With every passing week, it feels as if more and more companies are starting to accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method. In what is being seen as a huge boost to the adoption of Bitcoin, AT&T has teamed up with BitPay to allow customers to pay their bills with BTC.
AT&T customers can start paying in Bitcoin immediately by logging into the myAT&T app and selecting Bitcoin as the payment method. Unfortunately, AT&T is automatically converting the Bitcoin into fiat through the BitPay payment processor, but it still allows users to pay using Bitcoin, so we’re counting that as a win.
Huge Boost for Bitcoin
Over the past couple of weeks, Bitcoin has received a huge boost from companies moving to accept it. AT&T has become the first telecoms company in the world to start accepting Bitcoin, and it certainly won’t be the last. In fact, Whole Foods recently teamed up with Flexa and Gemini to start taking crypto payments.
Flexa and Gemini allow merchants to tweak their existing POS machines to generate and display a QR code that can be scanned by a crypto wallet, enabling merchants to start accepting various cryptos for goods and services. With this quick and easy to use system, there is no doubt that more companies will move to accept crypto in the coming months.
AT&T Suffering a Crypto Meltdown
Unfortunately, the crypto world hasn’t been kind to AT&T in the past. During 2017 and 2018, Michael Terpin was allegedly targeted by sim swappers, causing him to lose $24 million worth of cryptocurrency. Terpin proceeded to sue AT&T after it emerged that AT&T members of staff were colluding with cyber criminals to facilitate swim swapping attacks. The court ruled in favor of Terpin, awarding him $75.8 million in punitive damages. This isn’t the start AT&T really wanted as it entered the digital currency, but it comes as no surprise. Sim swapping is rife in the crypto world, and criminals will often pay off workers from telecoms companies to assist them with the attacks.
Despite the negative outcome of the lawsuit with Terpin and allegations of AT&T employees facilitating sim swapping attacks, the fact that AT&T is moving forward to accept crypto is great news. By allowing users to pay for their data, SMS, and general bills using the leading cryptocurrency, AT&T is directly helping to increase mass adoption throughout the US.
