30 Major Retailers of France Announce Bitcoin Payments Integration by 2020
During the recently held Paris Retail Week on Tuesday, September 24, 30 major retail brands across France said that they would be offering Bitcoin payments integration at their retail locations.
This means that Bitcoin payments will be available at more than 25,000 Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminals across the country for 4 million crypto users in France. Some of the big names coming forward to this initiative include cosmetics store Sephora, sportswear giant Decathlon, furnishings giant Conforama, sneakers emporium Foot Locker, and other.
The announcement that to make Bitcoin payments possible, point-of-sale technology provider Global POS is partnering with crypto payments platform Easy2PlayPayment and the EasyWallet application.
Commenting on this matter, Global POS CEO and founder Stéphane Djiane said: “This is an important symbolic step in the evolution of payment methods in France. However, more than a symbol, what we bring to 25,000 outlets is the ability to safely enter the world of Economy 3.0.”
Djiane further added that their solution will only support Bitcoins in the initial stage. Later, they also might consider adding payment options for other cryptocurrencies to their PoS terminals.
Note that the retailers are not accepting Bitcoin payments directly at their end. The PoS terminals will be converting crypto into euros at the time of the sale. To provide the infrastructure for this, France’s local financial services companies like Deskoin and the Savitar exchange have applied for for Digital Asset Service Provider accreditations under France’s PACTE Act providing rules for digital-asset providers in France.
Gregory Hervein, the co-founder of men’s grooming products maker Whiskers said: "The acceptance of cryptocurrencies is a real challenge for retailers, we are aware of the expectations of the public and the scope of the message we send to a whole community. We are happy to be able to make this ecosystem more concrete for consumers and to enter the crypto-economy in a legal framework.”
While retailers are warming up to the idea of crypto payments for its retailers, the world’s largest cryptocurrency is giving major jitters to its investors recently.
Just in last one week, Bitcoin price has lost 20% moving from $10,000 levels to now close to $8000. As of writing this article, Bitcoin is trading around $8014 with a market cap $143 billion.
Bitcoin has lost around $40 billion in its valuation over the last one week. The slow start of Bakkt’s Bitcoin Futures is an expected reason for its price crash.