Bermuda first country to accept cryptocurrency for taxes, fees and other government services

Bermuda has confirmed that they will be the first sovereign country to accept cryptocurrency for taxes, fees and other government services.

Who can benefit from this?

The English colony may cover a small area, but that makes this development no less interesting. The most important question is, who can benefit from this?

The answer is: it depends.

• If you run a business that mainly receives cash or credit card payments, this is not very important. Also for employees who get their money deposited in the bank by an employer, the interest is low.
• This development is particularly interesting for international companies that want to execute their transactions in dollars or euros. And at the same time attach value to a faster settlement time and lower transaction costs.

Stablecoin from Circle

Initially, only USDC is accepted by Bermuda. This is a stablecoin dollar from Circle. These “digital dollars” are supported 1: 1 by US dollars, use similar technology as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencys, but rely on the monetary policy of the United States.

An international bank transfer can sometimes take days, with USDC (or other cryptocurrency) any amount can be sent within a few minutes at minimal cost.

A few examples

It is literally less efficient and more expensive to use traditional dollars (ones and zeros that represent money in your bank account) than to use dollars that are supported by digital currency technology. Suggest the following examples:

• Companies with employees in many different countries around the world spend a lot of time moving their own money to different countries and bank accounts. Digital money helps to pay everyone immediately, with fewer headaches.
• The currency issues that most global companies face are very real. It is more difficult to accept multiple currencies because there are also exchange rate risks. Suppose everyone can get and use easy digital money to buy goods from any company in the world, ensures more efficiency and more cross-border trade.

It seems logical that as companies make more and more use of digital money, individual countries must follow. Bermuda is ahead of business in that regard. With a little imagination you could even imagine that large international companies are moving (or setting up PO box addresses) to a country where they can pay taxes with digital money.