AT&T Accepting Crypto Payments Now
On May 23, the US telecommunications giant AT&T, issued a press release that it would now be accepting online phone bill payments in cryptocurrencies via the crypto-payments platform BitPay.
At this point, this service is not being extended to other AT&T products, like buying phones as well as other telecom devices.
The vice president of the company’s Communications Finance Business Operations, Kevin McDorman stated that they had customers who used cryptos, and they were happy to now give them a way to pay their phone bills using a method they preferred.
Other Blockchain Initiatives by AT&T
This is not the first foray into the crypto and blockchain space for AT&T. In late 2018, the telecom giant announced that it was working on a range of blockchain based solutions that would be compatible with both the IBM Blockchain platform as well as Microsoft Azure.
AT&T stated that the focus on this suite of solutions was to offer added transparency as well as accountability to supply chains with the most complexity. These products were targeted at institutional customers in retail, healthcare and manufacturing.
The company had also filed a patent application with the USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office), which was published in December 2018. This was for a blockchain-powered map of social media history, which would allow telecom networks such as AT&T to collect subscribers’ transaction data on social media.
Online Payments Via Cryptos on the Rise
AT&T is not the only company to begin offering crypto payment options. Users can pay in Bitcoin (BTC) at luxury department store Nordstrom, gaming supplies company GameStop, and also for groceries at Whole Foods.
The recent wave of companies accepting payments in cryptocurrencies has been made possible thanks to a partnership between the major crypto exchange Gemini and a payments startup called Flexa. Users make their payments to various merchants using an app called Spedn in crypto, how merchants will receive their payments in fiat currencies.
Not Good News for Crypto Speculators
The news about merchants giving users the chance to pay their bills in cryptos sounds as if there is a wider acceptance of digital assets.
However, the reality is that merchants do not actually transact in cryptocurrencies. Instead, payments processors convert cryptos into fiat currencies, so merchants continue to receive their payments in regular money.
The downside to this process is that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin need to be sold to pay the merchants in fiat currencies. This creates a downside pressure on BTC’s price. Translated, this means that the price of cryptocurrencies could decline with such transactions.
The real breakthrough will come when cryptocurrencies will be accepted directly as payment.