Study: Switzerland Has ‘the Most Profitable Bitcoin Traders’ Worldwide, While France ‘Is the Best Bitcoin Trading Nation’

April 20, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Not taking the time to learn about BTC is ‘Europe’s biggest risk,’ says Belgian MP

February 16, 2022 Coin Telegraph

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The Brussels Minister who puts his entire €5,500 salary into Bitcoin on the first of every month sat down with Cointelegraph to discuss Bitcoin.

Christophe De Beukelaer is the first European politician to convert his entire salary to Bitcoin. He kicked off 2022 with the bold move, hoping to raise awareness about Bitcoin and alternative monetary models, financial education and to get people talking.

De Beukelaer first got into Bitcoin and blockchain in 2017, and foresees a future in which Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies play a role as a “counterpart to the traditional financial world.” He gave an interview to Cointelegraph to delve deeper into his vision for Bitcoin and his motivations behind being paid in Bitcoin (BTC).

When asked about how long it took to get to grips with Bitcoin and “go down the rabbit hole,” De Beukelaer said that not taking the time to learn about the protocol is

“One of the biggest risks we have in Europe for the moment.” He explained:

“The political people don't take time for this journey. They are very busy with the day to day administrations of the cities and the countries, but they don't stop and say, OK, what's happening now? What are the big evolutions coming in the next 10, 20, 50 years? And that's the job.”

The 34 year old Brussels Minister conceded that the lack of awareness surrounding the cryptocurrency and Bitcoin space is a “big problem,” and that if Europe doesn’t get its hands dirty with the cryptocurrency space then “Asian the US will decide everything.”

In his view, being paid in Bitcoin is an excellent way of raising awareness about the space and as a professional European official, the act brings another layer of credibility to the space.

When pushed on a Bitcoin price prediction for 2022, he masterfully dodged the question, joking that 2022 would provide “an incredible performance.”

Belgian MP to Receive Entire Salary in Bitcoin — Says Crypto Adoption Will Be ‘Exponential’

January 29, 2022 Bitcoin.com

NFTs to help brewers and farmers preserve UNESCO Belgian beer heritage

January 1, 2022 Coin Telegraph

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As a part of the partnership, Zeromint will mint and offer exclusive NFTs on the GoChain blockchain, which will be made available for international beer fans via BBA.

Brewers and farmers from Belgian Barrels Alliance (BBA) have partnered with Zeromint to offer nonfungible tokens (NFTs) aimed at preserving the UNESCO recognized Belgian beer culture and heritage.

As a part of the partnership, Zeromint will mint and offer exclusive NFTs on the GoChain blockchain, which will be made available for international beer fans via BBA. Starting today, the organization will run several BBA NFT collection projects around sustainability and the preservation of Belgian beer heritage for the next 14 days.

According to the official statement, the first Belgian Barrels NFT auction will be used to recruit 11 participants for acting in a BBA-produced movie titled Belgian Barrels:

“The aim of the movie project is to further eternalize the Belgian Beer history through a professional cinematic movie production, which BBA plans to promote and distribute globally.”

In addition, the NFT winners will join a whitelist VIP access to all BBA events and access to vintage beer menus and exclusive bottles at BBA clubs. “Eighty percent (80%) of the revenue generated from the NFT auction will go towards a local charity in Belgium,” the announcement stated. Tom De Block, Co-founder of the Belgian Barrels Alliance added:

“Belgian beer is not just beer. It is a rich and complex history about old families and true people that became legends. It is simply an honor to open some of their bottles and to tell their story.”

The Alliance also plans to launch NFTs initiatives to promote tree plantations and learn specialized artisan skills and traditions in addition to building engagement and reward opportunities for beer fans and enthusiasts.

British telco giant Vodafone announced plans to create an NFT of the world’s first Short Message Service (SMS) and auction the proceedings to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (the UN Refugee Agency).

The SMS, that reads “Merry Christmas,” was sent 29 years ago over the Vodafone network on Dec 3, 1992, to Richard Jarvis, an employee at the time.

As Cointelegraph reported, the historic 15 character-long SMS will be auctioned off in a one-off sale conducted by the Aguttes Auction House in France.

Belgian startup debuts Bitcoin payments for parking tickets

September 2, 2021 Coin Telegraph

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The company says it expects Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to come into greater everyday use, especially once tokens become more environmentally friendly.

Seety, a digital parking startup based in Belgium, has introduced crypto payment support for parking tickets.

According to a report by DataNews on Thursday, the company which is one of the firms bootstrapped by Belgian accelerator program Start it @KBC has rolled out a crypto payment feature in Antwerp and Brussels.

Seety users will from Thursday be able to use Bitcoin (BTC) to pay for parking tickets in locations across both cities.

Apart from Bitcoin, customers can also use crypto like Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Litecoin (LTC), as well as stablecoins like Dai (DAI) and USD Coin (USDC).

Customers looking to use crypto to pay for parking space will use the “coins” to buy Seety credits on the company’s app platform. According to the report, using crypto will not incur any additional fee on the part of the customer.

The Seety app reportedly has over 355,000 users in Belgium and the Netherlands and is aiming to achieve an annual turnover above 2 million euros by 2022.

For the company, using crypto to pay for parking space is indicative of how cryptocurrencies will eventually gain greater adoption in everyday microtransactions. Seety expects crypto adoption to grow once tokens become more environmentally friendly.

Using Bitcoin to pay for parking tickets goes as far back as 2014 with the defunct Brawker app. These days, crypto payment options for microtransactions are becoming increasingly popular even though significant hurdles still stand in the way of more broad-based penetration.

Crypto credit cards and stablecoins are also helping to simplify the process of spending cryptos while making it easier for merchants to onboard cryptocurrency payment options on their platforms.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Visa recently stated that its crypto-enabled cards had processed over $1 billion in crypto spending in the first half of 2021.

Anarchist Bar in Brussels Now Accepts Cryptocurrency

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Finder’s Poll Shows Vietnam Holds the Highest Percentage of Crypto Ownership Worldwide

August 15, 2021 Bitcoin.com

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