Residential payment platform for apartment communities Livly has developed a new mobile app that will allow people to pay their apartment rents with cryptocurrencies. In doing so, Livly has become the first in the multifamily industry to say “yes” to crypto payments.
Livly Has Opened Its Heart to Crypto
The new Livly app will be available to renters in approximately 130 cities in the United States. Among the assets that the company is accepting for monthly rent payments are bitcoin and Ethereum, arguably the two largest digital assets available at the time of writing. The step was taken to give residents more flexibility in their payment options.
The move is pushing the goals of bitcoin and its digital counterparts closer to being achieved. What many people likely forget is that while bitcoin and many of its crypto cousins have taken on either speculative or even hedge-like statuses in recent years, many of them were initially designed to serve as payment tools. They were built to push checks, credit cards, and fiat currencies to the side, but this has been a relatively slow journey given the volatility that continues to drag them down.
It is extremely hard to understand when bitcoin and its crypto family will go up or down when it comes to their prices. Many stores and companies have been reluctant to say “yes” when it comes to accepting crypto payments for this reason, and to a degree, we can’t blame them.
Consider the following scenario: someone walks into a store and buys $50 worth of merchandise with bitcoin. For one reason or another, the store doesn’t trade the BTC into fiat right away and about 24 hours go by. From there, the price of BTC goes down and that $50 becomes $40. The customer gets to keep everything he or she bought, but the store has lost money in the end. Is this a fair situation? Not everyone thinks so.
That’s what makes enterprises like Livly so important. They realize the initial purposes of bitcoin and digital currencies and are trying to transform them into usable tools everyday people can benefit from.
Livly founder and co-CEO Alex Samoylovich explained in an interview:
We want to offer residents who have cryptocurrency an additional option to pay their bills with the method they prefer. We are always looking for ways to enhance and expand resident convenience.
Trying to Be the First
Livly’s co-CEO Brian Duggan also threw his two cents into the mix, commenting:
One of Livly’s biggest strengths is in our ability to evolve, meet, and exceed the needs of our apartment communities using modern technology. Livly has always been at the forefront of innovative prop tech. It only makes sense for us to be the first resident mobile app to accept cryptocurrency for our residents nationwide.