Brazilian City Starts Accepting Bitcoin Payments for Public Transport

• by admin
• |
• September 1, 2019
• |
• Bitcoin News

On July 25, Brazilian CoinTelegraph reported that the Brazilian city of Fortaleza, the capital of the state of Ceará, will soon allow its passengers to purchase transportation tickets with bitcoin. Fortaleza is the fifth-largest city in Brazil with a population of about 2.7 million.

The news was broken by Jornal do Povo, a Brazil-based media outlet, in which it cited the decision of Ceará Co-operative of Autonomous Passenger Transporters (COOTRAPS) to start accepting bitcoin in the public transportation system of Fortaleza in addition to credit/debit cards, and cash.

BTC payments support will be built in the city’s autonomous ticketing app by the end of 2019. Travelers will pay by scanning a QR code, which is then scanned by on-vehicle devices.

COOTRAPS also announced that other currencies might be supported at a later date. Which currencies and when this would happen, has not been stated by the transportation company.

We wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this decision was a political one. But as COOTRAPS chief financial officer, Carlos Robério, stated, the aim was to attract more users to the public transport network and to reduce bureaucracy: “This is a way of reducing bureaucracy, even bringing more users to transport. We expect a larger flow of people, we will make it easier for the user.”

The city of Fortaleza is not the first to add cryptocurrency payments to their public transit system. In Argentina, there are 37 cities that accept cryptocurrencies to charge their public transit card; and the Japan’s biggest railroad company is reportedly eyeing crypto payments as well.