This is an interesting project and I think there have been a lot of good comments on development side.

The question as some others have noted is "What is the specific need?" 

We have OpenID and many other authentication systems used by websites today so what are the core advantages to this?

Today the Washington post wrote an article titled "Whats in your wallet? " http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/05/12/whats-in-your-wallet-probably-not-cash/.  No reference to Bitcoin but it clearly supports the notion that paying with or carrying cash is a thing of the past for most.  People simple want to pay by swipe of a card or touch of a mobile device.  Enter virtual currencies to replace that cash.

So how much cash is in your wallet?

How much bitcoin is in your "Hot" wallet for payments?

Thanks for sharing.  It is interesting that "assets" are being given for political contributions  --  Not "currency"  !

I agree with the most recent post if you do not want to eliminate risk.  Just state the price in EUR and they can pay the equivalent via Bitcoin based on a rate at an exchange you specify.

The question for you as a provider/merchant is what would you do with the Bitcoins?  Keep them or immediately turn to fiat.  If fiat then you might just want to use an online payment service process your payment via bitcoin that way and have the service do the exchange rate.  Basically like Bitpay does.

The basic concept is great as a universal currency but price fluctuations make it challenging.  If you buy a currency you wake up the next day and the 40units you bought are still 40 units.  With bitcoin you could wake up and there are 37 units and you didn't spend it on anything.  That is very hard for the average consumer to accept.

Dark Wallet is a great project and implementation.  The name works for what the functionality is but it is not going to help with messaging to the masses.  Cash Wallet might have been better since you really can't trace cash very well and then people might get it that it is just the same.  People who want to be off the grid use Cash.

This is not a product for the masses but those that wish to use the full benefits of what the block chain can offer.

Again, overall a good product.

Great project  -  I have said my piece on the dumb alcohol situation elsewhere.

That is my point when I meant "all" I meant everything is of course transacted via the internet.  Bitcoins are not physical currency

So yes looking for real data on brick and mortar physical location transactions.

Yes transactions that are performed at a physical location like a coffee shop.  Clearly all transactions are done via the web.

Do we have any decent research data on bitcoin merchants?  Specifically, how much Bitcoin is being transacted through non-online transactions by merchants?  It seems the bulk of transactions are for online merchants.  What are the great success stories for a brick and mortar merchants?

Appreciate thoughts, comment and any links.

Thanks.

For those asking about sharing I suggest utilizing traditional social channels to get this to the masses.

For example on twitter use hashtags that are not #bitcoin but hashtags that reach many that might be interesting in exploring it further.  Some examples would be

#banking
#underbanked
#videos
#videooftheday
#news
#retweet
#payment
#POS
#paypal

I could go on you get the picture

Of course we can do some growth hacking and push it out under lots of irrelevant tags but I am generally against that for this type of thing.

Thanks for the welcome note.

Nextgen   That is your opinion but I think it does more for the community than hurt it.  We all have to appreciate that bitcoin still has some growing up to do and frankly we can't even decide if it is a currency or a security or both (if that can happen).

I think the video strongly promoted the underlying theme that a new way to move money is on its way.  Will it be the bitcoin we know today? That is anybody's guess.

Probably one of the best videos out there to share with friends wanting to know more about Bitcoin.  It is a clean professional and informative video. It is more positive than I expected.  What are your thoughts on it?

http://www.theguardian.com/news/video/2014/apr/30/bitcoin-made-simple-video-animation

Just saw this on Twitter..  Good news.   Now if we can just decide if it can coexist as a currency and investment security.

I agree if you are in Ohio you need to get all over this.  I was going to set something up on change.org but not appropriate for a non-resident.

Technically are you really accepting bitcoin if the merchant is using a service like Bitpay that coverts the bitcoin to fiat currency anyway for the merchant.  Isn't that like saying that mastercard is not a currency and therefore cannot be used?  The merchant doesn't actually see fiat currency until 2-3 days later.  Before that it is just bytes in the ether.  No real currency exchanges immediately.

 

I have discussed this at recent conferences about the challenge of the price per coin and maybe why dogecoin has had some recent success.

Corporations splits of stocks for the reason all the time.  McDonalds used to always split the stock to keep the price between $25 and $50 so their "Customers" could feel they could afford to buy the stock.

Here we have the price challenge for some for broader general adoption.  Do you really want to say to your friend he I just bought .01 Bitcon!  It is why during the growth cycle in startups we usually do splits of 10-1.  So you can tell your team they own 10,000 shares  not 2 shares even though they have the same value.  We also don't own .01 dollars.

This is classic market research.

Thanks for sharing this.  This is not surprising as all of the major payment players are engaging in a better understanding of how the Bitcoin marketplace will play out.  Clearly players like MasterCard want to make sure that rules that they have to abide by cannot be side stepped by Bitcoin offerings.

2014 will be the year of the most active regulatory review of Bitcoin at the Federal and State level in the United States and elsewhere in the world.  It would be interesting to know what people like Sen. Elizabeth Warren think about the subject in that she has been fairly negative on the current banking system.

I don't suspect this will happen until sometime late 2015 at the earliest.  There are many factors involved and not enough inertia to move organizations.

1.  Transactions for product from merchants using bitcoin is currently weak especially in the U.S. their primary territory.
2.  As noted earlier the tax questions remain.
3.  The marketplace needs to decide if bitcoin is going to be a currency or an asset security.  Those investing for the hopes of an increase in the price of a bitcoin are not going to spend it on a latte at their favorite merchant or a music album download from amazon.  "I spent the equivalent of $5US in bitcoin on a latte...if I saved it it would have been worth 10x that" .   This is a big challenge for marketplace as a whole.  If using it as a currency does not increase many would say that this is nothing but a ponzi scheme.  Could it be both?  Yes but the currency side needs to have more activity and not just in micro locations.
4.  The state of Ohio recently banned it for use for the sale of alcohol since it is not a "currency".  This is not helping.
5.  Recently Gyft announced you could buy Walmart Gift cards with bitcoin and then just as quickly the offering was withdrawn.  This is a red flag for many of the larger retailers.  

The argument to accept or reject alt coins and if they have a place will continue.  However, of all of the alt coins that exist I believe that dogecoin has provided excellent exposure for the virtual currency marketplace as a whole.  The price point allows the general public to check it out without a lot of risk and begin to experience the basic fundamentals and advantages that virtual currencies provide.

That is a good thing for everybody.  The marketing they are doing for the community is great!

It will be interesting to see how Peter's tree chain concepts evolve in the community.  There is a lot of strong debate regarding it that can be quite explosive. Clearly a work in progress concept.