A small Kenyan restaurant is driving up cryptocurrencies appetite after introducing bitcoin payment

A restaurant in Nyeri Town called Betty’s Place has spiked cryptocurrencies curiosity and appetite among the residents of the once sleepy town after it introduced bitcoin payments.
Unlike traditional hard currencies, bitcoin also allows Ms. Wambugu to earn extra income.
A Kenyan man last year hit national headlines after he

Despites its obscurity, a Kenyan restaurant is determined to make cryptocurrencies an accepted form of payment used by even ordinary Kenyans in their daily life and competing with the likes of Mpesa and other forms of online payment.

A restaurant in Nyeri Town called Betty’s Place has spiked cryptocurrencies curiosity and appetite among the residents of the once sleepy town after it introduced bitcoin payments.

Ms Beatrice Wambugu, the restaurant owner, said she decided to introduce bitcoin payments as an effort towards demystifying cryptocurrencies and pushing for its acceptance among Kenyans.

“Since I am the kind of person that likes to embrace new trends and I would like other people to adopt this technology as well, I decided to accept bitcoin payments in my restaurant. It is a form of payment just like M-Pesa and cash.” She told Kenyan Wall Street during a phone interview.

So far, Betty’s Place has received three bitcoin payments averaging at Sh500 ($5) as customers experiment to find out how BTC works.

Unlike traditional hard currencies, bitcoin also allows Ms. Wambugu to earn extra income through a platform that pays its users in bitcoin every time they refer a friend.

The platform operates on a learn as you earn basis.

According to Ms. Wambugu, most customers are unaware of bitcoin, a fact that is most likely true across all the counties in the country. However, the situation is slowly changing and more and more Kenyans are going out of their ways to learn about cryptocurrencies.

According to Google Trends, the most bitcoin searches in the past twelve months have taken place in Nairobi and Mombasa.

A Kenyan man last year hit national headlines after he swapped cows for bitcoins as dowry.

Anthony Mburu, who hails from Naivasha made news after he used Bitcoins as dowry payment to Elizabeth John, surprisingly, Elizabeth parents accepted the smart dowry

Meanwhile, Parliament has given Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich two weeks to decide whether cryptocurrencies will become legal tender in the country.

On Tuesday, Mr. Rotich dismissed cryptocurrencies saying the fall of the bitcoin from a peak of $19,300 in February 2017 to $8,500 in February 2018 demonstrated its instability.

Mr. Rotich told MPs that like any other developing technology, the government was yet to determine whether or not trade in cryptocurrencies will be allowed to thrive. He said discussions were ongoing globally to regulate the trade in virtual currency to minimise risks including money laundering.

“I am not aware of people operating locally. But I will endeavour to find out whether we have local exchangers. The issue of cryptocurrencies is evolving and we can take a position as a country. This is a delicate balance between supporting innovation and killing it,” Mr Rotich said.