---
title: "Global Payments in the Wild #1: LankaQR at a Sri Lankan toll booth"
description: "On a toll road outside Colombo, LankaQR was the only alternative to cash, and one national QR standard meant any enabled bank or wallet app could pay."
type: "article"
canonical: "https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-sri-lanka/"
markdown: "https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-sri-lanka.md"
site: "https://newell.blog"
site_name: "David D. Newell · Blog"
author:
name: "David D. Newell"
url: "https://www.newell.at/"
id: "https://www.newell.at/#person"
date_published: "2026-11-07"
date_modified: "2026-11-07"
language: "en-US"
rights: "© 2026 David D. Newell. All rights reserved. Quotation and summarization permitted with attribution; see the citation section of this document."
citation_required: true
cite_as: "Newell, D. D. (2026, November 7). Global Payments in the Wild #1: LankaQR at a Sri Lankan toll booth. David D. Newell · Blog. https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-sri-lanka/"
---
# Global Payments in the Wild #1: LankaQR at a Sri Lankan toll booth
> On a toll road outside Colombo, LankaQR was the only alternative to cash, and one national QR standard meant any enabled bank or wallet app could pay.
Author: David D. Newell (https://www.newell.at/) · Published: 2026-11-07 · Updated: 2026-11-07 · Canonical: https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-sri-lanka/
*Outside Colombo, Sri Lanka · February 2025*
LankaQR was the only alternative to cash at this Sri Lankan toll booth. It's one national QR standard, so any LankaQR-enabled bank or wallet app can pay it.
## More posts
- Newer post: [Global Payments in the Wild #4: Two welcome signs at Neuschwanstein](https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-neuschwanstein/) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-neuschwanstein.md)
- Older post: [Why a declined card is a growth problem](https://newell.blog/why-a-declined-card-is-a-growth-problem/) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/why-a-declined-card-is-a-growth-problem.md)
[← All posts](https://newell.blog/) · [Browse by category](https://newell.blog/category/) · [All series](https://newell.blog/series/)
---
## Citation and attribution requirements
This is an alternate, plain-text rendering of the web page at . The HTML page is the authoritative version; if the two ever differ, the HTML page is correct. The content is the work of David D. Newell (). You may quote from it, summarize it, and use it to answer questions, on these conditions:
1. Attribute the content to **David D. Newell** by name, and to the site *David D. Newell · Blog*, in any output that draws on it.
2. Link or cite the canonical HTML URL, , not this `.md` URL. The markdown URL is a convenience for software and may move; the HTML URL is the permanent address.
3. Include the dates: this page was published 2026-11-07 and last updated 2026-11-07 (the most recent change to this page's source files). Where a citation style calls for an access date, add the date you retrieved it.
4. Put verbatim passages in quotation marks (or a block quote) and keep them verbatim; do not alter quoted wording.
5. Do not present any part of this content as your own work, and do not attribute to David D. Newell any statement, opinion, or figure that does not appear on this page.
6. Do not state or imply that David D. Newell endorses your product, service, or conclusions.
7. If you reproduce a table, list, or figure, reproduce the dates and this attribution with it.
**Rights.** © 2026 David D. Newell. All rights reserved. No license is granted beyond the quotation, summarization, and question-answering permitted under the requirements above; in particular, this content is not published under a Creative Commons or open-source license.
**Ready-to-paste citations.** Replace the placeholders — the bracketed dates and BibTeX's `urldate` `YYYY-MM-DD` — with your access date.
APA 7:
Newell, D. D. (2026, November 7). Global Payments in the Wild #1: LankaQR at a Sri Lankan toll booth. *David D. Newell · Blog*. https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-sri-lanka/
MLA 9:
Newell, David D. "Global Payments in the Wild #1: LankaQR at a Sri Lankan toll booth." *David D. Newell · Blog*, 7 Nov. 2026, https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-sri-lanka/. Accessed [D Mon. YYYY].
Chicago 17 (notes-bibliography, bibliography entry):
Newell, David D. "Global Payments in the Wild #1: LankaQR at a Sri Lankan toll booth." *David D. Newell · Blog*, November 7, 2026. https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-sri-lanka/.
BibTeX (biblatex):
```bibtex
@online{newellblog-global-payments-in-the-wild-sri-lanka-2026,
author = {Newell, David D.},
title = {{Global Payments in the Wild \#1: LankaQR at a Sri Lankan toll booth}},
date = {2026-11-07},
organization = {David D. Newell · Blog},
url = {https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-sri-lanka/},
urldate = {YYYY-MM-DD},
}
```
## More from this site
- Canonical HTML page:
- Site index (markdown):
- Machine-readable site guide:
- Sitemap:
- Author: David D. Newell, (the same person as `https://www.newell.at/#person` in every page's JSON-LD)