Bitcoin Forum

I'm going to dinner with a girlfriend to grab some aphrodisiac Oysters at the Oyster Bar in Downtown St.Petersburg, Florida to see BITCOIN ACCEPTED HERE, Immediately I ask where do I pay to see what they are using (iPad or whatever) they looked at me with disparity and said "Sorry that was only during the Bitcoin Bowl".... then they asked " what are you part of the New World Order! " ... Everyone inside started to complain about Mt.Gox and what they heard about Bitcoin and how its been defamed and not trustworthy.

http://i61.tinypic.com/3309ovt.jpg

VERY DEPRESSING!

WE MUST CHANGE THIS!

BTC must take over VISA! VISA takes a giant % of each transaction to cover the insane amounts of fraudulent activity.  BTC > VISA

Ah damn, my local wafflehouse mines with a few S5s in their back (I hear 'em sometimes) so I probably will never know the denial of paying them with my bitcoin. It's really a shame that this (oyster) bar doesn't accept and are too lazy to peel a damn sticker off the glass!

But it was because of Bitpay that they started(&stopped) accepting bitcoins.They took away the sponsorship from the Bowl.If they had continued with the sponsorship then you would have paid in BTC for your dinner  :P

Why would they stop accepting Bitcoin?
I understand, that people don't want to go to the hassle of accepting a new payment method(regardless of how small the effort is), but once introduced, why remove it?

They should at least take the sign away. ... And YES, WE MUST CHANGE THIS!

as far as i know it doesn't cost anything if people don't use bitcoin to pay with in stores. so they don't lose anything. why remove bitcoin as payment method if it can give you extra revenue. it will only cost them a tiny fee for getting the coins converted into fiat.

It is also probably the training of new employees. The few times I've tried to pay with bitcoin they had to literaly search for their tablet, ask a collegue how it worked again and than I had to explain them which button to press and what I needed to do to pay.

Most businesses probably see bitcoin as a volatile form of payment to their products/services. Well you know that bitcoin's prices in terms of fiat is not that stable, and to maintain a business, one must use fiat to pay for expenses such as power, rent and utility. They can't accept just yet, maybe until there will be a wide-market for bitcoins (especially if rent, power and utilities can be paid with it, also the materials they need in creating their own products.)

Of course they can accept it. What are you talking about? If they use Bitpay they can choose to keep any percentage of the Bitcoins, even 0%! There is technically zero risk with this method for a business owner. The problem is in the nature of people who are usually closed-minded, especially when it comes to things that are deemed as complicated for inexperienced users (most people) of technology.

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OP this is a very strange situation. I've only seen a few places (I haven't been looking for them) with the Bitcoin accepted here sign and there were all alright. Have you asked them to take down the sign?

Is it this bar here:

http://www.theoysterbarstpete.com/

If so, I'd recommend that people contact them via twitter and ask if they really do accept bitcoin and how cool this is. It would be the contrary of attacking them: Many people have to tell them how cool it is, recommend the bar to other Bitcoin-users, and I'm sure they will immedeately change their policy.

well to tell you the truth we can complain more about how current banks, politics and all those things than about what's happened with Mt.Gox, well what's happened with MT.Gox was so sad ofc, but i mean that people are always searching for the "bad side" of things that they didnt use or dont understand, just to reinforced himself that they are doing the correct.

I agree that our reputation sucks a lot at the moment. In a sense, community is guilty of this as well. Drama, after drama, scam after scam, hack after hack. We just found out about another one few days ago, a Bitpay hack.

This must be changed if we want to advance or at least advance a bit faster in the mainstream adoption. I am just tired of getting that sick feeling when reading some new scam took place in the Bitcoin community.

No thanks to Mt gox. You can imagine how much damage they have done judging by the way how people perceive bitcoin. There could be a list of good things about the coin but it takes one bad reputation to spoil everything.

Not only on the US, i have the feeling that this is a general issue for our lovely bitcoin, as fast as we overcome the barrier, the better for bitcoin.

Thats why i always said that spread the word is really really important if we want success ;), people just need to be informed instead of giving them a bad info about it, like some press or tv is doing...

honestly, i don't blame them anymore. with all the bad media which surrounds bitcoin no business is going to consider bitcoin good for themselves.
and on top of that all these hacks and scams doesn't help bitcoin either. the most recent one was this huge bitpay mess-up.

Yeah it seems it's just one hurt after another when Bitcoin is highlighted in the news.  The Blockchain however is getting a more positive light.

in my opinion the blockchain news doesn't have any significant effect on bitcoin so far. because they are talking about the technology alone and how they are going to use it for their own purposes and create their own blockchain, just like an altcoin.

You're right.We really can not blame them.However they could have replaced the sign. Stories like this always shows me how long the way is we have to go before Bitcoin will be widely accepted in society and not only by law.

Is this really a solution? It still won't be direct p2p bitcoin trade. You still can have company which could be attacked by hackers or worse discredit itself like bitpay did. And I thought that bitcoin community is aiming to be independent and free from 3rd party payment processors.

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After hearing op's story I wonder now how many of these "Bitcoin accepted here" signs are in reality fake useless piece of cardboard.

I think it's a clever ploy to attract business. You draw Bitcoin users attention to your business and when you want to pay, they tell you that they do not accept BTC

anymore, and you have to pay with another payment option. It has happened to me before, so I now ask them before I use their service or buy their products.

They are not too lazy to take the sign down... It's just marketing gimmick to pull more customers.

Humble Bundle used to accept bitcoin too, until they stopped accepting it. Disappointing.

I went to Berlin and ate and drink at a small diner when I asked the owner if I could pay with Bitcoin she was happy and told me she rather have bitcoin payments.
Only in America dude people will tell you Illuminati durrrr.

I am a post MtGox guy, but it seems it hurt badly.

I am yet to see any Bitcoin accepted here sign (I am from Spain), either really accepting it or not.

True, this tactic its called bait and switch, while I haven’t seen this tactic used with bitcoin, I have seen this used with other products.

Which is funny because I think quite a small number of customers would be brought in by such a sign.

I think this is happening everywhere.
I think the business owners got excited about "get-rich-fast" potential, but then realized the bubble has burst. So they just abandon the idea of collecting bitcoins.

Is the OP sure it wasn't a street theatre 'piece'? Sure sounds like he was an unwitting participant.

I wonder why do they put the 'banner' (?) there if they dont accept Bitcoin anymore. In movies and dramas, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency was most mentioned in crime. This is why people thought Bitcoin is only for criminal and is bad. I hope the public will change their thinking on Bitcoin and start using the new world's currency.

If bitcoin price can show stable value and increasing trend, I'm sure that bitcoin will attract more people and more trust for bitcoin.
For who that still believing on bitcoin, just keep in that way because without us, bitcoin might be more untrustworthy

I agree. As long as we have a trend of going upward... it will be easier for Bitcoin to go mainstream. However, the problem here is that most people dont trust Bitcoin and this result the price to drop almost everyday for the past six months.

even on a big city doesnt really accepting bitcoin,and how about a small city like on my town..

there's nothing worse than a place that says they take it who turn out not to :(