ATHENS: Greece’s bitcoin community grows in recent years, buoyed by the capital controls imposed on the traditional banking system since the summer of 2015, users and investors told Xinhua, although local authorities warn about the risks of crypto currencies.
In a small cafe near the Acropolis hill in the center of Athens, Dimitris Tsapakidis is buying a coffee using his mobile to pay with bitcoin.
Tsapakidis, with a background in mathematics, computer science and information security, is one of the co-organizers of the bitcoin community in Athens. He is into crypto currencies over the past two decades.
Vassilis Papadopoulos, the cafe’s owner, is comparatively new in the community. He placed the welcome sign “bitcoin accepted here” a year ago, and said a lot of the transactions in Greece are from tourists.
There are at least 2,000 people all over Greece interested in bitcoin and crypto currencies that have registered with the community and attend regular meetings asking for information or are already making transactions, Tsapakidis told Xinhua.
They include young tech savvies and grey-haired professionals. There are about 70 businesses accepting bitcoin and other crypto currencies as a means of payment nationwide, ranging from restaurants and coffee shops to dentists and lawyers, as well as bitcoin ATMs.
