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The Samsung Experience stores operated by Grupo Tech with several locations in Panama and Venezuela have decided to integrate the Cryptobuyer Pay point of sale solution at multiple locations in each country.

We are pleased to announce that Samsung Experience Stores in #Panama and #Venezuela have adopted #Cryptobuyer Pay Point of Sale solution, from today you can pay with #Bitcoin #Dash and #Litecoin on the stores, More info 📱👉https://t.co/5TySxVWbvo pic.twitter.com/STv5yXmv3N — Cryptobuyer (@cryptobuyer) May 15, 2019

The integration will enable the stores to “offer a wide range of consumer electronics, mobile telephony, TVs, and home appliances among other products that can now be paid for with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Dash, Litecoin and XPT in the coming months”.

According to Cryptobuyer CEO Jorge Farias, the integration was landed due to the promise local merchants see in cryptocurrency as the payments of the future:

“It was a long process of negotiations and due diligence, but at the end they see the growth and quality of the Cryptobuyer Pay merchants network and want to be part of this new range of mobile payments that’s here to stay. For example, Panama is known as the hub of the Americas for the tons of connecting flight in and out of the country, and they see possibilities to reach a niche on the travelers and digital nomads that can spend in their locations.”

The integration will allow participating stores to both convert to fiat currency whatever is necessary and keep a portion of the payments in cryptocurrency, according to Farias:

“They choose to have the funds converted to fiat, but keep a percentage in crypto. This is the biggest differentiating factor to our service: we are not only a point-of-sale solution, we are also a flexible payment processor that can be adapted to any merchants. Every one is different and has a wide range of necessities.”

According to the Samsung website, “[e]ach Samsung Experience Store is an opportunity to fully immerse yourself in our latest technology, attend a hands-on workshop or event, or get repairs and support from our on-site experts”. This is an important clarification since last year CopPay claimed integration into Samsung premium resell stores in the three Baltic states, but Samsung HQ later disclosed that they never approved this action. After Samsung HQ clarified their knowledge of the integration, the resell store ended up suspending their plans to accept cryptocurrency.

Providing extra options for consumers in need of choices

The expansion of Cryptobuyer Pay point of sale into Samsung stores in Panama, and especially Venezuela, demonstrates the influence that cryptocurrencies are having on the region and beginning to create the network effects of encouraging more individuals and businesses to adopt cryptocurrencies. By giving their consumers more options, the Samsung Experience stores can now enable purchases from individuals that are trying to escape the hyperinflation of their currency without having to put them through a potentially difficult exchange process every time they want to make a purchase. While it is not Samsung Corporate and thus does not have a worldwide effect, it still creates the ability for cryptocurrency to be associated with a large brand name and more directly related than having to use a third party website or gift cards to use cryptocurrency to buy Samsung products.

Farias believes that Dash’s success in Venezuela and nearby countries may have played a role in negotiating the integration:

“Obviously the amount of locations accepting Dash is not only in Venezuela, also in the rest of the region, is something that leveraged not only this negotiation, but the rest of the new partners that we are going to announce in the next weeks. Dash is a real payment focused coin, and this combined with the experience in the field and the hundreds of transactions handled by Cryptobuyer systems are a killer combination.”

Cryptobuyer is seeing significant market penetration in Latin America, having also recently placed ATMs at the large department store, Traki, to provide liquidity at their 46 locations along with zero-fee Dash transactions. Cryptobuyer has been very focused on providing everyday usability value to consumers, so much so, that in early 2018 they had to remove Bitcoin for the fact that “the network [was] less efficient, slower and therefore more expensive to transact”. Although, they have since added Bitcoin back in, but Dash has benefited from seeing heavily increased adoption over the past couple years since it can actually be used in daily purchases.

Farias added that this is part of a greater regional expansion plan and “…is not only a thing in Venezuela, but also Panama, and we are adding more chains in the region besides Venezuela. We are going to Mexico and Argentina very soon.”

Completing consumers’ shopping list with Dash

Dash is already accepted at around 2,500 merchants throughout Venezuela thanks to the outreach groups in the country that gained adoption at merchants ranging from food, drinks, clothing, and much more. One of the biggest integrations in the region was Kripto Mobile, which began launching their phones with Dash wallets, Uphold, Bitrefill, and other Dash features pre-downloaded to the phone so consumers could easily begin acquiring and using Dash almost immediately after purchase. It was recently reported that over 66,000 KRIP phones have been sold and that was prior to the Dash Text feature phone integration. Dash has become popular within the region for the very fact that it works as an every day digital cash alternative since it is fast, inexpensive, reliable, and secure. Now, consumers will have another big brand name to shop at with their Dash and be able to influence other major brand stores to adopt Dash.