Paying via coins is all the rage these days, thanks to the skyrocketing price of bitcoin, but paying in Chuck E. Cheese tokens is taking it a little too far. But that’s exactly what is going on at a library in Danvers, Massachusetts.
According to a news report, the Peabody Institute Library is asking all patrons to refrain from paying their library fines in Chuck E. Cheese tokens and tokens from a local arcade named Bonkers. Patrons are also using Canadian coins at the Peabody Institute Library, according to the report.
“They are the size of quarters, so you have to pay attention,” Acting Library Director Jennifer McGeorge was quoted as saying. The library posted four tokens it accepted as payment for fines by accident.
Speaking of coins and tokens that have real value outside the view of children, bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, is raising the ire of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the government watchdog. Complaints to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are increasing as the prices of both are on the rise.
As of August of this year, there have been 227 complaints about virtual currency to the CFPB — a fairly notable pick-up from the seven in 2016. And that number may, in fact, be too low when it comes to complaints from consumers — it fails to account for the 288 complaints lodged against Coinbase, the leading bitcoin wallet.
It’s a big pick-up, but not a terribly large net number of complaints against Coinbase and cryptocurrencies in general. All in all, the CFPB has received nearly 150 thousand complaints across various areas of financial services so far. Still, the increase is notable, particularly as it is correlated to bitcoin’s 386 percent price surge this year. The CFPB has said that consumers should be aware of potential issues with virtual currencies, such as unclear costs, volatile exchange rates and hacking threats. The CFPB has also noted that bitcoin companies generally do not offer help or refunds in the event of lost or stolen funds.
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