You'd think it would be easy to spend cryptocurrency at a blockchain conference. But food truck vendors and merchandise sellers have only relatively recently transitioned from cash-only to debit and credit transactions. Crypto payments are a ways behind.
But event vendors at next week’s 2nd annual San Francisco Blockchain Week (SFBW)—a collection of events that includes the Crypto Economics Security Conference, Epicenter, a hackathon, and a career fair—now have a way of accepting cryptocurrency thanks to a partnership between Squarelink and Terra.
Squarelink’s signature application is Event Pass, a platform for cryptocurrency payments at conferences and festivals. Using Event Pass, SFBW organizers will be able to set up point-of-sale terminals for merchants and distribute wallets to conference-goers, who can then fund them via the Terra payment network. Terra is a blockchain payments network with its own cryptocurrency pegged to a handful of other stablecoins and stabilized by a secondary currency, LUNA.
The arrangement was sanctioned by San Francisco Blockchain Week organizers, who want attendees to be able to put their money where their mouth is.
“We’re excited to take steps to involve our vendors in the cryptocurrency experience and continue to drive mainstream adoption,” event organizer Ronen Kirsh said today in a statement.
The payment option builds off the momentum set by this year’s ETHDenver, which developer Austin Griffith called “the biggest pop-up economy powered by crypto in history.” Participants there used a burner wallet running on the xDAI network. Griffith reported that, during the event, 11 food trucks took in over $38,000 in DAI with total transaction costs at just $0.20.
San Francisco Blockchain Week is taking a more formal approach with the Event Pass solution, though adoption by vendors is still optional. So don’t be surprised if that taco truck on Mission Street prefers cash.
But with over 5,000 people expected to attend next week, chances are someone will happily take your stablecoin.