Amendment [07-27-2018]: The Samsung reseller in the Baltic regions, which originally integrated CoPay, has suspended crypto payments after Samsung announced that it ‘doesn’t have any plans for the crypto and blockchain payments‘

On Friday, July 21, CoPay announced that Samsung stores in the Baltic States will begin accepting seven different cryptocurrencies for as a means of payment. The stores are operated by a reseller (not Samsung directly).

The addition of crypto payment option came through a partnership with the European payment processing firm CopPay.

CopPay is a fintech company based in Europe that provides cryptocurrency payment for customers with payment gateways in 31 different merchant locations.

The announcement made by CopPay reads:

“Customers in Kaunas, Riga, Tallinn, and Vilnius can now buy Samsung laptops, smartphones, TV-sets and tablets and other Samsung products with cryptocurrency.”

Residents of the listed states will now be able to make payments at Samsung stores with seven different cryptocurrencies which include:

Bitcoin (BTC)

Ethereum (ETH)

DASH

NEM (XEM)

STEEM

Ripple (XRP); and

Litecoin (LTC)

In the press release, Samsung revealed that Samsung stores in other regions will be adding cryptocurrency payment option soon.

A brief breakdown of the Samsung stores are as follows:

Vilnius, Lithuania (3 stores)

Riga, Latvia (1 store)

Tallinn, Estonia (1 store)

The Samsung – CopPay Partnership

Just before the announcement of crypto payment options at Samsung store, CopPay announced its new partnership with Samsung.

The company expressed that by accepting cryptocurrencies for payments, Samsung has now truly embraced its slogan which reads “Turn On Future”.

In a tweet, CopPay talked about the partnership as:

“There is a growing trend toward business digitalization and allowing customers to pay for goods and services in cryptocurrency, whether at global retailers or local restaurants”

Along with the announcement, the European cryptocurrency payment processor also noted that the “crypto-payment feature will be available soon at Samsung’s internet stores.”

What this implies is that in the future, users outside of the Baltic region (anywhere in the world) will be able to buy smartphones, tablets, laptops, and more using cryptocurrency.

Crypto Regulation in Baltic states

Cryptocurrencies have become increasingly popular in the Baltic States.

In the Baltic states and beyond, the use of digital assets has become widely accepted. In light of this, many merchants in the region now accept cryptocurrency payments in restaurants, bars, coffee stores, clothing stores, real-estate, etc.

Although its use in this region is on a steady increase, there are barely any regulatory policies in the Baltic region. Regardless of this, regulators in these countries have warned that investing in cryptocurrencies is risky and that these aren’t recognized as legal tender.

However, it still remains seemingly legal to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies. Latvia is the only region that has a taxation law on cryptocurrencies, due to this, a 20 percent capital gains tax on cryptocurrency exchange

Samsung and the Blockchain Technology

Prior to this, Samsung has a track record with the blockchain technology. In January of this year, the electronics conglomerate revealed that it was entering the crypto mining chips industry by making them.

In April, Samsung revealed it was looking into distributed ledger technology to improve efficiency for its massive global shipments network. Samsung revealed that the blockchain could track global shipments worth tens of billions of dollars a year and could consequently cut shipping costs by as much as 20 percent.