The debate on whether the sport that uses feet should be known as Soccer or Football has been the subject of debate across the globe for many decades. The Americans have been accused of butchering the sport by calling it Soccer and branding their own NFL as football whereas they hardly use their feet.
However, such arguments and feuds will have to undergo a temporary truce during the 2018 FIFA World Cup that is being hosted by Russia. The truce will be possible due to the news coming in that cryptocurrencies payments will be accepted as payments for accommodation during the matches scheduled in one city known as Kaliningrad. In particular: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP) and other coins supported by the Free Kassa Wallet.
The announcement was made by Buying Business Travel -Russia. In the announcement, it was reported that fans who will attend the World Cup in the city of Kaliningrad, will have the opportunity of paying for their accommodation using cryptocurrencies at the Apartments Malina chain of apartments present in the city. This will be made possible using the aforementioned Free Kassa system.
Kaliningrad is the westernmost regional center of Russia and will host matches that involve the national teams of Spain, Belgium, Serbia, England, Switzerland, Croatia, Morocco and Nigeria. The matches in the city will be played between June 16th and June 28th during the group stages of the tournament. To note is that all of these countries have very active cryptocurrency trading communities hence making it a good move by the city and the apartments chain to accept cryptocurrencies.
Anna Subbotina, manager of Apartments Malina, is quoted as saying:
“Crypto-currencies are now enjoying increased interest. Gradually they will come into use as a means of payment. And we decided that the fans should be able to pay for our services with the help of this innovative technology. It may very well be that other hotels awaiting our example for the forthcoming football holiday.”
With respect to Free Kassa, the website and wallet accepts Crypto, Visa, Mastercard and various forms of electronic transactions. It supports the 4 major cryptocurrencies earlier mentioned and Dogecoin (DOGE), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bytepay (BAY), Dash (DASH), Emercoin (EMC), Monero (XMR), Peercoin (PPC), Primecoin (XPM), Reddcoin (RDD) and Zcash (ZCASH). This makes it a very efficient payment platforms.
Vitaly Lavrov, development director of Free-Kassa, was noted as saying the following about the announcement of crypto being accepted in Kaliningrad:
“For us, this is an interesting experience – we did not have to cooperate with hotels and hotels in such a format. But the hospitality industry is very sensitive to such trends.”
What now is a possibility – with fingers crossed- is the acceptance of Cryptocurrency in other host cities in Russia, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. Such a move would further cement the place of cryptocurrencies in regular transactions of trading of goods and services. This will informally validate them as legal tender in Russia. The country is currently awaiting final legislation on a way forward regarding crypto.
Russia is pro-regulation with respect to cryptocurrencies.
The World Cup offers the country a platform to showcase its technological advancements, tourist attractions, football prowess (Russia is currently ranked #63 by FIFA), wonderful stadiums and the country’s ability to host such a large tournament with an expected attendance of over 1 million international fans during the event.
[Photo source, www.applancer.com]
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