As we are sure you know, Bitcoin (BTC) is a very new type of currency or cryptocurrency that gained notoriety in 2018 through an astronomical increase in valuation, followed by an equally massive crash by the end of 2018.
To give you a brief background, a cryptocurrency is simply an electronic cash system or something that could be viewed as a digital form of cash. Standard (or fiat) currencies such as the USD are issued and regulated by the Federal Reserve Bank, which helps control the money supply in the economy, ultimately as a centralized regulator for money.
On the other hand, cryptocurrency is a decentralized system whereby no centralized authority must regulate the currency.
There are multiple pros and cons to both types of currency, and information on this widely available all over the internet, so as a coffee company, we are wisely choosing not to go too much into this (!). However, we did want to blog about why we decided to accept BTC alongside USD.
As the world becomes increasingly digital, we believe that cryptocurrency will become a 'normal' way of transacting goods and services. It took approximately a decade before buying and selling things on the internet became a widely adopted method of doing business. These days, not having an online presence would be unthinkable.
The rate at which Bitcoin (and indeed other cryptocurrencies) are being adopted leads us to believe that using these currencies will also become common place, and we are happy to be part of that experimental, iterative learning process that allows these new ideas to develop.
Don Maslow Coffee uses 'Bitpay' as its cryptocurrency merchant of choice as it currently the largest and most secure bitcoin payment processor in the world.