A Fayetteville brunch spot started allowing its customers this week to pay for eggs and orange juice with the cryptocurrency lumens.
Customers have been able to use lumens, similar to the more popular bitcoin, as payment at Prelude Breakfast Bar since Tuesday. After the meal, customers scan a QR (quick response) code with their phones and the cryptocurrency transfers in seconds.
"No one's taken advantage of it," co-owner Ben Parker said Thursday.
After seeing the recent global partnership between IBM and Stellar.org, the company that crafted lumens, Parker researched how to implement the cryptocurrency in his restaurant at 509 W. Spring St.
Cryptocurrency, which uses encrypted technology to verify and transfer funds independently of a central bank, grew in popularity last year.
-- Nathan Owens