French City Allows Public Transport Passengers To Pay For Rides In Bitcoin
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The French city of Toulouse recently made headlines by becoming the first city to enable its citizens to pay for public transport using Bitcoin. This does not only make it the first city to do so in France, but in the entire Europe.
The move was possible thanks to the local public transit operator Tisseo, which rolled out a new system allowing public transport passengers to pay for Metro, bus, cable card, and tram tickets using a host of different digital currencies.
Users can now purchase their tickets using Android devices, while a third-party provider converts their digital coins into euros. While many have started using the new system to pay for transport with crypto, others are not too keen to take this advantage.
One sixty-year-old Patrice stated that the move seems like a false modernity, adding that cryptos may be good for investing, but their usefulness in paying small amounts is still being brought into question.
The Debate Of Using Crypto In Everyday Payments Emerges In France
With the new system, travellers are allowed to buy single tickets and multi-ride passes with BTC, ETH, and several other supported cryptos. The decision was made as part of a broader digital transformation strategy that aims to modernize the local transport system.
The initiative also aligns with the current efforts to further explore blockchain-based solutions for public services, but it marks the first instance of any European city implementing this technology into a transit payment system.
Tisseo’s Head of Finance Sacha Briand, also commented on the development, noting that the initiative is a new step towards innovative mobility and easier access to transport for users. The city expects that tech-savvy commuters will accept the initiative, but there are also ongoing discussions about the broader adoption of crypto for everyday transactions.
This might also be a consequence of the US becoming crypto-friendly under Trump, which now sparked interest among many other governments who seek to become leaders in the new age of financial evolution.
For now, the initiative aligns with the growing acceptance of crypto assets across France, which was established last year when the Gemini study found that nearly one in five French residents held cryptocurrency.
