People in the Baltics will not be able to pay with cryptocurrency for Samsung (KS:005930) devices, CopPay admitted on Tuesday after turbulent developments over the past few days that broke an actual agreement, as the Lithuanian blockchain startup claims.
The news that the South Korean electronics giant will use CopPay’s payment services platform to enable clients in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to buy its consumer electronics products with virtual coins broke out on Friday, when the startup claimed in a Medium post that “stores in the Baltic States now accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Dash, Nem, and Steem as a means of payment using CopPay technology,” with the crypto payment feature set to be available soon at Samsung’s online stores as well. The post, which did not specify whether crypto payments will be available at online Samsung stores globally or just in the Baltics, was later deleted, but a cached version is still accessible.
Despite deleting the post, CopPay did not admit the information was inaccurate. In a new post, submitted on Monday, the startup stated “the news will be back soon after Samsung official announcement”.
On Tuesday, Next Web’s Hard Fork reported that Samsung had denied the information, with an unnamed company spokesman telling the outlet in an email:
“Our official response is that the rumor is not true.”
Later on Tuesday, CopPay published an official statement, where its CEO acknowledged the Samsung fiasco in what looks like a communication failure. The post claims CopPay provided its solution to the Baltic premium reseller of Samsung, a separate legal entity that was not identified.
“The official agreement was signed. We activated CopPay Payment Gates in Samsung Stores and trained personnel to show how it works, even a few transactions were made. In addition, we were preparing a mutual statement with representatives of Samsung PR division,” the statement reads.
“Unfortunately, after Samsung officially announced that it doesn’t have any plans for the crypto and blockchain payments, the reseller decided to suspend cryptocurrency payment method. We have all evidence of the above information and can present the proof in court,” it notes, adding that CopPay had never declared it had a partnership with the Samsung company.
Meanwhile, CopPay said on Monday via its Twitter account that after focusing on the development of its platform mainly for brick-and-mortar stores, it is now ready to take over the ecommerce market as well, enabling people to buy things online quickly, easily, and safely via cryptocurrencies. It points at Lithuanian electronics shop Elektronikos Taisykla EFIX as one of the merchants accepting crypto payments through the CopPay platform.
Earlier in July, CryptoPay announced it had partnered with the Lithuanian unit of global real estate firm RE/MAX, allowing clients to rent or buy any kind of property with Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Dash (DASH), Nem (XEM), or Steem (STEEM).
CopPay is just one of the smaller startups offering crypto payment services and is way behind older and more established payment systems like BitPay.
Similar talks of partnerships with major companies have happened in the past, and reports turn out to be either exaggerated or fake. Automotive companies, which habitually offer developers access to their systems, have denied exclusive partnerships with the likes of VeChain (VEN/VET). On the other hand, IOTA has forged exploratory partnerships though they do not involve the use of its token for payments.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has recently renewed its acceptance of Bitcoin as payment although the service is one-way and does not offer a reversal of the funds into BTC. The company has also denied exclusive partnerships with projects that merely use Azure cloud services.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
