A1 Telekom Austria Group announces that its Austrian subsidiary A1 is the first provider on the market enabling customers to pay in Bitcoins

•    Pilot project for payment with Bitcoin and Co. in selected A1 shops
•    Close partnership with Salamantex, Ingenico and Concardis
•    Business customer product soon available

As a pioneer, A1 is assuming a great responsibility with regard to the digitalization of our society. The safety of consumers and trade, as well as compliance with all legal requirements and provisions are top priorities. Before the “A1 Payment” portfolio will be expanded by digital currencies and officially available to business customers, a multi-stage trial will now be carried out, starting with selected A1 shops.

While mobile or wearable payment are slowly becoming established in Austria, the acceptance of digital currencies has not yet reached international level. In particular, industries that have close contact with tourists and business travelers, feel this backlog considerably, as visitors cannot pay as usual with, for example, Alipay, WeChat Pay or a Bitcoin.
 
From now on, A1 will offer payment in selected A1 shops for the most important digital currencies as part of this pilot project, thus demonstrating that the integration of new digital payment methods into everyday business is easily possible.

Paying with digital currencies is becoming more and more prevalent internationally, and every industry is affected. With the pilot operation in the A1 Shops the company is testing the demand and acceptance of digital currencies in Austria.

Accept digital currencies without any risk
 
So far, the acceptance of digital currencies, especially of crypto-currencies, has always been associated with a considerable amount of effort and risk-affinity of the payee. With the solution "A1 Payment", A1, together with its partners Salamantex, Ingenico and Concardis, offers a solution which can be easily integrated into the cash register system, which relieves the dealer (acceptance partner) of the exchange rate risk.
 
When purchasing a good or service, the customer receives the current and fixed conversion price of the selected currency and pays with his wallet*. The dealer receives revenues in EUR without any further effort. The risk of exchange rate fluctuation during blockchain validation of the transaction is mitigated by the providers.
 
At the start of the pilot project Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash, Ethereum, Ripple as well as Stellar are accepted in selected A1 Shops. Alipay and WeChatPay will follow in late August.

Learn more about paying with Bitcoin and Co on A1#BusinessChange
 
* Wallet: Customers need a wallet to store cryptocurrencies. A wallet is a program that accesses the blockchain and enables transactions in digital currency.