Singapore’s Skyline Club becomes the latest to accept cryptocurrency payments in the form of Ethereum. With Bitcoin zooming past another high of $ 11,000 in the last 24 hours, the popularity of cryptocurrencies is increasing significantly. Also, there are quite a few startups which are related to the cryptocurrency space which are based in Singapore. That is why the awareness about cryptocurrencies is immense in Singapore.
According to press reports, Singapore’s rooftop Skyline Club would now accept Ethereum for food as well as beverage payments from its patrons.
Recently, Blockshow Asia 2017 was also held in Singapore which brought together experts from the entire industry.
The Skyline was also a partner at this event and held the after party as well during which, many of the patrons actually paid with Ethereum.
Over the last few years, Singapore has been taking the right steps to promote cashless transactions among its citizens. This acceptance of cryptocurrency would only increase the pace at which cashless transactions are adopted. Singapore has also been building a proper IT infrastructure in order to accept such payments throughout the country.
There are quite a few other banks as well which are participating in the widespread distribution of cryptocurrencies in the country like DBS bank and OCBC Bank. There are plenty of cryptocurrency trading platforms which are based in Singapore as well. Some of the most popular ones are Coinhako, Kryptos-X.
While this particular club accepting the Ethereum cryptocurrency might be a small step but with more and more businesses considering accepting cryptocurrencies, the future looks bright for not only Singapore but the use of cryptocurrencies in day-to-day transactions as well. As more and more ordinary citizens make use of cryptocurrencies to settle their usual dues, not only would their value increase but also the familiarity of the ordinary citizens with these cryptocurrencies would also increase. This would further drive the usage of these cryptocurrencies in day-to-day transactions. This would prompt other businesses as well to accept the cryptocurrencies from the citizens.
So, Singapore is on the forefront when it comes to encouraging the adoption of cryptocurrencies in order to enable the citizens to indulge in cashless and digital transactions. With moves like these from the local businesses, you can be sure that such steps would bear fruit in the near future as more and more citizens start using cryptocurrencies rather than debit cards and credit cards. The only thing which remains to be seen is the pace at which the adoption of cryptocurrency increases.
Mahesh Sashital is cofounder of Smartereum.
He was previously Vice President at J.P. Morgan. He has over 15 years of experience in software engineering at various Fortune 20 companies. He has a Bachelor's in Engineering from the University of Mumbai and an MBA from the University of Texas-Austin.
