A true Bitcoin City needs to offer real-time use of crypto payments
Let’s start by clarifying what constitutes a Bitcoin City? The term can designate different levels of crypto adoption among merchants, public service providers, and crypto holders, but the bottom line is that a true Bitcoin City needs to offer real-time use of crypto payments. We did just that in Ljubljana’s biggest shopping district, BTC City.
Everything begins with a testing stage
BTC City is one of the largest shopping, business, entertainment, recreational, cultural, and leisure centers in Europe, with more than 450 shops, 4000 business partners, 10,000 brands, 70 food and drink vendors, an open market, delicious street food corner, many leisure, and sports facilities, and Atlantis Water Park with 17 swimming pools and 14 saunas. It hosts more than 21 million visitors annually.
Back in 2018, Eligma developed a one-of-a-kind crypto payment network that would enable merchants to accept cryptocurrency in-store as any other mainstream payment method. The idea behind it was to give crypto holders the chance to spend their assets in real-life situations instead of just holding them as a means of investment. In 2018, the global number of ID-verified cryptocurrency users nearly doubled, climbing from 18 million to 35 million, which represented an important customer base that merchants, using our GoCrypto gateway, could tap into.
BTC City Ljubljana offered a unique opportunity to test our product in an environment resembling the world of global commerce. The shopping district encompasses a large number of very different establishments that presented an array of challenges for Eligma on a scale, manageable in our early development phase. The president of BTC City’s management board shared our vision of the future of payments and joined our cause. This partnership turned the BTC City into our own testing grounds where merchants were able to voluntarily join the GoCrypto network and start accepting crypto payments in their stores.
Merchants all over the shopping district shared our enthusiasm and onboarded our project at the very beginning. Even though crypto payments were scarce at the time, all our clients and their customers reported that our cryptocurrency point-of-sale systems were working without a glitch, emphasizing the user-friendly side of our product. By integrating the crypto payment network in their stores, they felt empowered and assured that they have made the best possible choice to future-proof their business.
Crypto payments at every corner
Fast-forward to 2022, GoCrypto has turned BTC City into a crypto hotspot. Over one hundred merchants are using GoCrypto solutions, from the all-accessible webPOS system and cash register integration to our partner Lab4Pay’s all-in-one POS terminal and the GoCrypto plugin for online stores. Combined with several one-way crypto ATMs that are strategically placed across the shopping mall, visitors can experience a true crypto-friendly vibe throughout the venue.
Merchants have opened their brick & mortar and online stores to the global crypto community, which is said to reach a billion users by the end of this year. They are attracting high-end customers and are getting wider recognition from the Millennial and Gen Z population (which constitute over 65% of the world’s population). Crypto-friendly businesses offer an up-scaled customer experience while running their finances without any crypto volatility risks. We made sure of that and allowed our clients to regularly choose between settlements in crypto or local currency. If they opt for crypto payouts, they receive instant settlements and can redirect their revenue into their preferred projects faster.
From BTC City to Ljubljana, Europe, and the World
So how did we do it? It’s all about our infrastructure and striking key partnerships. Our company specializes in crypto payment solutions that can be adapted, scaled, or even white-labeled to any project. We can transform a store, a mall, a city, or even an entire country into a crypto hub through our rich selection of services. By partnering with other key players in the FinTech industry or going at it on our own, we can deliver a reliable and technologically-advanced omnichannel payment service that will attract new customers, tourists, and projects to your desired location.
Our BTC City endeavor turned out to be the perfect starting point, giving us the chance to introduce and upgrade our entire crypto payment infrastructure. Thanks to this, Ljubljana is crowned the most crypto-friendly city in Europe and Slovenia ranks among the top 10 crypto-friendly countries in the world. Eligma became the proud owner of the Bitcoin City™ trademark in numerous European countries and is setting up its infrastructure all over the world as we speak.
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