The Perth Heat will pay professional baseball players and staff using the Bitcoin Lightning Network.
Perth Heat, an Australian baseball club, has announced a partnership with Bitcoin payment processor OpenNode to accept and make Bitcoin payments (BTC). The collaboration enables the Perth Heat to pay professional players and staff in Bitcoin.
The professional sports club will send and receive Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network, according to the announcement. Furthermore, the Perth Heat organisation can now accept Bitcoin payments for sponsorships, merchandise, and other revenue streams thanks to the partnership with OpenNode.
Taking things a step further, the Perth Heat has rebranded as “the Bitcoin baseball team.”
On its official website, the club has also listed Bitcoin-branded merchandise. The announcement stated, demonstrating a long-term commitment to mainstream Bitcoin adoption:
“As part of this sporting world exclusive, Perth Heat will hodl Bitcoin on the club’s balance sheet.”
The CEO of Perth Heat, Steven Nelkovski, believes that embracing the underlying values of the Bitcoin protocol will “inspire others to embrace a monetary system that requires value creation to thrive.” Patrick O’Sullivan, the club’s “chief bitcoin officer,” stated:
“The club has already established an initial position in BTC to help secure its digital property rights on the world’s most secure monetary network and will continue to reinvest available capital into Bitcoin. The Perth Heat are embracing the reality that the future of money and corporate treasuries will live on the Bitcoin blockchain.”
This year, Australia has increased its efforts to allow for regulated cryptocurrency adoption. An Australian Senate committee called for a complete overhaul of crypto legislation and licencing on October 20. Perth Heat; Australian Baseball Club to pay athletes in Bitcoin
The Australia Securities and Investments Commission; as Cointelegraph reported a few days later, also issued a guideline that approves Bitcoin and Ether (ETH)-based exchange-traded products:
“As of October 2021; Bitcoin and Ether appear likely to satisfy all five factors identified above to determine appropriate underlying assets for an ETP. We expect the range of non-financial product crypto-assets that can satisfy these factors will expand over time.”
According to a recent survey conducted by Crypto.com, Australian citizens are also interested in exploring crypto investments. Out of the 2,020 Australians polled between the ages of 18 and 59; 26% said they would consider giving some away for Christmas or purchasing crypto-related gifts.
According to Crypto.com general manager Karl Mohan; “Australians are clearly very keen to adopt cryptocurrencies and integrate their use into day-to-day spending.”
Source: cointelegraph