Bitcoin Forum

As maybe some of you might know, starbucks in HongKong is accepting Bitcoin via a new service called FOLD since last month or so. Although I'm not a big fan of that company it's great to see them making some steps forward in accepting Bitcoin and also giving some nice discount.
Roger Ver tried it out and filmed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUOYfLrjABk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUOYfLrjABk)

https://twitter.com/rogerkver/status/598325750589050881 (https://twitter.com/rogerkver/status/598325750589050881)

http://www.coinbuzz.com/2015/04/24/starbucks-now-accepting-bitcoin-in-hong-kong/ (http://www.coinbuzz.com/2015/04/24/starbucks-now-accepting-bitcoin-in-hong-kong/)

The more the merrier. At least they know how to do business. 20% save is not a big deal for Starbucks, but for the bintoiners and for Bitcoin is a nice leap forward.

We stopped buying Starbucks products when they started throwing racial bullshit in our faces with their "Race Together" campaign.

We decided that home-made and convenience store coffee and latte's tasted much better and were a lot cheaper without the racial "conversations."

The only "conversations" we want with our coffee providers are issues dealing with how we would like our coffee prepared and payment.

This soudns good :) And 20% discount is a big incentive... Nice way to go!

This is pretty cool.
The more the merrier as somebody said above, I always thought/think that the first surge of mainstream adoption will start in the Far East.
They're always at the cutting edge of new technology.
Let the mainstream adoption commence  ;D
Well done Starbucks, Hong Kong.

Who the hell is "we"?

As far as the offer, its great, and any publicity is good publicity, even tho i still think Starbucks coffee quality is trash.

It is only Hong Kong Starbucks? They are independent from central in the USA and can do such business decisions on their own? It is probably decision made to test the waters of bitcoin and see if that is really good idea to push acceptance to every branch. If some 'exotic' market will succeed with bitcoin then next  we will have "Bitcoin accepted here" sign in every Starbucks shop. Good news for bitcoin.

Starbucks is not accepting bitcoin directly, they are using a bitcoin-to-giftcard service called Fold. Not the best method I would have hoped, but the more merchant accepting bitcoin the better.

No. The app works worldwide, or it should, however, its not guaranteed to work outside the US.
Also, this is implemented by a third party, and Starbucks isn't accepting bitcoin directly.

Great news, the hipster iphone airmac type of starbucks niche could be huge with BTC, even if they use it just because its trendy and cool, any use is good use.

Never heard of that. I just looked it up. What the fuck?

Sure, I'd love to discuss race relations with some guy/gal behind a counter when I'm running late instead of just drinking my goddamn coffee.

I hope whatever genius came up with that got multiple bitch slaps.

Move in the right direction,big companies at least acknowledging the power of bitcoin.

i hope in the future, many companies will accept BTC so that it will be a widespread

In a way, I have a problem with this kind of adoption of Bitcoin by merchants.

They do not want a direct association with Bitcoin, and want to work via 3rd parties to accept it as a payment method.

Is this true adoption, if you have no 1-on-1 transfer of coins? The use of Gift card and vouchers is not true adoption.

These companies are only invested in the currency for the fiat value they can get from the direct conversion from Bitcoin to fiat. {Even though this makes business sense, it's not true adoption}

We should have more true adopters {Bitcoin Only} type businesses, that invest in the "growing" of the currency, not just to gain fiat from it... {Overstock being a leader in that field}

 

People just want fiat with it and not bitcoin. Since they will be restocking their store which they need to purchase supplies by using fiat as well. That is why they want a 3rd party that will convert it directly to fiat to ease their way. Still at least it is better because there are not much companies that want to accept bitcoin

They probably have a very good deal or pay a high regional transaction fee for traditional transactions.

Not a fan of coffee but I think this is a great start in terms of having some businesses and merchants to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. Also, a 20% discount is a lot if you would ask anyone who earns just enough for their needs and can't even handle a $3-$4 of coffee a day. It would be really nice to see if businesses other than the ones that already accepted bitcoin as a form of payment start looking into using it someday, as it would really help bitcoin's economy and have a wide reach as well as helping people pay for their coffees with convenience and without questions asked.

good job Roger  :D

what are you doing in Hongkong?

Why, ordering a coffee with bitcoins! :D That's a pretty simple question. ;D

Never drank coffee or visit StarBucks in my life time. If they do accept Bitcoin in my country, I might try them. It is good to see another notable company accepting Bitcoin as payment. They already helped Bitcoin community so much yet they still promote Bitcoin by giving 20 percent discount. What a good company.

Yeah I know what you mean and you're absolutely right. But I see it as a step by step process moving forward. Companies and merchants are very conservative and doing a lot of trial balloons right now I guess. Many small steps in addition will make the big step to mainstream as the end result.

Again, for clarification, Starbucks is not accepting Bitcoin directly. It is a third party service that is offering this opportunity.

I just used this service Saturday and yesterday, here in California. I was pleased by how well it worked:

On my Android, I browsed to coffee.foldapp.com and touched the "Load Bitcoin" button.
I chose $5, because my wife's grande half-shot, soy, peppermint, iced, decaf mocha, with personal cup costs about $4.65.
I then touched the "Pay using your bitcoin wallet." link, which brought up Mycellium, with a payment of 16.628 mBTC (about $4).
I sent the payment, and within seconds, as soon as my payment hit the network, the Fold page showed a bar code, which I scanned at the register. (Obviously, Fold doesn't wait for the payment to be confirmed in a block.)
After the barista acknowledged my payment, I touched the "Refund" button to collect the $0.35 change. I used Mycellium's "copy to clipboard" function to get my refund address to the Fold app. The refund was sent instantly.

Summary: Quick, simple, and painless way to get a 20% discount at Starbucks by using Bitcoin.


That is true, Starbucks may not even be aware of this program. Some may ask: "Then who's giving the 20% discount?" As near as I can figure out, people sell their unwanted gift cards at a discount. Googling, I found http://www.cardpool.com/sell/offers, where I got an offer to buy my hypothetical $20 Starbucks gift card for $14. This is a 30% discount, which allows sellers like Fold to offer a lower 20% discount and still make money. Fold does not say where they get their gift cards. At some point, the gift cards are stored electronically, which is how these apps get them to the buyer.

Can't say I agree with Starbucks' business practices but more companies to spend your bitcoins at is a plus, though you can get a better than 20% discount by buying Starbucks giftcards on the Marketplace here  ;D,