Crypto Pay Venture Predicts Indonesia Crypto Turnaround in Three Years
Indonesia could be on the verge of welcoming in widespread crypto pay solutions at retail outlets across the country – despite the central bank’s vehement opposition to cryptocurrencies. One company says it predicts the central bank, Bank Indonesia, will reverse its anti-crypto stance by 2021.
In January, Bank Indonesia issued a public warning telling citizens to steer clear of crypto trading and underlining its assertion that cryptocurrencies are “not legitimate instruments of payment.”
But per a report in the South China Morning Post, Pundi X, developer of a point-of-sale (POS) crypto-pay device, says its lawyers believe the central bank will “renounce its current opposition to cryptocurrencies in as soon as three years.”
Pundi X claims it has “signed up more than 100,000 registered users and over 600 merchant partners in Jakarta in less than a year of operation.”
The media outlet says the company is targeting Indonesia in particular, as some 80% of the country’s population is unbanked – meaning they have no access to electronic pay in any form. Pundi X hopes that its system will lure anyone interested in electronic pay to choose its own blockchain-powered solutions.
Late last week the company announced it would also begin promoting POS solutions in association with the American Chamber of Commerce in South Korea. The company is likely looking for a new foothold in the country after its partner, the South Korean exchange Coinnest, was hit with a major police investigation recently, with its CEO and one other senior executive arrested and charged with fraud and embezzlement.
