Here is an article written in, from a guest writer. Good to see that even real life OFFLINE shops/stores are now accepting bitcoin as payment!

First in Glendale, California: Glamour Hair Studio to Accept Bitcoin

Glamour Hair Studio accepts Bitcoin

I was passing by Broadway Street in Glendale California when I noticed “Bitcoin Accepted” sign on a window of the local business. This was the first time I ever seen a physical business accepting digital currency. It struck my interest, and I decided to walk-in to have a small interview with the owner.

In a small interview with business partners, Arch and Isabel, I asked the following questions:

Why did you deiced to accept Bitcoin?

Arch responded with a wide smile on his face:

“Fast, Cheap and Safe!!!

Fast: Transaction shows up in your account almost instantly and you know you got paid. Of course, it takes about 10 minutes for the network to verify and clear the payment. However, that’s not an issue compared to conventional payment processors’ 2-5 day timeframe.

Cheap: It’s much cheaper than conventional currency processing. You might incur a very small fee, if I’m not mistaken, that is for rewarding the miners for payment processing. Also, there is 1% charge if you like to instantly convert your BTCs to Dollars, with no volatility risk. But when you keep transactions in Bitcoins, there are no fees. And, that is a huge plus for a business.

Safe: You don’t need to trust someone for handling your money. You receive BTCs straight into your digital wallet in a matter of minutes. And, no holds, when payment processor decides to freeze your money for unexplained reasons”

Also, Isabel added:

“There is no chargebacks. In our experience, most chargebacks occurred as a fraudulent transaction by someone simply not willing to pay for the service we provided. We are respected business, and if for any reason customer is not happy and wants a refund, we will give a customer a refund. I don’t think there is a need for chargebacks”

How do you accept bitcoin? How is the payment process taking place?

Arch took his phone, entered the amount, and quickly generated Bitcoin Address in a form of the QR Code. He added

“You just scan the QR code with your smartphone and send a payment from your digital wallet to our payment address. Most wallets have a QR code scanning feature. If you don’t have it, you can download a QR scanner app to quickly generate the payment address. It’s that easy”

Do you think deflating currency is better than inflating?

Arch took a deep breath and said

“In my opinion, naturally deflating currency is better, but again, it’s too soon to say, we just need to wait and see. However, I don’t think we will have huge, irreversible problems with deflation. If it becomes an issue it can be managed to some degree, in an opposite way as the inflation is being managed”

To summarize:

I had a great conversation with Arch and Isabel and I share their excitement of new innovations.

Based on everyday news, it seems that Bitcoin is gaining traction and becoming more widely accepted all over the world.

By Liliana Abramovich