The new vouchers from the Francis Pouliot-led company could accelerate the adoption of Bitcoin in Canada.
The Bitcoin standard may be on its way to Canada.
Bull Bitcoin, a Montreal-based Bitcoin exchange, released Liquid Canadian dollars (L-CAD) on Blockstream’s Liquid Network on Thursday. Liquid is a sidechain used for settling Bitcoin transactions. The new peer-to-peer voucher is denominated in Canadian dollars but can only be redeemed for Bitcoin. The company said it is not a stablecoin or a security but a “closed-loop Bitcoin prepaid card,” like a gift card.
The “Toxic Bitcoin Maximalist” behind Bull Bitcoin, Francis Pouliot, said in a blog that a drop of blood was chosen as the logo for L-CAD because Bull Bitcoin’s objective is to “accelerate fiat bleed,” a phenomenon described in an essay by Pierre Rochard on how Bitcoin will drive out weak currencies and force hyper-Bitcoinization around the world.
To do this first in Canada, Bull Bitcoin blurred the line between Bitcoin and the Canadian dollar. Since the vouchers are denominated in Canadian dollars, a merchant can account for payments as with fiat currency. However, they are forced to buy Bitcoin to receive its underlying value.
Merchants also benefit from confidential and irreversible transactions on Liquid Network, with no custody fees, since no intermediaries are required for the exchange.
“Different representations of Canadian dollars compete to be used as payment methods. The winner will be the one that has the best Bitcoin saleability, i.e. which can be most easily sold for Bitcoin at a moment’s notice.”
— FrΛ̶ncis Pouliot
(@francispouliot_) April 2, 2020
(@francispouliot_)
One simple use case the company envisions is paying workers with Bitcoin. Since L-CAD is regulated as a prepaid card in Quebec, workers could determine when to exchange them.
The vouchers can also be traded on secondary markets, meaning they could be traded for other assets, but the underlying backing can only be purchased from Bull Bitcoin and its partners. The company said that, unlike with stablecoins, which often make money for custodians through fees and interest, Bull Bitcoin will only profit through driving more Bitcoin sales to their exchange.
The new vouchers can now be acquired exclusively through Bull Bitcoin or other liquidity partners like Aquanow, as well as by merchants who begin accepting L-CAD as payment through Blockstream’s Green Wallet, which can be integrated with open source payment processors like BTCPayServer.
a new #Bitcoin centric fiat coin model from @BullBitcoin_ introducing L-CAD a @Liquid_BTC fiat coin with difference – you have to convert it to BTC to redeem. also p2p re-spendable using @blockstream green and other liquid wallets, and works with Confidential Transactions. https://t.co/vuBSlIFbyQ
— Adam Back (@adam3us) April 2, 2020
If Bull Bitcoin has its way, Montreal and Canada may become BTC maximalist strongholds in North America.
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