News

Subway franchisee accepts Bitcoin payment

November 12, 2013

A Subway customer named Adam Welsh recorded his meal transaction using bitcoins as a payment, and posted the experience on YouTube. The customer heard of a Subway in Allentown, Pa., accepting bitcoins as payment and made a two-hour drive to make the purchase.

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, which has become an increasingly popular form of payment since its inception nearly four years ago.

"For all you naysayers who say you can't buy anything with bitcoin, you can't do anything with Bitcoin, I'm going to prove you wrong today," Welsh said in the video.

After the transaction, the customer said there were some technical difficulties with the currency and the employee on duty had to call his boss to walk him through it, but otherwise there were no issues.

The customer's $12.35 meal translated to .04 in Bitcoin currency.

Subway has also reportedly begun accepting Bitcoin payments in some Russia restaurants.

There were numerous reactions to Welsh's video, many of them expressing excitement about the fledgling trend.

"Even though the transaction didn't go smoothly, this is exciting. Looks like 3rd party processing services are necessary for point of sale transactions. No way can every transaction at a restaurant, retail store or anywhere else we want to pay in BTC take that long," wrote one viewer.

"Not only is it ridiculously cool for businesses to do this, but it can be a great payoff for them, due to the limited supply of bitcoin and rapidly rising prices. They could make huge profits," added another.

"Yeah, most businesses will want bitcoin acceptance integrated with their POS and accounting systems. There's also the possibility of cashiers swapping their own QR codes for the store ones, effectively taking cash from the till as it were; which makes integration all that more important," commented another.

Welsh said the transactions will start going smoother — and faster — once people figure out the Bitcoin concept. He also said "Subway has their money instantly; no waiting a day for the credit card company to take their fees."

Check out his video:

Read more about digital and mobile trends.