Universal adaptor, sorry mate, not really in scope for the way you are envisioning your system. I was thinking about a virtual wallet that enables BTC to link seamlessly into debit or credit card networks.
Yeah that seems quite impossible as the card would need to access mtgox, sell the BTC, send it back from mtgox... not happening via terminal!
Selling into small mom & pop shops will be easier than selling into a national chain (but still time consuming) b/c they are more likely to accept some manual processes.
I am imagining the first markets as something like Greece where no one wants to pay tax to the bankers or young innovators starting out with minimum cash for terminals etc..
As for manual processes its pretty clear you know more than me about exactly what a cash register needs to do.
Still I am sure we could do more advanced functions; a spreadsheet with transaction records should be doable in an Android POS app from V.1 though - just save it to the SD card.
Since the Android has camera it could scan QR codes and add to an order too!
As for a complete automatic system that a supermarket would use that can wait a little.
Sure you could depend on someone else to handle exchange risk, but hedging exchange risk might give you the opportunity to offset the cost of deploying your solution.
Well BTC are more stable these days and probably going up, that said you could set your address in the app to your mtgox address - that way your coins can be sold immediately for regular cash.
(Most smaller merchants are not that tech savvy and rather risk adverse) In my experience changing Merchant behavior to achieve meaningful scale will involve some sort of incentive meaning accepting BTCs is cheaper and/or brings new Biz.
I'm pretty sure our Android system would be simpler to start with than any Visa terminal I have heard of!
Old businesses might stay the same, but new businesses may see BTC and BTC POS as a godsend of simplicity to get started.
Yeah wouldn't need to rely on market penetration of BTC either as they could gift regular customers with BTC cards and load them with cash or something.
Hell for all the customers need to know they could be told it was a reusable gift card!
If you want a recent analog, take a look at GreenDot. (Since they are publicly traded you should be able to get their Annual Report for the past few years from the SEC's website for free. In it you'll see a bit more about the cost of floating their system.
Sure you could design an opt in Smart Card system, but it'll be more like a novelty/alpha test than a prototype/beta test.
I have seen quite a few debit cards and they all seem like an expensive overlay to mastercard - whats the point?
Lets go full BTC and ALL that trouble, cost and those 2-3% fees disappear.
There must be a million BTC users by now, if 10% of them gave friends and relatives a smartcard loaded with 2 BTC as birthday presents that's an instant mega market.
Payment systems are hard b/c they are highly regulated
Well in Scandinavia and Germany I think you can trade BTC all you like - as long as you pay your taxes as normal and a yearly budget - nothing new there.
True. You'll need to factor in Merchants reluctance. They tend to be afraid of voiding their warrantee, and that an untested systems might write errors to their G/L. So doable, but time to sell and implement and merchant value proposition must be compelling.
The same could be said for BTC, why did it ever take off?
Well however we debate that part of the reason was because it was THERE and it was USEFUL. If we focus on just that we can't mess up.
As for advanced merchants as you describe, for now, I would ignore them completely.
So we're talking BTC converts like ourselves....
Well isn't it pretty sad that WE can't use our own damn currency even if we all lived in one town?
Lets fix that and see what happens.
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