Crypto aficionados from the Land Down Under are now able to pay their utility bills using bitcoin and other popular digital assets, thanks to the partnership between a billing platform Gobill and local crypto exchange Cointree.

A wide range of virtual currencies will be accepted, however Gobill will act as a middleman, taking the digital tokens of the user and paying bills to the service providers in Australian dollars. Therefore, Australians can now settle the bills for the basic utilities with cryptocurrencies, regardless whether the providers accept them or not.

Cointree currently supports more than 40 altcoins besides BTC, including such crypto lynchpins as ETH, XRP or BCH, as well as privacy-oriented tokens like monero, zcash and dash. Users will have to link their Cointree wallet with a Gobill account to use the new feature.

Gobill co-founder Shendon Evans commented on the announcement, saying that, “Fast forward into the future and what we’re seeing is, like it or not, this will be part of our daily lives. Gobbill already let people pay bills from their cards or bank accounts, so now they can pay in cryptocurrency too.“

The new service is a major step forward towards mainstream crypto adoption in Australia. Cointree has already offered its users to pay bills using digital tokens, however the participation was limited and not all citizens could take advantage of it. The new partnership should overcome this hurdle and the system should be fully operational within the next month. As of right now, users can pay their bills only with BTC.

Both companies are working closely with Australian regulators, with Cointree being licensed under the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and Gobbill reporting directly to Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Cointree has recently undergone a total rebranding, in an effort to gain recognition in international waters.

Jess Rendon, the operations manager at Cointree, has claimed that during 2017 Cointree has paid bills worth of over $100 million in crypto. This year, the company reports a ten-fold increase in crypto bill payment during the same time period, which is probably the main reason the new partnership was struck.

The new Cointree and Gobill joint venture is nothing new in Australia, however. Living Room of Satoshi has offered a very similar service for quite some time, with the company offering to pay the bills with 13 digital currencies. According to their website, over 100,000 bills have already been paid using their platform. Bit2bill and Paid by Coins can also be used to pay Australian bills, although with a smaller range of tokens.

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