Ed Moyse (25) and Harry Huang (24) are founders of WYRE, a London-based startup that lets you pay friends or shop merchants using the digital currency bitcoin. For November, they have been living off bitcoin as a challenge, and blogging about their experience on www.WYRE.it.
“I think until recently this challenge wouldn’t have been possible, but now enough London merchants are accepting bitcoin for us not to starve”, Harry Huang, founder of WYRE
“It’s certainly been a challenge, as bitcoin adoption is still very low. However, it’s not as low as most people think, and we hope more retailers will get in touch with us”, Ed Moyse, founder of WYRE
Whilst bitcoin adoption has grown rapidly in the last couple of years, this has mostly been with online retailers (for example, computer hardware giant Dell now accepts the digital currency). However, there are still only a handful of brick & mortar retailers accepting bitcoin in London. These are concentrated around Shoreditch, and include Dose Espresso, Bamboo Box, and MacIntyre’s Coffee.
“So far we’ve been eating a lot of Thai food from Bamboo Box – as it’s one of only two restaurants that accepts bitcoin”, Harry Huang, founder of WYRE
For a full listing of retailers that accept bitcoin in London, you can now download WYRE for iOS and Android, which shows a map view of all merchants accepting bitcoin, as well as the growing number of bitcoin ATMs in London.
“Even with it’s limited adoption, we’ve actually found bitcoin to be immensely useful. I never have to run to the cash point, there’s never a £5 minimum, I can instantly split a restaurant bill or pay a friend back… plus it’s great for shop merchants with lower transaction fees”, Ed Moyse
“Of course we’ve had problems as well – such as topping up an Oyster card. We haven’t found a shop that will let us do this yet, but the bitcoin community has helped us out”, Harry Huang
“Even though adoption is low at the moment, I don’t think it will be for long. In future I expect most people will use the Bitcoin technology daily”, Ed Moyse
To keep up with Ed and Harry’s progress, you can follow their blog at www.WYRE.it, or download their app, WYRE, on the App Store or Google Play Store.