Toshiba partners with BitPay for new point-of-sale system

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has announced plans to integrate bitcoin payments into their VisualTouch point-of-sale system, partnering with Atlanta-based bitcoin payment processor BitPay. Although not one of the leading brand in the POS industry, VisualTouch is still a relatively popular payment platform. Toshiba claims that the system is used by over 6,000 clients in the restaurant, hospitality and retail sectors across the globe. The partnership will be formally announced at this weekend’s 2014 National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago.

The VisualTouch addition had dramatically increased the number of merchants in the BitPay network. The company now supports around 36,000 retailers. This news comes on the heels of Dutch payment system Mollie adding bitcoin support to 10,000 online merchants earlier in the week.

The move may benefit Toshiba as much as it does BitPay and overall bitcoin awareness. With bitcoin rapidly edging into mainstream awareness, and Toshiba looking for a way to give their touchscreen POS an edge over the competition, the partnership withe BitPay could prove to be a great PR move for both companies. Likewise, many VisualTouch retailers will now be able to tout their ability to accept bitcoin, which has been credited with creating a short-term sales boost of around 10%.

The partnership is being formally announced at the 2014 National Restaurant Association Show, an annual conference held by the US-based food services trade group, which begins on 17th May.