A café and indoor houseplant shop in Metfield has become the first business in East Anglia to accept Bitcoin payments.
Owners of the Suffolk Jungle Room, Sam Coe and Tony Prince said that business has been booming since they first opened their doors in February – and now they've added another string to their bow.
Sam said: “It’s been going really well. We have a fantastic customer base. It's mainly card payments nowadays, post-Covid. There is less cash than we expected coming into the business.”
It was Tony’s brother, Daniel Prince, who gave them the idea of offering Bitcoin payments.
“Daniel runs a podcast discussing Bitcoin, called Once BITten. He’s quite a big player in the world of Bitcoin,” Sam explained.
Bitcoin is an entirely virtual form of currency. Bitcoins have monetary value, and can be used to make purchases. However, unlike traditional money, there is no bank acting as an intermediate service. Transactions instead go directly from person to person with a record of the transaction stored electronically as part of something called the blockchain.
As the map below shows, The Suffolk Jungle is now the only business in the region to accept this type of payment.
“We can see the future is going to be digital currency, whether it takes five years or ten years. We want to be ready, and out there offering that payment,” agreed Tony.
From July 5, The Suffolk Jungle began accepting Bitcoin payments, with the first transaction made by Daniel Prince.
Sam and Tony look forward to introducing their customers to the world of Bitcoin.
“As a business, we want to tap into every culture, whether it be the average person in Metfield who just wants to buy a coffee and a cake, or someone from further afield who wants to come in and make a Bitcoin payment and talk about that,” said Tony.
“People assume that we’re in the middle of rural Suffolk, but Bitcoin is something that only happens in an inner-city,” added Sam.
“But just because of where we are, that doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t have the chance to change the way they bank and handle their finances.
“Now we’ve brought that opportunity that little bit closer.”
To listen to Daniel's podcast, visit: http://www.once-bitten.com/#/
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