TELSTRA, the nation’s biggest teleco, says it is keeping an eye on bitcoin and may consider accepting payments in the digital currency if demand continues to grow.

Its head of digital operations, Monty Hamilton, now says that indications from a global technology conference in Texas last month pointed to such crypto-currencies becoming more mainstream.

“Are we going to accept payments through bitcoin? No. Are we watching closely? Yes,” he said.

“If we see demand from customers these are things we will actively consider. We are starting to see things like bitcoin move from a micro-niche into something more mainstream.”

His comments come after the Reserve Bank of Australia this week said the development of digital currencies do not pose a threat to the financial system. At the same time US Republican presidential nominee Rand Paul this week said he would be accepting bitcoin donations.

Mr Hamilton was asked by former Telstra chief David Thodey to help spearhead the telco’s digital operations.

Mr Hamilton drew a comparison with the way PayPal was once viewed as an unsafe payment method but is now common.

Telstra was one of the first to embrace PayPal in March 2013 for bill payments.

“The scale of our customer base is representative of society — we see trends so much earlier,” he said.

Telstra has the biggest customer base in the country with about 16 million mobile users.

He said to many customers bitcoin would still be “foreign” but others were becoming comfortable with it.

“With bitcoin you can’t help but draw the link with Beta and VHS. Is bitcoin the best (crypto currency)? Maybe not, but was VHS the best? The currency is becoming a lot more accessible,” he said.

A single bitcoin has steadied as a currency in recent months and was trading at $US252.98 yesterday after reaching $US979.45 at the end of 2013.

jeff.whalley@news.com.au