The Scottish craft beer company BrewDog has announced it will be extending its groundbreaking cryptocurrency investment program "Equity for Punks" until April next year.

The program, which was originally intended to end on July 5 this year, allows investors to buy BrewDog shares using a variety of cryptocurrencies. These include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), OmiseGo (OMG), QTUM, 0x, and Bitcoin SV (BSV).

BrewDog is a multinational brewery and pub owner founded in 2007 with pubs in over 50 locations throughout the United Kingdom and 24 locations internationally. As a company that has always upheld unconventional values, it sees parallels between its beliefs and those of the cryptocurrency industry. Discussing the company's growth and achievements over the past decade, BrewDog co-founder James Watt said:

"Cryptocurrency is exactly the same. If you embrace change to subvert the mainstream we are in your corner; whether your weapons of choice are malt, hops, yeast and water or blockchain."

In 2018, BrewDog launched the investment scheme, Equity for Punks, as a way to give average citizens an easy way to buy shares in the company and join the BrewDog community. Since its inception, the Equity for Punks scheme has raised over £72.1 million from 114,000 individual shareholders, selling shares at £25 a piece.

The scheme also hosts a range of additional benefits for its 'community members' in the form of occasional free products and discount offers. Earlier this year, BrewDog ran an 'honesty payment' promotion called The Honest to Dog scheme that ran from June 3–9. Shareholders in the Equity for Punks scheme were given the opportunity to choose how much, or how little, they wished to pay for their beer at all BrewDog pubs (excluding Scotland due to government regulation).

Growing Crypto Interest

It seems companies around the world are finally beginning to embrace cryptocurrencies, one decade after Bitcoin came into existence in early 2009. The most notable of these is Facebook, which intends to launch its own cryptocurrency, Libra Coin, in 2020. While the development has been met with some controversy and widespread criticism from the cryptocurrency and banking communities alike, it's a strong indication of just how popular crypto is becoming.

One of the major stepping stones for widespread adoption of crypto is retailers' ability to legally and successfully integrate the technology into their systems. However, in 2019, cryptocurrency adoption is steadily increasing due to changing mindsets amongst lawmakers and growing interest from financial institutions. Government agencies in the EU and around the world have finally begun to draw up clear and precise legal and regulatory requirements for cryptocurrency use in businesses, giving many the green light to get involved.

These days, more and more retailers are beginning to use crypto payment gateways like Coinpayments and CoinGate to enable their customers to settle in cryptocurrency. Recent improvements in blockchain technology mean the payment gateways can quickly and easily be integrated into any retail website or point-of-sale (PoS) system, making crypto payments as easy as using a credit card or Paypal.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated or associated with BrewDog, and currently hold a small amount of Bitcoin and ETH.

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Featured image: DepositPhotos © NatashaFedorova

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