An enterprising publican on the North York Moors will be the first in the area to introduce Bitcoin payments over the bar. Phil Barkley, landlord of the Tap and Spile in Guisborough, says he has been a cryptocurrency advocate for some time now, and that cashless payments are the future.

The pub will be the first in Teesside to offer payment by Bitcoin or Litecoin, which can be purchased at the pub so customers don’t have to carry large sums of money. The scheme launches on Valentine\'s Day and Phil hopes that it will encourage custom. He will also be inviting locals to a talk on cryptocurrencies to help people understand their use. If the idea takes off, other pubs in the same group will start using crypto in the Teesside region.

It’s not the first of its kind, however. Last year, Individual Pubs Limited installed Blockchain software into its payments systems, so pubs in Cambridge, Norwich and East London will accept Bitcoin payments. Individual\'s founder and director, Stephen Early, was a Cambridge University computer scientist, so it was not difficult for him to make software adaptations.

All cryptocurrencies are trading low at the moment, so maybe the chance to use them directly for entertainment purposes will spark up the market.