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Title: Bitcoins 4 Bus Fares Post by: zeerok on June 10, 2011, 07:43:40 PM I'm thinking of setting up a service to purchase/reload transit cards with Bitcoin. I live in Seattle and here we have the Orca card. Basically you would send me bitcoins and your card ID and I would reload your "E-Purse" stored value account or renew your monthly pass. I don't intend to profit off of this, I just would like to see another useful use for bitcoins, and as a certified transit geek I would like to provide more options for people using transit. Also, I work next to an Orca customer service office and can reload cards there with cash during my coffee break.
I think I could extend this service to other cities that have smart cards and allow refilling/renewing online. San Francisco has the Clipper card, which I think will work as long as you have an unregistered card. I MIGHT be able to set something up for New York and Chicago, but those systems will be more challenging. If there is interest I can research other cities. Since I will be adding USD to stored-value cards, an appropriate exchange rate will need to be agreed upon. It seems that the Mt. Gox current ask price is the de facto standard, so I guess we would use that. Anyway, I just thought I would test the waters before jumping into this to see if there is any interest and see if folks have any thoughts. As you can see, I am new to this forum and Bitcoin trading, so I welcome any suggestions, either public or private. If anyone in Seattle or San Francisco wants to go ahead and try some test transactions (we'll start will small amounts), let me know. Title: Re: Bitcoins 4 Bus Fares Post by: zeerok on June 12, 2011, 07:07:37 AM Here are a few more cities that appear to have workable systems, and what I can do with your bitcoins:
Portland, OR (Tri-Met): Send you monthly passes or 10-ride ticket books in the mail. Minneapolis (Metro Transit): Buy new or add value to your Go-To card. Boston (MBTA) Add value or monthly pass to your CharlieCard. Anyone from these cities want to try a transaction? Since I am new and working on building a reputation, I would be happy to use an escrow or would even be agreeable to just reload your fare card with a small amount before you send any bitcoins, just to try this out. ~0K Title: Re: Bitcoins 4 Bus Fares Post by: Reikoku on June 12, 2011, 07:24:56 AM Some pretty good schemes here in Europe.
Rome, London, Amsterdam etc. Title: Re: Bitcoins 4 Bus Fares Post by: zeerok on June 13, 2011, 12:59:25 AM Oh yes, how could I forget about Oyster, the world's first contactless transit smart card system that started them all. :)
I think Oyster will work, from this site it looks like one can reload a card with just the card serial number: https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/link/0001.do But I'll need someone with an Oyster card willing to make an exchange to test further... Oyster uses British pounds and not euros, right? So I guess we could use Britcoin for the relevant exchange rate? ~0K |