Bitcoin Forum

Starbucks is going to become the pioneer in high street shops to accept crypto currency payments.It has said that it would soon incorporate blockchain as part of payment strategy but says no to bitcoin.

Starbucks Chairman Howard Shultz said that they would not be ready to accept bitcoin.

What might be the reason for this?

Is it bitcoin's high volatility or high transaction fee issue?

Here is the link

https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/910629/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-news-latest-Ripple-Ethereum-price-value-surge-starbucks-payment

I would be thinking of high fee issue. Lately companies were dropping the support for bitcoin payments they used to have (like Steam, for instance).

But generally, all that discussion with company A accepting bitcoin and company B dropping it makes me feel like I magically time-travelled back to say 2015. It was in those early days that everybody discussed hot topics on who accepts bitcoins now and who not.

Are we really back to that level? That accepting bitcoins is such a big deal nowadays? I would think we as a community and bitcoin as a currency, we are all more mature. But it seems we are not.....

Fees are down a bit now, the mempool is clearing up too, only 38,xxx unconfirmed transactions now -

https://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions

There were over 150k not that long ago.

So you're saying that they might create their own cryptocurrency? am I right? Maybe the reason they won't accept bitcoin because they might be worried that it will burst at any time like what other anti-BTC are saying which as a result more people are cautious in dealing/buying/using bitcoin as a payment method in their businesses and transactions.

I think volatility and high transaction fees are the two reasons why Starbucks do not accept bitcoins but for other cryptocurrencies at a lower fee. by receiving cryptocurrency as a means of payment this will be many people who know about the world of crypto so will increase the price of cryptocurrency later

My opinion is they are going to create their own coin and because they already have more money on starbucks cards than some banks in deposits link (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/starbucks-has-more-customer-money-on-cards-than-many-banks-have-in-deposits-2016-06-09) , what the hell, let's try to milk this even more.

There is not going to be a decentralized coin on the starbucks app, just a simple coin with no mining, no nodes, no nothing and with the customer base they already have probably it will be a success.
But don't expect to be able to trade it or for the value to fluctuate.

Starbucks is one of the Globalist elite groups, and this is why they support terrorists. I wouldn't buy their products because of this, and also because of the health risks associated with their employment policies.

They probably deny Bitcoin for political reasons rather than practical ones.

I think it is just political reasons. I don't see why they wouldn't accept it as long as they accept other currencies.

I agree with this. Most of the companies nowadays want to penetrate the crypto industry by making their own coin. I think Starbucks wanted to make their own coin. Starbucks is a multinational company. Aside from that, it is one of the most known coffee shop. They wanted to make their own coin to be used when purchasing their products.

Reading the article, I was able to catch a glimpse of what he is talking about but the place I have issue was when he was quoted as 'bitcoin is not a currency today and not in the future' makes me wonder the amount of thought that is put into decision making of an organisation strategy thinking before coming out with a position. Although, he is yet to list the specific crypto currency that would be accepted but outrightly disqualifying bitcoin makes me feel its really not about implementation but about making a statement and this statement is coordinated one.

Bitcoin at this particular time, no matter how many people try to make themselves believe something else, bitcoin will remain the trail blazer in the industry and unfortunately for them, they are adopting the blockchain technology with bitcoin itself not knowing that they are even doing more in propagating the popularity of bitcoin. Also, only if they will be establishing their own exchange sites for conversion of fiat into any currency they want to use, there would still be need for the use of bitcoin in the process because any user would have to first convert to bitcoin before converting to any of the accepted crypto currency.

So it looks more like they want to create a new token of their own.
Instead of supporting other tokens now, because even bitcoin doesn't support it, what token can buy starbucks coffee? ???

I would imagine other than some political reasons, the high price fees has got to be the deal breaker here. Imagine paying £2.99 for a coffee and it charging £5 in network fees, it simply wouldn't work.

You dont see why they wouldn't use a currency that takes upto 10 minutes to confirm at $5 a time, for a product that costs $3 and prepared in 1-2min?  

They wont accept it because it doesn't work for them.

With no other thought, I am sure that high transaction fee and confirmation time is the reason that most of the merchants are avoiding Bitcoin. We really need to work on some concrete solution for this critical issue in order to make it user friendly even for the micro-transactions. I am optimistic about the picture of next 2 to 5 years and I am sure that Bitcoin has a good future if things are going in a proper direction.

I'm not sure but Qtum or Robin8 also trying to be a partner with the Starbucks. I see it discussed on their blogs or social media channel that they will have a meeting with the Starbucks management. I will edit this for reference. Stay tuned.

Edit: Found it on Reddit discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/Qtum/comments/7qo98l/huge_qtum_partners_with_starbucks/
Article: https://cryptovest.com/news/qtum-announces-starbucks-partnership-price-still-sinks/

If it accepted alts but not bitcoin, I think this would be the first case, and something very negative for bitcoin, as until now, merchants were accepting bitcoin or bitcoin and alts.

I think it is more likely that they will issue their own crypto, as it’s been said.

Both and the slow confirm time compared to other currencies even with Lightning.

IMO, it is because of the high transaction fees and slow confirmation.

I think there is this fear that Bitcoin price will continue to fall in the year 2018 according to the analysis by the Starbucks boss. He believe using the special app will make the company more.

After reading the whole article it seems that this man is trying to gain the popularity through the use of crypto blockchain. I mean there is no reason fro him to disqualify the pioneer that is bitcoin in the first place.

He clearly mentioned that bitcoin has dropped a lot and might continue to drop this year. But on the other hand he speaks more about the successful currencies like Ripple, ETH etc. It clearly mentions that he is behind the money and not given a shitty about the bitcoin if it does not makes him fortune at all.

I really like the enthusiasm of Shultz in that interview regarding blockchain technology and its potential use in many different ways including payment system. It is also very understandable that he is not eyeing to use Bitcoin because of its crazy volatility (currently experienced right now). They are looking for a more stable cryptocurrency because it is very essential in their business. Always remember that he is a businessman and he is always looking for a profit for his company. Nevertheless, technology for BTC is moving forward with greater leaps and hopefully, this would provide stability for it so that companies like Starbucks will be able to use it in the future.

same for any shop that wants quick easy fast payments - who in their right mind would accept btc as it stands.

better to accept ltc or doge for that... 

btc is a store of wealth why try to make it become both...

btc is your bank

alts can take the strain of being a payment system

I have heard that in Canada they started to accept bitcoin at KFC as a payment method. I think Starbucks does not accept bitcoin because it's political reasons

I don't think the Starbucks will create their own cryptocurrencies, maybe they will use blockchain technology for distribution of coupons. Or using some tokens instead of coupons, but it seems not necessary

There's a lot of potential reasons for the starbucks's boss to deny bitcoin from their new adapted strategy that seems to be a very smart move into attracting cryptocurrencies enthusiasts and generally anyone who don't wanna deal with any centralized parties any more .

The bitcoin ban from the equation might have several reasons tho and maybe they see that bitcoin ain't a coin that will fit such a massive industry since with the roller coaster of fluctuations , small and micro transactions aren't the best usage of bitcoin .
Maybe they think that it has already matured and crossed a lots of records , and that if  they accept other cryptos that still has grounds to win , that'll be a long run investment since such coins still has a lot of time ahead to grow in value and users base, coins that has minor transaction fees and that has a much lower transactions time ( 4 seconds for ripple for e.g ) , that will certainly fit a company that wants it's coming payments to be cleared right away .

The chairman isn't certainly playing around , and his vision certainly saw that bitcoin will hold them back so just banned it , coming days will give a clearer image certainly .

It makes since that Bitcoin is not the coin they choose since the fees are high, but the lightning network is supposed to help with that. There are other coins that have zero transaction fees like Iota. It would make more since to choose a different coin.

I think this is good news for the cryptocurrency community regardless of which coin they use because this process of paying with cryptocurrencies needs to start at physical businesses at some point.

I still can not understand the reason for the rejection of bitcoin but the approval of other cryptocurrencies and Blockchain, the good thing is that this will open the possibilities for other chains to follow the steps of starbucks and allow payments through cryptocurrencies. At this point we can see the interest of Starbucks in Blockchain technology for the purchase in their stores, this would represent a breakthrough in commerce so that users can use their cryptocurrencies to drink coffee or buy a sandwish.

Bitcoin price is not stable and high transaction fee.. Starbucks Chairman Howard is right they would not be ready to accept bitcoin at this moment because it's completely volatile i would choose Litcoin,Xem or Ripple for payments. If Cryptocurrencies will be adopted by many all alts will pump..

I really like the idea of LTC for quick small payments as paying for coffee, taxi, or even pizzass, as their fees aren't that high and it's price is way more stable than bitcoin's. Of course this might be little bit bad for bitcoin, but as long as bitcoin would be used for other, larger payments, it should be fine.

This is a good news for the cryptocurrency market but not luck for bitcoin. Perhaps the fluctuations are so great that more and more frequency and bitcoin is the biggest object of variability, so Starbuck does not want the amount paid by bitcoin to drop. In the coming time there will be many services and corporations that accept crypto in transactions and payment services.

For now, almost no companies like Starbucks are adopting bitcoin as a means of their transactions, owing to the high transaction costs. Of course, management has calculated if they use bitcoin as a means of payment under current bitcoin conditions. They need instant transactions and very cheap fees, maybe like Ethereum or Bitcoin cash.

In terms of volatility, this is not a problem for them, because their intent to receive payment with cryptocurrency as an alternative is as a means of corporate investment.

Most plausible explanation...

i think the confirmation time for transactions is a major factor, considering that the value of each transaction in starbucks is usually small(1 digits mostly).

I doubt this being a negative impact on Bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies have their own implementation advantages so if one is not suitable for the task then resort to another one. That's just how it is. Since Bitcoin transaction takes time to be confirmed, and transaction fees are much higher than other coins. So litecoin/ethereum should be suitable for their business.


Perhaps. However, I think they should have their own coin and not a token. If they are going for a new token, such as ERC20, then they should've used ETH instead.

No they don't want to create any new crypto, where did you read it? I reread the article just to be sure there was no mention. They said they will be accepting some other existing cryptocurrencies but not bitcoin. And as I said above the reason is the fees I think, while the official reason from the article is high volatility.

EDIT:

It is how the rumour is born :)

I would say because of all the issues: the fluctuation in price (volatility), high Tx fee and delay
They better think of building their own blockchain/token or depending on another 'fast' one (with fast block production rate and lower number of required approvals, maybe EOS?) 

Fees started to be lower now so maybe they will accept bitcoin soon. I am sure that this was the main reason for not accepting it

What political reasons????
How can Expedia accept bitcoins and not Starbucks?

Can you please elaborate on this, or it was just o one liner thrown away to increase your post count?


Stop with the fee argument, it does not matter for the merchant point of view.
Starbucks is not paying the fees, the customers are. So it doesn't matter to them how the customers are willing to pay.
They can simply add a crypto payment that supports all coins and they will have the same costs.
Besides that, check the latest fees in the chain...
There are txs coming through with only 5-10 cents.

Now, back to the altcoins problem, the fee for ETH is gradually spiking to 1.5 $ and we know the problem of scalability of ETH, what do you think will happen if only 1% of coffees would be sold via ETH?
Not to mention the size of the chain.
No blockchain would ever be able to accommodate the big four fast food sellers even with 1% of their sells and keep low fees.
LN....

NO wonder, I wouldn't be accepting bitcoin as well, atm I'm trying to switch over to ETH as much as I can, fees are getting ridiculous, not just the height but the up and down, going from recommended 5sat/b to 165 sat/b, that got my transaction stuck. Something srsly needs to be done, the best solution and thing would be fixed transaction for whole blockchain. Easier calculating and you know your tx wont get stuck, ofcourse you can chooe between 3 options for speed overall but this we have now is ridiculous.

You are saying something I have been suspecting all along and even I had a post or two on the subject. The problem of scalability is inherent to ANY blockchain. The result seems to be devastating: no cryptocurrency can successfully reach high adoption.

Do you think we really have to settle for off-chain solutions in a long run? Then what do we really need bitcoin for, when we already have perfect off-chains payment methods (visa, mastercard,...) ?

Sorry but that is apples and oranges at another level.

We need BTC in order to:
- get rid of the middle man (visa, mastercard ...and in my opinion bitpay also)
- be able to keep your money (coins) in a place where nobody can touch them.
Here I would have to mention that keeping cash under your pillow is not the solution since the central bank can easily print new notes and make the older ones useless.

This can be achieved with a coin with the LN.
And you're right now comparing LN nodes to banks....?

The fees are literally mad high every other week lol, no shit they wont accept BITCOIN not to mention the whole segwit no segwit bullshit

Well apart from the crazy fees wont it be a pain in the ass to deal with the super small numbers like 0.00001 BITCOIN for a single coffee lol

Well no shit imagine ordering a coffee and waiting like 6 hours for all the six confirmations. Alts for cryptocurrency will be faster than BITCOIN anyway

I think that the best thing to do is that they should make their own crypto because their company is already established and can make huge profit out of it. By doing so, they can attract investors from different countries without violating any law prohibiting a foreigner to invest in a certain place.

That is quite weird because if this was before when bitcoin transaction fees were high and took a lot of time then it might have been logical for a group or person to avoid bitcoin use but curenntly bitcoin transaction fees and time both have gone down. The reason might be the volatility of bitcoin, volatility of crypto currencies when compared bitcoin has the highest volatility so maybe volatility is the reason of Starbucks not accepting bitcoin.

What if BTC starts its rise again and tx fees increase? BTC is not sustainable in business use as it has scalability issues in its core code. This being said, BTC will not go anywhere, but i don't see companies relying on BTC in the future.

It is a great news Starbucks accepting crpytocurrencies. I can understand they do not accept Bitcoin, because bitcoin price and trasaction fees are too much for buying a coffee. Why do people still think bitcoin as a payment method? Bitcoin is the gold, storage of value, safe heaven. You do not need to use bitcoin in daily payments and micro transactions. There are plenty of other coins out there and this will not harm bitcoin

agree with this, fees still be problem for bitcoin transaction and it will not efficient for a small transaction, of course we all wouldn't want to pay transaction fee that higher than the coffee price itself

I don’t know why buckies cares anyway. They won’t really accept any crypto especially not bitcoin. BitPay accepts bitcoin these businesses don’t. The only reason any company accepts bitcoin right now is because they immediately give the btc to one of the off-book exchanges, like BitPay, and exchange the btc for fiat.

BTW: If a global company with the annual revenue of Starbucks starts taking Litecoin and not bitcoin, LTC value is going to blow bitcoin away quickly. I’ve been saying for a long time that bitcoin has become nothing more than a day traders play toy anyway. Starbucks sees that too.

I think they wont accept Bitcoin right now because of the problems that are currently haunting Bitcoin, just like Steam doesnt want to accept until things get settled. At least they accept other cryptocurrencies, but if they dont accept Bitcoin even when its over, that would be pretry dumb, Bitcoin still has the largest community.

Most store uses electricity every single day there's nothing wrong in accepting different kinds of payment. I respect their decision if they're not ready to accept bitcoin we can still sell our bitcoin for fiat to buy their products if we want to and it's cheaper than making a bitcoin transaction.
 
From my experience waiting for confirmations are much faster now and you could easily get 4 confirmations within an hour if you put enough fees.

The reason they are accepting crypto is that they are trying to be trendy and edgy. Their marketing people think that an association with crypto makes them look cool. I suspect they have absolutely zero real interest in crypto, be it bitcoin or alts. It's purely a PR gimmick.

So you say that they probably created their own crypto. Maybe they will not accept bitcoin because they're worried about going off anytime as other anti bitcoin said. As a result, more people are careful about buying and using bitcoin as a method of payment in it. business and transactions.