Switzerland: You can now pay with ADA tokens at the checkouts of all SPAR stores
- Cardano’s ADA as a payment currency in the 137 SPAR supermarkets in Switzerland is a great success in the effort to bring Cardano into stationary retail.
- The customer at the checkout pays from his Cardano wallet, while the SPAR store receives the amount directly in Swiss francs – without a third institution and in real time.
Open Crypto Pay forms the technical backbone of the new ADA payment option. Customers scan a QR code at checkout and confirm the payment in their wallet. The transaction is verified on the Cardano blockchain within seconds.
Merchants use existing POS systems that do not need to be modified. Processing takes place via DFX.swiss and its standard Open Crypto Pay. A major advantage lies in the fees.
According to DFX.swiss, the costs for merchants fall by around two thirds compared to classic payment card providers such as VISA and Mastercard.
DFX.swiss also provides extended on-off ramps. Customers exchange ADA directly for Swiss francs, without external intermediaries.
The Swiss crypto environment
Switzerland has been a crypto-friendly location for years. SPAR has previously tested Bitcoin payments via Lightning pilot projects. However, the ADA introduction is the practical blockchain-based payment option for everyday life.
The Cardano Foundation sees this as a major step forward: If payments with ADA become as commonplace as card payments, Cardano will move a lot closer to mass use in retail.
Linking to ADA “Savings Account”
In parallel to Cardano’s introduction of ADA for payment of purchases, the Swiss FinTech company Brick Towers is offering its app “Urble” for saving ADA in SPAR stores. This means customers can save ADA and spend it again at the SPAR store if necessary. This creates a consistent system network that enables paying and saving on the same technical basis.
Technical assessment and market reaction
Despite all this, the ADA price remained stable at around $0.27. Technical indicators such as the RSI and MACD show a wait-and-see attitude among market participants. So real-world retail utility doesn’t automatically lead to price movements, but it does show the importance of such applications for Cardano’s long-term direction as a company.
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