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Hong Kong protests are accelerating bitcoin adoption
Businesses are turbocharging cryptocurrency adoption as demonstrations against Chinese interference in Hong Kong enter their 12th week.
Hong-Kong based department store, Pricerite announced, on Facebook Monday that it will now accept bitcoin, ether, and litecoin at all its stores.
Starting immediately, its new concept store at the popular MegaBox shopping centre in Hong’s Kong’s Kowloon Bay area, will convert crypto payments into Hong Kong Dollars (HKD) in real time at its cash registers. With Bitcoin’s Lightning Network that’s possible in a matter of seconds, according to Pricerite.
Bitcoin Cash is also proving popular among protest supporters, and measures are being taken to further promote the cryptocurrency, as well as to support dissidents.
Genesis Block operates 14 crypto currency ATMs in Hong Kong, trading under the name “CoinHere.” In July, the ATM operator distributed water paid for with international donations made in bitcoin cash.
The water bottles had a QR code that allowed recipients to donate bitcoin cash to fund additional supplies for protestors.
The exchange also provided umbrellas to the protestors. The umbrellas featured the bitcoin symbol, and were a nod to the 2014 ”Umbrella Revolution“ in Hong Kong, during which hundreds of thousands of residents took to the streets in protest.
With the threat of Chinese troops massing on the Hong Kong border, the demonstrations against Chinese influence have increasingly taken on an economic form.
