Will you accept my bitcoin?

By: Alex Altman — Team Laurier

After our big win against McGill in the first round of the block chain madness tournament I had hoped to organize a night out to celebrate our victory. I felt like it would give the evening a little more meaning if we were able to pay for our drinks with bitcoin. I decided to approach one of the new bars on king street (name redacted at request of the bar) to see if they would be interested to host our event. I sent a message to the bars Facebook page and received a prompt response. I was able to organize a meeting with the bar manager on an early Wednesday afternoon to see if I could sell him on becoming a bitcoin vendor.

At the meeting I told him a bit about our club and asked if he had heard of bitcoin, he was familiar but had only heard of it in passing. I told him I could set him up with an application that would allow him to accept bitcoin and immediately convert it into cash for the bar; I even offered to provide a device for the night to use the application. The manager mulled over the idea but seemed less then enthused, he said he would think about it and let me know in the coming days.

About two days letter I received an email telling me that they appreciated me coming and would love to host my club however they were unwilling to accept bitcoin at this time. They did not believe that after our club had departed that they would see any further bitcoin users in the area. Furthermore he felt that it could be too confusing for the wait staff to learn and would not be worth it.

Despite the frustration of rejection on my first attempt I will continue my hunt to find a vendor willing to accept bitcoin in the area so that we as a club can go out and celebrate in our “native” currency.