After two months since its launch, world's first Bitcoin Boulevard in The Hague is still attracting bitcoiners from around the world who want to spend their money on a strong cup of coffee or a chilled beer.
Transcript
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[Music] A cup of strong coffee at the 7:00 espresso bar in the H normally costs €220. But they're also happy to take Bitcoin from their customers. Located on Wagon Strat, 7:00 is just one of the shops that make up Bitcoin Boulevard, a collection of Bitcoin accepting merchants. The project started by Peter Clasen and Hendrickk Jan Hillbilling aims to put the Hague on the map of the Bitcoin world.
They say the idea began as a joke but quickly grew into something more serious with now around 10 shops making up Bitcoin Boulevard. It started off as a as a joke more or less. Pete and me uh were drinking a beer and we said, "Well, we have now one restaurant, one friend of us. Why let let's not do the whole street?" And it took us about one month to u to convince all the shops and restaurants.
The merchants were new to digital currency but dive straight into the project after the benefits of accepting Bitcoin were explained to them. We we told them that it it would yeah they they would get a lot of attention uh so publicity uh that maybe they would get more customers uh that the group of Bitcoin users is another group than the than their traditional guests. So they would attract new a new group of uh customers. Officially launched on March 20th, 2014, Bitcoin Boulevard has received global attention, far more than Peter and Hendrick expected.
Now, people from other Dutch cities like Amsterdam, as well as further a field, are contacting Peter and Hendrickk to set up something similar in their own communities. For Hendrickk, there's a certain pride that the Hague and its citizens are leading the way in the acceptance of Bitcoin. It's a ancient history because uh with internet Amsterdam was in fact the first in Holland to to pay attention to it. They create a digital city and then the H came afterwards and now we had a second chance we thought with Bitcoin and um we said well we will be the first city in Holland that created the first street that Bitcoin accepts.
So we are a bit of ahead of Amsterdam. The next phase of Bitcoin Boulevard is making it even easier for merchants to accept payments. That's where Bit My Money comes in. The Dutch payments processor has started installing a point of sale system in the participating restaurants and cafes.
They get a proof of payment immediately. So, we take the the risk of maybe a double spend. It's also that they get a signal that has been paid. If you have only a QR code fixed to an address, you have to like check on the mobile of the customer to see if the payment was really sent.
So that's one thing. And they get the payment at the end of the week, the exact amount that they asked from the customer. The guys behind Bitcoin Boulevard only expected to get local attention. But two months on, this beautiful street has attracted Bitcoiners from all over the world.
Reporting from Bitcoin Boulevard in the HEG, this is Cadam Sher for Coindesk.