Bitcoin Forum

Saudi Telecom is the biggest Telecom company in Saudi Arabia. They are operating the business in many countries as well and Bahrain is one of them. Recently Saudi Telecom (STC) in Bahrain accept crypto payment. Just saw it on Binance tweets.  (https://mobile.twitter.com/binance/status/1603074350277705731)

To be honest I know Saudi Telecom very well and feel proud that they are accepting crypto payments now. It's just like opening the door. If more Telecom companies start accepting crypto payment then it would be a nice adaption. However, at least a small positive news behind many incidents.

Well, this is, of course, good. Saudi Telecom is a big and influential player in the country. It plays a big role in the day-to-day lives of Saudis. However, it seems there are too many players in the middle. There's Binance Pay. There's Eazy Pay. There will certainly be banks as well because, for sure, the company won't probably be receiving the payments in Bitcoin itself. But, yeah, this is still adoption.

Anyway, I wonder why, except for Binance's tweet, I haven't encountered this in the news.

We certainly need some good news in the face of the FTX collapse contagion. I am not so familiar with Saudi Telecom since I am not based in the Middle East but am assuming that this is a big business organization with lost of revenues and is now looking its good share in the booming (especially in this region) cryptocurrency market. As what I am saying in the past, I am hoping those accepting crypto to plan a marketing campaign by including incentives for people to be using crypto so they can go into the hassles of entering the crypto option and using it to pay. No incentives can be a dry thing especially for people who are speculators.

It's a good news to see as every Crypto and Bitcoin user wants to see adoptions like this going round.

But what I really feel like is a scheme for lobbying for the usage of Binance more than the main purpose which was the adoption in that country.
For Big Telecom in that region accepting Bitcoin and making daily usage of Crypto is a massive win for the adoption process, the message sent across is ckewr crypto has come to stay but if it's a mean to promote Binance, then I think they can do better by having full custody of their own crypto

I don't understand Arabic but with Google translate, I did not find any term on Know Your Customer at STC's Terms and Conditions (https://www.stc.com.sa/content/stcgroupwebsite/sa/ar/terms-and-policies/vendors.html)

If it is truly their Terms and policies, no KYC for their customers, it is good for normal users and for cryptocurrency users who want to use cryptocurrency to pay bills and other payment on STC.

Could anybody from Arabic countries can confirm STC policies on KYC, please?

Google Translate is not too good.

That's good news.
According to the information I have Telecom company was founded more than 20 years ago and they got more than 20,000 people working there they have many people from the government of Saudi Arabia working there, and this company is owned officially by the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) according to this information we can consider the government of Saudi Arabia paying attention for bitcoin more than before can it's not surprising to see them doing even more positive moves to accepting bitcoin in their country.

This is interesting to hear, there have been other industries as well that has also key into the adoption of bitcoin and not only that, they have developed further interest in creating a support for the bitcoin mining specifically, whereby the engage the use of waste natural gas energies in securing the mining of bitcoin,. this is a development from the oil and gas producing companies, the telecoms together with other industries could also use their influence and reputation to create more suitable atmosphere towards the adoption of bitcoin and it use in making payments and also explore other benefits that comes in through this.

Well this is good news cause when more and more companies will accept Bitcoin and other crypto as a source of payment than a lot of people will know it's future and it could be very bright too. And that's why When PayPal integrated with crypto it made history.
Saudi Arab and Dubai are leading in crypto as they want to open Their countries for whole world. And also this is a good news in Era of FUDS.

The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud is really globalizing and revolutionizing the economy of Saudi Arabia. The Gulf region use to be a closed society that always repel innovation and change. But this young ruler has been a trailblazer in the course of opening the region to innovation and modern technological advancement. That's why it is good to have young and visionary leaders and not old and backward political leaders.

Saudi Telecom's acceptance of bitcoin is good news. Saudi is a major player in the Gulf economy and this development might influence other nations in that region to take the same step. This bold step might even attract more crypto investors to Saudi Arabia.

Good news but maybe still not good enough for decentralize lovers. If the payment is still going through BinancePay and EazyPay, it means that everything requires KYC. You have to enter personal data and it will be recorded and also centralized. So it's like a decentralized that's centralized. But no problem, there are many people who will still use that facility.

The link that you used is the link to the official website of the company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This is the link to the company's website in the Bahrain branch:https://www.stc.com.bh/ar
I checked the site and there are no indications of this news, and only users in Bahrain can confirm that the service is actually working.
I am surprised that this news is not the subject of media attention, even in Arab forums and groups. I was also surprised that the service was launched in Bahrain, which is a small island with a limited population, although the company has branches in other countries .

They accept payment through third party apps so we can't say it's a real adoption.
STC have a service called STC Pay, which enables you to pay using their application for some services, which I thought was the one that accepted payment in bitcoins, but what is happening now is that you transfer money from your account in Binance to the company's bank account, which you transfer to STC's bank account .

I like the fact that a tele com organization have recognized the blockchain and started accepting cryptocurrency. It is a nice one they took that step. As a giant in the industry, they have set the pace and others would gradually follow their step to accepting cryptocurrency as a means of payment. Gradually, the adoption of bitcoin is coming to reality world wide which would definitely spread like wide fire when as time goes on.

I checked with Binance tweets (https://mobile.twitter.com/binance/status/1603074350277705731) about Saudi Telecom accepted crypto payment in Bahrain seems used Binance as third party, likely payment sending trough BinancePay without any fees transaction have to pay. Actually become good news with bigger telecommunication in Saudi Arabia accepted Bitcoin as payment currency.

Directly with Saudi Telecom (STC) accepted crypto as payment currency they have advertising about advantage when adopting Bitcoin as legal currency payment transaction, I think will have bigger company later will adopt and legal Bitcoin as payment currency transaction.

There are already many big companies that accept Bitcoin and some Altcoins like Ethereum as a means of payment. Some of them are Overstock, Home Depot, Newegg, Travala, Gucci. You can search the list on Google with the keywords "big company that accept bitcoin 2022". If you don't want to bother, you can read here:
- Who Accepts Bitcoin? 9 Major Companies (https://buybitcoinworldwide.com/who-accepts-bitcoin/).
- Top 10 Companies Accepting Ethereum as a Payment Method in 2022 (https://www.analyticsinsight.net/top-10-companies-accepting-ethereum-as-a-payment-method-in-2022/).