Powered By Emurgo: First ADA Payment System at BBQ Restaurant Tamura, in Osaka, Japan!
On June 22, 2019, the first ADA payment system in Japan was introduced by Emurgo at BBQ restaurant “Tamura” in Osaka. The restaurant is owned by famous TV figurehead and comedian Tamura Kenji. And the launch event was opened up to members of the Japanese crypto media, Cardano community fans, winners of Emurgo’s Tamura Retweet campaign and Emurgo & Cardano Foundation officials.
Tamura Kenji has a passion for cryptocurrencies and was enthusiastic about collaborating with Emurgo to implement an ADA payment system, based on Yoroi wallet, for his restaurant. He was happily surprised about the speed at which Emurgo helped him set it all up, and promptly agreed to ‘throw an opening party’, soon after. Mr. Tamura expressed his gratitude to all involved and noted he believes more businesses and industries will follow suit in cryptocurrency adoption, and hopefully ADA as well.
The event marked the launch of the ada payment system going live, where Mr. Tamura did the first transaction with a Cardano community member, who had won a ticket to the event and a game of rock-paper-scissors that night.
A lot of attendees were eager to pay for their dinner fees with their ada via the Yoroi wallet. They lined up, and as they paid for their meal, some even made small introduction videos with comments for personal use. It should be noted that the payment itself is lightning fast: after scanning the QR code and entering the amount, it only takes a couple seconds for the transaction to confirm and appear on the display. Altogether it takes only a few minutes, just with like any (human) payment interaction.
Since this was also the first time community members were able to use their mobile Yoroi wallets in an everyday situation, it should also be noted that the Yoroi wallet can be set up to pay with facial recognition (found in ‘Settings’), if the smartphone supports this. This will make the payment and transaction faster by a factor of two, and just as smooth as any credit card/debit card/mobile or cash transaction!
Last but not least, after members had paid the dinner fees, they were surprised with a Tangem card giveaway campaign from the Cardano Foundation! The payment system implemented that night would also have supported payments with Tangem cards, as it lets you scan a QR code for payment confirmation. The Tangem app supports this, and would make it possible to pay directly off of one’s offline hardware wallet by scanning the card and transferring the funds from the card to the phone via NFC.
(Note: not all phones are capable of support this function yet. Tangem and iOS are planning updates for NFC functionality for the coming months)
The event was a major success and was picked up by the Cardano community quickly. We thank everyone who made this possible and attended the event. We hope this is the first step in ada payment adoption in Japan, and across the globe!
PS: Yes, of course I (@Katsumoto) also paid for my dinner with ada! It’s actually my first cryptocurrency transaction at a restaurant, via mobile phone. It was really exciting, and felt like my personal ‘Bitcoin Pizza moment’. Time will tell and I’m glad I had the chance to participate!
Here’s some PoP (Proof of Payment):
When Taco? 
@rickymac