They say necessity is the mother of invention and we agree. At this point in time, it is all but official that Bitcoin (and digital currency in general) is the money for the future. A simple Google search with related keywords will give you dozens of sites that are involved in the mining, selling and buying of Bitcoin. However, you will be hard pressed to find an up to date list of businesses that accept the currency. And that is where Satoshi Labs, the developers of the popular TREZOR Bitcoin hardware wallet, come in.
CoinMap was developed by the company with an aim of connecting Bitcoin owners with shops and/or service providers who have integrated Bitcoin into their payment systems. CoinMap works the same way as Google Maps, only that instead of buildings and other landmarks, it focuses on businesses which accept Bitcoin payments.
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Notably, most of the locations on the CoinMap are added by users who may have came across Bitcoin shops, complete with their personal experiences and recommendations. Business owners who accept Bitcoin payments are also allowed to add their locations to the map as a way of marketing themselves.
CoinMap.org is becoming more and more popular, and at the moment has a global Alexa rank of around 160,000. It’s mainly visited by people from the US, Germany, Spain, France and Belgium as well as other countries.
CoinMap Appearance
CoinMap.org is a pretty simplistic site with the main page set in a white and blue background showing the map of the earth. While zoomed out (default view), the CoinMap shows a heat wave of Bitcoin merchants all over the world. Zooming in shows the individual business and their within a specific area or region.
At the time of writing this, there were more than 9,000 Bitcoin merchants shown on the map, which goes to show how popular Bitcoin has become as a form of payment.
Categories of vendors include ATM, Attraction, Cafe, Food, Grocery, Lodging, Nightlife, Shopping, Sports and Transport.
CoinMap Features
The new CoinMap 2.0 is bigger and better than the previous version which looked more like a cheap clone of OpenStreetMap than anything else. Version 2.0 is sleeker and has a more engaging interface than its predecessor. The new and updated features include:
- Search tool – Users can now key in specific locations and get details on available Bitcoin shops in the locality. The feature also allows you to search for businesses by category, such as food and beverages, schools etc.
- Reviews – Users can share their experiences with listed businesses with the world and even give ratings.
- Like button – Just like social networks, the site now gives you the option of ‘liking’ a business. Businesses you like appear on top of the page as bookmarks and can assist you to locate other Bitcoin shops in and around the same area.
Registered TREZOR users can access the site and add, edit or review places through the TREZOR website and don’t need to create new accounts to do so. Otherwise, for the public, you have to open an account to edit or review a merchant. Notably, searching and/or viewing the CoinMap does not require account registration.
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Weekend Project
It is alleged that Satoshi Labs founder, Pavol Rusnak, designed and developed CoinMap over a lazy weekend in 2014. At the time, Pavol was busy marketing TREZOR, his trailblazing project and therefore had no much time to spare on maintenance. Which explains why CoinMap.org looked so clunky and disorganized before the update. With more resources and time on his hands now, it was only natural that Pavol revamped the site and made it better.
And we kind of like the new look.
Hope this is as cool as it sounds! Thanks for your research!???