Real life experience paying with bitcoin

[Sofiasoff]

Let me premise this by saying that I am a firm believer of bitcoin as a revolutionary technology. I whole-heatedly believe that bitcoin will gain traction in the future, but right now, it's a consumer's nightmare.
Today for lunch, I went to the Mexicali Burrito in Cambridge expecting to pay with bitcoin. I was pretty excited, because this store was the latest to accept bitcoin in the area. I made my order and had my coinbase app fired up, ready to scan a qr code. However, the cashier wasn't ready.

Okay... Not such a big deal. He spends a few seconds to pull out an iphone, and launches what looked like the bitpay app. A few more seconds pass and it still doesn't load.

The line behind me is getting busy and the next customer is ready to pay...but this app still hasn't loaded. In the end, I paid with credit to speed up the process. When I finished paying, the bitpay app still had not loaded.

I had a little chat with the clerk during this time and he said that they were planning to stop accepting bitcoin in the upcoming month.

As it is now, bitcoin needs a face lift. It needs better PR and it needs better consumer/merchant interfaces. I still think that bitcoin is awesome, but there is still much that needs to be improved.

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[Park Minseo]

I've had similar experiences. The Bitcoin payment system gets too little use and staff forget how it works. The line piles up and it's not nice for anyone.
The underlying problem is that a second, disconnected payment system at a physical store is a lot of hassle, and the benefits of Bitcoin don't make up for that in every case.

[Rileygss]

Bitcoin desperately needs near-field communications and integrated POS solutions. The current user experience - for both customer and merchant - is clunky and hacked-together feeling. This, more than anything else, is where crypto-currency needs the most development. Ease of use.

[Daniel Brian]

I'm a bitcoin believer, too, but I still don't see a point for using bitcoin to pay in person, and for amounts I have fiat cash in my pocket? To pay online is completely different story for me, even more as I don't have a credit card. Bitcoin is then the only option for me.

[Ronaldo Vu]

ApplePay competes with cash as do Bitcoin NFC payments. What's preventing Bitcoiners from creating a half decent NFC payment experience denominated in BTC? The only hard parts are making that experience fully decentralized and open source, and then finding people with enough money who are willing to piss it away in order for desperately needed core infrastructure to get built.

[Faithgg]

TL;DR: new tech (not just bitcoin) requires new processes and training.
I ate at a restaurant over the weekend that was using the ""TabbedOut"" app for managing payments. Basically allows you to download your tab and pay it online instead of paying the server. Lady behind me ordered at the bar, but the bartender couldn't bring up the order online. She had to pay with a CC instead. I immediately thought about bitcoin and the challenges managing the payments. Training is essential for acceptance.

[Mudah_rezeki]

I have never bought or paid with bitcoin.karna with circumstances in some bitcoin country in Legal but it's very convenient if bitcoin can pay a kind of buy sng tickets This is a dream from the first. Who knows next year bitcoin can pay anything

[hassick]

I think BTC just good as an investment. Do you ever read or hear about 10K BTC for pizza? And that's what I mean. The price are not stable, but when the price goes up, you'll be disappointed that Bitcoin has spent. I think BTC are more like Gold, you can use it as payment system but you will disappointed when you spend it.

[cindex]

Very interesting! I think at this point that Bitcoin is no longer meant for such transactions. Maybe litecoin would be better suited for this. I believe Bitcoin is more useful as a store of value like gold. You wouldn't neccesarily pay for something in a shop with gold, but you could use it to store value, or transfer the value into something else.

Love the story though, thanks for sharing!

[Rtd1604]

I think BTC just good as an investment. Do you ever read or hear about 10K BTC for pizza? And that's what I mean. The price are not stable, but when the price goes up, you'll be disappointed that Bitcoin has spent. I think BTC are more like Gold, you can use it as payment system but you will disappointed when you spend it.

I completely agree with this statement, while Bitcoin was intended as a new form of payment why would you use it as such? I mean yes you are paying a  set price at the time of purchase but when Bitcoin goes up or down then what you actually paid can change dramatically. Not that I would complain if it meant I actually was paying less for a good or service but realistically we might actually be paying ten times what it would have been in fiat in the near future and then I would personally be kicking myself for that fact alone honestly. However if you are a person that totally believes in using Bitcoin as a payment system, maybe you should look into seeing if your state (if your American) allows the shift card from coinbase. It works like a Visa card but takes the money out of your cryptocurrencies account.

https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2228646-the-shift-card

[sahabond]

Yes, technologies still have a lot to grow and develop, but it seems there are already working projects that allow you to remove bitcoin from your crypto-wallet, but to pay through swift payments in dollars.

[yazher]

what they need is a better and more experience team to manage and expand the ability of the apps so that there will be no bug anymore, maybe some kind of an expert on the field of programming not a lazy team though.

[djsugar]

Since this is one of the drawbacks of this system, hence they have introduced the Lightning Network. Such problems should be fixed by the time its mass adoption comes into picture. Bitcoin's payments are slow and this is the reason why other coins claim themselves superior to Bitcoin. I am sure the developers would fix this in future.

[notyours]

Yes, Many really need to change to the Bitcoins system. It's hard to really use Bitcoins as a way of paying because businesses can lose their way. The Bitcoins price falls and rises so if it falls, it will definitely be difficult for entrepreneurs to arise because their money is in bitcoins that they should buy their merchandise.

[bitbunnny]

I have to admit I gave up paying directly with Bitcoin. Too much complications and unconvenient situations. This is one of the problems that Bitcoin has and needs to be fixed.
The solution I found is Bitcoin debit card. The truth is the choice of providers is very poor after Visa left this market but still cards are excepted everywhere online and offline and you don't need to worry if the merchant accepts Bitcoins and how much time you will need for transaction to be confirmed and accepted.

[maslovp]

I've had similar experiences. The Bitcoin payment system gets too little use and staff forget how it works. The line piles up and it's not nice for anyone.
The underlying problem is that a second, disconnected payment system at a physical store is a lot of hassle, and the benefits of Bitcoin don't make up for that in every case.

Thanks for sharing real life experience related to bitcoin use. It gives us a better insight on the current situation as opposed to the fancy threads made here by some members.

[israfil]

I have to accept Mononuclear​ did leave the direct payment with Bitcoin. Many complications and inconvenient circumstances. This problem has bitcoin and needs to be fixed. Yes, many really need to change the bitcoins system. Businesses can lose their way, there are so many people, such as Bitcoin that many times the market price increases and decreases.

[daarul50]

Let me premise this by saying that I am a firm believer of bitcoin as a revolutionary technology. I whole-heatedly believe that bitcoin will gain traction in the future, but right now, it's a consumer's nightmare.
Today for lunch, I went to the Mexicali Burrito in Cambridge expecting to pay with bitcoin. I was pretty excited, because this store was the latest to accept bitcoin in the area. I made my order and had my coinbase app fired up, ready to scan a qr code. However, the cashier wasn't ready.

Okay... Not such a big deal. He spends a few seconds to pull out an iphone, and launches what looked like the bitpay app. A few more seconds pass and it still doesn't load.

The line behind me is getting busy and the next customer is ready to pay...but this app still hasn't loaded. In the end, I paid with credit to speed up the process. When I finished paying, the bitpay app still had not loaded.

I had a little chat with the clerk during this time and he said that they were planning to stop accepting bitcoin in the upcoming month.

As it is now, bitcoin needs a face lift. It needs better PR and it needs better consumer/merchant interfaces. I still think that bitcoin is awesome, but there is still much that needs to be improved.

I wonder why the merchant does not provide a billboard where the address is available there in the form of QR code already in print. That way, merchants do not have to eject their smarphone to open any application either coinbase or bitpay so it will not happen anything like the above. Buyers simply scan QR address bitcoin code that has been printed and attached to a board with their smartphone.

[CASTIEL05]

It is good to see that bitcoin is now applicable in real life and you are lucky because you experienced to buy using bitcoins in a store yet, it is an epic failed.
The firm you've went was not ready in the revolution of technology. Hence, even their cashier can't do anything just to make your transaction smooth. However, the only way that will help bitcoin to improve is the Lightning Networks. Our transaction becomes more fast and easy using LN.

[ILuckyGuyI]

I have faith in Bitcoin to be the best currency in the future. But nowadays its payment system in real life (shops etc.) isn't completely ready yet. They need to make betterments on it.