BCH merchant acceptance has continued to grow month after month but there are a few regions in the world where bitcoin cash retail acceptance is thriving. Over the last few weeks, North Queensland and Japan have shown significant growth and continue to dominate as some of the densest territories of BCH merchant adoption worldwide.
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Bitcoin Cash Is Spreading Throughout Japan and North Queensland
Both North Queensland and Japan are areas which have continued to see bitcoin cash (BCH) merchant adoption spread widely. The two regions are among the highest concentrations of BCH merchant acceptance in the world beside Slovenia (343 BCH merchants). Right now you can search these bitcoin cash hotspots using the application Marco Coino to find a specific type of merchant who accepts BCH for goods and services. More recently these areas have seen new developments, increased BCH merchant adoption, and local supporters spreading more ideas with the purpose of bolstering the BCH network effect.
Japan
The island country of Japan has seen a vast amount of merchant adoption throughout the region. So far, Japan has a total of 87 bitcoin cash accepting retailers strewn across the city of Tokyo and in other towns as well. Things really started heating up for cryptocurrencies in Japan when the country’s leaders revised the Payment Services Act, which officially legalized the use of digital currencies as a means of payment in April 2017. Right now, Japan is the third densest region of bitcoin cash accepting merchants.
For people traveling to Japan or those that live there, they can visit the website Bitcoin.jp to see a description of the many BCH retailers in the region. There are eating establishments and bars like Two Dogs Taproom, Pink Cow Akasaka, Daikanyama O’KOK, and Downtown B’s. Japan has BCH-accepting nightclubs like the Mezzo, V2, Ele, and Villa. You can buy luxury watches from one of many Yukizaki stores or get your hair done at the hair salon F.line. There’s also chiropractic services, co-working space, clinical therapy, legal services, and more. The website lists each BCH-accepting retailer via a variety of descriptors which detail what kind of goods and services the business offers.
The Bitcoin.jp website also has various links to educational resources about BCH so new visitors can learn about the protocol and how it works. It also shows visitors bitcoin cash compatible wallets like the Bitcoin.com Wallet, BRD, Edge, and Ginco. In addition to physical merchants accepting BCH, the website details a slew of online merchants and application services that can be used with BCH as well. The website is an insightful portal that promotes the educational aspects, spreading use cases, and most importantly retail adoption at the forefront of the movement.
The reason there are so many BCH merchants is due to the group of crypto supporters who reside in Japan and are prominent members of the Tokyo BCH meetup. There are approximately 1,430 members with many active participants meeting up regularly at some of the clubs or eateries mentioned above. On Thursday, August 1 the group’s members plan to celebrate the 2nd Year Bitcoin Cash Independence Day anniversary and there are already 128 attendees.
Hi all! Tokyo #BCH Meetup is working hard organizing #BitcoinCash‘s 2nd Year Anniversary party for Thurs Aug 1!😀 We have updated the details. Please rsvp from below link👍
A huge thanks to@BRDHQ and @BitcoinCom
for being the Platinum Sponsors!!✨https://t.co/t0o1XCNGs2 pic.twitter.com/HDPwcaF16v— Akane Yokoo (@YokooAkane) July 20, 2019
“This day represents a group of enthusiasts coming together to protect the original goals of what Bitcoin was created for,” explains the Tokyo BCH Meetup co-organizer Akane Yokoo. The celebration will be hosted at V2 Tokyo (Roppongi) from 7:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. and will feature a special presentation on the Avalanche protocol. Special guests will be speaking including Bitcoin.com’s Roger Ver, BRD CEO Adam Traidman, and Edge Wallet CEO Paul Puey.
North Queensland, Australia
At the moment the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland has approximately 132 bitcoin cash accepting retailers. A large portion of merchants according to Marco Coino data reside in Townsville, the biggest urban center in North Queensland (NQ). On June 17, news.Bitcoin.com spoke with Coinspice Chief Media Correspondent Hayden Otto about the massive amounts of adoption in NQ.
Otto said adoption started years ago and many of the people accepting BTC switched after the fork because “they were immune to Blockstream/Core narratives.” On Monday, Otto revealed he is giving away 100 BCH point-of-sale (PoS) devices to merchants who plan to accept the cryptocurrency prior to the Bitcoin Cash City conference. The 100 Lenovo E8 Android tablets will be given to retailers who decide to accept bitcoin cash and Otto thinks it’s a good idea to give merchants everything they need to get started. Merchants can use Android applications like Bitcoin.com’s free point-of-sale solution Bitcoin Cash Register to get started in no time.
“All of this was donated by the local merchant community of businesses who already accept bitcoin cash. These guys have seen an increase in sales in their businesses when they started accepting bitcoin cash. Now they are fully getting behind this effort to expand adoption in our region here before the conference,” Otto detailed in a recently uploaded video by the Coinspice.io news outlet.
The BCH-centric two day event coming to North Queensland, dubbed the Bitcoin Cash City conference, aims to unite the community in one of the most densely populated regions of BCH-accepting merchants. Prominent BCH community members, developers and executives like Tony Hockings, Akane Yokoo, Chris Pacia, Josh Ellithorpe, Vin Armani, Amaury Séchet, and Gabriel Cardona will be speaking.
Going All-in on BCH
As Otto and many of the other NQ-based BCH supporters have been relentlessly pushing adoption, Otto has been catching flak from maximalists and skeptics who are salty about a few restaurants near the Travelbybit company office, that went all-in on BCH and dropped BTC. On Twitter and Reddit a bunch of critics called Otto’s videos staged, so Reddit user u/fatalglory decided to verify Otto’s claims. Making a short film about the subject u/fatalglory detailed that Otto’s videos of merchants going all-in on bitcoin cash were indeed authentic.
“A while back, I posted here saying that I was going to verify Hayden’s claims about businesses in Fortitude Valley (a suburb in Brisbane, Australia) adopting BCH for payments,” explained the Reddit user on Monday. “Well, I did it — Turns out, Hayden is totally on the level — I bought a hotdog at 5 dogs, and some fried chicken at Balti Indian.” He added:
Bitcoin cash, the bitcoin that you can actually use!
Overall there’s been a lot of merchant acceptance in Japan and North Queensland, and the supporters who live in these areas aim to push the envelope further. At the 2nd Year Bitcoin Cash Independence Day anniversary in Tokyo and the Bitcoin Cash City conference participants will surely be celebrating the vast amounts of adoption. Stay tuned for our next BCH adoption analysis when we cover Slovenia and how the mountainous region has more than 300 BCH-accepting retailers in the country.
What do you think about the adoption happening in North Queensland and Japan? Let us know in the comments section below.
Image credits: Shutterstock, Twitter, Reddit, Marco Coino and Bitcoin.jp.
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