Bitcoin continues its path to mainstream acceptance this week after trading platform operator Coinberry revealed it is talking to a municipal council about providing cryptocurrency payment services.

Coinberry said in a press realease published on July 15, it had begun negotiations with the City of Richmond Hill council to provide a “robust cryptocurrency payment processing solution”. 

This followed an agreement earlier this month with the city council to provide an option for Richmond Hill residents and businesses to make property tax payments in bitcoin.

The city will not hold any deposits made in bitcoin itself, however. Here’s how it will work:

  • Residents and businesses will see a new payments option on the council website, allowing them to pay in bitcion – other cryptoasset options may be made available in the future
  • Payments will be made through access to the city’s digital wallet with Coinberry Pay
  • Coinberry will process the funds, which will be instantly converted to Canadian dollars and transferred to Richmond Hill’s bank account

Demand Will Grow

Richmond Hill deputy mayor Joe Di Paola said the council believed that demand for digital currency payment options is going to grow in the coming years.

Coinberry has previously partnered with the Ontario town of Innisfil on a similar property tax payments scheme, announcing in March this year that the town would be the first municipality in Canada to be offered its bitcoin payments option.

Di Paola acknowledged the Innisfil project, and said:

Our Council was aware of Coinberry's successful implementation of a digital currency payment service with the Town of Innisfil, and since there was no cost and no risk to the City of Richmond Hill to do the same, it made the decision that much easier for us.

Feasibility Study

No doubt other towns will be on the watch to see if such measures can produce positive results, and Richmond Hill council staff will be reporting back on the feasibility of implementing Coinberry’s technology for payments of other municipal fees towards the end of September.

Andrei Poliakov, chief executive and co-founder of Coinberry, said the company was “very happy” to entering into partnership with its second Canadian municipality. He added:

Leaders of government and enterprise organizations are realizing that, with the right partners, they can innovate with blockchain and digital currencies. We’re pleased to be working on additional innovative solutions with leading enterprise and municipal partners, and have a number of very exciting initiatives we will be announcing over the next several months