I've been frequenting a local independent coffee shop that just opened in my neighborhood. The owner is really friendly, and occasionally walks over to chat with me and my friends. Last week I was telling my buddies about the hot sauce I gave them and how it was bought with BTC. The owner overhears and says, "I though Bitcoin was just some internet ponzi scheme.". I said, "nah, it's actually more of a payment transferring system. Instead of being run by some arbitrary company, it's secured with math and user-run supercomputer networks. A 'bitcoin' is just the unit transferred. He asked, "what if you transfer one, then it's worth nothing the next day?" I said, "oh yeah, that's a real risk. But a lot of merchants who deal with them just use a service to instantly covert all transactions to dollars. So the bitcoin price itself doesn't matter. The technology will always be useful. Plus, fees are next-to-nothing so it'll always be better-priced than, say, Visa." He listened politely to my little impromptu, inelegant schpiel, but dismissed it saying, "yeah I'd have to wait and see before I'd trust that."
I visit the next week (today), order a coffee, and pull out my credit card to swipe it on their iPad square app. He flips the screen towards me displaying a QR code. "Aren't you gonna pay in bitcoin?"
Yes, yes I am.
Here's the screen shot he posted on the shop's Facebook page right after: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=459993037445016&set=a.419494681494852.1073741828.403125513131769&type=1
And for those interested in visiting, the shop is located just outside Charlotte, NC:
http://www.waterbeancoffee.com/
Submitted December 09, 2013 at 01:57AM by Uber_Nick
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