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A BISTRO has become the first restaurant in Scotland to accept online currency Bitcoin as payment.

The Brooklyn Cafe lets customers settle their bills using the internet-based digital currency system.

The idea was the brainchild of manager Jonny McDonald, who has worked at the cafe for 13 years.

The family-run business, in Glasgow’s Shawlands, started accepting the payment system in late December and made their first Bitcoin transaction last week when a customer settled his £42 – or 0.06938312 Bitcoin – bill.

People keep their Bitcoins in virtual online wallets and use specialist software on their mobile phones or computers to transfer funds to others.

After scanning a special barcode in the cafe, customers can transfer the virtual cash over the internet to settle their bill.

Dad-of-two Jonny, 27, said: “Our first Bitcoin payment was very exciting.

“When the customer said how he wanted to pay, we checked the value of Bitcoin on various sites, and I gave him the best exchange rate I could find at the time.

“A lot of people have been talking about Bitcoin and we have found that a lot of our customers know about the currency, although not many actually have them so far.”

(Image: 2013 Photothek)

Paying by Bitcoin is faster for customers than using a traditional debit or credit card.

Transaction fees are also lower than the 2–3 per cent imposed by credit card companies.

Jonny said: “Our credit card machine takes around 45 seconds to process a payment, whereas a Bitcoin transaction takes just 10 seconds.

“There are a number of online businesses which have started to accept Bitcoins but, as far as we know, we are the first bricks and mortar business in Scotland to accept it as a form of payment.”

The current price of Bitcoin is around £530 per coin but the value fluctuates from day to day.

Practically worthless when first launched, the huge rise in value means that many people who bought into the scheme early now have digital wallets worth millions of pounds sitting on their hard drives.

Bitcoins have been gaining acceptance by the general public and investment community but have yet to become an accepted form of payment on retail websites, such as Amazon.