- Argentina recently conducted an export deal with Paraguay in which the former was paid in Bitcoin
- The deal was worth $7,100 and involved the sale of pesticides
- The Bitcoin was eventually converted to Argentine pesos
Cross-border transactions and international trade are two of the biggest and most well-known applications of blockchain technology. Ripple has built its entire business of making cross-border easier and has partnered with many large firms to advance this goal.
It has even been estimated by the World Trade Organization that the use of blockchain will add trillions of dollars to world trade by 2030.
Now, countries are beginning to make use of blockchain in export and import deals. It was reported on February 12, 2019, that Argentina settled an export deal with Paraguay with Bitcoin.
Details About the Deal
The export deal that took place was worth about $7,100 and was for pesticides and fumigation products that were exported from Argentina to Paraguay and were paid for in bitcoin. This is the first time that either country has taken part in such an operation.
Paraguay paid for the products in bitcoin and then the Argentine government converted the bitcoin to the Argentine Peso in order to settle the accounts with the exporter. This was made possible by Bitex, which is an Argentine financial firm that facilitates the use of Bitcoin.
This deal was part of the Argentine government’s Exporta Simple initiative that supports the export of goods and services with a value of less than $15,000. This information was made available by Manuel Beaudroit, the chief marketing officer for Bitex, which has said it will work to make such cross-border payments easier in the future as the practice becomes more popular.
Across the Border
It’s no surprise that cross-border payments have become such a popular form of blockchain-based payments.
This is because, for a long time, they were a source of grief for the international business community. Payments were often slow and tedious to get done and the most common method of getting paid was through SWIFT.
Since the technology has emerged, transaction times and fees have become much lower. Even SWIFT itself has since partnered with R3 to make cross-border payment faster. Should deals like the recent Argentina-Paraguay one become more commonplace, blockchain could be the foundation for a bold new business world.
