Subway, the world’s largest franchise by number of restaurants, has begun accepting Bitcoin as payment in three of its outlets in Berlin as part of an experiment with the crypto network. The franchise had previously experimented with Bitcoins in Moscow almost 13 years ago. The owner of the Subway outlet, Daniel Hinze, who has been dealing with cryptocurrencies for the past five years, believes that Bitcoin could be a better money system. Hinze has also offered a 50 percent discount for a week to customers who pay using Bitcoin.
Lipa, a Swiss-based Bitcoin company, has partnered with Hinze to implement a point-of-sale solution in the store through a QR code enabled by Lightning, which allows for smooth and fast transactions. The CEO of Lipa, Bastien Feder, claims that Lipa’s charge of 1 percent for its merchants is cheaper than traditional payment systems.
Experts have praised the initiative, as crypto adoption is still in its early stages in Europe and such practices will help the industry grow. Additionally, users can enjoy cheaper payment options through the peer-to-peer network of payments.