Finland, the birthplace of Santa Claus and home to some of the best ski trails in Europe, is widely known for its magnificent nature, high standards of living and advanced touring industry. But touring isn’t the only area that’s thriving in Finland.
Recently this Northern European state repeatedly made the news concerning such hot topic as digital money. For instance, Finland was the first country in Europe to install stationary bitcoin-ATM, and then also pioneered the use of two-way bitcoin-ATM that allowed to not only purchase bitcoin with physical money but also cash virtual currency. But this was just the beginning, as Finland is rapidly becoming a country where promotion of virtual currency is carried out not only by interested companies, but by private parties, too.
Finnish Citizens Embrace Advanced Technologies
One of such citizens is a school principle in Kemiö, a town in a Kemiösaari, municipality of Finland in the Southwest of the country. This small town with population of about 7000 repeatedly made bitcoin news recently, demonstrating an approach to cryptocurrency that’s far more advanced that that of even Finnish capital Helsinki.
In Kemiö, bitcoin can get you almost anything, from dinner (Lalla Vinde café accepts bitcoin payments) and goods from a grocery store to electronic devices (ZAS shop is the place to go for bitcoin aficionados) and dance lessons at the local rehabilitation center. And now Kemiö schoolchildren can get them some bitcoin of their own, thanks to an initiative by Ari Rintanen, local school headmaster. There are various scholarship programs at work in the school that encourage achievements in both academic and athletic areas and are financed by many sponsors. And now the most talented and successful among the students can collect their awards in bitcoin. According to Ari Rintanen, such award initiative will help open schoolchildren’s minds to new approaches and technologies; plus cryptocurrency has repeatedly proved handy in the isolated municipality, that’s situated on an island. ZAS company run by Sami Lappalainen is helping the school with the program by providing bitcoin to students in the form of QR-codes. Additional workshops are held regularly where students learn how to set up bitcoin wallets and exchange cryptocurrency for Euros.
Tesla Electrocar for 380 Bitcoins
Another important bitcoin transaction took place recently – a Tesla electrocar was purchased for 380 bitcoin, a sum equivalent of 140 000 Euros. This is the biggest transaction in bitcoin history, and it took place in Finland as well. The purchase was made in Tampere, in Auto-Outlet Helsinki Oy dealership equipped with Bitcoinkaupat payment system. Mika Toivonen, the head of the dealership, remarked that any car dealership accepts cryptocurrency payments regardless of price and class of a vehicle. He noted that the company is proud to support all innovative approaches in the car sale market and plan to continue doing so in the future.
Finland is not the only place where bitcoin industry grows and develops rapidly, so we’re looking forward to learning about new initiatives and transactions concerning bitcoin and other virtual means of payment.
