As you likely know by now, on April 1st Japan passed a law that recognized Bitcoin as a legal method of payment.
No, this wasn't an April Fool's joke (as some might have thought at the time), although ironically it happened on the same day.
April 1st represents a new fiscal year in Japan. A day when all the official books turn the page on a new business year. Which is likely why it was announced on April 1st.
Not only did they announce that Bitcoin would be considered legal tender, but they also went about setting up capital requirements, cyber security regulations, employee training, and annual audits. There was also official standards for auditing digital currencies put in place by the Accounting Standards Board of Japan.
Basically they are setting up all the infrastructure needed for Bitcoin to not only be used as a possible means of exchange but also to possibly take over as the primary means of transaction at some point.
Recent developments only further those possibilities...
According to recent reports, there are more than 300,000 Japanese merchants that could soon be accepting Bitcoin. There are also thousands of convenience stores that could soon start offering Bitcoin as an accepted means of payment.
Combine that with the fact that leading airlines, electronic stores, and some of the Country's most well known companies are accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment makes it seem likely that mainstream adoption of Bitcoin is imminent in Japan.
Japan's largest budget airline, Peach recently announced that it would start accepting bitcoin.
They became the first airline to do so.
The release can be read here:
The company, Bitpoint partnered with Peach to help make that a reality.
The president of Bitpoint, Genki Oda had this to say in a recent interview when talking about their plans for Bitcoin integration going forward:
"Currently we are holding discussions with a retail-related company. By going through a company providing payment terminal services to shops, we have the possibility of increasing Bitcoin's use at one stroke. It's easier than talking to lots of individual retailers. We're also talking to a big convenience store operator about using it."
So, it sounds like a single payment processing company could be the middle man for processing bitcoin transactions for literally thousands of merchants. Likely similar to what paypal does.
Currently Bitpoint operates mostly as an exchange but has been pushing Bitcoin to be adopted in stores and outlets as opposed to merely promoting it as a speculative investment.
(A Bitpoint ATM in action)
This is likely just the beginning for Bitcoin
Bitcoin has always had it's long term safe-haven asset appeal, but now it appears it's real world use cases are expanding rather rapidly.
Bitcoin will need to solve a couple technical issues before it really hits the mass adoption stage and I am a bit surprised Japan is pushing it so aggressively in it's current form.
Scaling/speed and fees will likely need to be addressed at some point in the future.
In my opinion, though, Japan is likely setting the trend that the rest of the world will soon follow.
Stay informed my friends!
Sources:
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/11/bitcoin-rides-japanese-demand-to-record-1800.html
https://cointelegraph.com/news/suddenly-everybody-loves-bitcoin
Image Sources:
http://bitcorati.com/2014/03/23/bitcoin-tipping-point-mass-adoption/
Follow me: @jrcornel
It will be a hard-time for it to get accepted worldwide but one step at a time. Hope I see some BTC atm's and it's daily usage during my lifetime in my country. It's actually symbolic. Land of a rising Sun - accepting BTC. Next stops will be more difficult. :)
don't forget about silver, big fat news today!! I'm excited
https://steemit.com/money/@natxlaw/the-best-silver-news-in-37-years-trader-goes-down-for-silver-gold-manipulation-and-he-s-singing
@jrcornel,this is a really good news, but I don't know when it will be accepted in China, looking forward to it.
Bitcoin not accepted in China?! There are plenty of Chinese who are very passionate about Bitcoin.
Yeah!
China drove bitcoin the first $1000 or more on the current run up.
@yeah, there are many, but is not legalized..
That's the best part. Bitcoin doesn't care.
@kyle.anderson, yes, thank you ^_^
There are a few countries where bitcoin is forbidden or at least discouraged; elsewhere it seems to be just OK. At this point, its more a matter of whether a business accepts bitcoin or not. A lot of people continue with the idea that bitcoin (and similar coins) is the exclusive turf of drug and weapons dealers, and this perception has slowed adoption tremendously. The way I see it, using bitcoin is not any shadier than paying things with cash (no credit card or such, just cash).
I was just in Japan and couldn't find anywhere to spend my BTC. I was there for a little over 2 weeks and hit most of the major cities.
I was salty because I wanted to document the buying process and blog about it on Steemit. . .
On the plus side, my bitcoin wallet remained secure and in my possession while traveling in and out of both Japan and China.
Whoa... This is HUGE news! thanks a bunch for sharing this massive pice of the crypto puzzle with us all. Namaste :)
As you said, It is surprising that Japan is adopting bitcoin rapidly seeing as it is experiencing the slow processing times. Still, we welcome the pioneering as it builds the highway for other cryptos.
Salute the pioneers
Nice info @jrcornel, in Indonesia Bali is the first place that use bitcoin in public services. Right now day to day it become more acceptable in public.
I'm sorry, but Bitcoin is just way too slow and transactions are way to expensive. It's just not a currently and more of an asset these days.
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Happy to see this although as you say there is still those issues with scaling and speed that would make me still a little cautious.
Congratulations @jrcornel!
Your post was mentioned in my hit parade in the following categories:
I agree where you list Bitcoin on the bell of adoption.
This is not just the beginning for Bitcoin. This is the start of something much, much bigger.
An internet of interconnected blockchains are going to power new types of financial assets that are going to blow Bitcoin out of the water.
This is not about Bitcoin, rather decenteralized choice in financial services powered by decenteralized currency.
I'm very curious to see how this plays out because I'd say that 95% of the people I know here in Japan either know nothing about Bitcoin, or they have a bad/skeptical opinion of it from some scandal that happened a few years ago. If course, I don't live in one of the major cities, but still, I find it very interesting that the infrastructure for its use is being made while much of the public seems to me to have no idea.
Yeah its very interesting ... We're about to see the first wave of blockchain-enabled product adoptions. Especially in japan their obsession with robots is formidable, why not let the robots have, mine, earn, and spend money in the economy? M2M economy
Some people in the government are making moves to fill their pockets. Plus, they're also thinking about the Olympics in 2020, I'm sure. They want to be tech-savvy and ready to be a representative of the future. Honestly, though, I really think the average person in Japan has no idea this is happening.
I find it exciting, but strange.
Once the infrastructure catches up, and the early adopters start using this daily - more and more will leave their skepticism behind.
Of course. It doesn't take more than a spark to light a fire.
I'm excited to see the price of my coins going up ;) More money = more happiness, or.. well, idk. It certainly makes me smile. But I think if the price goes past $4-5K I'm definitely cashing out half, or maybe even more. After that, each month I'll probably take out half. Just due to the crazy prices, maybe it's a little bit safer to go with traditional stocks (once you have a large enough capital to diversify into both crypto and stocks).
Thank you for your posting.
It was a amazing the Japanese government adopted the Bitcoin as a currency.
I Wish the same adoptation go wider to many countries, for example especially in KOREA.
It will come. Countries who try and exclude or limit these disruptive technologies will be left without the innovations and prosperity they will bring.
China understands.
Russia understands.
The times of slow growth are coming to an end. It will happen very fast from now on.
damn, what will those 300.000 stores say when everything stops working on august 1st?
The only question that remains is:
When will big corporations like the airline start to accept Steem as payments?
Lol, maybe we could purchase Steem with frequent flyer miles!
Very soon! Very Soon!!
Good post @jrcornel I agree they are definitely setting the trend. I hope things speed up soon.
I totally agree with you on this... Cryptocurrency will change how we look and deal with money in the future.
I think scaling will be resolved soon, despite the fear mongering going. I hope Segwit gets adopted before UASF is needed, but even if UASF happens and creates a split chain we'll have one chain that will be able handle this kind of demand and once chain that can't... there's no reason for miners to be on the losing side. Bitcoin has been making slow and conservative gains relative to all other alts, once scaling uncertainty is over you can expect fireworks
this is relay awesome and this is only the beginning
Scandinavian countries and Russia are working on creating regulations for crypto currencies as well
Its funny that the balance of my phone wallet keeps going up instead of down like a regular bank account. Once people understand the banks are really robbing them and bitcoin will soon be able to be used anywhere in the world, there will be a crazy rush into bitcoins. Thanks for sharing
It is a very important milestone for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Being accepted as a legal tender means that Bitcoin is beginning its long journey to becoming a mainstream currency. The disruption that this will bring to the finanical sector will spur more innovative to reduce counterparty risk as well as bring down the transaction cost of sending money across borders.
Wonderful news! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for your posting!
Very interesting! I think bitcoin has the potential to be used more than governmental currencies eventually.
The ATMs, along with BTC, should also work with LTC, given that the latter is a faster and less expensive coin.
There are a ton of coins that are faster and cheaper... Steem is one of the best examples actually. However, that doesn't guarantee anything, although it should.
Speed in a coin is important for me. Sometimes I pay things online with bitcoin and the transfer takes two or three days to confirm. That would be a problem if I were to pay a restaurant bill with it, for example. :(
Seems BTC would need to be treated more like a personal check. The ideology is the same, you are debiting from a fund (wallet). I haven't had much of an issue with BTC validation at least when fee's are attached, but, to your point, some places require far more validation than others and are a pain.
Three Caribbean countries are currently discussing Bitcoin and Blockchain technology, Aruba, Bahamas and Barbados. I hope those discussion continue in a healthy direction. There is widespread use in Aruba and Barbados and other islands are looking on, it would be awesome when the entire Caribbean comes on. We need need more education and help, there is not doubt in my mind, with the proper education, it would become mainstream, so hopefully we adopt to it, wouldn't it be awesome for tourism, Japan would be jealous
This is good news to the cryptocurrency world. Very soon more and more country will follow the Japanese Government and make Bitcoin a legal tender in their various countries.
I tell you, the future is very bright with cryptocurrencies especially our beloved STEEM & SBD
Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
Go Japan
love Japan so much especially scenery and foods
Thank you for this update.
I believe this is one of the important steps we need towards making bitcoin 'mainstream'.
How this is all executed and experienced in Japan will set the trend for other countries.
Very hyped about this!
Thanks for the info.
This a good news to invest in cryptocurrencies , a new era of finance is rising
@jrcornel, Thank you for sharing this good information. I heard that currently it is not that simple to use Bitcoin in transactions. I have just come across Dash, another crypto currency. They are coming out with an easy and faster way to spend their currency this fall.
Maybe i'm completely wrong, but Bitcoin's biggest issue now is that the average transaction speed is incredibly long. Won't mass-adaption only clog the networks even more? Why do all these merchants want to wait 2+hours for the money to arrive when conventional methods are much faster? If the average time to confirm a transaction is so long, won't these merchants be trading on unconfirmed transactions?
Or is it because all those merchants want to be paid in a currency that will, most likely, appreciate a crazy amount when mass adoption comes around? I'm just spitballing here.
@jrcornel Great News, this will be open the dors for all the coins.
that's good news for bitcoin holders but for the bankers....resteem it
My father does not understand cryptocurrency and stuff...hoping he understand or at least give me some money to invest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
need not invest too much, just keep several ETH and Ripple and wait for several yrs. Then maybe enough to buy a brand new car !
Thanks for sharing this great news! Hopefully, many more countries will follow in Japan's footsteps.
Also japan understand that bitcoin is the real deal . The new empire is here. ❤❤
other Asian country running behind the big trend ?
smart move Japan
bitcoin emerging !
Getting accepted worldwide is the goal for all us #miners! Crossing my fingers!
Bitcoin is a blessing but one thing needs to be adjusted, the transfer fee is getting higher.
I love bitcoin.
This is a really exciting time to be alive, fingers crossed this is a stepping stone for BTC becoming readily accepted throughout the world.
Yes, I think this is the beginning of mass adoption, however., because this kind of adoption can not be compared to any other type of adoption (tech, internet..etc) we have no idea of how long the crypto adoption process will take.
Litecoin is a better gamble for poor people like myself
I'm so poor I don't have anything to invest with...
This is very promising but there are so many questions as to what will happen to Bitcoin after August 1st when the soft/hard fork occurs.
