A burger stand in east London has become one of the first places in Britain to take Dogecoin, the meme-based cryptocurrency, for physical purchases.

Olivier Rynkiewicz started the Bit bourbon steamed burgers stand with his girlfriend Thais Muller in mid January. The stand, based in Brick Lane’s Sunday Up Market, sells burgers steamed in bourbon-infused water – although on the day the Guardian visited, the steam oven was broken, forcing the couple to cook the burgers a more traditional way.

Rynkiewicz said that he decided to accept payment in Dogecoin, as well as the more conventional bitcoin, after being told about it by his brother.

“He told me about bitcoin when it was still not really worth much. When no one took it seriously. I didn’t at the time, but now we started doing [the stand], and I was thinking, ‘OK, bitcoin was worth shit at start, it was worth nothing. Now it’s worth, what, $500 or $600?’

“So I was like, alright, bitcoin could jump so high, why not Dogecoin? And anyway, people have this stuff - bitcoins, dogecoins - but there’s not many places to use them.”

The burgers sell for £5.50 to £6.50, but owing to fluctuating exchange rates for cryptocurrencies, the stand has to be more accommodating with users attempting to pay digitally, and owing to a collapse in the Doge/GBP exchange rate over February, the Guardian arrived at the stand with 2,000 too few Dogecoins. (The difference was made up at a later date.)

Purchasing is easy with an Android phone and the Dogewallet app, but somewhat harder with an iOS device. Apple’s longstanding policy against bitcoin apps extends to Dogecoin, and so users are forced to make do with web wallets like that at Dogeapi.com. The lack of a QR code scanner on that wallet renders payment tricky, but the problem is surmountable with a second QR reading app.

Whichever device is being used, the customer must scan a QR code posted on the stand to get Rynkiewicz’s Dogewallet address, and then type in the amount to send (normally around 8,000 Doge) by hand. The biggest potential hurdle is poor mobile connectivity in the marketplace, a former brewery: all cryptocurrencies require an internet connection for transfers to be completed, and it took several tries to join a 3G network with an iPhone.

Rynkiewicz has taken 100,000 Dogecoin at his stand, worth just under £70 at current exchange rates. He has no intention to exchange the currency for hard money, however, instead speculating on the chance of appreciation.

“I don’t cash them out, I store them, because it’s not the main source of income. There’s like two or three doge customers a day. So if I’m going to lose on it later on, if, yeah, if, I can afford it.

“I do believe it’s going to, not replace the normal currency, but be used really often. This stuff is the future. Hopefully I will be one of the few owners.”

Despite offering both dogecoin and bitcoin sales, Rynkiewicz has only sold one burger for bitcoin. He says that of the two currencies, he prefers dogecoin, “because, like, bitcoin is jumping so high all the time. Now if the price is 500 you’re going to buy something, a burger or something else, and you get home and find it’s worth £100 more, two times, three times more.

“Bitcoin is more like investment, more for greedy people. Dogecoin’s about fun.”

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