Expanding Bitcoin as Payment Option

[red_dog007]

I have been a on/off lurker for 1.5 years.  Just now really getting into it now.  Did a small investment in 8 GPUs to mine on.  Thankfully electricity is fairly cheap here.

I do a lot of internet purchasing.  Everything except groceries for myself.  I'm sure we all do.

Not sure if there has been a movement on trying to get websites that we all shop at to accept bitcoins, but I have started this myself.  I would love to pay in BC  if the option existed on the websites I shop at.  I have started the process of emailing these companies on when they will accept BC, if they have looked into accepting BC, etc.  I will be emailing them periodically as well about it.  Im a long time shopper at all these websites, so will be a long time nuisance until they take BC, lol.

The BC community is pretty large it seems.  I figure if enough people email the stores they shop at, some websites would really consider accepting BC and take it as a payment option.  Thus strengthening BC place in the world. :-)

[Stephen Gornick]

The BC community is pretty large it seems.

The density of Bitcoiners in most any geographic location is low.

Where geography isn't a factor -- online, however, the numbers are larger, and are growing (though at varying degrees).  The Bitcoiner that buys bitcoins to feed a bad habit, for instance, doesn't have the same desire to see Bitcoin progress and gain wider acceptance.  Bitcoin serves a need and the person is content.  Then you have others who finally figured out that Bitcoin isn't dying down a deflationary spiral or that it hasn't been hacked into oblivion now more than a year since first learning of.  These are the new arrivals where two weeks after looking into Bitcoin has a trading bot or ecommerce site up and running, for instance.

I figure if enough people email the stores they shop at, some websites would really consider accepting BC and take it as a payment option.  Thus strengthening BC place in the world. :-)

I would bet the responses range from "Thank you, but we don't have any plans to support Bitcoin" on the one end to " > /dev/null' on the other.

What a store does respond to is an article in which some small operator became a big operator and credited Bitcoin as one of the reasons that happened.  We don't need ten online sellers who offer tea and accept bitcoin, we need ten Bitcoiners a week to be placing orders with one that does -- like New Mexico Tea Company which just added Bitcoin as a payment method.
 - http://www.nmteaco.com

We don't need ten restaurants in your city to get bugged about adding Bitcoin, we need every Bitcoiner in the area to agree on a single restaurant to focus on and then patronize it.  But as part of each visit, give bitcoin for the tip, and to appeal for the ability to pay the tab using bitcoin.  

Determining which retailer to focus on is pretty easy.   If the retailer takes Dwolla or Square, that likely means the manager is an early adopter and willing to try something new.  That would likely automatically avoid the situation where even if the local manager might be interested the franchise or individual that owns the place has no interest in Bitcoin or would be resistant to change.

And after a weekend like this last one, where the exchange rate dropped 50% in less than 48 hours, Bitcoin may not yet be mature enough for soliciting general acceptance.  It is preferable that the merchant wants to bring Bitcoin in versus being pushed towards using it.