(Bloomberg) -- The Swiss ski resort of Zermatt is now accepting tax receipts in Bitcoin.
The town's 5,400 residents will be able to settle bills for taxes and other government services such as work permits using the cryptocurrency, Mayor Romy Biner-Hauser said. Payments can be made via a tablet computer from broker Bitcoin Suisse AG, who converts the digital currency into francs and transfers the amount to the municipality.
Read more: Crypto Goes Up and Down, But Is It Getting Anywhere?: QuickTake
The idea for payments in Bitcoin came from the canton of Zug, a hotspot for blockchain firms in Switzerland dubbed “crypto valley.” That municipality started accepting them in 2016, Biner-Hauser said.
Although the mayor doesn't expect many Bitcoin transactions, she is curious about the new technology.
“Everyone is talking about cryptocurrencies and blockchain and if you don't try it out, you don't get smarter,” she said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Leonard Kehnscherper in Zurich at lkehnscherpe@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Katerina Petroff at kpetroff@bloomberg.net, Catherine Bosley, Dan Liefgreen
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