Chipotle Mexican Grill has partnered with cryptocurrency payment network Flexa to accept digital currency at all of its approximately 3,000 locations across the U.S. As a result, it may become the largest restaurant chain in the U.S. to take cryptocurrencies, as per Restaurant Business Online.
You Can Now Exchange Your Crypto for Burritos
Customers who have a Flexa-compatible digital wallet can open the app, select Chipotle, and scan a unique barcode to pay for their meal in one of almost 100 currencies. Flexa claims to process the payment "in under a second" and then settles with Chipotle in either fiat or cryptocurrency.
A Florida Twitter user even released a video demonstrating how the process works.
Customers who paid with any digital currency through a Flexa-enabled app received a 10% discount on their next Chipotle order.
According to Gizmodo, they're still ironing out the details, but it shouldn't be too difficult in theory, as long as Flexa takes all the risk by accepting the cryptocurrency and guaranteeing actual money to Chipotle in the process.
Chipotle, on the other hand, has yet to make a public announcement regarding accepting cryptocurrency.
Crypto Payment Is Becoming More Popular to Restaurants
Restaurant Business Online mentioned that as digital currencies like bitcoin and others become increasingly more common, restaurants are increasingly accepting cryptocurrency payments. Customers may benefit from more flexible payment alternatives and more secure transactions offered by blockchain technology. However, total restaurant penetration remains modest. According to a Technomic survey conducted last summer, only approximately 1% of restaurants accepted cryptocurrencies, with only 4% expecting to do so in the next two years.
Some Customers Encountered Problems While Using Flexa
Flexa's applications have also failed to operate at Chipotle, according to Twitter users, with one customer in New York claiming that no one at the restaurant knew how to let them pay that way. Before customers can utilize the Flexa system, another user suggested that cashiers select "gift card" from the payment options menu, Gizmodo reported.
Challenges in Cryptocurrency Payment
Matt Novak of Gizmodo noted that the fact that prices are considerably too volatile is perhaps the most compelling argument against widespread adoption of crypto payments. Bitcoin's price has dropped 5.17% in the last 24 hours.
This is Novak's argument: Why would you want to spend bitcoin on a burrito right now if you anticipate the price of bitcoin would recover and rise dramatically in the coming days? Next week, you could be able to buy two burritos with the same amount of bitcoin. Or, if the crypto optimists are right, you might be able to buy an entire Chipotle restaurant in a decade.
He later cited an incident in 2010 where a customer paid 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas. If you're not aware, Bitcoin is currently worth more than $300 million.
Did you agree with Novak's reasoning?
