But then we have the last mile problem. Where can you shop with bitcoins besides a few places that are accepting the currency as a marketing gimmick?
I doubt Cups and Cakes in San Francisco regrets their "marketing gimmick" whatsoever. If accepting bitcoin payment as a way to increase revenues is a gimmick, it certainly pays off!
Or perhaps the author is referring to BitcoinStore's offer to NewEgg and Amazon ... "accept bitcoin and we'll shut down", ... ok, that's a gimmick.
But the pace of organic merchant adoption is increasing. My next domain name registration or renewal will be through Namecheap, paid for using bitcoins. For my next travel, I'm going to try to stay at a place listed on 9Flats, paid for using bitcoins. And where I can't pay using bitcoins online I can proxy pay I'll try using BitSpend.net (which places the order and pays for me).
Bitcoin probably isn't ready for bricks and mortar commerce though. Though a "race attack" against a merchant isn't something all that common, bricks and mortar merchants who accept bitcoin payment don't have much defense against those. And there isn't a point-of-sale provider specifically to help retail merchants (e.g., with advice or insurance against double spending).
Where is my BTC ATM?
Technically, such a device exists today -- and existed was a prototype way more than a year ago. Thanks to regulations, that never made it out of the lab. It looks like one is coming, however.
Will they take Bitcoin at the exchange desk in the airport?
Travelex should. This could be offered by anyone (e.g., buy bitcoins by sending payment of the foreign currency through the mail) except again, if this is considered being a money transmitter regulations make it so only the entrenched retail foreign currency exchangers are set up to handle this.
