Pokee puts case for cryptocurrencies

Greenwich Village, New York restaurant, Pokee, recently announced that it was adding Ethereum, OmiseGo and IOSToken to its payments mix, alongside cash, cheques and cards. In an interview with RTIH, Founder, Sa Wang, says: “A lot more businesses will begin to accept cryptocurrencies as the tech becomes more accessible.” 

There is a rapidly growing consumer base that is passionate about this and looking for businesses that support their interests, Wang argues. “Accepting cryptocurrencies is relatively easy to set up and harms no-one. Also, blockchain technology represents the promise of lessened banking fees. For so long, businesses have had to partner with credit card companies and accept their charges. Cryptocurrencies offer the ability to maintain the easy transactions that customers desire, without having to allow a third party to take a percentage from every transaction. If we can cut out a middleman, we will pay fewer fees, that's just common sense.”

Initially, she expects it to be fairly niche and cites economic data from Southeast Asia which shows a massive disparity in phone purchases between the East and the West. “The gap is beginning to close, however, and we’ve already seen a drastic shift in NYC as many businesses have stopped accepting cash in recent years. A rise in cellular payments is the logical progression and as the West begins to catch up with the East in this metric, we expect crypto and apps to play a large role in securing those cellular payments.”

Read the full interview here.

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