At Barbershop, Shave and a Haircut is 0.0034 Bitcoin

There are a growing number of services that allow and help merchants accept cryptocurrency payments, but all you really need is a digital wallet.

That’s what Ruben Borukhov, owner of East Village Barbershop in New York, found when he decided to start accepting bitcoin when he reopened his business when the spring 2020 COVID-19 lockdown ended.

But he didn’t go to great lengths to make it happen. All he did, Borukhov recalls, was print a “Bitcoin accepted” sign for his window and open a Coinbase wallet with the American cryptocurrency exchange.

“That was the only marketing I did,” Borukhov said. “I put the sign in the window about two years ago and after that people started talking about it, asking me about it, taking pictures and saying ‘Wow, this is the first hair salon I’ve seen that takes crypto, do you take some other crypto than bitcoin?’ I’d say I’ll take any crypto.”

While he’s on social media now, Borukhov said many of those who come in say they saw he accepts crypto in reviews customers read online.

Just a day earlier, Borukhov said he was talking about crypto, and another customer came up and said, “If not for that sign, I would never have gone in. That’s why I come here; because you accept it.”

That’s consistent with what PYMNTS found in its 2022 US Crypto Consumer Study, which found that 23% of Americans own or owned crypto in the past 12 months, and that many said they would do business with a company that accepts crypto payments.

See also: The data point: 23% of US consumers owned cryptocurrency in 2021

About 27% of respondents said they “definitely” or “probably” prefer to do business with merchants that accept crypto—a number that climbed above one-third for millennials. And broken down by income demographics, 27% of crypto owners say they are “extremely” or “very” likely to switch to a merchant that takes crypto payments.

More common

Between that sign and when people see others paying in cryptocurrencies, he said, the conversations it’s started in his store made him realize “how much my customers actually have crypto — it’s a big percentage of the young generation.”

And while New York’s expensive, popular, youth-centric East Village isn’t the most representative of neighborhoods, Borukhov said he’d guess half of his younger customers own crypto “and 80% want to talk about it.” Some are a little skeptical, he adds, but many are interested.

Beyond that, over the past two years, Borukhov said, people have only been coming in to ask about the bitcoin token, with the most common crypto payments being made in bitcoin and ethereum, not surprisingly.

“It has brought, not much, but a good number” of clients, Borukhov said. Not everyone is a paying customer who needs a haircut when they come in, he added. “But it gets them in the door.”

Starting

Unlike many merchants who take crypto payments by working with payment processors that allow people to pay at the point of sale with crypto while giving the merchants dollars, Borukhov said he keeps the crypto he gets paid.

“For now, I just keep it, I believe in bitcoin,” he said.

The payment process is quite simple, Borukhov added, comparing it to paying with Venmo. “For the younger generation, it’s easier than cash,” he said. “They just take out the phone, click, click, they’re done.”

A couple of customers took their first steps into crypto at his store, he said.

“They would create their account on Coinbase then and there and transfer the money from their bank account to buy bitcoin to send to me.”

That said, the finality issue with bitcoin, ether and other cryptos comes into play, he said, noting that crypto payments can involve waiting around five to 10 minutes.

Sometimes they hang around and talk about crypto, Borukhov said. Others pay when the haircut starts or even a few minutes before they arrive.

Others don’t pay but tip via bitcoin, he said. “So, I don’t care, they’ll send to me in 10, 20, 30 minutes when they get home.”

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