How to set up coffee shop to accept Bitcoin in the UK

[Futureshock]

Hi guys,

I've had a request from a coffee shop this week to help them to accept Bitcoin in the UK. Good news.

Does anyone have any tips? Please note this is the UK (not US, etc)  - i.e. I'm pretty sure that you couldn't simply use Bitpay / Coinbase and get sterling into the merchant's bank account at the end of each day because of the current banking restrictions in this country. So there's two questions:-

1. If the merchant's in no rush for sterling: I'd just suggest getting a tablet and using Bitpay's Bitcoin Checkout app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitpay.checkout). Seems like a really straightforward interface.

Mind you, it's not clear to me how they could *easily* transfer these bitcoins (it's unlikely to be significant sums) into sterling at a future date - although this is likely to be less of an issue initially as these businesses have bought into the overall concept.

2. If the merchant does want sterling however: is there any way of setting this up automatically in the UK? There seem to be real issues around this.

Thanks a lot for your help guys.   

[ChuckBuck]

Here are some options that maybe of use to help you setup:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/How_to_accept_Bitcoin,_for_small_businesses

If it's a Android tablet, perhaps Blockchain's app for POS:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=info.blockchain.merchant

This one looks like it's device independent and OS independent:

https://coinofsale.com/

Hope this helps.

[BillyBobZorton]

I know a guy accepting Bitcoin in his comic shop. It's pretty rudimentary, he didn't even bother with Bitpay or whatever. He has his own wallet in his main computer at home (bitcoin-qt), he created a payment address, made a QR code, got the QR code printed in a A4 paper, puts this paper in the desk where people can scan it to pay. To check if the payment went through he simply checks his address in blockchain.info which he always has in a firefox tab on his laptop. That's all.

[locopao]

I know a guy accepting Bitcoin in his comic shop. It's pretty rudimentary, he didn't even bother with Bitpay or whatever. He has his own wallet in his main computer at home (bitcoin-qt), he created a payment address, made a QR code, got the QR code printed in a A4 paper, puts this paper in the desk where people can scan it to pay. To check if the payment went through he simply checks his address in blockchain.info which he always has in a firefox tab on his laptop. That's all.

That's the best solution in my opinion, but might be a problem if he needs to give customers receipt from the cash register.

[Futureshock]

Thanks all for your comments - a few useful links there. Looks like the process itself is pretty straightforward it's just the same old story about trying to convert BTC to GBP after the sale that presents a few problems (here in the UK at least).

Re the question about giving customers a receipt from the sale - I could be entirely wide of the mark here but I suspect that we're still at the stage in the cycle where if someone wants to pay using Bitcoin, they'll be sufficiently up to speed that they can check the blockchain themselves for proof! ;-)