Hamilton shops start accepting ‘bits,’ BTZ cryptocurrency
An online cashless trading zone now has another way for Hamiltonians to score the goods they’re after.
Toronto-based startup Bunz Trading Zone has brought its cryptocurrency to the city as part of the expansion of its “Shop Local” program.
Shoppers can trade their unwanted goods in exchange for Bunz digital currency called BTZ (pronounced “bits”).
BTZ can be used on products and services on the Bunz app through trades with other users and at local businesses, including sustainable living store The Pale Blue Dot and home and gift shop Pretty Grit.
The idea behind launching the cryptocurrency was to help “close the gap” between swaps, said Alanna Matysek, Bunz’s head of business development.
“We often had people who had items that weren’t quite equally valued, so they would fill that gap with gift cards or transit fare,” she said. “Instead, we decided to introduce a currency that would fill that gap for them.”
From there, it seemed “natural” to allow the community to support local businesses by enabling users to earn BTZ online and spend them in the real world, she added.
Mary Luciani, owner of The Pale Blue Dot on James Street North, started accepting BTZ after being approached by Bunz a few months ago.
She had already been following Bunz Trading Zone before they implemented the cryptocurrency and admired the communitybuilding and sustainbility sides of the startup that paired well with her business selling sustainable products.
“Instead of putting their products that they no longer have a use for into a landfill or recycling them, the item’s life gets prolonged a little bit and it gets to fulfil its purpose with another owner,” said Luciani.
While it’s different at every store, customers at The Pale Blue Dot can use their BTZ to get money off their purchase through a QR code that is scanned.
Each business has a separate agreement with Bunz, but for Luciani, her store is forwarded the money taken off using BTZ.
It’s still early days, but she said she was surprised by the number of people who have come to her shop because they accept BTZ.
“It’s definitely a growing community,” she said.
Since the digital token was introduced in April, close to 35,000 trades have been done using the currency — 15,000 of which took place at Toronto shops, restaurants and other venues.
In Toronto, two million BTZ have been used in exchange for goods by local makers.
There is a limited amount of BTZ, but users currently receive 1,000 for downloading the app and activating their “wallet” as well as up to 250 per day for competing a daily survey.
Initially, the online trading zone got its start in Toronto 2013 by Emily Bitze as a secret Facebook group to swap things among friends.
In Hamilton, Bunz launched as a Facebook group in November 2015.
The following year, the app and Bunz.com got their start and are now active in every major Canadian city as well as other major centres around the world.
The Shop Local networks recently expanded to Hamilton, Ottawa and Vancouver, and now there are more than 130 million BTZ currently in circulation.
Matysek said the hope is to continue increasing the number and variety of Hamilton businesses accepting BTZ to include different types of retail like food and beverage.
For more information, visit bunz.com/accept-BTZ.