Bitcoin Forum

What would happen if a major gasoline distributer allowed for clients to purchase gasoline for Bitcoin?

Discuss.

What would happen in terms of what? To the price of bitcoin or the effect on the business of the specific gasoline distributor?

Sorry for not specifying.

What I am asking is what would happen to Bitcoin's price, as well as its popularity and acceptance among merchants.
So;
1. What would happen to Bitcoin's price?
2. What would happen to Bitcoin's acceptance among merchants?
3. What would happen to Bitcoin's popularity?

These can all be answered in your opinion.

Well it's hard to say, but I suspect it'll be a long time before a gasoline business accepts bitcoin, but it depends on the size etc. Are we talking about one gas station or an entire brand of them or even a massive oil distribution company?

I think any merchant adopting bitcoin is good for publicity and its popularity, and the more we get the more in demand it should be and therefore the price should climb.

For simplicities sake, I'll say an entire franchise.

Depends if the oil company converts the bitcoin back to fiat after accepting it.
Imagine what would happen if an oil company wouldn't accept anything except bitcoin for oil.

The government would go nuts?

Anyway, conversion isn't that hard. Most merchants that use BTC exchange at least a part of their BTC revenue into fiat, so that they can purchase goods from the original suppliers and the like. Now if we could get a grocery store accepting BTC...

But if a company would ONLY accept Bitcoin, someone would go nuts and try to impose every tax possible and restrict it into oblivion. That, or they'd switch who they buy oil from.

Anyone who makes a major play against the dollar is killed. Gaddafi wanted a gold based economy, so he was executed in the middle of the street in broad daylight. Saddam wanted to trade oil in euro, so his country was illegally invaded, hundreds of thousands of civilians killed and he was put through a kangaroo court on false charges. In short, never gonna happen.

Some governments are very protective, and don't want anything to... change.

Already happened. Two months ago in Greeley, Colorado:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1wv4sw/paid_for_a_tank_of_gas_with_bitcoin/

Thought I just read you can do this in Cincinnati now as well?

Everybody can do this now, just sell the btc on your mobile right before using your cash card.

If the Arabs demanded payment to OPEC in BTC it would make bitcoins the worlds reserve currency possibly or at least one of them.   At one point the arab states proposed a gulf currency and others have tried to spread the old idea of a dinar currency (gold coins) and Dirham (silver) http://www.sunnahmoney.com/gold-dinar-silver-dirham/
Back in the 80's Bunker Hunt convinced them to back silver as a currency, around the time of the Iran revelolution.  It almost took off, but leverage was used to its failure

In short its not impossible that oil = btc could occur though it'd take someone better then me to convince people (anyone friends with a billionaire?)  The basic reason why is a full Islamic economy forbids a credit system especially as corrupt as dollar or yen and so on, its not totally extreme to convince them that bitcoin is a more valid system of exchange.   shame it didnt occur with the arab spring somehow


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Bunker_Hunt
This guy is a big deal on this subject, I'd like to know if he respects the premise of Bitcoin at all.  It would count quite alot to have his comment I think

The price of BTC would rise because there would be a marked increase in demand for generated coins.

I think it depends on what the gas company would do with the coins. If they used a payment processor such as bitpay or if they simply immediately resold them on an exchange that could tank bitcoin price. That would draw people's bitcoin holdings and liquidate them. However, if the gas companies sold gas for btc and then held a significant portion of the coins, that would make coins more scarce and have more utility and therefore drive up the price.


TLDR: If they sold them, price would drop. If they hold them price would go up. IMO

Death to gasoline.

What would happen if BTC was accepted for gasoline?
The idea would spread like a wildfire to (almost) every major chain.
The profit margins are very low for most retail gas stations, so this would mean clearly higher profits due to lower transaction fees.

Yes, I get what you are saying, but the benefit the the gasoline station will get would be great. If the gasoline station do it, it maybe rather be because of a technical debate, rather than a profit motive.

Bitcoin transactions are much cheaper so it might affect price of gasoline slightly.

I expect it would happen sooner or later. But for it we would need bitcoin-oriented bank since they would need some kind of financial services one way or another.

It is too difficult at this point (with the current infrastructure that we have in place) to accept BTC for gas.   One of the main reasons it would not currently work, is because change is required too often.  For instance if people go in to fill up their tank, it would take too much work to figure out the exact amount of BTC that would be required to fill their gas tank.   

If you could get a rough estimate, and then your tank filled and you needed change, you would most likely need to get your change in USD or whatever your local currency is.   Maybe in the future this would work, but I think it requires too many steps at this stage of BTC ecosystem.

^^  ???   Not sure I get that, petrol is sold straight to debit card from what Ive seen, in most countries.    Fractions are used and rounded if need be


Every sale involves a buyer.   I dont really buy this argument :p  
The thing is if the utility of a product or service like bitcoin is increased, its very likely going to increase its worth.   I get what you are saying about people spending or 'using up' their bitcoins but we'd have to assume that a majority of people or value present now just buy and hold and this is sandbagging the price up by creating false rarity.  
     People who do nothing with their bitcoin represent no strength in my view.  Im quite sure the more BTC is used then the higher price goes, certainly the opposite argument that nobody using btc (just storing) would create value is obviously wrong.
   Ultimately BTC does not suffer the constant drain on value that dollars have from its main backer, government; it only has to compare well to rise in price

This is actually a great use for BTC micropayments.

If for example a driver wanted to buy exactly $10 in gas then they could send $10 in BTC to a QR code at the gas pump  that would distribute the appropriate amount of gasoline. 

This would benefit the gas station as the fees to receive payment would be much less then the cost to accept credit cards, chargebacks and the potential for robbery of cash receipts.

This would benefit the consumer as they can buy an exact amount of gas without having to go into the store.

There is a video out there of a bit coin gas pump. You would pay a certain amount before you pump and get an immediate refund of any unspent coin. This technology is ready to go right now.

Yeah... I saw that in CoinDesk.

http://www.coindesk.com/inventor-creates-commercial-bitcoin-fuel-pump/

The video is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p1dyJ0Zy50

Trend is more and more merchant will accept btc.


Wider acceptance doesn't mean price increase.

i didnt read over this whole thread so i am sorry if this has been covered;

there are a handful of gas pump manufacturers that make the computerized vending part of the pump.

those companies need to build BTC acceptance into the kiosk part and then your krogers, walmarts, BPs, mapco etc can choose to use them.

it is a huge hurdle to get past but when the dam cracks....

someone should petition these manufacturers...

This is a really interesting question, because probably every human being stops at the gas station atleast once in their lifes.
So for a gas station to accept bitcoin would be a great step for bitcoin I would say.

1. Price will rise for sure!
2. I think more and more will accept bitcoin as a payment just to not lose customers.
3. Go trough the roof, especially when there is some kind of discount on your gasoline if you pay with bitcoin!

I even believe after reading this question, that we should get some gas stations to accept bitcoin as payment and see what happens.

This is not my personal opinion but you know when you first say people should take out their mobile phones and place it near the fuel fumes, its going to kill us all.      
Pretty sure its been disproved that mobile phones cause fires, explosions even but that is the common perception afaik ?

This might be the point where we find stiff resistance from government. Buying oil products with BTC will make them really uncomfortable.

Once the OPEC countries start becoming bullish on bitcoin, they will eventually not even accept bitcoin, they will DEMAND it.

That's where the price would go through the roof. As SlipperySlopes model predicted, by 2016 or so the price would increase by $100 000 every few months, OPEC countries demanding bitcoin for oil could be one of the triggers for this event to happen, and 2016 does not seem like an unrealistic date to me.

You don't have to put your phone over the fuel fumes, the gas pump and the btc receiver shouldn't be close, I think it would be very safe.

That is why I find it particularly exciting the Dubai is becoming so bit coin friendly. Even my tiny pile of bit coin could be worth a small fortune then.

Stating the obvious, any new large retailer accepting bitcoin will always be good news, even if he dumps the bitcoins after receiving them.

Any spent bitcoin had to be bought and new retailers mean new bitcoiners, so more people knowing and buying bitcoin.


But, probably, it would be even more important if a large general retailer started accepting it. Many people don't have a car, but all have to buy groceries.

The good think with that would be that most gas companies are fairly international.
Unlike Overstock or Dish, which have little impact outside the US.

This would increase consumer adaption greatly!

Motorists could easily purchase an exact amount of gasoline without needing to go inside (or they could buy gasoline in an exact amount when the store is closed).

This would lower costs for business owners (not needing to employ as many clerks, or for as many hours as less people would need to go inside to pay), along with the lowered transaction costs.

It would benefit consumers as it would be much more convenient.

Well in that case Bitcoin would be known world wide. However the increase and decrease of BTC would cause huge problems.

guessing outcomes is hard, still i think it will do only good for everything.

Bitcoin in terms of price should look to more speculative trading based areas.
Sure, it wouldnt hurt if acceptance was higher, but those green candles rise much faster and much higher when there are speculations, than they do when acceptance spreads.
For the sake of all of us, with everything above, there needs to be less bad news (mt.gox, insta-wallet raid..and so on)

cheers

And also, more good news :)
Otherwise all could stagnate quickly.

bitcoin will be hurt over the long term if it is involved in more speculative trading ventures. More speculation would probably lead to increased short term trading and TX activity, however this would set it back in terms of acceptance of the general public.

Over the long term the more bitcoin is accepted by merchants and the public the higher the price will be.

Speculation will not hurt bitcoin because it will naturally decrease over time.
Right now, any interest in bitcoin is better than nothing.

Price stability will come as the economy grows. Less volatility=less money to be made speculating.

speculation would hurt BTC as it would delay merchants and consumers wanting to adapt bitcoin.

speculation decreases over time because it is more widely accepted by merchants and consumers.