St Moritz will be the first swiss ski resort to accept Bitcoin

6 years ago - Published in Fintech Land

Legendary Swiss ski resort St. Moritz has announced on Thursday that they will begin accepting Bitcoin payments for lift passes. The 2017/18 season that has just begun will be the first in which the payment method is trialled.

According to Swiss public television, SRF, and the newspaper Südostschweiz, Engadin St Moritz is the first Swiss lift company to recognise payments with cryptocurrencies.

Company director Markus Meili told Südostschweiz he wasn’t worried about the Bitcoin bubble bursting – despite its value surging from $1,000 (CHF990) at the beginning of the year to above $17,000 earlier this month.

In a subtle jive against the European single currency which the resort also accepts, he explained their position to local newspaper Südostschweiz: “We also have to accept the euro, regardless of the exchange rate… We have to keep up with the times, especially when it comes to digitilisation.”

The news that skiers and snowboarders will be able to use cryptocurrencies to buy their lift passes in St. Moritz is likely in response to the sudden influx of cryptocurrency investors that will be visiting the resort this January. Whilst it’s the Crypto Finance Conference that has drawn them to the mountain town rather than its world class alpine sports facilities, it’d be rude not to take in a few runs on some of the planet’s most famous slopes – particularly when the option to pay in cryptocurrency is presented.

The conference will draw investors from all corners of the globe for a three day meet up of talks and presentations. Topics on the agenda include regulation, societal implications of cryptocurrencies, and investment opportunities. Speakers have been selected from a vast spread of industry professionals and thought leaders. The likes of Jon Matonis of the Bitcoin Foundation, and Bobby Lee of BTCC will be amongst those presenting to the audience of investors interested in the field of Blockchain technology.

There will also be workshops dedicated to understanding more technical aspects of the cryptocurrency space. These will include topics on forks, ICOs, and general understanding of blockchain technology.

In September, the southern Swiss town of Chiasso announced it would accept Bitcoins as payment for tax bills up to CHF250, and in the same month, a fast food sausage company put Bitcoins on the list of payment methods alongside cash and debit and credit cards.