The First Western Australia Financial Services Company to Accept Crypto-to-AUD-Cash Payments
Assurance Finance & Business Solutions & their crypto adoption story
AFBS & its exclusive brand Wealth Coaching, is the FIRST financial services’ company in Western Australia (WA) to adopt a crypto-to-Aussie-cash payment system. Simply put, AFBS now accepts payment for all their services in Bitcoin and four other cryptocurrencies. This is a hugely exciting upgrade!
Even though Western Australia adoption of blockchain technology powered cryptocurrencies lags behind the east coast States (see “Crypto Bill Payments by State” graph below), and the WA masses probably don’t fully comprehend what Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies are and where they come from, upon closer inspection, one finds nonetheless intelligent, non-technology and tech enthusiasts alike, early adopters. Everyday people who see early mover value in decentralized cryptocurrencies, money of the future, and how this will play a powerful role in evolving societal-economic thinking and behaviour post Keynesianism. AFBS’s crypto onboarding event is significant! It is …
… part of a “meaningful crypto adoption process” that is progressively building out the scaffolding of a cryptocurrency accepting economic infrastructure in Western Australia, one conversation at a time.
After all. A diverse network of shops, service businesses, and organisations with whom cryptocurrency users can transact with don’t just miraculously appear when a crypto bull-market runs. Crypto economy influencers have to envision the crypto user scaffolding, and construct it, through education, crypto-friendly media, cold calling city mayors and advisors, general managers of the state airport, local shop owners, bar and restaurant operators, accountants, lawyers and so on. Sharing with anyone willing to listen to the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency economy vision and how government, businesses, and individuals can meaningfully and safely participate.
A steadily emerging, cryptocurrency economic ecosystem, building around likeminded individuals, businesses and blockchain or crypto-related projects, is decidedly lifting off in Western Australia. Wooing a financial services company such as Assurance Finance & Business Solutions to onboard through a crypto payments system for their goods and services is great progress!
AFBS is a welcome addition in the “upgrade to crypto” trend in Perth, home to successful Australian blockchain-based cryptocurrency and peer-to-peer renewable energy trading and environmental commodities company PowerLedger; whose initial coin offering (ICO) in September 2017 crowd raised $34 million AUD globally — $17 million in the 4 wk pre-sale and the remainder in the public sale. Their cryptocurrency token (ticker ref POWR) is currently trading at $0.039180 USD, has a global market capitalization of $16,512,666 USD and turned over volume trading in the last 24 hours of $42,866,480 USD (Wed 27th November AWST).
Why is AFBS Accepting Crypto Payments?
Director of Assurance Finance & Business Solutions and Wealth Coaching, Helia Singh, who has amassed an impressive array of State and Australia wide finance sector awards in the last two short years, had this to say about her decision to accept crypto payments —
“Being at the forefront of the learning curve about new cryptocurrency economics and how to use them is part of our business values base!
As a financial adviser and wealth coach, I take pride in delivering the best possible solutions to our clients. Since 2018, we’ve expanded our services to global clients and strive to serve many many more.
In today’s technology, we recognise that clients would love to have more options for payment than traditional cash. Therefore it made sense to do this!”
Other persuasive factors included:
- a negligible one-off merchant fee of $250 AUD with no ongoing merchant transaction costs, as the customer pays the transaction fees relevant to the cryptocurrency they choose to pay with;
- there being no crypto volatility risk to hedge by the merchant, as all crypto payments are immediately converted into the Aussie dollar equivalent value at point-of-transaction then credited directly to the business bank account; and
- the service providers who created the crypto-to-dollars payment system — TravelbyBit and Living Room of Satoshi — are both Australian based, located in Queensland, and operate under Australian Financial Services Licences, which instills local trust and market confidence.
“If people can pay for their flights, holidays, restaurant meals, gym memberships or car payments with crypto, then why shouldn’t I accept crypto payments for our company’s services. Let’s jump in!”
Crypto-to-AUD-Cash Payment System
Assurance Finance & Business Solutions’ and Wealth Coaching’s customers can now pay for all their services using Bitcoin, Litecoin, Lightning, Ethereum or Binance Coin.
How the payment system works is very simple (ref images at left).
Step1: The customer chooses the currency they want to pay in — in this case it’s Bitcoin.
Step 2: AFBS inputs the amount to pay — $500 AUD — and clicks the blue “Pay Now” button.
Step 3: A QR code is generated which calculates the exact amount of Bitcoin the customer needs to send from their digital Bitcoin wallet to AFBS.
Step 4: The Bitcoin payment is instantaneously remitted to the businesses’ bank account in real-time at point-of-sale, taking only a few seconds. No longer than a regular Apple Pay, Google Pay or other EFT-POS transactions.
The Due Diligence Journey
Helia’s due diligence journey into the cryptocurrency sector started back in Oct 2013, when she first heard about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. “At that time Bitcoin was about $123 USD (for an entire coin), but I didn’t take it seriously,” she said. “A real example of a confused mind rejecting a new idea!”
Helia’s personal research started with following the blockchain news involving government initiatives to improve the accuracy and security of citizens’ information they hold. She discovered …
“The science behind blockchain is highly sophisticated and intelligent. Once data records are held on the blockchain, they can never be edited, removed, or deleted. Transaction facts are indelibly recorded.”
“However whether the federal bank will fully accept cryptocurrencies similarly to FIAT currencies is very unlikely at this stage”, thinks Helia.
Helia’s research also revealed that the transmission of any form of money, even a digital currency, without involving a centralized third party (like a bank or other financial institution) eliminates hefty transaction costs. Furthermore, the use of highly evolved encryption technology within innovative desktop, mobile phone, and cold storage digital wallets was compelling evidence to her that cryptocurrency holders could at least safely store their digital currencies.
Hint of Regret
During the interview, I detected a hint of regret in Helia’s recollection, “If only I’d invested $1,000 USD back in 2013 to buy 8 Bitcoins (at $123 a piece), things would be financially buzzing right now! Those 8 Bitcoins would have skyrocketed to a historical all-time high of $19,700 USD each in December 2017. My Bitcoin portfolio would have been valued at $160,162 USD.
If that investment had happened, it would be revalued today at $53,600 USD, despite a massive drop-off in current price to $6,700 USD per Bitcoin! That’s a return on investment of nearly 52 times within only 9 short years!”
Future of Money
Of the future, Helia’s view of crypto is cautiously optimistic. “I am not expecting fiat currencies to be replaced entirely by cryptocurrencies. However, I can see more and more companies and businesses in the world onboarding into this ecosystem. It makes good economic sense to get educated on how this sector works. I think it’s here to stay!”
In the wisdom of Yuval Noah Harari, Israeli historian and professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and author of the popular science bestsellers Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, he gives the following definition for money that fittingly summarises the crypto economy.
Money is not coin and banknotes. Money is anything that people are willing to use in order to represent systematically the value of other things for the purpose of exchanging goods and services.
— Sapiens (2011) by Yuval Noah Harari
Published at Mon, 02 Dec 2019 04:10:32 +0000
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