Last week I was wandering the fancy shops of the San Francisco Ferry Building, when I came across this friendly dude behind the cash register of a pop-up shop for Buyer's Best Friend, selling gourmet chocolate and other treats:

"How many people actually buy stuff with Bitcoin?" I asked him, while munching on a chocolate sample*.

"Not too many -- maybe 2-3 every month," he told me. However, he added, it was even less before December last year, but Bitcoin purchases "took off during the holidays". To, you know, 2-3 purchases a month. On the one hand, given my ongoing skepticism, I expected roughly zero purchases. On the other, the San Francisco Ferry Building is one of the most popular shopping destinations in the entire city; in 2003, it drew 6 million visitors. It's even more striking when you consider where the Ferry Building is: