Due to a fault in the ATM system, customers in some supermarkets and shops could only pay in cash. Paying with a debit card was impossible at various locations. The exact cause of the malfunction has not yet been determined. Bitcoin proponents laugh up their sleeve. According to them, this problem would never have happened if we had used BTC as a means of payment.
Complaints and long queues
On Tuesday afternoon, the website Allestoringen.nl received thousands of reports from customers experiencing problems with payment at cash registers. Photos of long queues at various supermarkets circulated on Twitter. The supermarkets involved attribute the problems to an “external disturbance”. A spokesperson reports that it is now possible to use a debit card at most supermarkets again.
Announcements about the PIN malfunction have been posted in various shops, indicating that customers can still pay in cash. Not only supermarkets, but also the Blokker retail chain is affected by the pin problems. A spokesperson reports that all stores have been informed about the malfunction, but that it cannot be solved internally because the problem lies with an external company. It is not yet known how long the outage will last. The spokesman hopes it will be resolved soon.
The cause does not seem to lie with banks or payment institutions
According to the Dutch Payments Association, the problem does not seem to arise with banks, payment institutions or transaction processors, as there are currently no malfunction reports. However, the failure can occur elsewhere in the chain. A possible cause could be a telecom provider, on which shops depend for their pin equipment.
Bitcoin as an alternative means of payment
If we had Bitcoin as a means of payment, this situation might be different. Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency, meaning that transactions do not depend on a single party such as banks or payment processors. As a result, disruptions such as this would probably have less impact on payment traffic. However, it is important to note that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin can be vulnerable to network congestion, which could affect transaction speed and costs.