Bitcoin vs Banking [infographic]
The Japanese retail giant Rakuten might start accepting Bitcoin soon, according to an announcement made this Monday (14th) by the company’s CEO, Hiroshi Mikitani.
According to the newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, Mikitani said that his company will probably accept Bitcoin “sooner or later”. Rakuten owns Japan’s biggest and most important online retail group, working with a network composed of more than 40 businesses and brands.
The group is considered one of the biggest and most powerful brands in the world, as well as a global competitor to Amazon.com. Besides, the company also manages its own bank, Coindesk reports, which could open numerous possibilities to the Bitcoin ecosystem.
During a recent session with merchants that work with the Rakuten online marketplace, Mikitani publicly said that “the Internet revolution is accelerating this year and I imagine that, sooner or later, Rakuten will start accepting money in the form of Bitcoin“.
The CEO, who founded the company back in 1997, highlighted the fact that a few “countries with unstable economies are able to achieve greater security [with Bitcoin] versus their own currencies”, proving the enormous potential of the cryptocurrency.
If the announcement becomes real, Rakuten’s new digital payment option might seriously boost general Bitcoin adoption in Japan, where the process has been surprisingly slow.
Images from Wikimedia
