When you first look at this image, especially if you have never seen it before, the first thing that comes to mind is that of a cathedral. That is exactly what I thought this picture taken was. Much to my surprise it isn’t a church, and while I was discovering how on earth people would get to it, the images of small boats emerged, and then I thought about how great of an experience it would be to witness a live sermon at a place like this.
But much to my surprise, this is an image representing an actual castle. It feels like a long-time, but the castle actually stems back to the year 1011. It was a gift from Emperor Henry II to the Bishop of Brixen (Wikipedia, 2011). I must admit the image is breathtaking, and much more appealing is the fact that Slovenia has become the first country in the world to be an official cryptocurrency hub. A cryptocurrency millionaire initiated the city in an old warehouse in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital (Drolc, T., 2018). With just a couple of years since its initiation, the project has been a continuous success as more than 300 stores in Slovenia now accept some form of cryptocurrency as a method of payment (Blenkinsop, C., 2019).
I certainly do not know about you, but the idea of mining cryptocurrency at home, and then going shopping after paying for basic necessities sounds like living out the dream cliché, “heaven on earth.” Fortunately, that can be done anywhere in the world, moving to Slovenia is not a requirement, that is if you don’t mine converting into fiat currency back-and-forth when the need arises. Of course if you want to experience the full crypto world, Slovenia is the place to migrate, so long as you can speak Slovene, and obtain a work permit.
Now let us talk business, Eligma, is the company that implemented Elipay, which allows for the businesses to receive payment for transactions in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether and Eli Token (Mizrahi, A., 2019). What has started as an experiment in Slovenia particularly in the capital, Ljubljana is slowly spreading to Croatia, and is only a matter of time, before payments can be made with crypto for goods and services all across Europe. It is highly probable that companies will start offering staggering discounts in order to successfully implement crypto payment in their stores. There are many positive reasons for those serious about living in Slovenia, for example, there is no taxation for individuals for having a means of earning a living related to the cryptocurrency industry.
What began as an experiment at Bitcoin City couldn’t be kept quarantine, and at the time of writing Eligma has worked to obtain its services rendered by more than 900 localities both in brick-and-mortar stores, as well as online shopping sites. The ambitious project that began as a testing lab, is expanding ambitiously, as more and more stores are accepting crypto as a form of payment within Slovenia, Croatia and Switzerland. An easy search at the latest articles posted by Eligma.com can reveal what they are up to. In the meantime one can marvel at how cryptocurrency is changing the world to enable a more financially free-world in the decentralize realm. Since Slovenia depends highly on tourism for it’s GDP, one of the best implementation of cryptocurrency as a form of payment, has definitely been in the grocery shopping sphere (Peshkar, P., 2019).
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Resources
Bled Culture Institute. 2008. Bled Castle. Wikipedia.org. Retrieved on May 22, 2011. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bled_Castle.
Blenkinsop, C., January 25, 2019. Cointelegraph. Shopping with Crypto: More Than 240 Locations in Slovenia Accept Payment Via New App. https://cointelegraph.com/news/shopping-with-crypto-more-than-240-locations-in-slovenia-accept-payment-via-new-app
Drolc, T. July 04, 2018. The Slovenia Times. From BTC City Ljubljana to the first Bitcoin City in the world. http://www.sloveniatimes.com/from-btc-city-ljubljana-to-the-first-bitcoin-city-in-the-world
Mizrahi, A., June 16, 2019. What Makes Slovenia a Cryptocurrency Leader — Bitcoin.com Mini-Documentary. https://news.bitcoin.com/what-makes-slovenia-a-cryptocurrency-adoption-leader-bitcoin-com-mini-documentary/
Peshkar, P., June 11, 2019. Tron Weekly. Bitcoin Cash now accepted at ELIPAY, leading supermarket chain in Slovenia. https://www.tronweekly.com/bitcoin-cash-bch-now-accepted-at-elipay-slovenia-supermarket-chain/