Venezuela Bitcoin payment for foreign passport applicants has been enabled after the country’s passport agency, the Administrative Service for Identification, Migration, and Foreigners, commonly known as SAIME briefly allowed passport applicants to pay for the international document using the leading cryptocurrency, bitcoin.
According to a Reddit post on June 23, it disclosed that with Venezuela Bitcoin payments, the government might be testing to decide on accepting Bitcoin as a method of payment for the issuance of passports and other official paperwork for citizens who reside outside the country. It would be recalled that earlier, the government had suspended credit card payments and may be due to that the BTC option was enabled briefly.
#Bitcoin es sin fronteras, resistente a la censura.
No tiene distinción. Derecha o izquierda.
Si bloquean los pagos a Venezuela, $BTC fixes this.Es molesto, pero es lo que hay. 😅😎 https://t.co/SaoxEZCS4B
— Lovera 😎 ⚡₿ (@BTClovera) June 24, 2020
“I have just verified it personally and it is totally true. #Venezuela, the immigration service, is accepting bitcoin for payments. Renew passport or request an extension,” BTCLovera wrote.
Although taken down few hours later the event caught major flames after a user took to his Twitter account to notify of the new option created by SAIME.
According to reports from customers who completed the transaction of bitcoin payments, it took approximately eight minutes. The bitcoin payments were accepted through the payment processor BTCPay Server.
Venezuela Bitcoin payment only available for individuals outside the country
The Venezuela Bitcoin payments option was not made available for Venezuelans in Venezuela. The option while it was online seemed to have been available to users actually living outside Venezuela.
While the SAIME has not yet officially confirmed the new payment option in any capacity, it is worth knowing that payments can already be made in the country using Venezuela’s own pseudo-cryptocurrency, the Petro (PTR).
Currently, Venezuelan users are among the highest-volume buyers and sellers of bitcoin on the peer-to-peer platform LocalBitcoins.
Venezuela continues to embrace crypto
Recently, the ongoing tussle between the United States and Venezuela has affected the Venezuelan bolivar as it has been losing its value against the US dollar. This has invariably turned the country to focus on digital currency.
The country range of options for Venezuelan crypto enthusiasts has considerably increased and the Venezuelan government has also enabled payments in petro for various public services, including paying for gasoline.
Venezuela’s national public bank is also adapting its infrastructure to include cryptocurrency services, and Maduro’s government recently admitted to storing Bitcoin and Ethereum as part of its international reserves.
Additionally, crypto payments processor Cryptobuyer recently announced a new deal with traditional payments firm Megasoft to enable crypto point-of-sale capabilities to more than 20,000 merchants across Venezuela.
The merchants, which includes some of the biggest stores in the country, will allow the use Megasoft’s Merchant Server platform, giving them the option to accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin, Binance Coin, Tether, DAI, and Cryptobuyer’s native token, XPT, as payment.
