Citizens of the Brazilian city of Fortaleza will soon be able to pay for public transport using cryptocurrencies. For now there are only plans to accept Bitcoin. The local transportation agency Ceará Co-operative of Autonomous Passenger Transporters (COOTRAPS) announced these intentions in the Do Povo newspaper, as cited by the Brazilian department of Cointelegraph.
Fortaleza is the fifth biggest city in Brazil, and it has 2.7 registered citizens. Cootraps mainly operates city buses.
Support for payments in Bitcoin will be integrated into the city's ticketing application. Travelers will be able to pay with Bitcoin by scanning a QR code. This code will then by scanned by devices located in the transportation vehicles. Besides BTC, tickets can also be bought with debit cards, credit cards and credits from reward and promotion programs.
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.
Even though it's great to see a mainstream use case for cryptocurrencies, true adoption in Brazil will only happen when cities like Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro will adopt a similar crypto payment system for their public transit systems. The national railroad would also be a welcome addition.
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, while Japan's biggest railroad company is eyeing crypto payments as well.
Posted from my blog: https://www.nederob.nl/2019/07/30/brazilian-city-accepts-bitcoin-for-public-transport/