Agnes Water, 1770 in Queensland, Australia is home to the country’s first cryptocurrency payment friendly town. CoinSpice.io Executive Editor Hayden Otto takes a trip through the beach side paradise, interviewing local merchants while spending bitcoin.

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Agnes Water, 1770 is First Crypto Friendly Town in Australia

Agnes Water Tavern for two decades has been open 7 days a week, resting conveniently at 1 Tavern Road. The family run establishment offers food, drink, and play in 1770, boasting of a tavern, bistro, and live entertainment in what’s known as Australia’s Discovery Coast.

It’s an important metric for crypto adoption because it serves not only locals, but also international travelers. The beach community attracts people from all over the world, and it’s a bit of hassle to handle umpteen different currencies, finding exchange rates for them all, etc.

Owner John McCartney tells our Hayden Otto, “Experience so far has been very good. Initially, when TravelByBit come to town, they gave us a certain amount of training and … we originally just had the app on our iPhones, and since then we have contacted the people who run our point-of-sale, a company called Finchcorp, our point-of-sale is called iControl, and they have adapted the payment system to our point-of-sale which has made it a lot easier to manage.”

Cafe Discovery

Otto travels to Cafe Discovery at Agnes, and chats up the owner, Lisa. She describes the crypto experience thus far as being “fantastic.” She explains, “We’ve got a lot of travelers. We’ve had people that don’t believe you can actually spend cryptocurrency. People are coming in, going, ‘Is this for real? We were told it would never be accepted in the world!'” Lisa goes on to proclaim using crypto as a merchant is “easy.”

She views crypto as a positive step toward the future, bringing more life and energy to the town. Comparing it to the futuristic cartoon the Jetsons, Lisa explains customers are floored by how easy it is to just take our their phones and pay.

Otto finally makes his way to a main local enthusiast, Gordon Christian. He’s personally responsible for bringing much of town’s crypto adoption. Tourism is a driving force for Christian, and it differentiates the attractions around the area. News agencies from all over the world have begun to take notice.

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