Argentina banned the use of Argentinian credit cards to purchase rides from Uber. Uber responded by allowing users to purchase rides with Bitcoin.
Uber has had its fair share of media attention, and one of the most popular comments have come from their ban of credit cards in their rides. The order to block credit card companies from processing Uber transactions actually happened back in 2016, even though there was an injunction filed. Originally, the Uber App was going to be banned all together, but the compromise to not accept credit cards ended up being the final decision.
WILMap reported, “Credit card services were enjoined from processing payments connected to the App. Multiple arguments served as a legal basis to the different orders, including the endangerment of passengers´ health and safety and tax collection.”
The Argentinian economy and government have not exactly been welcoming to Uber over the years. Buenos Aires has been one of the biggest areas of contention, though taxi drivers throughout the country rebelled against this new service. Once credit cards were banned for use, Uber was faced with a decision – leave or find another solution.
Since then, users have been able to use Bitcoin via the Xapo’s debit cards. In fact, anyone that uses the credit cards immediately get a $30 discount. According to the President of Bitcoin Latam and CEO of RSK Labs, Diego Gutierrez Zaldivar, at the time, “In general Uber users are highly knowledgeable about technology and more prone to Bitcoin understanding and usage, fears about Bitcoin usually come from more illiterate users.”
Co-organizer of the Latin American Bitcoin Conference (laBITconf), Franco Amati, said in 2016, “Nobody is deleting Uber app because of this, on the contrary, I have friends that requested Bitcoin debit cards to use Uber. Most of them from SatoshiTango, since there they have an option for a virtual debit card, so they do not even need to wait for a physical card to be delivered. But others from Xapo too as card issuer.”
Bitcoin has continued to grow in the Argentinian region and is still earning attention for the decision to add Bitcoin to this day. In fact, Anthony Pompliano, the Founder & Partner at Morgan Creek Digital and former Project Manager of Facebook, can’t hold back from posting about this two-year old news on Twitter this week. Pompliano said, “Argentina banned the use of Argentinian credit cards to purchase rides from Uber. Uber responded by allowing users to purchase rides with Bitcoin. No government can stop or kill Bitcoin. More companies will begin using Bitcoin to fight back against corruption.”