Canada in the Bitcoin Spotlight

Recently, the great white north has been making headlines in the bitcoin sphere. It seems that overall, bitcoin and blockchain acceptance is on the rise in Canada, and both the people and government entities are embracing both as possible solutions to unique problems. At the state and business levels, the Bank of Canada together with the Royal Bank of Canada – RBC – and the Canadian Payments Association, announced that they were experimenting with a digital currency they call CAD-COIN. On the private level, citizens have launched a petition for Walmart Canada to accept bitcoin in lieu of Visa card payments, which the retail giant announced it will phase out due to high fees.

Payments and Convenience Leading the Way

While other countries are experimenting with blockchain and bitcoin in different realms, it seems that Canada is looking towards digital currency and FinTech as a way to improve payment methods at various levels. In the case of the Bank of Canada blockchain experiment, according to the official comments on the endeavor obtained by Forbes, the bank and other partners are trying to create an experimental distributive ledger for a wholesale interbank payment system.

The case of Walmart Canada is quite different. Walmart and Visa couldn’t agree on a favorable payment fee rates for both parties, so Walmart decided to suspend Visa payments. Visa however, is the biggest credit card company in the world and has a lot of customers in Canada, who would have to pay cash or acquire another kind of card if they want to keep shopping at Walmart in Canada. One of these customers decided to solve the fee problem for Walmart, by suggesting low fee bitcoin payments.

Great Ideas, in Theory…

The idea to enable bitcoin payments at Walmart is a very logical idea. It defeats Walmart’s argument about fees, and it gives Walmart customers a chance to pay without carrying cash around and without acquiring an additional credit card. This is one of the great advantages that bitcoin’s creator(s) had in mind, to lower fees by getting rid of the middleman. Both Walmart and its customers have a lot to gain from it, but it is unlikely to succeed.

CAD-COIN is a Great Idea, in Practice!

Where the Walmart initiative may fall short because of corporate skepticism, the Bank of Canada idea may succeed because of pragmatism. After all, it is an experiment that would save the big banks a lot of money in terms of accounting and payment settlement time. This is clearly not what Nakamoto had in mind when he (they) invented bitcoin, but blockchain technology is a huge boon for the banks in any case, so they will use it more and more in the future. This could serve to strengthen the middleman, as opposed to the Walmart petition, so hopefully the experiment will succeed and its benefits will reach the average citizen. As far as the Walmart petition goes, it would be a great victory for Walmart and its customers if it succeeded as well. Hopefully it will.

Click here to sign the petition for Walmart Canada to accept bitcoin payments.

Click here to read the Bank of Canada statement on CAD-COIN.