Can I pay in bitcoin?Can I pay in bitcoin?
I bought a coffee with sats yesterday. It was impressive how unimpressive it was.
I ordered an espresso for myself and a hot chocolate for my son and when the barista rang it up I asked, "Can I pay in bitcoin?"
He said, "Of course" and tapped something on the register. The screen in front of me displayed a QR and an amount in sats. I scanned it and paid in a few seconds. It felt very similar to paying by credit card.
There wasn't any fanfare, no surprise on the barista's face, it didn't feel like anything special.
Was it the most peer-to-peer payment I've ever made?Was it the most peer-to-peer payment I've ever made?
I have no idea whether the coffee shop is keeping the sats or if they were automatically converted to dollars in their bank account. I am certain they aren't using their own lightning node and that they don't have any channels.
I was using Phoenix wallet -- which means my wallet only has one channel (with the Phoenix LSP) and if they were to deny me service, I can't even manually open a channel with another LSP. I would need to send my sats out via the chain (the app does allow you to connect to a custom electrum server).
This payment was hardly free of third parties.
And yet, it felt like the closest I have come to using bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
It's not a peer-to-peer electronic cash system if nobody accepts it in tradeIt's not a peer-to-peer electronic cash system if nobody accepts it in trade
It's no secret that Bitcoin is most encumbered at the on and off ramps. I can send it to anyone, anywhere, anytime and no one can stop me -- but as soon as a person tries to convert it to fiat, everything falls apart.
Mostly, exchanging fiat means kyc and using the traditional banking system. If you want to avoid these things, you can use Peach, Robosats, or Bisq, but unless you are paying in cash, you are probably touching the traditional banking system somewhere (credit card payment for a gift card, PayPal or Wise to send fiat to the bitcoin seller).
While there are more and more places that accept bitcoin, growth in such merchants has been slow and is not widespread.
Which means most of what we do with our bitcoin is buy it with fiat or sell it for fiat.
My exchange is everywhere I spend bitcoinMy exchange is everywhere I spend bitcoin
Our financial systems have become highly effective tools for governments to exert control over us. But it's possible the architects of this system made a mistake: they rely on centralized systems.
My bitcoin payment at the coffee shop yesterday revealed a huge crack in the walls they are trying to build around us. If I can pay for things directly in bitcoin, I can skip all their controls.
Sure, the merchant was kyc'd seven different ways, but my payment was not. I could have taken a picture of the QR code and posted it on the internet. Anyone in the world could have paid it. I could have paid it with any lightning wallet. I could have paid it with an atomic swap from an onchain wallet. I could have paid it with an ecash wallet.
The more we can pay bitcoin for the goods and services of our daily lives, the less likely the kyc regime matters.
More than a report, this is an introduction to ways of using bitcoin without flashy solutions that only want KYC or try to sell junk. All that was missing was the purchase coupon to illustrate. I left a few sats to help pay for this espresso, small but given from the heart.
I do wish I had taken a picture of the terminal when it showed the qr.
Here's a screenshot from Phoenix:
But it's not as cool.
I plan on going around town to check out a few other places. Will report back how it goes.
This is contagious. I need to try the same in my region. But introduce them bitcoin first.
I'll look forward to your reports!
That’s how I imagine it’ll be in the future in any place.
Ideally, no one would ever need to convert to fiat, that’s the whole point of Bitcoin, at least the way I see it!
there ain't many places near me where I can actually pay with sats. Hopefully, that changes down the line.
That has been my feeling, but it is changing. Sometimes you have to go out of your way though, and I'm trying to be more mindful to do that.
Just checked btcmap and a clothes store popped up in my city. Last time I looked, there was zilch. Apart from this one, the closest ones are like 40 km away in another town.
that's pretty far...
Was this transaction at one of the square point of sale terminal that go turned on recently?
It sounded like the barista was not caught off guard by the request. Do you think they had some recent training on how to do this?
Yes. I realize now that I never actually added their name to the post. It was in the first draft I wrote, but somehow I expunged it.
The Square terminal bitcoin flow was incredibly smooth. As fast, if not faster, than credit cards. No confusion on the baristas part. Very cool!
This reminds me of the truckers protest in Canada, correct me if im wrong but the only reason the authorities were able to freeze funds, was because the recipients were trying to off ramp their corn into fiat using centralised exchanges.
If the truckers had left their donations on chain the authorities couldn't have interfered but obviously that would mean that the truckers would have needed the retailers selling the things they need, to be accepting corn 🌽
I agree with you. That was my impression as well.
Peer to peer electronic cash isn't very useful if you always have to peer with a bank or a licensed exchange.
But if you never need to offramp...now we are talking!
Happened on Texas, USA (I believe), for anyone else curious.
Yes very cool, I paid for a fantastic schnitzel in Vienna, Austria a few years ago and similarly the staff didn’t bat an eye. I did, I thought it was so cool, and I am always on the hunt for opportunities to pay by lightning wherever possible. Fwiw, don’t bother in Japan, at least not in 2025.
This is the right way of using Bitcoin.
Thank you for sharing such an awesome and encouraging experience
you can decode the ln invoice in phoenix history to see what service they used
Awesome! Did you find the place via the Cash App map or did you already know about it?
I had been there a number of times before, and I knew they used Square, but I heard from other bitcoin people that they turned it on. So I thought I'd have a look.
Yes it's a huge crack. You're essentially exchanging Bitcoin for goods and services no-ID required. Which the fiat system essentially has been able to slow down... up until now. God Bless J Dorsey
Love the “nothing special” part, but not pure P2P yet (Square and LSPs are real chokepoints). The lever now is density and custody: more places to spend, and more merchants keeping some sats instead of auto‑settling to fiat. Thanks for the field report
Also, not leaving the merchants hanging onto middlemen, either through building smoother self service tools or education (or both), so that they're not all at the mercy of Square's LSP.
It's a major step forward, but resting on our laurels here is hazardous.
It was impressive how unimpressive it was.
Great sentence.
Grab, my country’s version of UberEats, used to allow me to top up my wallet with sats. But it has removed that service last month, perhaps due to poor take-up rate. It’s depressing. One step forward, two steps back
Paying with Bitcoin is always a strange but unique experience; I have paid for my classes with SATs even though I haven't been able to buy anything with them.
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