Altcoin News: Large American Retailers Are Starting to Accept Cryptocurrency

May 14, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

Crate & Barrel stores, Nordstrom’s luxury department store chain owned by Amazon, Whole Foods organic food supermarkets and other major American retailers are starting to accept Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Gemini Dollar, Fortune reports.

This was made possible through the collaboration of payment startup Flexa and the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange.

“ What Flexa has done is persuade the retailers — which also include Regal Cinemas, Gamestop and Baskin Robbins — to configure their scanners to recognize payments from its cryptocurrency app, which is called Spedn. The customer simply holds up their app to pay. The store cashier will typically be unaware the customer is paying with crypto, while the merchant receives a real-time payment in the form of their choosing (crypto or dollars),” explains Fortune.

The author of the original article claims to have tested the application and with its help acquired coffee in Baskin Robbins.

“Next, I went to a Starbucks (another partner in the project but an unofficial one) and bought a banana. That worked too.”

Fortune contacted six retailers participating in the project, but none of them agreed to comment. A source familiar with the situation explained that crypto payments are at an experimental stage, and project participants do not wish to discuss them until they understand the technology better and do not appreciate the level of demand from customers.

Among other project participants, the publication also identifies Petco’s pet store chain, Lowe’s home improvement stores, and Office Depot, a stationery company.

Image: Gemini Blog

As explained by Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss, his company will take over the function of storing all cryptocurrency assets that users will transfer to their accounts.

“The network of cryptocurrency payments Flexa has the potential to transform the entire payment industry by providing a solution for everyday spending of cryptocurrencies that have not been translated into reality until this moment,” he writes, adding that the presented solution will be convenient not only for users but and large retailers forced to allocate “billions of dollars annually to cover transaction costs.”

Also, the determining factor when connecting to Flexa may be the absence of the need to install additional equipment for working with cryptocurrency payments.

Author: Marko Vidrih