Users of the public transportation system in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza, capital of the state of Ceará, will soon be able to buy transportation tickets using bitcoin.
The news was spread by the Brazilian media ‘Jornal do Povo’, who quoted the Ceará Cooperative of Autonomous Passenger Transporters (COOTRAPS).
The Fortaleza public transport system accepts Bitcoin payments
BTC payment support will be implemented in the city’s autonomous ticket issuance application before the end of 2019, which will allow travelers to pay with BTC by scanning a QR code, which is then scanned on devices located in vehicles. In addition to BTC, transportation tickets can be purchased with debit cards, credit cards or frequent flyer programs.
COOTRAPS also indicated that the city is deliberating on whether to accept payments in the form of other cryptocurrencies in the future, however, it did not specify which alternative cryptocurrencies are under consideration.
The initiative aims to attract more users and reduce costs, with the COOTRAPS financial director, Carlos.Robério, who states:
THIS IS A WAY TO REDUCE BUREAUCRACY, EVEN TO BRING MORE USERS TO TRANSPORT. WE EXPECT A GREATER FLOW OF PEOPLE, WE WILL MAKE IT EASIER FOR THE USER.
Brazilian interest in Bitcoin gains momentum
Bitcoin has increasingly permeated news headlines in Brazil in recent days, and Paulo Skaf, president of the Brazilian trade association Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP), predicts that the country’s new tax regime will make the citizens use virtual currencies to evade taxes.
Speaking to the local Folha newspaper in São Paulo, Skaf said the new tax regime “will naturally lead to a migration to other forms of payment, such as cryptocurrencies. It will be unfair: those who trade with cryptocurrencies do not pay, and those who trade with reals will pay «.
On July 19, Luiz Philippe de Orleans-Braganza, a descendant of the former Brazilian royal family and federal deputy in the National Congress of Brazil, ruled against cryptocurrency norms during a congressional commission.
“Good regulation comes from consumer demand for something for which he felt injured and demands state protection,” he said , adding: “I question this adventure of wanting to regulate something that consumers and businesses organized to receive Bitcoin do not have. demand.”
