would be implementing the Plan ₿ Initiative. Additionally, the technology company Polygon joined as a critical infrastructure partner. Plan ₿ Foundation, a partnership between the City of Lugano and Tether, the technology company behind the public blockchain that supports the largest stablecoin by market capitalization (USDT), has been announced today. This partnership will allow Bitcoin, Tether, and LVGA payments to be accepted in the city of Lugano.

Tether and the city of Lugano have collaborated to create a Plan ₿ aiming to increase the use of Bitcoin and stablecoins throughout the city. This, in turn, is expected to have a beneficial effect on all aspects of inhabitants’ everyday lives. As a result, the city’s financial system will be revolutionized faster than ever, thanks to the widespread use of Bitcoin.

El Salvador – the Pioneering Nation in the Cryptocurrency

In 2021, El Salvador was the first country to acknowledge Bitcoin as a legal tender. Through this avenue, El Salvador became a pioneer in demonstrating how technologies such as Bitcoin, decentralized ledgers, and peer-to-peer networks can accelerate financial literacy and inclusion

Furthermore, Latin America appears to follow El Salvador’s lead and powering Bitcoin mining farms with natural resources (such as energy generated by geothermal activity). Countries of Costa Rica in Central America and Paraguay in South America are also heading in this direction.

Bottom Line

Since most people in Europe are not yet familiar with this idea, a closer relationship between El Salvador and a nation located in Europe could usher in uncharted territory.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi
Bitcoin 15

4 Places Where Bitcoin Can Actually Be Used

4 places where Bitcoin can actually be used, Holytransaction

Bitcoin has transitioned into a stage of its evolution at which it is viewed almost entirely as a commodity. We discuss how to store it, compare it to gold, consider its long-term value, and generally treat it as a financial asset – even, to some extent, like a stock. This is perfectly appropriate given that the cryptocurrency’s volatility, as well as constantly wavering government positions on regulation, have kept it from being adopted as a widely used currency. The argument is over as to whether it is “more” currency or “more” commodity. It is the latter.

What sets bitcoin apart in some respects though is that it never did have to be one or the other. Consider the comparison to gold again. You may hold a stash of gold as a long-term protection of a chunk of your assets, and with the hope that it will appreciate in value. But you can’t exactly buy something online by chipping off a piece of gold (which in most cases you don’t even hold in a physical sense) and handing it over. This is true of most major investable commodities – but it is not true of bitcoin. As you’re likely aware, there are still places that it can be used like ordinary money, even though it is best viewed as a long-term vehicle.

For those interested, the following are among the most noteworthy places you can actually use the cryptocurrency for practical purposes.

1.) Travel Booking Websites

Bitcoin made something of a loud entry into the travel booking business when it was accepted by Expedia and Air. These were among the biggest or at least best known companies to embrace cryptocurrency early on, and even though Expedia has since renounced cryptocurrency, the notion of using bitcoin for travel-related costs caught on. Travel platforms accepting bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies still include various air travel and hotel booking companies, which means people are free to address what are often some of their biggest expenses in a given year via cryptocurrency.

2.) Microsoft Gaming

Fairly early on in bitcoin’s expansion to the mainstream, it was attached to video games, not necessarily through Microsoft so much as Steam. An online service that allows people to download a gigantic range of games, Steam was in some ways a perfect vehicle for purely digital transactions. However, the services topped accepting bitcoin due to volatility. In the meantime, Microsoft kept right on accepting cryptocurrency and is now one of the more significant companies doing so. In particular, Xbox-related purchases through Microsoft platforms can be conducted via bitcoin.

3.) Gaming

gaming is an interesting category, because it is almost like its own separate gaming industry. It’s comprised of and table games, digital slot arcades, roulette, and more, and in some cases a site will also have an included sportsbook. Payment options vary greatly, with some sites requiring credit card information and others using payment processors; in some cases, games are presented for free play as well. However, there is now a small but growing list of online sites that do take cryptocurrency deposits, and which also issue crypto payouts. It’s not a stretch to say that in short time bitcoin could be the norm for this particular form of entertainment.

4.) Shopify

Shopify is a more specific mention here, but feels like one of the more significant areas for bitcoin adoption, simply because it represents a busy, peer-to-peer marketplace. The fact that bitcoin can be used to buy goods via Spotify indicates that in some cases people prefer it when dealing with other people, rather than companies, and opens the door to all kinds of potential crypto marketplaces in the future.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Jack
Untitled design 18

Bitcoin payments, who accepts them?

BTC Accepted here

A short infographic on industry acceptance of BTC

Bitcoin payments, Holytransaction

Cryptocurrencies skyrocked in 2017.

Everybody has heard for sure some friends speaking about it or read news about blockchain revolutionary potential.

The topics mostrly discussed are the highs and lows of crypto prices, the volatility of it, the mindblowing innovation and projects, the best places where buy cryptos or authority’s point of view on them.

But here’s one of the most interesting topics, that sometimes is left unexplored:

Who is actually accepting Bitcoin payments?

This is a very good question which can give a more thoroughful perspective on how companies look at the crypto-world; and that can help everyone understanding the potential spread of the blockchain philosophy.

In fact companies like Shopify, Subway, and Tesla have fully accepted Bitcoin payments, and you can pay for any of their products or services with them. However, even if a company doesn’t support Bitcoin, there are some creative ways to buy their best products with it. For example, Gyft.com will help you buy Nike shoes with Bitcoin, while Expedia has embraced this cryptocurrency altogether.

To better understand who accepts bitcoin payments, we are happy to share with you this amazing infographic provided by our friends of 16Best.net

Enjoy the readingWho accepts Bitcoin payments, Holytransaction

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Jack

Bitcoin officially recognized in Japan

 

japan accept bitcoin officially
 
Japan is going to officially recognize bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Previously in March, the Japan Times announced that the Japanease Cabined approved some bills that would help banks to expand their business related to fintech.
The cabinet also recnognized the importance of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, so it aims at recognizing them as method of payment, so the government is going to bring digital currencies under the overview of the Financial Services Agency (FSA), who also control the Yen.
This system will also provide a registration of exhchanges to avoid money laudering and to protect the bitcoin users, specially after the Mt. Gox debacle back in 2014, when the company was handling 70% of all bitcoin transactions.
This way, Japan has just given virtual currencies legitimacy, and we hope this news will allow lots of other countries to do the same in the near future.

The open-minded Japan

To be honest, this news is not so shocking, as in February the Japanese regulators stated the decision to propose bitcoin among the methods of payments, so to define the digital cryptocurrencies as conventional currency.

Multicurrencies Wallet

Bitcoin is the most important and popular cryptocurrency at the moment, together with Ethereum.
So you may need an online walletwhere you can store your bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
Here you can store several digital currencies as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Blackcoin, Dogecoin, Litecoin and more.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio
BlockchainImplementation

15 Oddest Places where Bitcoin is accepted

Nowadays you can buy almost everything with bitcoin.
As well as lots of e-commerce and famous worldwide brand that accept Bitcoin all around the world.
Recently we read about the news about Overstock, for example. Also, you will find out there are several other shops where you can buy your favorite items with Bitcoin.
Below you can read the full list of the oddest places where bitcoin is accepted (for several of them you can buy a gift card for bitcoins on gyft.com).
TOP 15
  1. CVS – pharmacy shop
  2. Victoria’s Secret – Lingerie Shop
  3. BitcoinTravel – marketplace that provides accommodation, apartments and more
  4. Pembury Tavern – Pub in London
  5. Old Fitzroy – Pub in Sydney
  6. The Pink Cow – Restaurant in Tokyo
  7. Zynga – Mobile gaming
  8. OkCupid – Online dating site
  9. EZTV – Torrents TV shows provider
  10. PizzaForCoins.com – pay for your pizza
  11. Whole Foods – Organic food store
  12. Bitcoincoffee.com – Buy your favorite coffee online
  13. A Class Limousine – Newark (N.J.) Airport
  14. Fiverr.com – Freelance jobs for $5
  15. Seoclerks.com – SEO work

Multicurrencies Wallet

If you want to buy somenthing with Bitcoin you must have an online wallet, of course.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio
branson

How to study with Bitcoin payments

Pay with Bitcoin at Cevro University in Prague

Bitcoin at University

From now on students from all around the world can pay with bitcoin for their university – if they decide to move in Prague.
In fact, the CEVRO Institute University in Prague has announced that it will accept bitcoin among their allowed methods of payment.
Recently the Greek University of Nicosia, Draper University of California, the University of Cumbria and King’s College in the UK started to accept the cryptocurrency.

Why in Prague

The University rector Josef Šíma explained to Cointelegraph:
“As a first school in the Czech Republic we have opened unique Oxford style PPE (Philosophy, Politics, Economics) taught by a team of Czech and foreign professors in English and accepted many foreign students from US and Canada to India and China. One of them asked about the possibility to pay his tuition in bitcoin. And because we have hosted in past several lectures and conferences about this exciting new phenomenon and as a part of the PPE, and we will have courses dealing with alternative monetary schemes, free banking and cryptocurrencies, it was a really easy decision.”
The Prague University, in fact, was the first university to create the PPE class to allow its students to study the connections between Bitcoin and politics, philosophy and economy.
Fees in bitcoin will be calculated based on the current bitcoin price.

Bitcoin worldwide recognition

The acceptance of bitcoin by public institutions could be an important step for the recognition and the increase in popularity of Bitcoin.
We do not want merely to teach about the beauty of markets, modern technologies and innovation, we want to be innovators ourselves! We want to actively use most modern technologies and offer our students new opportunities which technologies made available” Šíma explained.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio
programmer 1 1534401

Philips announces its own Blockchain Lab

The Dutch multinational company Philips decided to open its own Blockchain Lab, a group of experts whose focus is the decentralized ledger.
After a half year of researches on the Blockchain, in fact, Philips announced its objective to use the distributed ledger technology for healthcare uses. 
Philips blockchain lab project developer

To do so Philips launched a call for developers and experts coming from the startup ecosystem who can submit their own CVs and apply “to work on several blockchain use cases”.
The call for talents from now on will be continuosly open, which supposedly indicates an evergoing interest of the company in developing new projects based on this disruptive technology. 
It’s always worth to remember that the innovation brought by the blockchain doesn’t impact the financial system only, but potencially has relevant implications in many aspects of our lives, including the secure transmission of information regarding our health.
The Philip Blockchain lab is located in the company’s headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 
Head of the Blockchain Lab, Arno Laeven, commented:

“As a company committed to innovation you need to constantly explore new and emerging technologies and their application in areas where they might have an impact and added value. Our aim is to learn if blockchain technology could potentially add value to the process of data exchange in the healthcare industry.

Previous Statement

On October 2015, Philips Healtcare interest was announced in a Twitter post published by Wayne Vaughan, CEO of the blockchain startup Tierion, who reported that his company has been the first blockchain project within the Philips research perimeter on the subject.
tierion ceo philips project blockchain healthcare
 

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio
CarChargingviaEthereum

Ethereum used for Car Charging in Germany

A German power company, RWE, started a partnership with the Ethereum-based startup Slock.it, to develop proofs-of-concepts (POCs) using the Eth blockchain.

 

Germany supports green power

On May 2011 the German Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen announced the government’s decision to close all the nuclear power plants within 2022.
During an interview conducted by the BBC, in fact, Mr Rottgen commented:
 
It’s definite. The latest end for the last three nuclear power plants is 2022. There will be no clause for revision.”
So, RWE, company who provides coal and nuclear energy infrastructures in Germany, has now decided to invest money in a new sustainable energy and in an Ethereum project to reduce expenses.
To do so, RWE created a working team to test the blockchain technology to aim at trim costs by lowering expenses related to energy transmission.

Car Charging with Smart Contracts

 

In a recent interview conducted by CoinDesk, RWE Carsten Stöcker commented on a possible application of the blockchain: electric car charging stations that use smart contracts to authenticate users and manage the billing process.
“We would like to solve the problems and really push electric vehicle deployment forward by looking into establishing a seamless and affordable electrical charging infrastructure.”
This project debuted at the Lift 2016 conference in Geneva, Switzerland and it will play out within 2017.
According the RWE project, customers will use charging stations by accepting a smart contract programmed on the Ethereum blockchain.
Through this system users will save money thanks to a payment that is connected to the consuption of electricity during the charging, instead of paying according to the time connected to the station.

 

 

“What’s really exciting here is that people are going to be able to use smart contracts to contract with a machine directly, rather than contracting with a human being or a corporation,” he said to CoinDesk.

 

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio
burger king in bitcoin

Burger King accepts bitcoin

The well-known fast food company, Burger King, has started to accept bitcoin among its allowed payment methods, but only in Arnhem, Netherlands.
Located in the city center of Arnhem, this Burger King venue will accept bitcoin and anyone that will pay with in this way will receive a second burger (a whopper) for free.
Another interesting news is that Burger King will host bitcoin meetups to increase the number of people who know what bitcoin is.

But, why Arnhem?

Since the opening of the Arnhem Bitcoinstad (also known as Arnhem Bitcoincity), the number of merchants who decided to accept bitcoin increased exponentially, and now Arnhem has 100 shops (including malls, coffee shops and restaurants) where people can spend their cryptocurrency.
In fact, yesterday (February 18th) Arnhem Bitcoinstad stated:

 

“The project Arnhem Bitcoincity has reached a new milestone: There are now 100 venues that accept Bitcoin in Arnhem. The Burger King in the city center is the latest to join the project. For Bitcoin enthusiasts Arnhem is like heaven as you can practically pay everything with bitcoins.”

 

Growing bitcoin enthusiasm

Bitcoin enthusiasm is growing fast in Arnhem and merchants have started to keep bitcoin instead of converting them immediately.
“When this project started, all merchants converted their bitcoins to euros immediately through the payment processor BitKassa, but a growing number of merchants now keep their bitcoins, since they can pay some of their supplies with bitcoins themselves at other merchants who accept Bitcoin as well. For instance a restaurant owner who pays for his bread at a bakery that also accepts bitcoins,” Arnhem Bitcoinstad team commented.

Life on Bitcoin

Maybe you have watched the documentary Life on Bitcoin, or maybe not, but all around the world there are a lot of cities where you can at least survive using bitcoin as the only payment method.
In fact, Life on Bitcoin shows how a young married couple could live and travel everywhere with payments only in bitcoin.
Of course, there is still a very long way to go but this couple has proved that it is already possible to conduct a normal life with the crypthocurrency.
For about 100 days, Austin and Beccy Craig decided to eliminate from their life credit cards and cash, relying only on bitcoin and they found several merchants who decided to accept bitcoin in exchange for meals and ground transports.
Life on Bitcoin has also inspired another travel: the one by Felix Weis, a 27 years old programmer who started to live for a whole year using only bitcoin. Felix writes about his adventures on his blog and he also shooted a documentary.

Where to live using bitcoin: CoinMap and BitMap

There are a lot of startups who decided to create platforms where you can read about all the restaurants and shops who accept bitcoin.
One of this is CoinMap, who reports more than 7000 shops all around the world. It is a web platform so you can use it from your laptop.
But, if you prefer a mobile app instead, you can download BitMap, available for IOS or Bitcoin Map for Android.
About the author: Amelia Tomasicchio is a writer and a journalist of Bitcoin-related news and articles. She started writing about Bitcoin in 2014 and she graduated in Rome with an essay about movie industry related to Bitcoin.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio
AussieBitcoin

How the blockchain can improve the Australian voting system

Flux Party is a new Australian political party that wants to renovate the voting system by using the blockchain.

In fact, they have proposed a new token-based political system based on the Bitcoin technology.
The Flux Party has more than 500 members and its objective is to have six senators on ballots during the next election that Australia will hold in September/October.

How it works

A special feature of this party is that its members are free of its own policies and they can vote for or against a legislation at the bidding of token holders.
“If they didn’t have to be senators, if they could just be software or robots they would be, because their only purpose is to do what the people want them to do”, commented the Flux Party co-founder Max Kaye.
So the bitcoin token could be used by the Flux members for voting but also for trading with other people.

Too old for the Internet era

Australian Flux party is clearly suggesting that the current democratic system is too old for the Internet age and for this reason they want to redistribute the political power by using Bitcoin.
Their own website states: “Our current system doesn’t work well enough; politics gets in the way of policy. Flux is an incremental upgrade to democracy designed to redistribute political power, maximise participation, remove bad policy, and empower voters.”
The Flux Party system will allow voters to be able to set their votes to experts on these issues.

A revolutionary but not so new idea

The idea of a blockchain-based voting system is very revolutionary and it is not developed only by the Fluxa Party.
In fact, Nasdaq and the Bitcoin Foundation have worked both on their own voting systems throught the blockchain technology.
About the author: Amelia Tomasicchio is a writer and a journalist of Bitcoin-related news and articles. She started writing about Bitcoin in 2014 and she graduated in Rome with an essay about movie industry related to Bitcoin.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio