It’s St. Patrick’s Day in the U.S. and amidst the superficial Ireland worship and overflowing mugs of green beer will be a lot of people wearing shirts and buttons bearing phrases they can’t pronounce. This celebration makes an excellent day to speak to the progress of Bitcoin and Ireland, especially for an American audience who probably aren’t aware of how the Irish and cryptocurrency intersect.

Compared to the United States, Ireland is a not a very big island, but it still has big things going on. Did you know that one possible candidate for Satoshi Nakamoto is Irish? How many Bitcoin ATMs does Ireland have? Interested in buying a pint of Guinness for bitcoin? You can.

Keep reading to learn more about the Emerald Isle and Bitcoin. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, America.

The Irish Satoshi Nakamoto

In 2011, New Yorker contributor Joshua Davis began a hunt for the mysterious founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. Like most quests to find Bitcoin’s Batman—be Satoshi an individual or a group of people—he came up with nothing.

However, amid a small list of likely candidates, he did find an Irish computer science student named Michael Clear, whom Davis believed could potentially be connected to the 2009 white paper that outlined Bitcoin and the subsequent first lines of code that made the cryptocurrency function. This revelation would catch the attention of a few Irish news sources.

Clear’s interest in cryptography coupled with co-authoring a paper on peer-to-peer technology and his work with Allied Irish Banks to improve its currency-trading software piqued Davis’ interest.

However, Clear would eventually publish to his blog denying that he is Satoshi.

“Although I am flattered that Josh had reason to think I could be Satoshi, I am certainly the wrong person,” he wrote in response.

Clear noted that his work on AIB’s system happened as a student, not an employee, and part of undergrad coursework. He emphasizes in his blog post that he’s no economist and found Bitcoin interesting more for its peer-to-peer and cryptographic nature as a computer scientist.

The First Irish Bitcoin ATM

Ireland’s first Bitcoin ATM launched in March 2014 at a GSM Solutions electronics store. It had been first intended for installation at nearby at nearby Hippety’s Cafe in the Temple Bar area of Dublin, but complications arose and it was moved.

The Lamassu Bitcoin ATM was installed by Ireland-based Bitcoin ATM provider BitVendo (now controlled by BitEx.ie.) Who, while the company appears to have one ATM installed has not appeared in the media since.

This may be in part due to several apparent setbacks including the Bank of Ireland refusing an account with BitVendo last year. Banks rejecting accounts with Bitcoin-related ventures have not been an uncommon problem for businesses in the past few years.

A second Bitcoin ATM, supplied by Skyhook, was installed at Busyfeet & Coco Cafe in January 2015.

The First Irish Pub to accept Bitcoin

No St. Patrick’s Day Bitcoin article would be complete without a story that included beer so we offer you this tale of Ireland’s first pint of purchased using bitcoin, a bittersweet journey of currency and loss.

The first pint in Ireland bought with bitcoin happened to be a bottle of Kopparberg cider purchased at the Baggot Inn in Dublin in March 2014 by Michael Rudnicki for approximately €4.50, or 0.0093 bitcoin.

The pub, Baggot Inn, also installed a Robocoin ATM to help encourage more purchases of this type.

However, the ATM and pints-for-bitcoin would be for naught as the pub would eventually uninstall the ATM and stop accepting bitcoin in October 2014.

Co-owner of the Robocoin ATM, Ronan Lynch said that the machine was removed following a change in management at the pub. Although the previous owners were happy to embrace bitcoin, the new management didn’t feel the same.

“We regret to announce (that) due to ongoing issues regarding the legality of Bitcoin ATMs in the Republic of Ireland, we can no longer accept Bitcoin payments,” the new owners wrote in a statement to the press.

Although while Baggot Inn stopped selling pints, Healy’s Lounge in Ballycastle, Co Mayo, announced its management (and patrons) had little trouble accepting bitcoins for spirits and claimed to have sold over 200 pints since introducing the service.

Ireland has its own Bitcoin Foundation

The Bitcoin Foundation, an international but U.S.-based advocacy group for the Bitcoin industry, gets a great deal of press in Bitcoin circles (and especially at SiliconAngle) because much of the audience is American. However, Ireland has its own Bitcoin Foundation named, of course, Bitcoin Foundation of Ireland.

Bitcoin Foundation of Ireland seeks to bring like-minded industry leaders and Bitcoin community members together to protect the stability of the Bitcoin protocol, promote Bitcoin adoption, and approach the legal aspects of Bitcoin in Ireland. It’s board includes Alan Donohoe, CEO of the Allcom Group and founding member of the BFI, Roger Ver, entrepreneur and well-known Bitcoin pioneer, Denise Anderson, advisor with Cryptor Trust North America, and Antonie Geerts, founder of Gaelcoin—Ireland’s first indigenous cryptocurrency.

The BFI’s board has strong ties to the Bitcoin Foundation and works tirelessly to promote and enable Bitcoin in Ireland.

For those in Ireland interested in Bitcoin, and staying abreast of news that affects Irish Bitcoiners, the BFI maintains a news page from which many of the above stories have been recounted.

photo credit: Guinness with a view via photopin (license)