Business has been pretty steady. We opened within days +/- the FTX collapse so we had a lot of folks coming in pretty defeated as BTC crashed near 15k. Vibes are definitely higher but there's been an oddly comforting drumbeat to it all. Its business as usual for us. We open the bar, open the kitchen, and welcome folks no matter what the market is doing. Tick tock and all that...

We do see new cohorts of interest -- a lot more TradFi Suits since the ETF approvals and such

Yes absolutely -- a PubKey in every city!

At the moment we're focusing on Philly for our first expansion. We like the idea of keeping PubKeys close to HQ so we can have a solid view into quality control across everything we do. We've also been in talks with a number of Bitcoin communities around the world exploring opportunities to expand via Franchisement.

What city needs a PubKey? We’d love to hear from you. Except for San Francisco. They’re on their own…for now…

If we buy a franchise do we get a few rolls of that distinctive wall paper that is in the meeting room?

Regulation for sure. 10 years of the BitLicense has deeply harmed businesses in NYC from advancing the broader ecosystem. Without this barrier we would be able to explore all sorts of cool functionality around splitting tips, membership/loyalty programs and such.

It can be hard to explain how Lightning works to someone who is new to bitcoin, because it requires a basic understanding of how payment channels and UTXOs work. Customers who come from out-of-state with apps like Strike (not available in New York) have an easier time making Lightning payments, because they are getting something that's more of a Venmo-like experience.

To set up your own self-custodial Lightning wallet on something like Zeus or Phoenix, you have to have some bitcoin on-chain that you can use to open a channel. People get confused why they have to make an initial transaction to send or receive sats on Lightning. This is also why we host monthly Lightning meetups, because there is a lot of education to be done.

we don't have those in Bitcoin

Mike Novogratz was here in February, and we had Max and Stacy for an event last October. We're less than two years old and we'd love to get some bigger names on our speaker list in the year ahead.

We'd be very happy to host a presidential debate.

If we only accepted bitcoin we would not be in business. Our bar is equipped with a Lightning wallet to accept payments in sats, but that is completely optional and is only used by a small number of our patrons. Most prefer to HODL or don't have a Lightning wallet yet.

lol he's only a block away he should. Can't say I've seen him yet...

One of the best tv show opening songs.

So many at this point -- and the range is absurd. Everyone comes to Bitcoin from a different point of view and perspective, so you never know what's going to be a great hook for a crowd or for a very intimate audience.

My personal favorites have been the ones with the most crowd participation. Coin Based series tends hardcore technical and those have been bangers for the hardcore crowd. We had one with Paul from Layer Two Labs that was exceptional (but we borked the audio for the recording because its in our nature ). I also really love the Lightning and Mining Monthly events because they're a rolling, cumulative conversation.

Both events with Meltem & Kelly have been so much fun as well -- pure comedy club atmosphere.

We also hosted an event with the Human Rights Foundation and CATO in February of this year to discuss their global CBDC Tracker website, during which we revealed that we were in possession of an American Flag that had been flown over the U.S. Capitol on December 18, 2023 for the 10th anniversary of the "I AM HODLING" meme. It was accompanied by an official certificate with Senator Elizabeth Warren's signature honoring Satoshi Nakamoto for providing economic freedoms to Americans.

We did just capture 69420 on the ticker a few weeks ago.

Another one I'd throw into the mix is Peter McCormack's WBD with MIchael Sonnenshein discussing Genesis & Grayscale

don't threaten us with a good time -- this week's special is a TAYLOR HAM MAXI because Pork Roll is a shitcoin

You don't say.

Short answer is this is always top of mind as a business, especially one with a kitchen and bar, and that’s before you even think about the bitcoin stuff.

Need Thomas to take this one in more depth, but he just left to catch a flight so he might not see this for a while.

I know, right?

Chopped cheese isn't bad either.

PubKey holds a liquor license, so we're a 21 and over establishment. We do make exceptions for minors who are accompanied by an adult, but during busy times we may not be able to accommodate.

Ethereum.

its pretty hard for us to define strange these days

(un)fortunately tis a meme. no smoking at pubkey -- however a previous bar at 85 Washington was sponsored by Camel Lights at one point long ago

Only if you have a time machine.

consistency is king. start small and build trust with the local community that it will keep going and its worth investing in....

or you could leroy jenkins the ever loving Christ out of it and sign a long term lease with zero experience in hospitality. takes all kinds really..

Yes, but they're secret.

Only the city, huh?

Eating challenges seem so fiat.

A bar would be an interesting place to do journalistic work

This is something we addressed in interview for the New York Post article last month. Around 5% of our customers pay with bitcoin. Some pay exclusively this way, others do it just for the experience of it.

We use a Lightning wallet powered by Zeus, connected to our own node. We discourage on-chain payments because of the confirmation time, however, we've occasionally accepted them in certain instances, such as when someone wants to throw down a large bar tab in advance.

We aim for a payment experience that's as frictionless as possible, because our bar gets busy, and we need to train the staff on how to process these payments. Nothing slows down a bar quite like waiting up to an hour for a fully-confirmed on-chain transaction.

Fiat: Toast

Bitcoin: Zeus on an iPad connected to our node

Cool, we were too!

We answered part this in another thread on this AMA, but it starts with opening more hyperlocal pubs in other cities. Philly is coming in our next phase. We'll consider franchising at some point, but only after we've gotten the formula just right in our wholly-owned locations. We also have plans for other business units, such as growing the media side of the company, hosting bespoke (yeah, that word kinda sucks) private events, and partnerships with non-endemic brands beyond the bitcoin sphere.

We’ll be open at our normal time of 1 PM on Saturday 4/20 with some half-priced bitcoin-only specials starting at 4:20 PM.

Feel free to camp out on the sidewalk in front of the bar. Some people do that all the time.

PubKey is an abbreviation for "public key", a part of the encryption method that makes bitcoin possible. Pub is also an abbreviation for "public house", another word for a tavern. We see taverns and pubs as the places throughout history where revolutions have been started. We're less than 3 miles away from Fraunces Tavern, one of the most important taverns of the Revolutionary War. We're also within walking distance of places where other types of revolutions took place, including The Back Room, Caffe Reggio, CBGB, and the Stonewall Inn. We see PubKey as a continuation of the same counterculture spirit in our era.

Thank you!

Before PubKey existed, there was another dive bar in this location called Formerly Crow's, and before that it was The Stoned Crow. Thomas used to run bitcoin meetups at what was then his neighborhood bar, somewhat embarrassingly called "Crypto at the Crow." When the pub closed down, Thomas and the other cofounders (Andrew and Jerk) partnered with the previous owner Marshall to reopen the bar as PubKey in 2022 after the NYC bitcoin scene (and the city at large) took a major hit during two years of Covid. Apart from BitDevs and other local meetups including Harlem Bitcoin, there wasn't much out there in the way of a purely bitcoin-focused gathering place. One of the best things about it is that it's still a neighborhood dive bar, and many people who come here don't even realize it's a bitcoin bar at first, because a lot of the bitcoin content fades into the background aesthetic and it's waiting to be discovered by those who look for it. Probably 60-70% of our regular customers are pre-coiners.

We also don't see SN as competition at all, because we're a physical space where people connect in the real world, something that even the best digital platforms can't reproduce.

At the end of the day, we're a Pub -- as in Public House. We record most events so those who cannot join the conversation live are still able to participate. Individual participation is not required and privacy is ultimately up to the individual. Come as you are.