“It wasn’t useless”… Spending a day with Bitcoin [르포] By Bloomingbit

Experience of living a day with Bitcoin Payment, possible in 1 second through a dedicated wallet Payment for virtual assets, there are still more disadvantages than advantages It has become a payment method in Europe and Africa, heating up the virtual asset (cryptocurrency) community last September . US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump personally bought a hamburger with Bitcoin (BTC). Trump handed out burgers to customers at the time and said, “This is a virtual asset burger.”

Of course, Trump’s use of Bitcoin to pay for a hamburger may have been simply part of the election campaign, but it was significant in that he was the first U.S. president to use a virtual asset as a payment method.

I was curious. How are virtual assets used in general stores and restaurants? I decided to satisfy my curiosity by experiencing Bitcoin payments myself.

“Bitcoin payments are slow?”… Convenient payment if you know how

Living with Bitcoin

When I searched the ‘BTC Map’ site, which shows Bitcoin payment locations, I found about 16 Bitcoin payment stores accessible by public transportation in Seoul. I decided to first go to a brunch cafe located in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, the furthest along the route.

This cafe, which arrived after taking the Gyeongui-Jungang Line to Neunggok Station for about an hour, gave off the feel of a ‘Bitcoin cafe’ from the interior decoration, such as hanging Bitcoin-shaped lights. When I asked the owner if it was possible to pay with Bitcoin, the answer came back that I could get a 10% discount if I paid with Bitcoin.

I had never made a Bitcoin payment before, so I asked how to pay. I ran the Satoshi wallet application according to the instructions, scanned the QR code, and the transaction was completed in 1 second. The worry about whether payments could be made with Bitcoin, which is slow to transmit, was unfounded.

There were no other customers at the time, so I was able to chat with the owner. He is said to have introduced Bitcoin payments to implement the Bitcoin economy for local small businesses. Although there are not many customers who make Bitcoin payments yet, it is said that a wide range of customers, from young people to the elderly, actually make Bitcoin payments.

We headed to our next destination. I took the Gyeongui-Jungang Line again to Mangu Station and took Exit 1, where I saw a Bitcoin payment cafe. The first thing I saw at the cafe entrance was a sign saying ‘Bitcoin Accepted’.

I ordered a cup of Americano. The purpose was to check whether small payments of less than 10,000 won could be made with Bitcoin. When I asked the boss for Bitcoin payment, he naturally showed me a QR code on his phone screen, and when I scanned it, 3,000 won worth of Bitcoin was paid from my wallet.

When I asked the CEO why he introduced Bitcoin payment, he said, “I am directly investing in virtual assets, including Bitcoin, and it was interesting that Bitcoin payment was possible, so I introduced it.” After introducing Bitcoin payment, I naturally interacted with customers. I was told, “There are actually quite a few Bitcoin investors among the customers.”

We headed to Wolgok Station, our next destination. I needed to get my hair dyed, and a hair salon in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul said it would accept Bitcoin payments. This place also had a sign posted on the door stating that Bitcoin payments were accepted.

I went in and said I would get my hair dyed and then sat down. After I finished dyeing my hair, I scanned the QR code and completed the payment. After using it a few times, I am now familiar with Bitcoin payments. Lastly, the pizza place right next to the hair salon was also accepting Bitcoin payments, so I had pizza and pasta for dinner and went home.

Cryptocurrency payments still have more disadvantages than advantages

As a result of making direct payments with Bitcoin and talking with the owners of Bitcoin payment places, I felt that the disadvantages of virtual asset payments still stand out more than the advantages.

The advantage is that payment is fast and convenient. The commonly known drawback of Bitcoin’s ‘slow transmission speed’ could be solved through infrastructure. The Satoshi wallet actually used by the reporter uses the Lightning Network, a layer 2 payment protocol built on the Bitcoin blockchain, and supports immediate payments. If you are investing in virtual assets, it is also advantageous to be able to make payments using virtual assets with fast transfer speeds, such as Bitcoin and (), without the need to separately exchange them for cash.

The downside is that the number of domestic virtual asset payment merchants is very limited. According to BTC Map, there are currently about 62 stores in Korea that accept Bitcoin payments. Even these are concentrated in large cities such as Seoul and Busan, so it is still insufficient for virtual asset payments to become a part of everyday life.

Also, according to another map application, Bitcoin payments are available in over 100 places in Seoul alone, but when I called them directly, most of them responded that they had withdrawn Bitcoin payment services or did not accept them if possible. Regarding the reason for withdrawing the Bitcoin payment service, one store owner said, “We originally introduced the Bitcoin payment service for promotional effects, but as the price of Bitcoin fell, interest naturally waned. “We decided to withdraw because we thought there was no need to maintain the service any longer,” he said.

The volatility of virtual assets is also a problem to be solved. In fact, many store owners and customers are reluctant to pay with virtual assets because of this. For example, if the price of the virtual asset rises 10% the day after using a virtual asset worth about 10,000 won for payment, you actually spent 11,000 won to purchase a product worth 10,000 won. Conversely, if the price of the virtual asset goes down, the store owner will be selling a product worth 10,000 won at a cheaper price. A store owner who introduced Bitcoin payments said, “Virtual asset payments have decreased sharply this year when virtual asset prices have risen sharply.”

Virtual assets have become a payment method in Europe and Africa

While looking at the BTC map, I also discovered something new. Thousands of stores in Europe, Africa, North America, and South America are already using Bitcoin as a payment method.

Korea has a safe legal currency, the won, and has a high-quality remittance and payment infrastructure, so virtual assets are not considered a necessary payment method.

However, in light of the fact that virtual assets are being incorporated into the system around the world and that countries are adopting Bitcoin as legal tender one by one, it seems likely that the virtual asset payment market will grow further in the future.

In particular, currency substitution using virtual assets is very active in the African region. It is said that people prefer virtual assets over fiat currency due to hyperinflation caused by failed government policies and lack of financial infrastructure.

Hwang Seok-jin, a professor at Dongguk University’s Graduate School of International Information Security, said, “Originally, mobile payments were prevalent in Africa due to a lack of financial infrastructure. In such a situation, the value of currency became unstable, so Bitcoin and other virtual assets came to be frequently used for payments.” did it

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