For a while it seemed that any news involving some precocious little kids opening a lemonade stand was immediately followed with scandal and outrage, as full-on SWAT units were being sent to make sure that Betty and Cindy couldn’t ever sell a drop of sweat in their towns without first filing for a license. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad. However, last week two young girls in San Francisco not only reminded us of the once-adorable Rockwellian neighborhood pastime, but they took it to a brand new, technologically awesome level.
Redditor DorkusPrime uploaded this image of two young girls and their specialty stand, known as “Mia and Taylor’s Coffee Shoppe,” and people have been going bonkers over it all across the country. Why? What’s the big deal about this coffee stand? Well, for starters, they’re using a QR code and are accepting bitcoins. Somewhere, Lucy’s considering giving the old Psychiatric Help stand an overhaul.
According to FoodBeast, Mia and Taylor have received bitcoin payments for as much as $70 since their story went viral, and just perusing the Reddit thread, you can see people who were making donations just for the charm of the idea, although I’d still love to have one of the snickerdoodles.
Alas, all is not well on Reddit or the Internet in general, as the pessimists and naysayers are calling FAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE on this whole thing. For starters, some people allege, the image might be a photoshop. People have accused DorkusPrime of uploading the original image with his own QR code on it because of the way that it looks on the roof of the girls’ stand. However, other Redditors did some really extensive snooping and confirmed that the QR code belongs to these girls and/or their parents. But as far as accusations, DorkusPrime didn’t take too kindly to being called a no-good, photoshoppin’ swindler.
Look, 2013 was a pretty bad year for trust on the Internet, from the revelation that Manti Te’o’s girlfriend was a close male family friend to that guy who pretended to be so clever with the lady on the plane or whatever. So I understand if people are going to be a little skeptical, but let’s at least try to find proof that someone is a liar and thief before we start throwing accusations around. There has to be a little humanity left in us, right?