Australian tourist town has declared itself the first “digital currency town” 

Agnes Water, a tourist town located in central Queensland, Austrailia has become one of the first locations to accept digital currency.

In a collaboration with TravelByBit (a start-up company native to Queensland) one town hopes to increase the flow of international tourism. Just last week TravelByBit rolled out its app which allows for payment in digital currency at Brisbane airport’s retails stores, meaning holiday makers and travelers alike can pay for their expeditions in Australia, almost point to point with digital currency.

Australia doesn’t yet regard cryptocurrency as legal tender or foreign currency, so business’ aren’t required to accept. However, this hasn’t stopped the more than 30 stores in Agnes Water accepting digital currencies.

Caleb Yeoh, CEO of TravelByBit commented on why he believes this kind of venture will take off:

“If you travel around the world you have to deal with multiple currencies, the exchange rate can be confusing, sometimes you struggle to find ATMs, and sometimes you get swindled by money changers … Traveling with one global currency like Bitcoin … makes sense.”.

According to ABC, Agnes water real estate agent, Gordon Christian was the catalyst to this mass adoption. After hearing news of Brisbane airport accepting cryptocurrency, he looked into the way he could use it within his own business. This curiosity snowballed into a community-led movement, Mr. Gordan explained how it flourished:

“We started from the ground up, shared it with a couple of businesses and they were straight on board … I guess they were international travelers themselves and had heard of these types of payments”. He contained to describe how the community connected the dots to create a fully supported network of crypto payment options from Brisbane airport to town.

“The town has made a very strategic move in trying to appeal to a niche market to take perhaps some of those tourists … to come out to their little part of the woods”.

Accepted cryptocurrencies include NEM (XEM), Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Source: Chepicap – This town in Queensland has fully embraced cryptocurrency

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