A payment firm in Ontario, Canada says that employees from 10 firms have now signed up to receive their salaries in bitcoin instead of Canadian dollars, and many more are apparently asking about the payment option.

The payment firm is called Wagepoint, and its CEO Shrad Rao said his company came up with the bitcoin payment option in November as a side project, but didn’t expect it to pick up as much steam as it has.

“When we started off, we didn’t even think we’ll get one,” Rao told GlobalNews.ca.

“What’s interesting is that we’ve actually had customers come to us because of the (Bitcoin) integration, which we were not expecting at all.”

Most firms who have employees receiving salaries in bitcoin are from the technology sector, where employees tend to be more exploratory with their tendencies.

Rao said in addition to Canadian interests, Wagepoint receive about five requests from parties in the United States, all wishing to receive their pay in bitcoin too. While Wagepoint does operate in the United States, they have yet to initiate the same bitcoin service that they currently run in Canada.

Because Canada doesn’t recognize Bitcoin as a currency — only as a property — being paid in it is considered a barter transaction.

However, for tax purposes, Wagepoint still pays employees in Canadian dollars, at least on paper. Workers can receive all or part of their salary in bitcoins and taxes are taken out before it is converted to bitcoin.