Recently, the Australian Perth Heat became the first professional sports team to fully embrace Bitcoin and its Lightning network.
Perth heat is the best performing team in Australian Baseball League (ABL), having won 15 Claxton Shields.
On November 16, the club announcement their “partnership with the main Bitcoin payment company OpenNode to accept Bitcoin payments and send Bitcoin payments powered by the Lightning Network ”, becoming“ the first professional sports club in the world to fully adopt Bitcoin and the Lightning Network for accepting payments and paying staff and players “.
According to the club’s press release, the partnership will allow them to pay players and staff in Bitcoin, accept BTC payments for “stadium sponsorships, merchandise and concessions” and hold BTC on its balance sheet.
In short, the Perth Heat has chosen to use Bitcoin as the standard for payments and payments.
Perth Heat Bitcoin Director Patrick O’Sullivan said this:
“The Perth Heat are committed to operating under a Bitcoin standard, and in doing so, move the company’s cash flow from dollars to Bitcoin. The club has already established an initial position in BTC to help secure its digital property rights in the world’s most secure monetary network and will continue to reinvest available capital in Bitcoin.
“We believe the world has begun to recognize the power of sound monetary principles and are determined to take the lead. It is not a one-time purchase to guard against future uncertainties or inflationary pressures. The Perth Heat embrace the reality that the future of corporate money and cash will live on the Bitcoin blockchain.”
And Perth Heat CEO Steven Nelkovski added:
“We firmly believe that the mindset that Bitcoin conveys to network participants will be felt by our players, coaches, staff and loyal fan base and we look forward to setting the bar for the value that a sports organization can bring to a community in the Age of Bitcoin. By embracing the underlying values of the Bitcoin Protocol, we believe the organization can achieve new levels of success on and off the pitch and remind the world of the true value of sport.
“We know the community views the Perth Heat as a model for success and we hope that our adoption of a Bitcoin standard will inspire others to embrace a monetary system that requires value creation to thrive. Players and organizational staff have fully embraced the opportunities that being paid in Bitcoin can offer.”
Bitcoin-only payment processor OpenNode was launched on May 21, 2018. The official media blog post announcing the launch called OpenNode “A Lightning Network Compatible Bitcoin Payment Processor That Requires No Technical Knowledge From Businesses To Integrate”.
here are the advantages that OpenNode offers to merchants:
- “Merchants can choose from over 190 source currencies to create bitcoin payment requests.”
- “Convert to your preferred local currency at time of transaction to avoid bitcoin price changes.”
- “Convert settled funds to / from bitcoin anytime. Keep funds in your preferred currency and optimize fund transfers.
- “When you deposit local currency, OpenNode converts to bitcoin the moment payments are initiated to provide price certainty.”
The list of fiat currencies available for bank transfers and automatic conversions through OpenNode’s banking / currency partners includes:
- USD
- EUR
- GBP
- BRL
- MXN
- EUR
- CAD (soon)
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author, or anyone mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets carries a risk of financial loss.
Image credit
Selected image through “Chahrokh” Going through Pixabay
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