"Making a statement against credit card 'junk' processing fees, D.C.'s veteran-owned Compass Coffee invited today's Navy Yard customers to buy their brew with digital dollars instead. The one-day pilot with Coinbase coincides with the top U.S. crypto exchange’s Update the System Summit in the nation’s capital. While mega-chains like Starbucks and Subway have recently started accepting payments in bitcoin and the like, it's rare for a small business like Compass to get into crypto. Today's Half Street SE customers can scan a QR code to pay with USDC — a so-called 'stablecoin' that acts like a digital dollar — and sip cups rebranded with Coinbase facts on 'unnecessary transaction fees' pocketed by big banks. Decade-old Compass, which loses almost 4 percent in revenues to every credit card swipe, says its global bean suppliers could also financially benefit from using faster digital dollars. Coinbase tells Eater it's teaming with Compass to 'show D.C. a real-life example of how money can move with the speed and ease of the internet, without the middleman hiking up fees.' The unlikely partnership could blossom this year into the implementation of an actual crypto-accepting system across its 16 local cafes." - Tierney Plumb
