Croatia’s largest supermarket chain now accepts cryptocurrency.
The new proof of the craze surrounding cryptocurrencies is at the end of 2021. Konzum, Croatia’s largest supermarket chain, is getting up to date by offering its customers payment in cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin ( BTC).
In Croatia, it is possible to pay for shopping in Bitcoin.
The Croatian company formalized the information on Monday in a press release published on its website. Customers of the Konzum supermarket chain now have the option of paying for their groceries directly in cryptocurrency. For the moment, only online purchases are concerned. However, Konzum is already planning to expand cryptocurrency payments to all of its physical brands. This concerns 700 stores in Croatia, employing more than 10,000 people.
According to the announcement, Konzum’s website will support nine cryptocurrencies. We find Bitcoin (BTC), but also Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Dai (DAI), Stellar (XLM), EOS (EOS), as well as stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC).
Konzum board member Uroš Kalinić said the introduction of cryptocurrency payments is a testament to the company’s commitment to global trends and innovations, especially in the retail industry.
As the largest chain of stores in Croatia, we are proud to be the leaders in a field which is developing rapidly and which shapes the future, ”said Uroš Kalinić.
A partnership with a local company, Electrocoin.
To make it possible to offer this new option to these customers, Konzum has partnered with Electrocoin, a local company specializing in payment in cryptocurrencies. Electrocoin is a brokerage company since it sells and buys digital assets on behalf of institutional clients and is also a cryptocurrency payment facilitator for traders.
Indeed, the Croatian company is deploying a solution called PayCek. It is a system that allows merchants to accept payments in cryptocurrency by integrating them directly into their online stores. Given the high price volatility, the PayCek system guarantees buyers a fixed exchange rate at the start of the trade, which leaves enough time for successful execution.
The year 2021 was the year of the democratization of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment. Of course, we think first of the automaker Tesla, which first accepted payments in Bitcoin before finally suspending this option a few weeks later. However, like Konzum, it is above all more and more companies, businesses or places of leisure that have taken the plunge to offer this option of payments in cryptocurrency locally.
For example, an international airport in Venezuela now accepts payments in Bitcoin and Dash. Likewise, an American business school has been authorizing Bitcoin, Ether and USDDC to pay tuition fees for a few weeks, just like a school in Nigeria. Finally, beyond the gigantic influence that Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, can have, it is indeed these small advances that contribute to the opening of cryptocurrencies to everyone.
