Soon you can pay street performers in London digitally

With contactless cards and mobile transactions reducing the need to carry cash, street performers were facing problems

With contactless cards and mobile transactions reducing the need to carry cash, street performers faced the brunt of the problem.

Keeping that in mind, London Mayor Sadiq Khan in collaboration with Busk In London, a professional body for buskers and Swedish payment firm iZettle, have launched a project that lets you pay street musicians digitally using contactless cards.

A few performers have been selected to test the contactless readers on the streets for the past several weeks, according to The Verge.



The scheme will be rolled out across London’s 32 boroughs that include: Westminster, Kensington, Hounslow and Ealing among others.

Charlotte Campbell, a full-time street performer told BBC news that this trial had a significant impact on contributions.

The readers are required to be connected to a smartphone or tablet and accept payments of fixed amounts for each performer. There are no details as to how many readers will be available to the street performers and who will be making the payments as well.

Individuals will be able to set up their own contactless payment system using varying QR codes.



“Busking helps emerging artists to hone their talent and gives them the chance to perform in front of huge numbers of people. I’m delighted that iZettle has chosen London to launch this innovative scheme - allowing artists to accept donations by card payment, as well as cash. Now, more Londoners will be able to show their support to the capital’s brilliant, talented street performers,” said Khan in a statement.

Experts have warned that if the coins and notes start disappearing from the city streets, it will make the homeless and penniless out of society. This step will reduce the impact of a digitalised future.

This story originally appeared on The Verge.