UK Bitcoin holders can now spend their digital currency on a bottle of Dodd’s Gin or a 109 Cask, both distilled by The London Distillery Company (TLDC).
TLDC joins a growing list of merchants in London that are now accepting bitcoin. The distillery only opened their digital doors to cryptocurrencies this Monday and have since been surprised by the response from the community.
Chief Executive Darren Rook did not expect such immediate feedback:
“I’ve been amazed by the number of people who actually tried to do transactions through the website. It’s been pretty incredible actually. I don’t think I realised how many people have bitcoin and are looking for services outside of trading.”
Located at the south end of Battersea Bridge, TLDC can be found in an old Victoria dairy. Neighbouring vendors and businesses include an art collective, a boxing gym and a bar.
Rook says that once his business has ironed out all the technicalities with accepting bitcoin, he will bring up the idea to others as well.
“We are looking at our neighbours to say ‘We can accept bitcoin; maybe you should look at it too because we’ll have people coming through.’ Our plan is to iron out the issues that we’ll potentially have and then go to everyone and say this is the opportunity.”
Currently, BitPay has only approved TLDC for transactions under £55 ($100) per day, but they are hoping to raise that limit by the end of the next week. In the meantime, some customers who tried to order pricier items were met with disappointment.
“We saw someone from America trying to do a cask purchase worth £1,000, but because of the authorisation limits we have in place at the moment it couldn’t go through,” says Rook. But, he admits that he is excited to see a new clientele who want to use their bitcoin.
Rook also revealed that TLDC is also considering installing a Bitcoin ATM on site, similar to the machine over the river in the Old Shoreditch Station Cafe. Cheers to that, Londoners.