Floor’s Cafe, Berlin Florentina Martins, Owner

When did you start introducing Bitcoin to the cafe?
Just a week after the cafe opened. I first came into contact with it while working at a bar called Room77. There’s quite a big Bitcoin scene here, so although I was sceptical at first I quickly came round to it, when I opened Floor’s it seemed natural to acceptBitcoin payments as well.

For me it’s an interesting way of not paying in cash and without involving banks. Normally if I would take card payment there’s always a percentage of money given to the banks, with Bitcoin it cuts out the middle man — it’s just from one person to another.

Can you explain how Bitcoin works here?
There’s a QR code at the front, you take a photograph of that and send your bitcoins via your phone. It’s different for Android and iPhones but either way you can transfer the Bitcoins from your phone by scanning the QR code.

Normally if I would take card payment there’s always a percentage of money given to the banks, with Bitcoin it cuts out the middle man— it’s just from one person to another >

What kind of people pay using Bitcoin at Floor’s and how often do people use it?
In the beginning, to be honest, it was used much more, I think that’s because the Bitcoin was more stable than it is now. There was a lot of media attention given to it so then it was used almost on a daily basis, sometimes twice a day. Now it’s more like once a week, once every two weeks. It’s really slowed down. In the beginning there was a very international crowd, people came to this area specifically because there are so many Bitcoin outlets. You can spend a whole day without spending any other currency.