One Day Using Only Bitcoin in New York City
Tags: Art, Cryptocurrency, Lifestyle, New York, Bitcoin

Celebrating its 11th birthday this year, the bitcoin ‘tween is finally saying goodbye to its shy self and flexing its usability muscles a bit more on the streets of New York City.

While we all know that bitcoin can do great things such as preserving wealth for people in Venezuela or sending remittances from Australia to Nigeria, but I wondered how — if at all — we could use it in everyday life?

A couple of us at Paxful did a bit of research and decided to get out there in hopes of spending a day using only bitcoin. Vámonos!

Bitcoin infiltrates the art world

Our day started with the lovely HG Contemporary art gallery in Chelsea, the beating heart of NYC’s art scene. It’s free to enter the gallery, which showcases a number of different artists and exhibitions. The day we went, we saw innovative German artist Tim Bengel’s collection of hyper-detailed gold-leaf embellished sand paintings.

After a short chat with the owner Philippe Hoerle-Guggenheim, we learned that both he and Tim are forward thinkers and see lots of potential in bitcoin. They have thus jumped at the opportunity to be pioneers in their field and accept bitcoin as a payment method.

Laundry day (a.k.a. your favorite errand)

About a 15-minute walk away from HG Contemporary is The Eco Laundry Company. Telling a very different story from the usual laundromat, the high-efficiency washers at Eco Laundry save a significant amount of water and electricity, using only non-toxic, biodegradable, phosphate-free detergents.

If you choose to use bitcoin to pay for your laundry, head to their website and tell them what service you want. The website will then tell you how much the whole load will cost, and you can proceed to pay with bitcoin for store credits on your account. Any unused credits will be saved for future services so don’t worry — your money won’t leave you. To add to all that, the fluctuating price of bitcoin won’t affect how many store credits you have already bought!

Growing opportunities

Both Whole Foods and Nordstrom Rack allegedly accept bitcoin, but it’s actually a bit tricky to spend it on your grocery shopping or seasonal wardrobe upgrading.

Though some larger chains may not accept bitcoin just yet, there are a number of different applications that sell discounted gift cards for bitcoin, including our very own Paxful. It’s a clever and fun way to game the system, while being a part of the crypto ecosystem. The fact that many more retailers are beginning to accept bitcoin is fantastic news for us bitcoin believers and we suspect there will only be more to come.

To take advantage of these discounted gift cards, we stopped by Whole Foods for an afternoon smoothie then popped into Nordstrom Rack for a warm pair of socks for the winter.

The perfect end to a long day

Among the places we visited on this field trip, La Sirène offers the easiest way to pay with bitcoin. Largely advertised over the Internet as a bitcoin-welcoming eatery, La Sirène is a classy French restaurant owned by Didier Pawlicki, a passionate native French chef.

Paxful folks like to hang out together, so ten of us set off to La Sirène that night, all pumped to see how bitcoin — the anchor of our platform — works in real life.

I can ramble on about their delicious escargot, cassoulet, hanger steak, rabbit leg, filet mignon topped with foie gras, and lava cake for the next three paragraphs, but for the sake of this article, let’s fast forward to how we paid with bitcoin at this restaurant.

When we asked for the check, the waiter gave us a laminated card with La Sirène’s bitcoin wallet address and QR code on it. It’s that simple! We only had to scan their QR code using the Paxful app and sent them the correct amount of bitcoin, and we were good to go.

Note that besides bitcoin, La Sirène only takes cash, check, and American Express — your regular (or fancy) Visa and Mastercard won’t be hailed here.

We did it!

There goes a fun day spending only the world’s favorite cryptocurrency bitcoin for food, art, fashion, and everyday chores in New York City. There are some awesome businesses that accept bitcoin in NYC, but if you are located anywhere else in the world, check out these 100 ways to spend your hard-earned crypto. Also, It’s a great sign that the number of bitcoin ATMs is constantly on the rise; nearing 85 in and around New York and 2,000 in the United States! There’s no doubt in our minds that one day, you’ll be able to grab a drink at your neighborhood coffee shop or even pay you phone bill using bitcoin. Until then, you can find us at all the businesses listed above and the many more in our city!

Have you ever spent bitcoin at a local business? If so, where? Let us know in the comments below!