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20140324-NEWS--25-NAT-CCI-CL_-- 3/20/2014 12:19 PM Page 1 Vol. 35, No. 12 Entire contents © 2014 by Crain Communications Inc. $2.00/MARCH 24 - 30, 2014 ADVERTISEMENT 12 7 NEWSPAPER 74470 83781 0 20140324-NEWS--26-NAT-CCI-CL_-- 3/20/2014 12:20 PM Page 1 20140324-NEWS--1-NAT-CCI-CL_-- 3/21/2014 4:06 PM Page 1 $2.00/MARCH 24 - 30, 2014 Anti-sin tax group starts to rumble pushed through isn’t right, and if we Coalition proposes alternatives to Issue 7; backers say those options are flawed reject the sin tax this May we will have another year to evaluate alter- By JAY MILLER the sin tax that has paid for the ers and fans of the teams. They say sin tax on the ballot has not consid- natives and to come up with a deal [email protected] buildings that are the homes to Issue 7, the proposed 20-year sin ered other alternatives for financ- that is transparent and fair,” CAST Cleveland’s major-league sports tax extension, has been rushed to ing the repair and upkeep of the chairman Peter Pattakos told about It’s not a big tax and Cuyahoga teams will go down to defeat on the the ballot and they just don’t be- buildings; they also say citizens four dozen supporters at the group’s County taxpayers have been paying May 6 ballot. lieve the sin tax is the best way to need more details about the capital first organizational meeting last it for 19 years. The leaders of the anti-tax group, fund improvements to buildings improvements the teams want be- Wednesday, March 19, at the Mar- But it is a big deal. And if a small, which calls itself the Coalition that are owned by Cuyahoga Coun- fore they approve the continued ket Garden Brewery in Cleveland’s social-media-savvy band of citizens Against the Sin Tax, or CAST, con- ty and the city of Cleveland. spending of public money. Ohio City neighborhood. can sway enough voters, renewal of sider themselves Cleveland boost- They say the process that put the “The way that this has been See GROUP Page 24 Local businesses are slow to buy into Bitcoin’s value Digital currency has been described as just a ‘fad,’ but others believe it’s here to stay By CHUCK SODER GETTY IMAGES [email protected] IT’S NOT AS EASY AS YOU THINK Frank Revy admits he “might be losing product Crain’s reporter Chuck Soder details his attempt to three dollars at a time” whenever he sells a cup of purchase a cup of coffee with bitcoin. Page 23 coffee to those very few people who pay with bit- coin. His shop, coffeeproper in Lakewood, is one of a price of a single bitcoin blasted past the $1,000 handful of local businesses that have decided to barrier last November, before coming back into accept payments from people who use the contro- orbit. You could buy one for about $590 last Thurs- versial digital currency. day, March 20. Bitcoins traded for almost nothing in 2010, Some merchants, such as The Wine Spot in when computers first started churning through Cleveland Heights, immediately convert any bit- the complex calculations needed to produce coin they receive into cash. But not coffeeproper. them. But that was then: Over the last year, the See BITCOIN Page 23 What is it? How does it work? By CHUCK SODER All those computers form a network that serves [email protected] to confirm transactions made with bitcoin, with- out the help of Visa, MasterCard or your local So, what the heck is Bitcoin? And does it really bank. And the system is set up so that, over time, have a chance to compete against the almighty it becomes harder to produce new bitcoins, which dollar? is intended to keep inflation in check. We’ll start with the basics. Merchants have at least one good reason to ac- Bitcoin is a form of currency that isn’t issued by cept bitcoin: It allows them to avoid paying fees as- a central government. There also is no such thing sociated with credit card transactions. (However, as a physical bitcoin (the concept is capitalized, merchants sometimes choose to pay a so-called the currency is not). Computers are used to create “mining fee,” which tends to be lower than a cred- them. Big computers: It takes a lot of horsepower it card fee, to encourage people in the computer MCKINLEY WILEY to run the complex algorithms needed to produce network to process their transactions quickly.) Frank Revy’s coffeeproper in Lakewood is one of a handful of Northeast Ohio businesses a single bitcoin. Your laptop won’t cut it. See WORK Page 23 that accepts bitcoin. 20140324-NEWS--2-NAT-CCI-CL_-- 3/21/2014 2:57 PM Page 1 2 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM MARCH 24 - 30, 2014 700 W. St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113-1230 Phone: (216) 522-1383 Fax: (216) 694-4264 www.crainscleveland.com Publisher/editorial director: John Campanelli ([email protected]) Editor: Mark Dodosh ([email protected]) Managing editor: Scott Suttell ([email protected]) Sections editor: Amy Ann Stoessel ([email protected]) Assistant editor: Kevin Kleps ([email protected]) Sports Senior reporter: Stan Bullard ([email protected]) Real estate and construction Reporters: Jay Miller ([email protected]) Government Chuck Soder ([email protected]) Technology Dan Shingler ([email protected]) Energy, steel and automotive Tim Magaw ([email protected]) Health care and education Michelle Park Lazette ([email protected]) Finance Rachel McCafferty ([email protected]) Manufacturing and energy Research editor: Deborah W. Hillyer ([email protected]) Cartoonist/illustrator: Rich Williams Art director: Rebecca R. 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Crain: Chairman Rance Crain: President Merrilee Crain: Secretary Mary Kay Crain: Treasurer William A. Morrow: Executive vice president/operations Chris Crain: Executive Vice President, Director of Strategic Operations Dave Kamis: Vice president/production & manufacturing Anthony DiPonio: Chief Information Officer Mary Kramer: Group publisher G.D. Crain Jr. Founder (1885-1973) Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. Chairman (1911-1996) 20140324-NEWS--3-NAT-CCI-CL_-- 3/21/2014 1:33 PM Page 1 Looks like a million bucks. Feels like a million bucks. 2014 IS250 AWD CLASSIC LEXUS PER MO LEASE $299 27 Month lease requiring $3,995 Cash or Trade due at signing 10,000 miles per year and 25¢ charge per mile over. Plus tax, title, license and doc. fee. MSRP: $44,423 Navigation, Blind-spot monitoring, All wheel drive & much more! And here’s a few more deals under a million. 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