

A London pub now accepts payment in Bitcoin - CiaranR
http://www.individualpubs.co.uk/bitcoin.html

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CiaranR
The pub is in Hackney -
[http://www.individualpubs.co.uk/pembury/](http://www.individualpubs.co.uk/pembury/)

I haven't tried it yet but keen to head up there, there is a meetup of the
London Bitcoin Group on there this Sunday - [http://www.meetup.com/London-
bitcoin-meetup/events/122553592...](http://www.meetup.com/London-bitcoin-
meetup/events/122553592/)

~~~
dasil003
Looks like an excellent beer selection as well.

~~~
laumars
And a "lesser spotted" bar billiards table:
[http://horshambarbilliards.co.uk/Quickstart/ImageLib/best.jp...](http://horshambarbilliards.co.uk/Quickstart/ImageLib/best.jpg)

To say I'm tempted to pay a visit to this pub would be an understatement.

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fredley
Also in Cambridge at the Haymakers:

[http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Business/Business-
News/Use-v...](http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Business/Business-News/Use-
virtual-currency-Bitcoin-to-buy-a-real-pint-in-Cambridge-
pub-20130612060000.htm)

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Nursie
With only an 8% surcharge!

What was that about low/no processing fees?

~~~
CiaranR
That's the currency exchange rate he is offering not a transaction fee. The
bitcoin transaction itself is free

~~~
Nursie
Except if you actually read the linked page it says that it's at least
partially due to the 7% fees have to deal with when converting the BTC back to
sterling, which is all they're really interested in.

Add on whatever fees you pay to get hold of the BTC in the first place and you
have quite an expensive system.

~~~
celticninja
of course, there really is no need to pay fees to exchange BTC for GBP.
Posting a sell ad on bitcointalk.org is likely to net you someone who will
take them off you for between 2 and 5% above mtgox daily average.

~~~
Nursie
Ah, so an unofficial/casual exchange method, with higher risk. Awesome.

------
ijager
De Waag in Delft, The Netherlands also accepts Bitcoin: [http://www.de-
waag.nl/Stadscafe/Bitcoin](http://www.de-waag.nl/Stadscafe/Bitcoin) (Dutch)

It's great to see people experimenting with Bitcoin. I'd love to see it
develop further as a currency.

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fqsxr
Isn't one idea behind Bitcoin anonymity? Then I would blow my identity when I
pay in a pub right?

~~~
ig1
Bitcoin is the opposite of anonymous, every transaction is available in the
public ledger.

You can build anonymity on top of it by using throw away accounts, but it's
not an inherent part of the system.

~~~
samweinberg
Exactly, paying with a credit card is more anonymous than paying with Bitcoin.
With the former, only the CC company, the merchant, and presumably the
government can see what you purchased. With Bitcoin, anyone with a blockchain
explorer can see your when and how much you transacted.

~~~
dmix
That's a bit inaccurate, your identify isn't attached toe the Bitcoin public
ledger. It also has to be inferred through 3rd parties such as your wallet or
some BTC exchange.

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ValentineC
It's a pity that they're still pricing the drink against a fiat currency (in
this case, Sterling).

I look forward to a day when I'll be able to pay a consistent 0.05/0.1 BTC for
a pint.

~~~
dewitt
> _I look forward to a day when I 'll be able to pay a consistent 0.05/0.1 BTC
> for a pint._

The value of a bitcoin will have to become less volatile before that day
comes. Compare:

[http://blockchain.info/charts/market-
price](http://blockchain.info/charts/market-price)

With:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Dollar_Index.png](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Dollar_Index.png)

Yes, the value of the dollar also fluctuates, but over 30 years it has ranged
only around 30%. Whereas bitcoin has ranged 4000% in a single year. Not sure
any pub would want to accept that volatility, nor would any patron.

~~~
celticninja
i am sure if you knew its value would rise by 4000% you would happily accept
them, patron perhaps may not want to spend them though.

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bergie
Not too bad, but in my neighbourhood there are several that accept BitCoin:

[http://bitcoinhood.wordpress.com/](http://bitcoinhood.wordpress.com/)

Here is the sticker to look for:
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/bergie/9065253249/](http://www.flickr.com/photos/bergie/9065253249/)

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dataduck
I can confirm from first hand experience that, regardless of the quality of
the Bitcoin transaction experience, the quality of the beer here is absolutely
top notch. Also the food is very good and they have a pretty decent selection
of board games behind the bar. Highly recommended if you can endure the trek
out to Hackney - if you're interested in checking the pub out, you won't be
disappointed.

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jarek
Also, some places accept Canadian Tire Money! At par!

~~~
dubcanada
lol Oh Canadian Tire money.

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zende
It's interesting to hear about offline merchants accepting bitcoins. I wonder
how much of it has to do with the fixed card processing fees as a component of
the small transaction size.

The goal would seem to be when the restaurant can pay their bills in bitcoins,
so they never have to convert it to a fiat currency at all.

~~~
kamkazemoose
I also wonder how much of it is novelty/PR. This move gets a lot more people
talking about them, and you'll get some people who just want to spend bitcoins
in meatspace.

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samweinberg
Not only will accepting Bitcoin help this pub save some money on fees, it is
very likely attract some new customers who happen to be Bitcoin enthusiasts.
Win-win!

~~~
astrodust
Not only do you get dinged when you exchange Bitcoins peer to peer, but you
get hit again when you go to cash out through a broker.

It's an interesting experiment, but don't think there aren't any fees. The
nominal amount a credit card company collects is lower.

------
lepunk
i think this is the moment when we can say that bitcoin became a real
currency. [imo a currency is something what you can use to buy beer]

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triplesec
IT's a chain of 4 pubs in 4 cities, as is apparent if you oh so cunningly go
to the root URL

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magoon
The fact that this is news sheds light on how obscure Bitcoin is as currency.

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kryten
Writing up the accounting and distributing tax for that must be a bugger.

~~~
danw
I think bitcoins just count as assets

~~~
ValentineC
They probably get taxed as income at the point they're converted into
Sterling. (I'm not an accountant or lawyer.)

Does anyone think Bitcoin might gain greater adoption if more accountants and
lawyers knew how to advise their clients?

~~~
mikeash
Are BTC different from accepting any other non-cash asset as payment? It's not
really a foreign concept, just a new example of it.

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alex_doom
Jesus that's so simple... But I think I'll stick with cash.

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loaristys
Strange that such a budget website would accept bitcoins.

~~~
theoh
It's not "budget", it's a computer scientist's idea of minimal markup. Like
the first google search page. See story here:
[http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/17/london-
bitcoi...](http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/17/london-bitcoin-pub)

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AndrewDucker
How long do you have to wait for confirmation/

~~~
bdamm
When I've made bitcoin payments, confirmations have usually reached a
sufficient threshold in 30 seconds or less. That doesn't mean that your
transaction has made it into the blockchain, only that enough servers have
validated that your transaction is good based on their state and that they
will hold your transaction until it is in the blockchain.

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mattbarrie
Prepare to be extradited!

