INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Uber has said it's customers will be able to pay for their rides through cryptocurrency in futureIf you are a regular traveller on Uber,
in the future you may be able to pay for your trips using cryptocurrency
The ride-hailing app's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that customers will ultimately be able to pay for their rides with Bitcoin, and added
that the company is waiting for a few improvements before giving the go-ahead
cryptocurrency as a means of payment
give any kind of indication of when this may happen
Though the company's focus is on Bitcoin, Mr Khosrowshahi said other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum could also be options.As of now,
Uber hasn't jumped into the cryptocurrency bandwagon due to a few obstacles, said Mr Khosrowshahi
These include the environmental impact of mining the digital coins, which consumes a lot of electricity, as well as the high costs of
digital asset exchanges, where the transaction fees are very high
He added that the company would lean into crypto when the exchange mechanism gets less expensive and the digital assets stop leaving an
unnecessarily large carbon footprint.Though the interest in cryptocurrencies has increased in recent years, many companies have been slow to
accept them as a mode of payment
In 2014, Microsoft started accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment in its online store
Recently, Tesla began accepting Dogecoin, a meme cryptocurrency, for some of its products in its online store.Volatility is one of the major
concerns when it comes to cryptocurrencies as a form of payment, even though proponents of the digital assets have long argued that the
tokens should be recognised as a form of payment.At the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin, according to CoinMarketCap, was $42,201.61
31.83 lakhs) down considerably from its all-time high of $69,000 (roughly Rs
52 lakhs) in November 2021.
