Meet Neil, Shropshire's Bitcoin builder
It's the brand new currency that's sweeping the web – and now Bitcoin is being accepted in Shropshire for what is thought to be the first time.
Normally, bills for services rendered are settled in cash or by cheque, but now Neil Kenny has decided to take the plunge and insert his invoices into the digital age.
His company Exciting Spaces, which is based at Haughmond near Shrewsbury, has announced that it is to take Bitcoin as payment for its services.
He believes his company to be the first building company in the UK to ever accept the once infamous crypto currency, and his remains one of very few companies to take Bitcoin in the UK.
Mr Kenny, the director of Exciting Spaces said: "Bitcoin has a very strong future, and I believe its volatility is now in the past.
"The fact that it excludes the traditional banking industry, and allows you to become effectively your own bank, is a major plus for the SME, and whether the financial industry like it or not, it's here to stay."
Bitcoin has risen in the last week as it shakes off recent troubles, and has increasingly gained acceptance by major US companies, but has yet to truly gain traction amid businesses in the UK.
The Bitcoin system has no central repository and no single administrator, which has led the US Treasury to call Bitcoin a decentralized virtual currency.
Because Bitcoins can be transferred directly from one person to another they are sometimes described as digital cash.
Bitcoin as a form of payment for products and services has seen growth, and merchants have an incentive to accept the digital currency because fees are lower than the 2–3 per cent typically imposed by credit card companies.
While many regard it with suspicion, others see it as a means of revolutionising global trading.
Its currency has fluctuated wildly in the last year amid a combination of industry excitement and suspicion – it accelerated from US$14 at the beginning of the year to more than $1,100 later on, before falling back again this year.
As well as taking Bitcoin, Exciting Spaces is giving it away. The company has launched an art competition to provide images for its vehicles, with a top prize of one bitcoin or £500 (whichever is worth most at the time), but is expected to expand significantly for the 2015 event.
Interested parties should view the competition details via excitingspaces.org
