French retailers accept bitcoin payments in 2020

A wide variety of French retailers and mainstream brands will start accepting bitcoin in 2020. In total over 25 thousand stores spread out over the entire European country will accept bitcoin. The adoption comes from a partnership between crypto payment provider East2Play Payment, EasyWallet and Global POS. This news was published by the French newspaper Le Figaro on Tuesday.

The French retailers will never have to deal with cryptocurrencies. Once a consumer pays using bitcoin through one of the Global POS terminals, the bitcoins will be converted into euros. East2Play Payment and EasyWallet will take care of this process. As a result retail will only receive euros.

The project will launch somewhere in the first quarter of 2020. Among the companies that join the project are sports retailers Decathlon and Intersport, shoe retailer Foot Locker, bakery franchise Boulanger, and brands like Conforama, Maison du Monde and Sephora.

Bitcoin is only the start for French retailers

Global POS is currently only allowing payments in bitcoin, but the company isn’t stopping there. CEO Stephane Djiane has big plans within the crypto space. “Initially, the service we offer will only allow the use of Bitcoins. Our goal is to open our solution to other crypto-currencies in the future”, he said in a statement during the Paris Retail Week.

According to research from Statista only 4 percent of the French population owns or used to own cryptocurrencies. In comparison the U.S. has 5 percent, the United Kingdom 6 percent, and Germany 4 percent. Turkey is the leader of this chart with 20 percent, followed by Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, South Africa and Mexico.

France launched its own crypto regulations earlier this summer. For example start-ups can own a bank account, but they need to opt-in for government regulation. The government is also giving out certifications to crypto service providers, like exchanges and wallet companies.

Originally published at NEDEROB.