Bitcoin at Rathausplatz “Wienliebe Festival 2025”: Expectations vs. Reality

Day 1 & 2 – Rathausplatz Wienliebe Festival

To be honest, I expected that the “You can pay with Bitcoin” sign would spark much more attention during these first two days at Rathausplatz. My expectations were high, but the reality has been different.

When I compare it to last December at the Christmas market, back then, the reception was much greater. Maybe it was because Bitcoin was more present in the news during November and December, which sparked more curiosity.

Here, instead, the sign has hardly drawn attention. A few laughs from a distance, only two people actually asked directly about it, and none with a real intention to try paying. Even yesterday, when the sign was more visible, it still didn’t generate much interest.

It surprises me, because I thought that at Rathausplatz, with such a diverse audience of both locals and tourists, there would be at least more questions, if not more payments. But that hasn’t been the case.

What I did find fascinating was a moment with a girl, maybe 10 or 12 years old, who noticed the sign and started telling her mom something she had learned (at school or elsewhere) about Bitcoin and also about energy consumption. She seemed genuinely curious, really interested. The mother just looked at me with a confused face and said, “the new generations.” That moment made me wonder, who are we really building this path for? For those of us who are already here, or for the ones who are coming after us?

Another thing that caught my attention was how people still seem to think about Bitcoin. From the laughs I overheard or the comments made while passing by, it was clear that many still assume you need to own an entire Bitcoin to use it (or even to buy it). It seems that the fact that Bitcoin can be divided into fractions is still not obvious to many.

For now, payments remain almost evenly split between cash and card, with card taking the lead.

Day 3 – Rathausplatz Wienliebe Festival

Yesterday, third day at the market, nothing much new happened regarding interest or the option to pay with Bitcoin.

However, right at the end of the day, about 10 minutes before closing the booth, a group of friends stopped by and immediately noticed the sign. At first, I saw a lot of curiosity: “Wow, you can pay with Bitcoin here, that’s cool!” They began looking at the products and eventually decided on a bracelet to gift to one of their sisters.

The buyer then said: “Alright, let’s pay with Bitcoin. I want to experience how it works.” He was already familiar with different wallets/apps and had apparently invested in Bitcoin a couple of years ago. This made the moment more interesting, but at the same time I felt more responsible for providing a good experience.

We ran into a technical issue: the QR code generated by my BTC Pay Server wasn’t being recognized by the Kraken app, even though Kraken supports Lightning payments. I still don’t know why, that’s something I’ll need to investigate.

We tried other options: first Bitpanda, which turned out to be more complicated since it required additional information about the receiving address, even though the payment was only €20. We followed all the steps, but in the end we gave up. But I completely understand the processes and responsibilities that Bitpanda has as a company. I was actually glad to see how it works in real life and how the app is adapted for purchases with crypto assets. Then he tried Binance’s web app, but we couldn’t solve it there either.

Finally, we went back to Kraken and decided to copy the full Lightning invoice address directly from my BTC Pay Server receipt into the app. Surprisingly, that worked perfectly. He just had to confirm the payment via email, re-enter the invoice, and the transaction was confirmed within milliseconds.

A bit of luck for me that the customer (who, by the way, is also called Sebastian, haha) turned out to be someone with more experience using wallets and who had the patience and willingness to find the solution together with me. I hope I can meet him again at the shop and maybe exchange more experiences and get some feedback from him.

It was great to see it succeed, not just the first Bitcoin payment at the booth this year, but also to observe first-hand how different wallets create very different user experiences. For example, with Strike I usually find the process much simpler, while also being Travel Rule compliant.

Day 4 – Rathausplatz Wienliebe Festival (Final Day)

So the market is over. The fourth and last day, in terms of interest and payments with Bitcoin, was actually the day when the sign drew the least attention.

As a curious little moment, an 85-year-old lady (I assume, hehe) asked me very politely if she could take a picture of the sign. The funny part was that she didn’t even use her phone, but instead had a digital camera with her. That was a really nice, almost touching moment to take away from this last day.

By the end of the market, the preferred payment method was cash. On the second day I thought card payments might take over toward the end, but in reality the preference was cash (around 65% cash and 35% card).

Now it’s time to prepare for the next markets and keep observing how people interact with the possibility of paying with Bitcoin.

One more thing I take away from these days: people may have interest in Bitcoin, they may even hold it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s their preferred payment method.

People’s interests may differ from their actual preferences.