Bitcoin Forum

A guy has opened a physical (paper) bitcoin shop in London, let's hope it is a success and we see more like it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2562854/Bitcoin-Its-not-just-online-Britains-physical-shop-virtual-currency-bought-opens-London.html

This is cool. If anyone is around, go support him.

A bit ahead of its time but cool anyway :)

its gonna be uge

more will follow  ;D
great project!

This is really cool news. I wonder when this will expand.

When we go out and support his business.

nice. thanks for posting. :)

London.. too far with me..

Nice. 2% commission seems pretty fair. Quite tight margins to operate within though, that's like £8 per bitcoin bought

ok

A short video of how it works  in the shop.

http://www.cityam.com/blog/1392737536/video-we-take-look-around-europes-first-bitcoin-shop

It just sells Bitcoins and that's it? I doubt business will exactly be booming.

I so that picture yesterday (the news went pretty high). The man gets quite a publicity, at least in this subreddit. I wish him well.

If only sub-reddit popularity equated real-world sales.

these days we need more good news that's a good start!

that's greate!

Earlier instance of that article has a link to a video with the owner.. http://www.cityam.com/article/1392771949/first-bitcoin-shop-opens-its-doors-here-city

Unclear what the fees are they charge. The website appears to be just a collecting point http://Azte.co

I concur.
Am I the only one that finds it strange that he does not have a big sign or anything related in front of his shop or against the display window? ???

It is a bit strange and this will just haemorrhage money daily if this is all it is. I bet he's just done it for a bit of publicity. He must be doing something else with that shop. He can't just be sat inside on a desk hoping that on the off chance someone will come in and buy a tiny bit of Bitcoin from him ;D.

yes it is! Keep it going and I wish you all best!

Quite fascinating i'll say, 2% commission seems pretty fair, i'll suggests if they also sell goods and only accept bitcoins that will be more logical and will attract more customers. 

more BTC customers indeed! :)

And we need it. They need it. World need it!

I'd personally love to support it if it was reasonably feasible for me. Too bad this can't work in the U.S. with the way things are...

I think physical stores accepting BTC for goods is still in its infancy (with confirmations times, market price fluctuations and the sort). But the convenience provided by this shop as a gateway to using BTC is a wonderful thing. I can't wait to see how this expands and changes.

I wonder if this guy knows about zip-zap?

Apparently not. Ironically, I bet there's several zip-zap stores near him  :D. Anyone know the postcode of this store so I can check?

Will be interesting to see how many of these shops open in the coming year. Wonder what sort of markup he has per bitcoin?

Unless it's about a million percent, not enough to sustain a business and premises  ;D.

Could'nt find the postcode but according to Zip Zap there's about 12 stores in the Shoreditch area.

Somebody best go tell him then. If I was in London I'd pop round myself and see what exactly is going on.

I wonder how long it'll be till we see the first bitcoin convenience store that accepts BTC only. Now that would be cool.

That's a long way off I reckon. I'm sure some will start accepting Bitcoin within a year or so, but I can't image there's much demand for it yet.

Maybe I should pass by and buy some BTC for him just to help out... I'll be flying to London next week (though no worries, it's obviously not just for this!).

The rent and rates alone must be a few quid.

Hope it all works out for him.

This is why we should support him!

Here it is.


The Azteco Store
19 Goulston Street
London
England
E1 7TP
+1 (714) 947-3425

https://www.azte.co/vendors/vendors.html

+1 (714) 947-3425  doesn't look like a UK phone number to me? I'll stop by if I get a chance.

It doesn't look like one to me either.

the guy at azteco hires a shop just to have a desk and a laptop. if i was him i would put in some must have items like sandwiches, fruitjuice and other stuff people can buy with bitcoins.

there is no point wasting all that floor space just for a 6 foot by 3 foot desk

Should be +44.

Cheaper than Zip Zap, no?

I'll swing by next week.

Great news! I wish it's going well as he is going ahead and wish it's right time he started his business otherwise it won't be successful

So they sell physical coins then?

Im going to pop by this place and purchase 0.5 may 1 BTC.
It.s a great idea thus I will show my support.
Will let you know how smooth it was !

Nope. Essentially just a paper wallet.

For a fee assumedly? I'm off to buy a printer too than :P

Of course. Wouldn't be much of a business if he did it for free  :D.

So who is the target audience on this? Is it currency exchange as well then?

I doubt he'll have much of a customer base at all, but I can only assume his target base are people who want to buy bitcoins quickly for cash.

Hmmm I would definitely stop by here, if he sells at good rates... Probably better than Local Bitcoins.

Zipzap offer a similar service and they're all over the UK.

Hmm, well I suppose it will depend on rates then.

Has anyone of this forum payed him a visit yet?

So did I, the title of the thread makes it seem that way.

So, I dropped by this afternoon and it's everything it appears to be. Akin is very cool and obviously clued in; cool as in, he got his Bitcoin's a couple of years ago from Amir Taaki. He's moving with the times relative to MtGox and switched from a simple price averaging that included them, to looking now at BitStamp and others for a good real price, to which he adds 3% commission - so, not the high end of localbitcoins and I expect might be cheaper than ZipZap and the ATMs though I don't know what those are just yet.

He's only been open since Monday and surprised by the attention already, though I suspect also rather enjoying it.

I mentioned bitcointalk in passing, which he was apparently unaware of; he noted the idea of selling other items for Bitcoin but I suspect he's got plenty enough to do already. No plans for alt-coins just yet but realistic about those in the future, if they ever dissociate from BTC and have real world potential etc.

Highly recommended then. Akin good to do business with and the process he has setup is as simple as can be. You pay whatever you want and get a receipt with a code to redeem later to any address you want. That receipt of coins then is very fast and so I had mine around the 70secs the ticket suggested.

 8)

Really hoping it works out for him. We just need more things to spend bitcoin on here in the UK. Scan.co.uk taking coins is awesome we just need more to follow suit. In fact I'm going to email a company about this tonight.

good! :)

UK will help so much to bitcoin!

awesome!

Great news, thanks for the info.

Not sure how 3% commission can cover the overheads of having a shop in London, but best of luck to him either way.  Already mentioned it to some friends who are heading in to London at the weekend.

I can't imagine him getting more than a few customers a day. If the market tanks how is he going to remain in profit? In fact, all the prices need to do is dip a bit and he's in the red.

I don't know but he didn't seem particularly concerned; suggesting if it doesn't work here, he'll do the same in Canada or wherever. Perhaps he's just keen to support Bitcoin's development.

I was one of three people that arrived the same time. He's directly opposite a University campus too. I doubt he's going to be short of customers.

> If the market tanks how is he going to remain in profit?

Some of us don't worry about the worst case and just get on and spend time ensuring there is a positive outcome. Reality is rarely worst case or best case but somewhere in-between.

Those who've looked into what Bitcoin is, understand the real potential is far more than most understand at the moment. Coupled with that he's bought from Amir a long while ago, I expect Akin's got an edge there. Indeed he has a poster on the wall 'Bitcoin is not currency', which is spot on. Thinking of Bitcoin as only money is missing the principal capability. Bitcoin gives people a confidence to trade and that is valuable; and that's why anyone recognizing that will be buying into it. Look at what's emerging now in Mastercoin and Ethereum - that's the future. Mainstream is always slow to catch on to what is the future but some developments are inevitable.

How is it not a currency? And what is the principal capability?

Thier price are higher than market a lot?

If I give you something in the real world, you know that I've given it to you.
If I give you something on the internet, to date you can't see that as a unique instance.

The blockchain allows people to transfer ownership with confidence. Currency has a lot to do with confidence but the point about Bitcoin is that it's a ledger. If you and everyone else, acknowledges that ownership of an object is bound to a particular coin, they you can transfer ownership - on the internet - without third parties; that's capability to do trade that hasn't been possible before. These sorts of innovations and developments are what make great leaps forward in economics.

Add to that what the Bitcoin2.0 protocols can do and you're in a world that is beyond our imaginations right now. New capabilities for decentralised organisations etc etc etc. and the mainstream hasn't even got its head around Bitcoin basics yet.. and you're worried about the Bitcoin price tanking ;)

3% commission above main exchanges is lower that I've seen localbitcoins ever offer.

we need more shop like this... it is fantastic... i love a idea... :)

I'm not worried about it tanking, but I would be if I owned a shop that existed solely on 3% commission. I still don't understand how it's not a currency from your post.

This is great. I wonder if he buys to?

The world has not stop Bitcoin

Yes.. he was looking out for opportunities to buy. Apparently a couple of miners had already gone there offering but whether that's enough to cover outgoing, I don't know.

no and it will never stop :)

Bitcoin is just starting my friend!

It needs to spread to other countries.

I think physical stores accepting BTC for goods is still in its infancy
(with confirmations times, market price fluctuations and the sort).
But the convenience provided by this shop as a gateway to using BTC is a wonderful thing.
I can't wait to see how this expands and changes.

The guy's store looks better than him, that tells me he's in it for the long run.  His pricing strategy appears to be on that same level, he wants to appeal to the masses, get the customer list bulked-up so that he becomes a relevant player.

The cryptocurrency industry is still a kid, btc is only 5yrs, and last year it tried to run for the first time -- got a little scraped up but, you know.

That store owner's conservative yet visionary positions in the space is the type of mentality you want leading your currency movement.  His method of customer acquisition only appears  slow to the untrained eye, his model should be seen as accumulative -- where you go from 1 customer to 2 to 4 to 8 etc, as such in a rather stable and reliable way you build a solid customer based, his business roots run as deep as his business branches grow high and wide.


Here's his video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLljw5upsSA

great idea and hope he does well but the shop does look rather odd and uninviting from the outside?!

It appears to be just the way the photo is taken...

oh well indeed!

It will soon I hope ...


Here in poland thing are getting better and better.

But all those prices drops from last times stops people a bit with their plans and investitments into Bitcoin support I think..

Can anyone give me the address of this place? I'm staying in E1 at the moment, would love to go check this place out!

2nd page of this thread.

The Azteco Store
19 Goulston Street
London
England
E1 7TP
+1 (714) 947-3425

The photog is showing you the best side, believe me, I saw the video.

Nevertheless, if you look at the service for what it is you stand to appreciate the bare bones a bit more.





bravo Roslinpl

Thanks! Going to take a walk there later I think.

With the btc prices at where they are you better take a sack of cash with you.

Haha :) or take Mark Karpeles with you :P he know how to get more btc :D

Well since Gox cleared me out I guess I need to catch a train to London to get back into the game.

Does anyone know if he has lower and upper limits for cash transactions? Also will I be able to chill in his shop and redeem the code to my cold storage there and then?


Working hard raising fiat atm so if anyone is interested my libertarian sisters are for sale/hire for 10 btc each.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CXsM9Foa4wE/UQ3Y5cV64PI/AAAAAAAANtc/y5gvDLIFPYg/s640/mninetymileszrwvEx1qmfvcio1_500.jpg

Note: sisters are virtual and/or made up.

I'm going to be going to check it out at the weekend and see if theres a good deal to be had

Good start we need more shops...

Goulston Street? May be I can go to have a look...  :D

This is one good news and we need to have more of this to support this man.

Yeah! He done very good job for support Bitcoin - I hope he will be supported too!

Cheers and all best !

Made a trip to London to buy some Bitcoin from Azteco and show my support. Journey took nearly 2 hours , didn't have much trouble finding the place. but hey, guess what? The damn place was closed. Needless to say I won't be buying anything from Azteco now or in the future. Lost my custom.

Hey Azteco, if you're going to run a shop at least be open during opening hours.

lol, probably gone out of business already.

bummmer, bad enough the market is down for btc overall, and not really suited for storefront sales either, but to lose a customer who has traveled over 2 hrs to get there, that is a real shame.  

Was there no phone number to call?  did you leave a note for him to call you?   This doesn't serve the interest of either of you, I sincerely hope you guys work it out.

Please provide follow-up.  

this does not bode well at all




not difficult to happen considering all there is to consider

Perhaps that shop isn't a permanent feature!.. http://aztecobitcoin.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/an-amazing-week-at-azteco/ "The PopuP outlet at Goulston Street will not be there forever!"! No obvious detail on the twitter but he's got +1 (714) 947-3425 (voicemail); so perhaps check before heading out.

So it was a pop up shop? That would make more sense.

pop-up or not, for the time his 'pop' is 'up' he should communicate with his potential customers in a way that will enable him to be reached, presuming he got the space to do business.

A black man opening a Bitcoin store. Everyone will lose their shit! Seriously though good for him.

Also I love how ignorant and stupid the comments on the article are.


"Another ponsi style scheme for people easily parted with their money." "Guess how many hackers are working on ways of making them all suddenly disappear from your account".

Shows you how far we are from real mainstream adoption...

I thinks its a cool idea and should be supported but he should not get selling for btc a mainstream as there won't be many a day coming in and paying in BTC also accept cc and £ like noral stores do :) I wish him luck though !!