You can now pay for home renovations and internet in Ottawa with crypto currency

Sticking with bitcoin despite crypto crash An Ottawa business says its staying with bitcoin for the long run despite the value of crypto currencies plummeting. CTV's Dave Charbonneau reports.

The value of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies has fallen off a cliff.

And even though $1,000,000,000,000 has been washed away in just the last month, one local company says they’re staying with Bitcoin for the long run.

Home renovation company OakWood Designers and Builders is giving its customers a Bitcoin payment option.

It is Ottawa’s first and only construction company to accept crypto currency.

"We had some inquiries from some of our client base about Bitcoin and we essentially started incorporating that about three or four weeks ago," says John Liptak, OakWood President and CEO.

Customers are given an OakWood Bitcoin wallet address.

They paste the address into a designated field in their own Bitcoin wallet payment site, enter the amount and then hit send.

Regardless of the current crypto crash, Liptak says OakWood is committed to crypto currency.

"Bitcoin is actually going down a bit in value right now," says Liptak. "But we’re looking at everything from a long term perspective. Everything is 10, 20 years out in our company."

Despite the massive crash, crypto experts are still bullish on the future of digital currency.

"In March to July 2021, the price of Bitcoin got cut in half again. And we came right back up," says Queen’s University Smith School of Business Assistant Professor, Erica Pimentel. "People in the crypto space will tell you, put your Bitcoin key away, put it in a drawer, and you’ll give it to your kids in 20 years."

Canadian internet service provider, Oxio, also providing multiple crypto currency options to customers.

"We were the first to offer crypto payments," says Oxio Cofounder and CEO Marc-André Campagna. "And we are still the only one offering crypto payments in Canada."

Campagna says the crypto option has been quite popular with hundreds of their customers jumping on board.

“It actually exceeded our expeditions of people paying in Bitcoin. And it’s not only Bitcoin. There’s people who pay in Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dai, Ethereum and Dogecoin as well.”

Along with a crypto payment option, Oxio is the only ISP to use referral codes like these RS2DJ4O to give new customers a free month of internet when using the code to sign up.

"We believe in a transparent and decentralized world that crypto could create in the future," says Campagna. "And like the internet, we think it will provide equal access opportunities to people around the world."

Many investors have lost life savings in the crypto meltdown. Experts offer this advice for regular consumers, only purchase what you can afford to lose because digital currency is so volatile.