Second-hand electronics exchange CeX is the first UK national retailer to enable customer transactions on its website to be made using Bitcoin.

To celebrate, the company has declared its Glasgow Sauchiehall store a pound free zone for three days. CeX is also bringing the first Bitcoin ATM to Scotland.

Commercial director David Butler highlighted security and access benefits of using the open source virtual currency, but the trial is also being launched as a stunt around Scottish Independence. “While we are temporarily dropping the pound from our Glasgow store, at a time when Scottish Independence is high up on the news agenda, we are doing so to give customers a choice in how they trade with us,” he told Scottish Television.

In an increasingly bitter debate about whether the UK would let Scotland keep the pound if it was a yes in the independence vote in September, the scheme is an opportunity to show that the country could manage without it.

There are currently more than 9,000 places in the UK where people can spend their Bitcoins, according to SpendBitcoins.co.uk.