Altcoin News: Hong Kong Protests Lead to the Wider Adoption of Bitcoin
August 28, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
Businesses are pushing for the introduction of cryptocurrencies as the anti-Chinese interference in Hong Kong goes into its twelfth week.
Hong Kong-based department store Pricerite announced Monday on facebook that it will now accept Bitcoin, Ether and Litecoin in all its stores.
From now on, the new concept store in the popular MegaBox shopping center in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong, will convert real-time cash payments into Hong Kong dollars (HKD) at the coffers. With Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, Pricerite can do that in seconds.
Bitcoin Cash has also become popular with protesters, and steps are being taken to further promote the cryptocurrency and support dissidents.
Genesis Block operates 14 crypto-currency vending machines in Hong Kong under the name “CoinHere”. In July, the ATM operator distributed water, which was paid for with international donations in Bitcoin cash.
The rise in interest in cryptocurrencies is in the background of other forms of economic activism. Earlier this month, demonstrators launched an action to withdraw as much money as possible from their bank accounts or convert their national currency into US dollars.
This had a dual purpose in serving both the preventive protection of their personal assets and sending a sharp warning to the Chinese authorities.
Since 1983, the Hong Kong dollar has a linked exchange rate system, which links it to the US dollar at a ratio of 7.8 to 1. But crypto companies are keen to raise awareness that digital money could be an even better alternative to the threat of devaluation should it come to a military crackdown on the mainland at worst.
However, Hong Kong’s exchange rates are also subject to cryptocurrency premiums, which are common in times of economic oppression, as recently observed in Argentina. As Bitcoin demand increases, the price on the local crypto exchanges may be inflated, a phenomenon that has become known in South Korea as the “kimchi premium.”
Author: Marko Vidrih
