Dope, hope and Bitcoin – A tale of two Amsterdams

For many, Amsterdam is a place that caters to people’s vices: smoking pot, strolling around a fully lit district with sex workers standing in red-lit booths, live sex shows, nightlife and other wild activities. But next to this nightlife and the cyclists who rule every paved surface, Amsterdam is among the top 10 digital currency-friendly cities in the world.

Bitcoin Boulevard

In 2014, 10 merchants along one of the channels decided to accept Bitcoin as a payment method from their customers. Their street became known as Bitcoin Boulevard in The Hague, a suburb of Amsterdam. Almost all shops, vendors and merchants in this street accepted Bitcoin as payment.

I wasn’t able to visit the boulevard in person, but its mere existence made me want to learn more about it as well as Amsterdam’s role in the growing acceptance of Bitcoin.

I learned that in 2013, the Netherlands’ 10th largest online retailer, Thuisbezorgd.nl, a brand owned by European food delivery site takeaway.com, began accepting payments in Bitcoin. The company has around 5,000 restaurants for which they take care of order processing and payment.

Thuisbezorgd also sponsored Bitcoin City in Arnhem, an initiative that aimed to onboard more merchants to accept bitcoins as payment.

Bitcoin ATMs in Amsterdam

My recent visit to the land of the Dutch gave me a good insight into the current state of “crypto” affairs. First and foremost, there is a Bitcoin ATM at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport where travelers can exchange their remaining euros into digital currencies. It was established in 2018 and is the first European airport to offer this type of service.

The city has at least 20 digital currency ATMs and over 40 vendors that accept digital currencies as payment. However, things have changed globally since 2014, and various countries have discussed digital currency regulations to curb and avoid malpractices.

At the time of its establishment, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Director of Consumer Products and Services Tanja Dik said: “Schiphol is constantly looking for ways to innovate and provide optimal service to passengers. With the Bitcoin ATM, we hope to offer a useful service to passengers by allowing them to easily exchange “local” Euros for the “global” cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum. It can be advantageous if, for example, it is not possible to use euros in the home country.”

Bikes and Bitcoin!

The Netherlands certainly seemed to be one of the top bitcoin hotspots in Europe, according to my online research. Arnhem, another city in the Netherlands, is Bitcoin City throughout Europe and perhaps the world.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the Netherlands without bikes, so I set off to discover a bike rental shop that accepted Bitcoin. I didn’t ride there because my brain froze every time I came across these unstoppable cyclists drifting through all lanes, including the pedestrian zebra crossing, which made me miss my second home – the USA in an indescribable way where pedestrians are glorified, protected and accommodated on a plinth. Thanks for the lawsuits, but I’ll take it!

Still, I wanted to find out if bike rentals in Amsterdam accept Bitcoin or other digital currencies as payment. I am disappointed to report that Starbikes Rental, one of the largest bike rental companies in Amsterdam, no longer accepts Bitcoin as payment contrary to what their website claims. However, it accepted Bitcoin in 2013-2014. The digital currency then had all transport covered in the Netherlands as visitors/residents could rent a bike and take it with them from town to town.

Bitcoin and restaurants

A famous lunch and dinner spot, the Magere Brug cafe and a sought after Coffee shop, The Bulldog, did not disappoint as it did not seem that difficult to find out that it is possible to buy food and brownies with digital currency in Amsterdam. And so the voice inside my head said: “After all, what people say about Europe might be true. Europe is cool and very flexible in economic terms.”

The restaurant I ate at accepted BTC using the point of sale terminal from BitKassa, the same payment processor that runs all of Arnhem’s venues that accept digital currencies. Customers can pay through the Lightning Network or directly on the chain, but unfortunately they did not offer the original Bitcoin.

I asked a waiter in a cafe in Amsterdam if she finds it difficult to accept digital currency payment. “Not particularly. It’s the new thing so I’ll have to learn it sometime. These types of transactions happen often as the authorities come in to monitor these on a regular basis.” she replied with an audible reluctance in her voice.

Faintly but clearly, it conveyed the message to me that the Dutch, and perhaps all Europeans, accept digital currencies, unlike how it is back home in the US. It seemed to me like the concept of a digital economy system [economy] was embraced and understood more rationally and openly in the Netherlands.

When I asked Aneesh A., a software manager in Amsterdam, why the digital currency industry seems relatively more free-flowing and engaged there, he said:

“This culture has always been very tech-friendly, although in its own detailed and Sci-fi way. We’re not like the formal, austere, aristocratic kind of technologists here in Amsterdam.”

Is Amsterdam past its prime early Bitcoin holiday?

“I absolutely don’t think so,” Aneesh told CoinGeek, adding that it is still quite crypto-friendly and quite a few people are investing in digital currencies. He pointed out that several online stores now accept digital currency as payment, and they seem quite comfortable with the setup. Some businesses even offer customers an option to choose which digital currency they like to pay with, as most entrepreneurs accept at least two or three different digital currencies.

Personally, I found it challenging to use my credit card in most shops and stores in the Netherlands, as the country seems to prefer local debit cards. I learned that not only companies do not choose foreign credit cards, but also credit cards from the Netherlands itself. On the other hand, some businesses happily accept digital currency, along with cash and debit cards.

The coming years will show whether Amsterdam retains its place among the top 10 digital currency-friendly cities in the world, or whether Amsterdam will be there forever.

See: The presentation of the BSV Global Blockchain Convention, BSV On-chain Ecosystem Development in Europe

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