According to the auction house, within hours of opening the payment option, a AU$100,000 custom-built caravan was paid for entirely by crypto. “As a long-time patron of Lloyds I had no hesitation and couldn’t believe how simple it was for me to pay with cryptocurrency. The seller would have received it as cash and never known the difference!,” a statement from the purchaser said. “Since then, we have had quite a bit of interest on our upcoming classic cars and earthmoving machinery auctions,” Lloyds Auctions chief operations officer Lee Hames added. “We have seen people using this as a way of divesting out of cryptocurrency and back into real life assets. As prices drop people are taking some profits off the table and transferring it to something like a classic car or bulldozer and putting it to work.” Hames said purchases are subject to identifying the bidder as per usual practice and that the auction house is fully complying with Know Your Customer protocols and Australian Law. “As one of Australia’s most trusted auction houses, we felt it very important to carefully put all of the right protocols and procedures into place. Now that we have invested into our proprietary IT systems, to make payment as simple as using a Visa or Mastercard, we’ve been amazed at how many regular mums and dads have an amount of crypto to spend,” he continued. Lloyds is accepting most “popular” coins, including bitcoin and ether. According to Hames, Lloyds’ dedicated crypto line has seen enquiries “pour” in since opening the feature. Earlier this month, the auction house decided blockchain was the best way to prove ownership of a set of negatives capturing moments in Australia’s history, announcing it was minting the Rose Stereograph Company, a collection of original glass plate negatives from over 140 years of operation, via non-fungible token (NFT). NFTs are used to verify unique items. The blockchain-created certificate of authenticity is used for a digital asset such as art. All physical glass plate negatives being auctioned have been minted as an NFT and ownership of the NFT will transfer to the highest bidder at the conclusion of the auction. Winning bidders will receive ownership of both the minted NFT and a tangible original glass plate negative.
MORE BLOCKCHAIN NEWS
Photos of Ned Kelly’s armour and Phar Lap’s 1930 win up for auction via NFT Lloyds Auctions has put a collection of photograph negatives up for auction, with the winner to receive proof of ownership via blockchain. Anti-money laundering regulation for all crypto exchanges on Austrac’s wish list Since gaining a level of regulatory oversight of cryptocurrency exchanges in late 2017, Austrac has had 456 registrations. But the agency wants more commitment from the sector over anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing issues. Here’s what developers really think about blockchain projects Some developers think it is a game changer, but few have actually worked on blockchain tech. El Salvador makes bitcoin legal tender as president looks to volcanos to mine crypto President Nayib Bukele’s law mandates bitcoin be treated the same as the US dollar.
