Agnes Water, a beach town situated five hours north of Brisbane International Airport in Australia is preparing for a new wave of international tourists after it was confirmed as the first cryptocurrency town in Australia.
Its new title is earned by having Australia’s highest concentration of stores that accept cryptocurrency. Although with a population of just slightly over 2,000, the coastal hamlet only needed a few shopkeepers on board to earn the title. 31 local businesses now accept cryptocurrency payments in Agnes Water, including resorts, backpackers, tour companies, restaurants, the local pub.
It all began when a client of local real estate agent Gordon Christian asked him how to process a bitcoin transaction, and he found himself unable to answer. However, his interest peaked after discovering that a number of businesses had announced that they would accept cryptocurrency payments at Brisbane Airport.
Mr. Christian said,
“I thought, ‘This is something worth having a look at’. We started from the ground up, shared it with a couple of businesses and they were straight on board […] I guess they were international travelers themselves and had heard of these types of payments. Initially, we had a good 10 businesses that just said, ‘Fine — let’s go for it’.”
The idea spread from there, and eventually the town had a solid plan around the idea of becoming a digital currency destination.
“The town has made a very strategic move in trying to appeal to a niche market to take perhaps some of those tourists … to come out to their little part of the woods,” Christian said.
Agnes Water’s support for cryptocurrencies has been aided by the services of Travelbybit Australia. Caleb Yeoh, the chief executive of Travelbybit, was approached by Mr. Christian in November after the realtor became aware of the company’s roll-out of its point-of-sale app facilitating cryptocurrency payments at the Brisbane Airport. Mr. Yeoh stated,
“If you travel around the world you have to deal with multiple currencies, the exchange rate can be confusing, sometimes you struggle to find ATMs, and sometimes you get swindled by money changers […] Travelling with on global currency like bitcoin […] makes sense.”
“The town has made a very strategic move in trying to appeal to a niche market to take perhaps some of those tourists … to come out to their little part of the woods. People who use cryptocurrency … it’s a social movement and they believe in it, and therefore they support places … who take it. So they would come to a place like this just because it takes digital currency.”
Last week, Brisbane was earlier too in the crypto news headlines when the Port of Brisbane is set to become the first Australian port to use blockchain technology in the supply chain system.
The project, which is a product of years of work between the operators PwC Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Port of Brisbane, creating the new Trade Community System.
Read more: Port of Brisbane Adopts Australia’s First Blockchain Supply Chain System
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