Rakuten teases crypto payments on mobile app

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The company informally known as “Japan’s Amazon” looks to be making a big new crypto addition to their mobile app. Information gathered from their 2018 earnings release presentation indicates that the Rakuten Pay mobile app will be getting crypto payments as soon as March 18, 2019.

The presentation indicates that the payment app will now offer “all payment solutions embedded into one platform.” They don’t come right out and say that cryptocurrencies will be part of that, but by looking at their portfolio of companies, we can make that deduction.

Rakuten purchased the crypto exchange Everybody’s Bitcoin for $2.3 million in 2018. At the time, they cited the buyout as a method to provide cryptocurrency payments to their customers in a smooth fashion.

In January, they effectively merged that service in their corporate structure with Rakuten Edy, a prepaid card service. In this 2018 earnings release, they name Rakuten Edy as one of the payment options that will now be available in their mobile app, which speculation leads one to believe they will be introducing crypto payments to their mobile offering.

Everbody’s Bitcoin offers pairs for Bitcoin Core (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Bitcoin Cash (BCHABC). Their website also indicates that they will make further announcements in the future regarding adding Bitcoin SV (BSV).

This news adds another practical use for cryptocurrencies in the Japanese market. It’s very important that cryptocurrencies be seen not just as an investment, but as a practical digital currency, with purposeful uses.

This news comes on the heels of Huobi announcing their support for BSV in the Japanese market. Assuming BSV support is just around the corner at Everybody’s Wallet, crypto fans in Japan will now have an end to end path of purchasing BSV, storing it safely in a Huobi wallet, and then using it to purchase goods on Rakuten’s mobile app.

For Japanese fans of BSV, the only currency to follow Satoshi’s original vision, that’s a dream. Using all the apps listed above, they can enjoy the benefits of fast, secure transactions, and never worry about the congestion of the BTC network, as BSV will massively scale on chain to meet their needs.

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