UAE-Based Emirates Plans on Adding Bitcoin as a Payments Service: Report

There's no timeline for when Emirates plans to adopt Bitcoin as a payments service for its digital collectibles venture.

By Shomik Sen Bhattacharjee | Updated: 13 May 2022 15:09 IST

UAE-Based Emirates Plans on Adding Bitcoin as a Payments Service: Report

Photo Credit: Unsplash/ k z

Emirates will hire new staff to guage metaverse and NFT interest of its flyers

Highlights

A host of middle-eastern countries are promoting crypto adoption
Emirates plans to recruit more people before embarking on a plan
Emirates in April announced its interest in launching NFTs

United Arab Emirates-based major airline service Emirates has plans to add "Bitcoin as a payment service" and also will launch a non-fungible token (NFT) trading platform. The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Emirates, Adel Ahmed Al-Redha disclosed this information at a media gathering at the Arabian travel market — an international travel trade show, on May 12. The move arrives weeks after the airline in an official statement announced its interest in launching digital collectibles and enhance the metaverse experience of its flyers.

As per remarks published in a report by Arab News, Al Redha hints that his company may have to recruit employees to assist it in creating applications that monitor customer needs. Al Redha refrained from revealing a timeline for when the airline expects to launch its Bitcoin payment service.

Al Redha also spoke of the differences between NFTs and the metaverse at the event, explaining, "NFTs and metaverse are two different applications and approaches. With the metaverse, you will be able to transform your whole processes — whether it is in operation, training, sales on the website, or complete experience — into a metaverse type application, but more importantly making it interactive."

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

In an official announcement shared by Emirates in mid-April, it said that the first NFT and metaverse projects are already underway, with launch anticipated in the coming months.

“Emirates has always embraced advanced technologies to improve our business processes, enhance our customer offering, and enrich our employees' skills and experiences,” HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the chairman of Emirates said in a statement.

In addition, Emirates is also repurposing its Emirates Pavilion at the Expo 2020 site as a contact point for people that can contribute to the airline's future-focused projects including those relating to the metaverse, NFTs, and Web 3.

Terra Blockchain Frozen Over Fears of Governance Attack

“It is fitting that our future-themed Emirates Pavilion at Expo is being repurposed as a hub to develop cutting-edge future experiences aligned with the UAE's vision for the digital economy,” the Emirates chairman added.

Xiaomi 12 Pro is littered with features, but is that enough? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Cryptocurrency Prices across Indian exchanges

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.