16 Feb 2014 / Arabian Business – The Pizza Guys is believed to have become the first UAE outlet to accept peer-to-peer payment system bitcoin.
The Business Bay shop in Dubai has carried out two transactions with the digital currency since adding it along side credit card and cash payment systems five days ago.
UAE founder of the New York pizza chain, Rami Badawi, told Arabian Business he was willing to take on the risk of the volatile bitcoin in the hope of seeing it become more widely used, which would in turn make it increasingly viable.
“Right now it’s extremely volatile so people are unwilling to adopt it but I think the more people that adopt it the more likely it will be feasible to use.
“Our approach is that right now the volumes will be at a level that we can absorb the risk ourselves.
“We don’t anticipate an overwhelming number of people paying with bitcoin but if it does get to that point – we’ve set a daily limit – we’d have to look at alternatives, maybe pricing bitcoin instead of converting from bitcoin to dirhams.”
Badawi has set a AED1000 ($272) daily limit but does not expect to reach that anytime soon.
He is hoarding the bitcoins his business receives to see where their values goes in the future.
“I do believe in bitcoin and I think when people stop and think about it, any currency these days gets its value from someone – the government – who says what it’s value is,” Badawi said…. Read more
