AT&T, the world’s largest telecommunications company, will go down in history as the first company of its kind to adopt payments in the form of cryptocurrencies. It will be using the services of BitPay, a highly-reputed cryptocurrency-based payments processor.
BitPay will be an option for AT&T customers to pay their bills online. That’s what the world’s largest telecommunications firm announced yesterday. Kevin McDorman, the firm’s vice president, said,
“We’re always looking for ways to improve and expand our services. We have customers who use cryptocurrency, and we are happy we can offer them a way to pay their bills with the method they prefer.”
BitPay is a cryptocurrency payments platform that makes it easier for businesses to accept digital assets as a means of payment and bridges digital currencies with the conventional banking system. Its high transfer speeds help users avoid the volatility characteristic in the cryptocurrency market so that they can use their digital wealth to pay successfully for any goods or services offered by merchants that are in the BitPay network. Users can use Bitcoin (BTC) or Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCH) to settle their bills online.
Adoption by AT&T is a huge deal for the crypto verse, even if it’s indirect and through a third-party. This is a company that’s been around for more than thirty years, and that’s always been leading the industry in every possible way. It’s based in Dallas, Texas. It’s the most prominent provider of landlines in the United States, and it’s the second largest company in mobile services.
The company has diversified and gone into the internet industry as well as the entertainment industry. It owns many other companies, one of which is WarnerMedia, the planet’s largest media and entertainment provider.
AT&T also offers internet and cable TV services in most of the US. In this market, it’s Comcast’s primary competitor.
AT&T’s announcement shows the company’s vision, which has always been broader and deeper than the rest. It’s also an essential step for crypto mainstream adoption because very few companies in the country have so many clients in all possible demographic groups as AT&T does.
Crypto adoption (or tolerance, at least) by one of the world’s business giants implies a vote of confidence of sorts for cryptocurrencies. Granted, only two assets will be accepted at the beginning, as described before. There’s every chance that the company chose BitPay precisely because it doesn’t deal in altcoins but only in BCH and BTC.
The rationale behind that would be that BTC is king when it comes to cryptocurrencies and almost every cryptonaut who owns any digital coins at all has also owned BTC at some point or other. So this is probably how AT&T is playing it safe when entering the crypto world.
It will be fascinating to see if the rest of the telecom industry follows suit if only not to let AT&T get away with an edge over them in crypto adoption. The high degree of competition in the telecom market means that very soon Comcast, or Verizon, or both (and other companies too) will also find the way to accommodate their cryptonaut clients.
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