Research & Innovation

A digital price tag that charts the fluctuation of the current value of the online currency Bitcoin is being trialled in a clothing store in London.

Created by designer and inventor Samuel Cox, the BitTag is attempting to take Bitcoin from the online world into the bricks and mortar of the high street and has been featured by the BBC.

The tag itself comes in the form of a small white box which displays all the relevant information, including the product name, the price in the local currency and the real-time price in Bitcoin.

Given the volatility of the value of Bitcoin, the price on the BitTag device will change to reflect this almost instantly.

Changing how we buy goods in-store

This function is vital to the adoption of Bitcoin on the wider market, as business owners remain cautious of adopting the cryptocurrency.

If the purchaser can see the price changing as they look at the item, the store owner will not incur any financial loss as a result of a drop in Bitcoin value.

The store owner can monitor all activity in the store through an iPad app that will allow him or her to set up each tag or process the Bitcoin transactions.

The BitTag could also see the end of paying at the till, as a customer can buy the item with their Bitcoin wallet by simply shaking the BitTag, scanning the QR code that appears on screen and then paying for the item.