Long the Saturday routine of the "average bloke" in Australia was the trip to the newsagency for the Saturday "rag" and lottery tickets (along with maybe a magazine and some smokes).
Newsagencies are a dying concept along with, it seems, so many other things in living memory during this time of disruptive progress.
As a deviation from my recent list of "holding the state's feet to the fire" posts, I thought I'd post up a little good news this morning. I try to give credit where's due and, in this case, the credit goes to the Australian Financial Review for covering the story about Australian newsagencies selling Bitcoin and Ethereum. See here for the unusually paywall free article.
From the AFR: Bitcoin Australia chief executive Rupert Hackett says selling cryptocurrencies through newsagents opens the asset up to all Australians
I'll get my sole criticism of their article out of the way first. In true AFR (MSM) style, they can't resist referring to individuals who would use this service as punters; a term that implies that cryptocurrencies are pigeon holed in with twoup and the roulette wheel.
Pffew!
Now that the criticism is out of the the way we can relax and move on with the story. This story is actually pretty big and it's not a shock to me to have found only one article on it so far. The public is apparently right now able to purchase BTC and ETH at a newsagency with only a digital wallet, $50, an email address and a phone number.
This means a number of things. Significantly, it means that access to an exchange or operating a mining rig (both options unpalatable for the new investor) are no longer hurdles to getting involved in cryptocurrencies.
As a consequence of that, it also means that the KYC obligations are also out the window so a significant increase in privacy is now on the table. If I'm reading this right, someone could literally create a wallet (or have that done for them), walk into a newsagency with a $50 note, a phone number and an email address and walk out with BTC and ETH. I think that's a major development.
Furthermore, if establishments are selling the currencies for fiat, it's not a large stretch to see them accepting fiat for goods; adding to the already established Australian businesses doing so. Another big deal.
From the article:
The move makes it easier for people interested in investing a small amount of money in cryptocurrencies to purchase bitcoin or ethereum, without needing to navigate the process of doing it online.
Apparently Australian newsagencies aren't new to this; something I was completely unaware of despite living here.
For the past 12 months people have been able to buy bitcoin from some newsagents via a more complicated process in which they first had to buy a barcode for the amount of bitcoin you wanted from bitcoin.com.au and then take that into a newsagent to purchase the currency. Under this system, more than 40,000 transactions were made.
So how does the new approach work?
The sale of the two major cryptocurrencies in these retailers is thanks to a partnership between Bitcoin Australia and iOS-based payments system Blueshyft, which has enabled the transaction to occur directly through the Blueshyft payments platform.Chief executive of Bitcoin Australia, Rupert Hackett, said the move into newsagencies was about "democratising" the process so everyday people can participate in this new asset class.
So what's in it for the newsagencies?
For newsagents, it's also providing a new reason for shoppers to come into the stores, while newspaper and magazine sales decline.Owner of the NewsXpress newsagent in Oxenford, Queensland, Domenic Zizza told The Australian Financial Review any value-adding service it can provide its customer base helps it win business.
"[The take-up] has been fairly substantial to say the least. In some instances it's been a bit of a frenzy...people's aspirations are high and this has provided an opportunity for punters to have a go, but at a small scale," he said.
"The traditional newsagent is a dinosaur. There's been a substantial decline in newspaper and magazine sales in the last three years and the transition to bring in additional value-added services to keep the business alive is a positive."
Free market innovation at work. Isn't it glorious to see such good news come from the blockchain?
My sister owns a couple newsagents and I suggested getting the Blueshyft system over a year ago. She didn’t take any notice of me then and I just think of the extra income she has missed out on. The even sadder thing is one of her stores is less than 10 minutes drive from the one featured in this story.
How interesting @stephen-somers! An article close to home for you. I don't blame your sister; it's a scary new world and radical change in a business can be as harmful as it is helpful but yes, in hindsight it could have been a winning decision. How are her agencies going at the moment, if you don't mind the query?
Blueshyft also does lots of other services as well and would bring extra people to her stores. Newsagents are a business facing disruption from many angles so any extra store visitors would be helpful.
That's a cool development. The next step could be to accept crypto in exchange for goods. It wouldn't be that much harder. There would be more steps to getting the coins from the person's account than getting them to their account, but still it's a step toward mass-adoption. It's a wise move by the news agencies. They get more customers who have a different kind of money to spend.
@themanwithnoname - Was in Port Douglas a couple of months ago and walked past a surf shop that had a sign in the window stating they accepted crypto as a payment form in exchange for goods in store, not 100% sure how they process it though as we were on the way to the airport when we saw the store
That's cool! It's starting to happen. :)
Yeah "it's happening!!!" Was my response too! Exciting.
Exactly right @themanwithnoname. I think one of the selling points for crypto adopters is having solid examples of where in the real world this new currency can be spent. Tick!
Amazing in the UK we are so far behind. It still very hard to get crypto and the media are portraying is as dodge and for criminals. Its sad to see people so against it here! Lets hope some get a wiff of this although I doubt our media will allow that somehow 💯🐒
That's interesting insight @vibeof100monkeys. I didn't know the extent of the UK media bias regarding crypto. Thanks for the thoughtful comment ☺
Oh they are very against it. Staying it drugs dealer and crime gangs who use it. You name it they had said it!💯🐒
Being able to get crypto from a newsagence is kinda cool :D I don't know what the KYC obligations are (probably have to look that up), but I'm kind of concerned if requiring a phone number is an increase in privacy D:
Now just waiting for more places to natively accept crypto as payment (that'll be a fun one).
It does "feel" like adoption is really happening!
Australia Post should get on board with a system like this. Might add a new revenue stream that they so desperately need. Although being a government owned business would complicate things if it crashed hard.
It would be good also if they would let you buy without a number and email just as long as it was under a certain amount. Nothing is private if they take down email and phone.
Yeah true. Tho compared to most KYC requirement which require your blood type and shoe size its not too arduous.
Good thinking with aust post too.
Nice one. Very useful post. That's a nice advancement. Thanks for sharing @nolnocluap
Great Job ✌
Nice update.... 👍👍