Accounting Giant PwC Accepts Its First Bitcoin Payment

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by Alexandra Sayapina · 3 min read
Accounting Giant PwC Accepts Its First Bitcoin Payment
Photo: Vladimir Yaitskiy / Flickr

The first cryptocurrency payment for advisory service accepted by PricewaterhouseCoopers became an object of intense interest as bitcoin continues its rise.

This week turns out to be completely smashing for those people who still treat bitcoin as a passing fad: it blasted through $11 thousand and the first payment in bitcoin got accepted by one of the most influential audit companies PwC.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the audit ‘big four’, took its time to explore blockchain technology and estimate the interest of its clients in bitcoin. After thorough analysis the company decided to enter the cryptocurrency market and the heading office of this initiative is situated in Hong Kong. That is the place where PwC made a crucial step towards using cryptocurrencies: accepted its first payment in bitcoin for advisory services.

PwC Asia-Pacific chairman Raymund Chao commented on this issue: “This decision helps illustrate how we are embracing new technology and incorporating innovative business models across our full range of services. It is also an indication that bitcoin and other established cryptocurrencies have now developed into more broadly accepted forms of settlement”.

Anyway that is not the first experience of working with cryptocurrencies for PwC. The audit giant has already stated its interest in the industry by working with numerous bitcoin startups. And even though the news of accepting bitcoin payment may seem to be of the highest priority, PwC took one more action that should not be unnoticed. The audit professional working for the top companies of the world officially announced its new competence – advising on cryptocurrencies operations: funds, investments, exchanges, etc.

The example of PwC shows us that bitcoin changes its status from the untrustworthy geek idea to a solid currency. PricewaterhouseCoopers is a big fish and its actions influence the market strongly. Nevertheless it is not the one that set the trend. Ernst & Young, one more ‘big four’ accounting firm, was the first company of the kind that accepted a bitcoin payment for its services. And that was not just a show-off trick. EY officially stated that working with bitcoin is an essential part of their ‘digitizing’ strategy.

One more PwC ‘big four’ rival Deloitte is also demonstrating deep interest in bitcoin. It definitely doesn’t want to be left out of the cryptocurrencies market. This company may not be leading in the bitcoin race right now but they are not wasting their time. Deloitte announced a remarkable partnership with Waves Platform, the largest Russia-based blockchain project.

And the company is already gaining some experience in working with cryptocurrency payments. Their pilot project was internal: they started accepting digital currency payments in their internal restaurant. And Deloitte even installed a bitcoin ATM in their office, becoming the first ‘big four’ company to bring innovations that close to its employees. They were later followed by E&Y, installing a bitcoin ATM among its offices.

‘Big four’ accounting firms set the standards for the whole financial world. These are the companies that can change the way business treats cryptocurrencies. And what we see now is the incredible range of support of bitcoin demonstrated by two of these firms: PwC and EY. The first bitcoin payment accepted by PwC is not just a monetary operation; it is the statement of PwC position on cryptocurrencies. And this position gives bitcoin a huge credit of trust.

Bitcoin News, Blockchain News, Cryptocurrency News, News
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