The Patio, a new and hyped restaurant in Ntinda, Kampala, is now tapping into the thriving bitcoin community in Uganda and giving young people an opportunity to explore making crypto payments for services.
According to Comfort Kaganzi, the Chief Finance Officer of the Patio, cryptocurrencies are a new trend among the youth and since The Patio has become a hotspot for the trendy youth in Kampala, the management thought it prudent to move with the times.
The idea was suggested to the restaurant’s management by crypto enthusiast, Brindon Mwine. The main aim of the campaign is to introduce bitcoin to Ugandans, help Ugandans learn more about bitcoin, how it works and how Ugandans can benefit from the currency. People have positively responded which shows there is interest among Ugandans. However, payments can only be made through the wallet of satoshi which is quite limiting.
Despite the growing numbers of cryptocurrency owners and trades, Uganda’s adoption of crypto still gives a mixed picture. In Uganda, the use of cryptocurrencies is unregulated and not recognised by the state as an approved method of making payments. It does not help that there have been opportunistic individuals who have in the past used “cryptocurrencies” as a way to fleece unsuspecting members of the public. The currencies are however not illegal to use, so there is nothing to stop a consensual crypto transaction from taking place.
Uganda still lags behind its neighboring Kenya and Tanzania in the rate of the crypto adoption, but if the move by the Patio is anything to go by, we are taking a step in the right direction.