In the little city of Mannheim, located in the southwest of Germany we see the development of a new initiative that could potentially transform its entire trade infrastructure and redefine its status to become a world-renowned ‘Cryptocity’.
We will look more into the development regarding this topic in the sections below.
What is a Cryptocity?
A ‘Cryptocity’, by the commonly accepted definition, is a landmark that has been successful in implementing the idea of integration of cryptocurrencies into its daily operations.
Thus Cryptocity is an area that essentially has its economic foundation built up with the backing of various blockchain technology tokens.
We will look more into how the little-known city of Mannheim aspires to transform itself into such a stature in the next section.
Mannheim and its partnership with the cryptocurrency ecosystem
The new initiative to transform the city of Mannheim into a Cryptocity has been undertaken with the help of the Layer-1 payment blockchain Nimiq.
Under the new initiative, we have already seen over 22 different stores adopt this new notion by choosing to accept cryptocurrency payments.
The list of merchants who have agreed to accept cryptocurrency payments included various supermarkets, restaurants, and other global brands like the fast-food giant Burger King and the footwear brand Footlocker.
To make the transactions smoother and to avoid further legal and taxation hurdles Nimiq has facilitated a way for the merchants to accept the payment in various crypto tokens and the equivalent amount to be received in euros into their bank accounts.
The potential of the new venture
With the setup of this new venture, Nimaq currently aims to attract the attention and financial support of nearly 6.9 million cryptocurrency holders in Germany along with an ambitious plan of attracting the business of yet another 20 to 30 million crypto owners from nearby European countries.
The new project has gained a lot of support at both the individual level as well as from various companies that exist in the cryptocurrency market such as OPAGO, which has allowed the 22 stores in Mannheim city to use their point of sale app to generate a QR code which customers can scan to send Bitcoins at a faster pace.
The group behind Cryptocity seems to be closing nearer to their initial goal of letting cryptocurrency be used as their primary choice of payment through support from similar crypto projects.
The soon-to-be Cryptocity has also attracted a lot of interest from companies like Nexi, which operates as one of the largest Paytech ventures, and Bluecode, a company that focuses on developing barcodes that enable mobile-based payments through the point-of-sale method.
Now that we have talked about the details and commented on the potential of the new venture let us now look at what the wider impact of such initiatives is in the future.
What is the wider impact of such new initiatives?
We have seen similar initiatives taken all around the world such as the case of the cryptocity in El Salvador, a crypto hub in the Tooting market in the UK and even the bitcoin-based economy that is rumored to be built in the Nevada city called ‘smart city’.
Another one of the interesting projects that have gained popularity over the years is the one that is being developed by the popular pop artist and singer Akon, who seems to have a dream of setting up a $6 billion dollar worth cryptocity in his self-described hometown of Senegal that he envisions to be looked at as the real-life, tech-driven ‘Wakanda’, the fictional high tech city in the Black Panther comics and film series.
The idea of a cryptocity seems to have gained popularity and wider acceptance throughout the years and will most likely continue to get increased and wider acceptance from the side of the cryptocurrency holders as well as crypto-based projects.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, It is essential that we keep an open mind to the newer developments such as the ones that happen in the current cryptocurrency ecosystem, and try to support and promote the integration of such initiatives for its wider real-world application.
This could most likely be the key to stepping into the next phase of the new world’s economic system which could potentially become the perfect way to utilize each of our resources financial or otherwise in the most advantageous way possible.
