This Cafe Inside Silliman University Only Accepts Sats, Bitcoin

Feature Image from Dean Florin Hilbay’s Twitter Account.

• In a Twitter post, Silliman University College of Law Dean and former Solicitor General of the Philippines Florin Hilbay confirmed that Sats Cafe is now open at the university. 
• Sats Cafe is the first known university on-campus cafe that only accepts satoshi, the smallest unit of bitcoin.
• It also offers an affordable menu, ranging from 2,500 sats (∼₱41.75) to 4,500 sats (∼₱75.00).

“Fix the money, one cup of coffee at a time.”

Sats Cafe, the first known university on-campus cafe that only accepts satoshi, the smallest unit of bitcoin, is now available at Silliman University, College of Law Dean Florin Hilbay announced. 

Sats Cafe at Silliman University is now online! “fix the money, one cup of coffee at a time.” pic.twitter.com/pJDC6LnJAg

— Florin Hilbay (@fthilbay) August 14, 2023

The Sats Cafe

The Sats Cafe was first introduced by Hilbay earlier this year, when he posted on Twitter the idea of having an on-campus cafe that only accepts bitcoin, which will serve as a real world use case for the first-ever cryptocurrency to exist in the space. 

“To further help with ‌education, we want to give them more options to spend Bitcoin,” said Bitcoin Island Retreat, an initiative by Pouch.ph to promote bitcoin and lightning network adoption in the country. 

Sats Cafe. a kind and curious heart donated the first machine for Silliman University College of Law’s humble cafe that only accepts bitcoin. On-campus Bitcoin education can now be supplemented by real world use case and help students experiment. Next step: training baristas. pic.twitter.com/HaLqDFiQ4N

— Florin Hilbay (@fthilbay) June 29, 2023

Then, in July, a fund-raising effort was started to be used for the cafe’s equipment, like tables and coffee stands, a refrigerator, French presses and mugs, and other supplies. 

“I’ll need anywhere between 50-75K Philippine peso. We’ll need to build the table and coffee stand, buy a small refrigerator, French presses and mugs, then supplies. I’m donating two machines (grinder and percolator) so our new machine doesn’t conk out from overuse. If we can do this in a month, it’ll be easy to train the baristas and begin operations by mid-August, the start of the academic year!” Hilbay explained. 

As of this writing, the Sats Cafe has already received 619,240 sats, or more than ₱10,000.00.

Currently, Sats Cafe offers an affordable menu:

• Black: 2,500 sats (∼₱41.75)
• Black with Milk: 3,000 sats (∼₱50.00)
• Latte Hot: 4,300 sats (∼₱71.75)
• Latte Cold: 4,500 sats (∼₱75.00)
• French Press: 4,300 sats (∼₱71.75)
• Americano Hot: 3,000 sats (∼₱50.00)
• Americano Cold: 3,500 sats  (∼₱58.50)

Florin Hilbay’s Bitcoin Vision

Earlier this year, Hilbay published his Bitcoin book entitled “BITCOIN: An introduction to the peer-to-peer, open source, censorship- resistant, immutable, permissionless, decentralized, global, digital monetary network of the 21st century.”

“If you’re looking for an analogy, it’s like telling the world Ptolemy was cool, but Copernicus is amazing; or Newtonian absolute space and time was fun, but Einstein’s relative space and time is even more so. The best thing is that it will help everyone’s bottom line with cheaper and more convenient transactions. If you’re interested in freedom and rights, you’d better start looking into this space,” he stated.

He also called bitcoin ‌the only real money in the 21st century, citing that the community needs to educate as many people as it can about Bitcoin because it is the best lens for understanding what is happening in the world today.

“I’m very bullish on Bitcoin. I think it is the only real money for the 21st century. Every communication system is about speed; it’s about convenience, and it’s about having less friction. I’ve studied monetary systems for two and a half years, and only Bitcoin is the real money out there for the 21st century,” Hilbay said during the Bitcoin Island Retreat happened at Boracay Island, Aklan, Philippines.

Then last May, the former Solicitor General of the Philippines held a recent talk at the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Law that emphasized the importance of understanding Bitcoin and its potential impact on the global economy:

“Bitcoin is an insanely difficult topic to understand, even as it is in fact eminently understandable. It’s just that you need to spend the time ‌to understand it. It’s a system that practically invites everyone ‌to study it. It’s very difficult to understand because it’s inherently multidisciplinary.”

The said lecture was attended and covered by BitPinas: [Long Reads] Ex SolGen Florin Hilbay: Bitcoin is Complex But Completely Understandable 

This article is published on BitPinas: This Cafe Inside Silliman University Only Accepts Sats, Bitcoin

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