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A London pub now accepts payment in Bitcoin

individualpubs.co.uk

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Re: A London pub now accepts payment in Bitcoin

#11

Post by dasil003 »

CiaranR wrote: post #2

The pub is in Hackney - 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...

Looks like an excellent beer selection as well.

Re: A London pub now accepts payment in Bitcoin

#12

Post by wittysense »

fqsxr wrote: post #6

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

? You're confusing security with anonymity. The bitcoin mining strategy ensures that transactions are secure, untampered (ID theft? counterfeit bills? credit hijacking?), thus securing anonymity if it is developed (throw away accounts, as said above) when and where needed.

The problem with classical currency is that anyone can spoof anyone else and the system inherently cannot prevent this. Fraud correction is a painstaking manual/organic process involving customer service, account IDs, and headache.

Re: A London pub now accepts payment in Bitcoin

#14

Post by Spittie »

fqsxr wrote: post #6

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

While bitcoin can be anonymous (buy with cash, use a mixing service, change your bitcoin address every time, only pay over tor/i2p), they aren't made for that. Also keep in mind that every transaction is public, even if it can't be traced back to you.

See https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Anonymity for more informations

Re: A London pub now accepts payment in Bitcoin

#16

Post by dewitt »

ValentineC wrote: post #10

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.

> 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

With:

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.

Re: A London pub now accepts payment in Bitcoin

#17

Post by TomGullen »

ValentineC wrote: post #10

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.

They can't price on BTC until Bitcoins have more utility. At the moment the only utility Bitcoins have for the pub owners is to convert into cash so they have to peg them on sterling.

Re: A London pub now accepts payment in Bitcoin

#18

Post by bdamm »

AndrewDucker wrote: post #15

How long do you have to wait for confirmation/

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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