Scottish School Will Accept Bitcoin Payments, May Launch BTC Reserve

A school in Scotland has said it will be the first in the UK to start accepting Bitcoin payments. 

Lomond School in the town of Helensburgh said that it made the choice to accept the cryptocurrency after a number of parents—both local and foreign—made the request, The Times reported.

The private boarding school has a number of international students. 

To “manage and mitigate risk,” the school said it would start accepting the biggest cryptocurrency in phases, and would convert digital coins received into pound sterling. It also said that it would ensure full compliance with UK financial regulations when accepting BTC.

The school added that it would also consider building a reserve of the cryptocurrency if its use case grows in the UK. “Assuming Bitcoin gains broader acceptance in the UK and worldwide, the school will look to build a Bitcoin asset reserve,” it said in a statement. 

Lomond School did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s questions.

The idea of a “Bitcoin asset reserve” echoes U.S. President Trump’s executive order signed last month authorizing the government to hold BTC and figure out ways to buy more of the asset. The U.S. government already holds around 200,000 BTC—worth $16.7 billion at today’s price—that was primarily seized or forfeited in criminal cases. 

A number of other countries are now considering holding Bitcoin—like they hold other assets in reserves—and businesses too have started buying up the asset. Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, currently holds over $44 billion worth of the asset.

Edited by Andrew Hayward