TLDR: Restaurants might take the bait if we guarantee them 10$ profit per table per month at the cost of 10% of their bitcoin turn over.
Ok now these threads about "the first ... restaurant" pop up and sorry for not reading through all of them but I doubt that pledging to go there will convince business to to this.
If I owned a restaurant, I would think about the implications.
Contra:
* I have to learn something new.
* I have to take the legal risk of doing it wrong.
* Bitcoin transactions might slow down the payment process
* I might not make any profit from this new thing none of my friends and colleagues ever heard of.
Pro:
* This weirdo that just talked about some weird P2P and Satoshi somewhat might be right and have some friends that regularly come to my place, but do I want them??
I guess what we most need are two things:
* success stories: How relevant is the BTC turn over of first movers in big cities? Do we have nice stories there?
* somebody else to take the risk: If we know numbers we could guarantee a certain turn over. I'm pretty sure the visitors per month would not depend on whether it is a small local fast food place or a stylish restaurant, bitcoiners would go their because of bitcoin. If we know the numbers, we could guarantee them to the business. If they make less profit, we pay them until we give up on that restaurant on a case by case basis. With a contract we could also decide to allow us to step out from the contract after 2 months of paying a compensation.
Sounds altruistic? We could sell it as an insurance. The business pays 10% of its BTC profit to our fond and gets its turn over filled up to lets say 100$ if it happens to fall below that threshold. I'm pretty sure the 10% mark up on the $$ prices would be ok for most bitcoiners also.
In the TLDR I put 10$/table and below I claim that size doesn't matter. In fact I want to give a bigger incentive to bigger restaurants and if the Hardrock Café Munich accepted Bitcoin, I guess we would be more willing to cover a bigger loss than with the one person fast food place. In the end the city size should definitely also go into the calculation as I'm sure in the countryside we would be paying 9/10 months.
Reorder your pros & cons:
Pros:
- cheaper transaction fees
- additional security for both the merchant and the user
- Additional free advertising (many websites & forums talking about them)
Cons:
set is free & easy - see bit-pay.com. for a brick & mortar store, they may need to purchase some sort of mobile computing device... This is why it would be best to focus on small chains where the owner can just whip out their personal phone (that they likely charge to the business anyway), to download the bit-pay.com app.
- no one will use them - that's why we're testing the waters here on the forums. If we can prove there are 100 people looking to spend bitcoins in the area and more so at the stores we're approaching, then we can just say that "if you build it, they will come." Sure that's a risk, but hopefully not everyone on this forum is a liar, and then it works.
success story: We need to follow up with GrubGo to see how much business they get this weekend related to bitcoins.
As for your idea of bitcoin owners paying more for services... I think that will fail. I love bitcoin, but I want it to succeed on it's own merits.
I don't use cash unless it is more convenient, which is not very often. I enjoy getting cash back from my credit cards. However, who's paying for those rewards? - the restaurant.
I know we're talking about small margins, but if I get a 1% discount, I would prefer to use bitcoins over credit cards.
If the restaurant can save 2-3% on that credit card transaction (as well as get increased security, etc.), then it's a win.
