South Korean Beachgoers Can Now Use Bitcoin to Pay for Services

Published at: Aug. 9, 2020

A pilot project run by Bitbeat-affiliate company CIC Enterprise wants to provide crypto payment solutions at two of the busiest beaches of the country for tourists to use.

According to ZDNet Korea, the firm partnered with card and cash payments provider Innotech for the token-powered payments solution in the Haeundae Beach System on the beaches of Busan in South Korea famous with tourists.

The program will allow people to pay for water sports-related activities, life jackets, and even parasol rentals, among others, with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), along with MCI and WAY ERC20 tokens through a smartphone-based application.

A faster payment solution for tourists

Bitbeat said that such payments could be processed in less than 10 seconds by relying on the use of QR codes for any wallet in the world, making it different from similar projects that often require customers to download separate apps to complete all the process.

The company adds:

“We hope that the virtual currency used in the Haeundae-gu beach system will be more widely used in real life. We will try to provide a cryptocurrency payment environment.”

Busan authorities expect that on summer days, people will prefer to rent services within the Haeundae beaches, instead of bringing their own things to enjoy the time spent on the beaches. Another beach in Songjeong is also running a similar crypto pay pilot.

Also, in Busan, a private-public consortium in South Korea announced on June 20 their intention to build a blockchain-powered medical tourism platform. A launch date has not bet set, and according to Gyeongnam Ilbo, the initiative will be led by Busan Bank.

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