Cryptocurrencies are slowly making their way into the mainstream economy. Today Bitcoin is accepted by thousands of merchants around the world, and now Monero has made its move.
Monero, the coin which is known for its privacy features, has launched Project Coral Reef. Under this program, 45 musicians and 5 online stores will accept Monero as payment this holiday season.
The customers paying by the privacy coin will also get an additional discount of up to 15 percent.
The list of artists in the project varies widely. It includes singers like Sia and Toby Keith, to metal bands like Scorpions and Lamb of God. It also includes other big names like Lana Del Rey, Dixie Chicks, Backstreet Boys and many more.
After the announcement, rap star G-Eazy said: “As cryptocurrencies become more popular, it’s important that my fans have choices when it comes to how they buy my songs and merchandise.”
“Given Monero is one of the safest, most secure and most private cryptocurrencies, it’s one of the best options for my fans this holiday season — and just in time for my new album,” he added.
Moreno’s lead maintainer Riccardo Spagni said: “If rabid music fans can get a unique item that they can only get with Monero or save 5% on their purchase, they’ll jump through the hoops to get that.”
Serial entrepreneur Naveen Jain, who is also a Monero fan, said: “One of the big challenges I see with cryptocurrencies is lack of acceptance...There’s a really significant Monero community that doesn’t have a lot of opportunity to spend their Monero on things that are really cool and exciting. This product solves that problem. There’s also a challenge of just raw awareness of Monero, so it’s the start of that initiative.”
The managing team of Project Coral Reef is working with Shopify, an e-commerce website, to streamline the customer experience. GloBee has been chosen as the payment processor.
What is Monero?
Monero, created in April 2014, is a cryptocurrency which ensures transaction privacy. Based on the CryptoNote protocol, the transactions of this cryptocurrency obscures sender, recipient, and even the amount of every transaction.
This feature made this token famous for illicit dark web transactions.
Currently, Monero is within the top 10 list of largest cryptocurrencies with a market cap of more than $3.4 billion. The coin has had an excellent performance since November, seeing growth of 155 percent. Currently, the token is trading at around $222.
Anyway, this is not the first time that cryptocurrencies have tried to make an entry into the music industry. Earlier this fall, Icelandic singer and songwriter Bjork announced that each fan purchasing her new album would receive 100 AudioCoins, and a few other musicians have endorsed ICOs too.
