Plutus solves this problem by circumventing it. Instead of trying to dig a tunnel through the mountain, we’ve built a fast road around it.
Merchants will follow the trend as they have done in the past. But even if they don't, you can still pay with Bitcoin and NFC, which is why we built Plutus to help the community spend their Bitcoin at any merchant they want instead of having to wait for widespread merchant adoption. They may notice that there is an entire profit industry built on their reluctance to accept it, and that they are greatly reducing their margins. Merchants usually only respond to market pressure and cold hard stats. The main point is that users shouldn't have to wait for merchants to wake up and engage them.
ok lets imagine this as your strategy
2016:
you act as a localbitcoin/zapo hybrid, people put bitcoins in. and your service converts them to fiat(like an automated localbitcoin system) and automatically loads the fiat to a virtual visa(zapo esq).
now.. at this stage knowing merchants are not being charged a transaction fee because thats the brave thing of NFC.... what are you going to do in 2017 to tempt businesses into accepting bitcoin direct, and then converting it to fiat afterwards..........
coz so far all i see is a faster system than localbitcoins/xapo.. where its all automated. which is great because bitcoin users can catch the train without having to log into localbitcoins and manually barter a deal with a bitcoin buyer, minutes before the train leaves the station.. and great for going to starbucks to spend bitcoin without manually bartering bitcoin deals whilst in the coffeeshop queue.. but thats still not solving getting retailers to know about and use bitcoin direct.
so tell me more about your 2017 plan.. for bitcoin retail acceptance (not fiat conversion prior to sale)
I have met a lot of merchants who accept bitcoin. And I have no good news to share
1. First of all they hardly ever get customer who want to pay with bitcoin unless its a geek like me.
2. The traditional payment methods work just fine for them so there is no incentives for them to accept it, apart from some promotion they get when everyone celebrates a new merchant.
3. None of them ever hold the bitcoin, almost all of them convert it to cash through a exchange or payment processors.
The point there to be made is getting merchant acceptance is barking up the wrong tree. If merchants are going to convert it to cash then why not just use a service like Plutus, which gives them what they want. Idea is to be able to use your coins anywhere and it seems like with this you will be able to.
I signed up!
