Buyer’s remorse sets in: my money has been turned into a string of numbers. I wonder if I should get my £20 back, but the only way to do that is to trade online, wait for someone to wander into the shop looking for £20 worth of digital currency or buy some of Khan’s essentials. He smiles again and shakes his head. “No, you can’t buy with Bitcoin here.”
Outside the Best Supermarket a man is smoking something illegal. He must know all about cryptocurrency. He is probably a Bitcoin wizard, able to unlock the secrets of the hidden realm while blowing rings of exotic smoke.
Sadly not. “Is that what it is, a Bitcoin machine?” he says. “That’s an iconic shop, there’s always a gaggle of people outside in the middle of the night. Maybe that’s why they put it there.”