[2019-5-13] Bitcoin Comes to Whole Foods, Major Retailers in Coup for Digital

[manyexp]

Bitcoin Comes to Whole Foods, Major Retailers in Coup for Digital Currency

Since its arrival ten years ago, cryptocurrency has struggled to enter mainstream commerce. This could soon change thanks to a new initiative, announced on Monday, that will reportedly see big name retailers—including Crate and Barrel, Nordstrom, and Amazon-owned Whole Foods—now accept Bitcoin and three other types of digital money.

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Read more : http://fortune.com/2019/05/13/bitcoin-comes-to-whole-foods-major-retailers-in-coup-for-digital-currency/

[illyiller]

Why no Android app?

I wonder how clunky it is to use at a POS terminal and if cashiers will know what to do. Anyone try it yet? Apparently SPEDN is available in the Iphone app store.

[CryptoBry]

Since its arrival ten years ago, cryptocurrency has struggled to enter mainstream commerce. This could soon change thanks to a new initiative, announced on Monday, that will reportedly see big name retailers—including Crate and Barrel, Nordstrom, and Amazon-owned Whole Foods—now accept Bitcoin and three other types of digital money.

One analyst is citing this development to be one of the many factors why Bitcoin is pumping and jumping right now. And indeed this can be a big good news as this can help a lot in pushing for Bitcoin massive adoption...or at least we now have the choice of new big merchants which include Bitcoin as their modes of payments for customers and consumers to enjoy. This is the kind of scenario that can really help the long-term viability of Bitcoin and it is imperative that we should be patronizing these establishments as doing so can push other merchants big and small to fully the lead. The more business that these merchants will be getting from people using the Bitcoin option, the more we are enticing others to adopt the same decision. I am hoping that soon it can be Amazon which will announce their integration with Bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies. This can be a big boost, indeed!

[hugeblack]

It appears to be like Bitpay, the whole article refers to a trusted third party who is processing the two parties.
You deposit money with a third party who transfers funds within their system rather than on Blockchain. There does not seem to be anything new from my point of view.
Bitcoin  (deposit)----->Spedn app (processing & exchanging)----->  Market (cash out using paper money)

[Carlton Banks]

It appears to be like Bitpay

Bitpay are screw-ups, so this is actually not good news (if it's true)

[Kemarit]

It appears to be like Bitpay, the whole article refers to a trusted third party who is processing the two parties.
You deposit money with a third party who transfers funds within their system rather than on Blockchain. There does not seem to be anything new from my point of view.
Bitcoin  (deposit)----->Spedn app (processing & exchanging)----->  Market (cash out using paper money)

It's a third party, Flexa (similar to Bitpay), so Spnd app was built around the open Flexa network as an intermediary. So let's see how it goes, I read somewhere that Starbucks is also on the list (but obviously on selected locations only).

[1Referee]

One analyst is citing this development to be one of the many factors why Bitcoin is pumping and jumping right now.

Crypto market "analysts" have been wrong more often than they were right. This isn't 2013/2014 anymore where merchant adoption is reason for investor excitement. Everyone with a functioning brain knows that people rather hoard than spend, because something that goes up in value doesn't motivate to be spent.

I like this news because it offers much needed competition in an industry dominated by BitPay. Roger Ver is pushing hard to make Bitcoin the least interesting payment option, just like how his bitcoin dot com wallet by default chooses an exorbitantly high fee for Bitcoin regardless of the mempool state. Too bad this scammer has so much influence in this space.

[Carlton Banks]

Spnd app was built around the open Flexa network as an intermediary.

hmmm, doesn't sound promising, sounds like more data sucking and "incompatbility as a feature" garbage, but that's without seeing the details admittedly

after the clown show that has been payments middlemen in the industry thus far, new entrants really need to do something surprisingly good to get my attention, and I suspect on the basis of the details we have Flexa is not it

Everyone with a functioning brain knows that people rather hoard than spend, because something that goes up in value doesn't motivate to be spent.

This is a common yet flawed analysis of what is causing Bitcoin to rise.

If the price only ever went up, it would make sense. But it doesn't.

The price is on general uptrend because of more people entering the market, and an increased perception of Bitcoin's value as more people recognise it's characteristics. Not because no-one is selling; they are. The market wouldn't exist if no-one was selling, and the price couldn't exist either.

No sellers == no-one to buy from

[HouseStark]

lol, so what were they all waiting for? A mini bullrun as a confirmation that Bitcoin isn't dead? I'm saying so because apart from this, I have read some other interesting news about Bitcoin adoption.

[BitHodler]

Roger Ver is pushing hard to make Bitcoin the least interesting payment option, just like how his bitcoin dot com wallet by default chooses an exorbitantly high fee for Bitcoin regardless of the mempool state. Too bad this scammer has so much influence in this space.

I knew Roger was a jerk and a conman, but overcharging innocent people on fees like that is something that once again points how he doesn't want people to enjoy cheap transactions, but to make Bcash look like the 'better' version.

The thing that will result in other payment processors to gain market share is SegWit and LN, both of which BitPay will not use. You only have to use both to be cheaper and more reliable from the fundamental aspect.

Banking aspect is still a thing BitPay has paying off, but it won't take long before others will try to claim their cut of the pie. Markets in general don't let these opportunities open very long, so it's a matter of time before BitPay is pushed back.

[illyiller]

It appears to be like Bitpay, the whole article refers to a trusted third party who is processing the two parties.
You deposit money with a third party who transfers funds within their system rather than on Blockchain. There does not seem to be anything new from my point of view.
Bitcoin  (deposit)----->Spedn app (processing & exchanging)----->  Market (cash out using paper money)

It's the same as the Coinbase debit card basically, except you use an Iphone app/QR code instead of a plastic card. The other difference is that Visa is accepted everywhere and "Flexa" is obviously not.

The one positive development is that Flexa is cutting out Visa/Mastercard/etc and supposedly offering much lower merchant processing fees than them. Maybe this could be an attractive middleground for merchants to start adopting crypto payments while things like Lightning are still getting off the ground.