The largest craft brewer in Europe has jumped very much on the wagon, the crypto wagon that is, and offered potential investors a new way of buying shares – with cryptocurrency. BrewDog, one of the earliest ‘punk’ style brewers making a range of themed beers and ales, has taken a leaf out of the cypherpunk movement and allowed equity in the company to be purchased in one of ten cryptocurrencies, with a case of free ‘Cryptonite’ beer thrown in as a thank you.
BrewDog – Cryptocurrency for Equity Punks from BrewDog on Vimeo.
Bottoms Up!
Cryptonite is a 10% Imperial Stout that was made for the 2018 World Blockchain Forum in London. Clearly BrewDog had a few cans left over and so decided to give a six pack away to anyone who invests in the company with crypto, which is an appropriate gift. A review on Steemit from 2018 describes the beer as follows:
It was a strong imperial stout made with coffee, honey, brown sugar and vanilla. At 10% alcohol/volume, a couple of these were enough to have me mingling around the conference. The Cryptonite was strong, just as the name would suggest, but the taste of coffee and vanilla made it go down easy.
The beer is not for sale, and is only available to those who invest in the company using one of the ten tokens the company will accept – Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Ethereum, Litecoin, OmiseGO, Qtum, Augur, XRP, and 0x. The page explaining the offer states that the BrewDog owners “…started BrewDog to be an alternative to the status quo; to challenge perceptions and revolutionise their industry. The developers, miners and users of cryptocurrency are exactly the same. Joining forces to link the old and new financial systems is a perfect fit.”
Breaking the Mold
In offering shares for crypto BrewDog is certainly breaking the mold, but the chances are it won’t be the only company operating such a system in the coming years. They are also not the first company to allow you to trade crypto for beer – The Kasbah restaurant in Olso, Norway allows you to pay for your beer using Lightning Network. Just make sure Bitcoin doesn’t crash before it’s your round.
BrewDog has now extended the list of accepted cryptocurrencies to 10, including Bitcoin SV. They have also extended the raise until April 2020, to give more people the chance to invest.
