Bitcoin Forum

The Biggest Austrian Telecommunication Provider A1 Now Accepts Bitcoin Payments. In cooperation with Salamantex, A1 now accepts crypto payments on the 7 locations:

Vienna (Mitte The Mall)
Vienna (Kärntnerstrasse)
Salzburg (Europark)
Linz (Landstraße)
Krems (Bühl center)
Graz (Herrengasse)
Innsbruck (Kaufhaus Tyrol)

https://twitter.com/salamantex/status/1163435472758218753?s=20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJmZzB7BoBI

Oh wow, not bad! Looking at how A1 is planning on accepting AliPay and WeChatPay as well later this month [1] it's quite interesting that they are spearheading with crypto first.

For now it appears to be only a pilot project running in some of their retail stores however, so paying your phone bill with Bitcoin is not in the possible... yet.

[1] https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000107558893/a1-shops-nehmen-kuenftig-auch-bitcoin-an (German only, sorry)

Fantastic. the adoption we have been crying for is gradually getting real. I am moreover happy about how it's happening at a good pace. With time, everyone is gonna get on board in one way or the other. Bitcoin is here to stay.

This is superb marketing for Bitcoin. It's a pretty big deal that large corporations slowly but surely follow the trend and are less afraid to try out something new.

It would be cool if they accepted Bitcoin through Lightning as well, which would generate them even more publicity because that's technically speaking where we are heading to when it comes to day-to-day transactions. Most of what I spend nowadays is done with Lightning through Bitrefill. I'm definitely looking forward to more adoption in this field.

Was reading barkleys and coinbase divorce in the press section and now reading a 180° news here :P
It is good to read some good news from time to time talking about bitcoin adoption, i only hope it will be significant for A1 so they keep using Bitcoin!

It's true, it's good to see Bitcoin being accepted by big and important companies. However it's kind of expected from telecom and similar companies to accept new technologies includin cryptocurrencies. I would more prefere to see other industries that are not so tech oriented to accept Bitcoin too.

Great news Australia private ang government companies are alway bring  full of surprises to the bitcoin community to give people easy convenient payment system using this new technology of digital money.




Yes of course happy to heard and sees bitcoin being accepted by the big companies, meaning crypto currencies continue to become useful to help for the economic growth.

That is a smart move by the the telecommunication company and a great news as well as for the whole world of  cryptocurrency. The world is moving at such a great speed and hence it's always wise to join the modern trends in technology in order to maximize profit. I guess more companies would adapt crypto in due course.

These are positive signals for the crypto market. Giants are starting to care more about crypto. American telecom giant Verizon was reported to be seeking blockchain talent, including five blockchain developers in an apparent attempt to set up a distributed network

That's amazing, I've never really thought of Austria as a very BTC-welcoming country, but after coming across this thread, and looking at a couple BTC maps and news article, Austria is actually quite welcoming for a European country.

It's a bit weird why there are accepting BTC before the other payment options. I personally would pick other fiat options over BTC due to popularity and adoption, but it's a brave move from them.

It's great PR for sure. I don't think they'd bother with the lightning network, I doubt a lot of people there (except the enthusiasts) know about the lightning network there.

That's a good news for the cryptocurrency users of Austria. Telecommunications is a big industry which carryout each and every data transmitted through different pathways. One of the much known telecommunications service render accepting bitcoin will widen the market for bitcoin as it has got its services in different countries.

Same as this there is some good news from Japan as well, Rakuten - which is termed to be the Amazon of Japan have started its cryptocurrency exchange services. It was an crypto friendly venture since 2014 and understanding the need now they've come up with the app which helps in all means of cryptocurrency transaction for bitcoin, BCH and ethereum.

A1 has been doing a lot of good things lately and had been in the limelight for crypto developments. and it's kinda new for me to hear that an Austrian company is really getting it out in the open for crypto adoption. Some other countries' telecoms companies are already in the brink of doing the same move in accepting crypto for payments, but this is the first that I hear something from Austria. It's a gamble, and perhaps a bit of a PR move as well.

I don't think they "care" about crypto. What those companies do is that it could help them and their customers to be aware of crypto, hence it's a win-win situation for both parties. So this is a significant move from them. They are somewhat bridging the gap and who knows maybe others will follow as well. So it's a game changer is Austria, free advertisement for crypto enthusiast.

This is what we need now, we need large organizations to start implement bitcoin payment because if we can get them to do so, then it would not be difficult to get the smaller ones to follow also because they like competition a lot. This is really good news and a stepping stone, I have seen the rate at which people are beginning to accept bitcoin now, it is obviously showing that bitcoin is being accepted and has helped a lot of many companies especially the retail companies to real make payment easy for them.

With time, I believe that other countries will also have lots of merchants that will be implementing them too, we just need to continue to create the awareness till 50% of the whole [population of the word gets to start using bitcoin.

My thought as well. I like what LN aims to do and use it myself from time to time, but the network is so small and largely still unknown, that I don't see how it would benefit those who hold Bitcoin but don't know what LN is.

In order to utilize the LN, they have to fund a channel which requires a regular transaction fee. If you just use Bitcoin to pay for things once or twice a month, you don't need the advantages that LN offers.

To add, a lot of payment gateways for convenience sake accept lower value zero confirmation transactions if the transaction has a sufficient fee included. In other words, your transaction is mostly accepted near instantly.

Today Coinbase published the news, 1 day later but still

https://www.coindesk.com/austrian-telecommunications-giant-to-accept-cryptocurrency

The more these companies allow Bitcoin, the fast will be the adoption. It is good news for the crypto community in Australia. Now you guys are being backed by A1. I think in future we can expect more big companies from Australia following the same path as A1

It's about Austria, not Australia -  these are two different countries. A little more reading with understanding would not hurt you.

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Austria is rather friendly towards cryptocurrency, and if we exclude UK (264 crypto ATMs), Austria has the highest number of crypto ATMs in Europe 254 (https://coinatmradar.com/countries/), and users can buy vouchers (https://www.coindesk.com/postal-service-customers-austria-can-now-buy-bitcoin-ether) in Austria post offices from 2 years ago.

Therefore, it is no wonder that the offer continues to expand on other sectors, and that some other countries in the neighborhood also have similar projects, for example Slovenia and Croatia. I guess it is much easier to test such projects in smaller countries, but if they show that crypto is not some great mystery used by scientists, others will start to follow their moves.

Austria is a great country. I enjoyed my visit there last spring. It's expensive for foreigners but affordable if you have a standard Austrian salary. It's also very ecologically clean, accessible and safe. This is indeed a nice country to live in since they care about their citizens. Allowing them to use a wider variety of payment methods is another sign of it. And, according to an article about it on Coindesk, this move is also tourist-oriented.
Adoption of Bitcoin as payment is another win not only for Bitcoin but for those who still believe it can be legal tender.

I agree it's definitely a great industry for them to set foot in and showcases more mainstream adoption of BTC, which is great, no matter what happens next.

I don't think it is fully developed though and is as easy to the point where you can purchase a new phone bill and pay it in BTC, and we have no idea of spreads, but it's a good move for BTC adoption.

Austria is actually one of the most crypto-friendly countries in Malta, and I don't think a mainstream company would suddenly add a new payment option and a lot of hassle for a PR move, I'm pretty sure they'll be accepting BTC for a long time to come.

Perfectly said, for now, it's mostly useless for a lot of customers, but maybe in the future when microtransactions are more common, we'll see an increase in usage of the LN.

Question will be who will pay using Bitcoins. As well know, most are just holding Bitcoins hoping for their coins to increase in value and not to pay for utilities. Here in the Philippines, there is an exchange site that help us pay our utilities using Bitcoins from water services, electricity and Telcos. Its great that big companies started accepting Bitcoins as payments, but I hope they will accept directly and not use 3rd party companies as it will sometime cause delay and add convenience fees for using their service.

This is huge news for Bitcoin, Salamantex & of course Mass Adoption! Well done to Salamantex  8)

We've been working with them recently to list their current businesses who they've helped make the leap in to Cryptocurrency.

Find a constantly updated list of Austrian businesses whom accept Bitcoin right here at BitcoinPeople (https://bitcoinpeople.online/country/austria)

Very remarkable, giant telecommunications companies accept payments with cryptocurrency and yes of course, mass adoption will grow in Austria, going forward many other companies will follow the payment method using cryptocurrency.

This will have another good effect for business in this county, when a big business accepts BTC, usually the small once will just follow.
Actually, this is what I like to see as this way adoption would easily increase.

Hopefully more and more great news like this will be announce, this is very helpful to bitcoin as investors will take this as another reason why bitcoin has a good potential. In our country, I'm hoping a good news like this but I can't complain now and will just let this big country to lead the adoption too.