Programmer spends 69 nights in ‘Bitcoin Cash City’ with only BCH: Here’s how it went

by · November 2, 2022

When programmer Jonathan Silverblood flew to Townsville, Australia from his home in Finland for a two-and-a-half-month vacation in August, he had one main task – pay for everything he could with Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

The coastal city of Townsville is known as “Bitcoin Cash City”, a name derived from a conference of the same name that was first launched in 2019. It is believed to have a large number of merchants that accept the Bitcoin-forked token.

Silverblood said that while attending the conference in 2019, he was intrigued by the number of merchants and vendors offering BCH as a payment option in Townsville and had planned a return to the city once the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.

“Going to this destination was purely about spending BCH and was also kind of an excuse to spend more than I usually do, while also getting more work done by letting my family and kids have a vacation with grandma,” he told Cointelegraph after he returned home from the trip.

“Using it to pay for things while I was there just made sense, partly because I already have my income paid in BCH, and partly because it’s so much less effort than some of the other forms of payment I use.”

Silverblood is a Bitcoin Cash enthusiast and programmer. He has been working in General Protocols for the last three years where his salary is paid in BCH.

He noted that during the 69 nights he spent in the city, he was ultimately able to complete 130 transactions with Bitcoin Cash. These included goods and services at cafes, restaurants and hotels, getting a tooth pulled at a dentist, a haircut and getting a Steam Deck games console repaired.

“Some days were quite busy; we bought breakfast, lunch, ice cream, bread and dinner, but sometimes my family wanted to go elsewhere instead of eating at the specific BCH-accepting merchants.”

Silverblood also made several payments with BCH that were not with businesses in Townsville, including Steam and Netflix gift cards, “plus a few bills at home.”

However, his Bitcoin Cash-funded vacation was not without its hiccups.

Silverblood says his experience using BCH as a payment method was successful, but not “wildly successful” due to issues with payment terminals running out of power, WiFi access and some merchants not being able to offer crypto as an option at the time of payment.

“When I got to Townsville airport I also wanted to pay for a taxi ride to the hotel, but a competing taxi company bought out the taxi company that took BCH, so that was no longer an option.”

He also found that not all merchants were open to the idea of ​​using BCH because they didn’t want to “complicate bookkeeping” and “couldn’t stand the volatility.”

“For most merchants I spoke to during my trip, it seems that the number of customers paying with crypto is just too small to justify additional staff training costs, additional hardware such as WiFi and payment terminals,” Silverblood said.

“Cryptocurrencies are here, and they work, but merchant adoption is slow and scattered, making it difficult to make a full living,” he added.

Silverblood said he also didn’t end up buying plane tickets with BCH, since his family wanted to fly specifically with Qatar Airways, which doesn’t currently accept crypto as a payment method.

This despite the fact that the airline launched its own Metaverse in July.

Related: The 21-year-old received “thought-provoking” questions after teaching crypto to old people

Silverblood and his family have since returned home to Finland, but the programmer is confident that this will not be the last time he will use crypto to pay for goods and services.

“I will definitely try to do something like this again, in just a few weeks I’ll be flying over to another Bitcoin Cash hotspot, St Kitts, for the BCH 2022 conference,” he said.

“I don’t know what to expect there, I’ve heard everything from 100% all sellers accept it, only half do, and sellers will accept it, but you need a special wallet.”