Tobacco shops - the way to Bitcoin adoption

[ChrisPop]

According to the CoinTelegraph article 5200 Keplerk tobacco shops will start accepting bitcoin payments in form of coupons. I think they not only accept bitcoin payments but also enable customers to buy bitcoin coupons that I think are redeemable but their partner Bitmedia or maybe they are only usable withing their shop network. If anyone here is from France and can share his experience with this I would appreciate.

5200 locations accepting BTC as a payment adoption is huge in my opinion, not only that but it is mentioned in the article that giants like Decathlon and Sephora will start accepting BTC by 2020. What do you think is the quickest way to adoption? Big retailers or small local tobacco or coffee shops which people go to on a daily basis?

[franky1]

Tobacco shops seem like small transaction amounts though, you'd really have to pay for quite a lot of cigarettes or nice cigars for the transaction to really be viable.

a pack of cigarettes or a pouch of tobacco is worth multiple cups of coffee. i know i know you believe using btc is not worth it for daily life stuff. but thats where you been programmed to think it and its hard to deprogram your thinking that btc is useless. yep you probably dont even want to even romance the thought of btc being actually useful in real life. but the reality is it is useful and should continue to be.

but i am laughing that what was a $2 coffee is too small for utility now being a $15 tobacco is too small for utility.
"quite alot of cigarettes" (facepalm)(sarcastic giggle)

[mk4]

Tobacco shops seem like small transaction amounts though, you'd really have to pay for quite a lot of cigarettes or nice cigars for the transaction to really be viable.

I doubt it. Though I don't personally smoke, I'm pretty sure tobacco shops don't just sell tobacco and cigars alone, but also paraphernalia(probably pipes and stuff) that can cost a good amount of money. Also, why wouldn't it be viable? It's not like you're actually forced to pay $1+ fees with any other transaction you're making. This really wouldn't matter currently though as they're just currently accepting bitcoin in the form of coupons like what OP said.

[Mandoy]

Tobacco business is a mulitmillion dollar business not only in US, Europe but that includes the Aisan countries. Speaking of Keplerk tobacco shop, this business is one of the biggest tobacco business located in France and has around 5200 shops countrywide. In my opinion the Keplerk have bought a huge amount of bitcoins and using those bitcoins they are printing the same amount of bitcoin into a coupon. This bitcoin coupon is the only coupon that they are accepting as payments.

If we talk about impacts on bitcoin, this news will surely bring great impacts not only in the uses of bitcoin but also on its value. Sooner or later other companies will be issuing their own bitcoin coupon and the only problem left is the monitoring of the number of coupons printed and the possibility of overproduction is also high.

[Ayiranorea]

According to the CoinTelegraph article 5200 Keplerk tobacco shops will start accepting bitcoin payments in form of coupons. I think they not only accept bitcoin payments but also enable customers to buy bitcoin coupons that I think are redeemable but their partner Bitmedia or maybe they are only usable withing their shop network. If anyone here is from France and can share his experience with this I would appreciate.

5200 locations accepting BTC as a payment adoption is huge in my opinion, not only that but it is mentioned in the article that giants like Decathlon and Sephora will start accepting BTC by 2020. What do you think is the quickest way to adoption? Big retailers or small local tobacco or coffee shops which people go to on a daily basis?

This surely create some negative opinion about bitcoin if it gets used on such tobacco and other form of alcohol based stuffs it'll surely be under controversy that bitcoin is purely for drugs and other illegal activities. This should not happen, by the same time decathlon managing to add bitcoin payment by 2020 is truly a big thing to happen.

[gentlemand]

Tobacco shops seem like small transaction amounts though, you'd really have to pay for quite a lot of cigarettes or nice cigars for the transaction to really be viable.

It's not about the smokes, it's about the locations.

In France you literally cannot buy cigarettes, tobacco and all the adjacent paraphernalia anywhere other than an officially sanctioned tobacco shop. Not supermarkets, other shops, gas stations, bars, vending machines, nothing. Because of that they're absolutely everywhere and they usually sell plenty of other stuff like phone cards and sweets and so on.

I don't think accepting BTC will achieve shit. Selling it could be useful but I'll guess they'll put a huge markup on it. All of these schemes seem to die fairly rapidly as indeed did this one until it seems to have popped back again. Doubt it'll be around for long again.

[bitbunnny]

I'm not sure that tobacco shops are ideal for increasing Bitcoin adoption. This is relatively snall volume but smoking is not so popular anymore and in many countries there are legal restrictions about smoking. Also, tobacco.insistira isn't very well welcomed in some countries anymore so this doesn't seem to me as a good way for Bitcoin promotion.

[metallica101]

According to the CoinTelegraph article 5200 Keplerk tobacco shops will start accepting bitcoin payments in form of coupons. I think they not only accept bitcoin payments but also enable customers to buy bitcoin coupons that I think are redeemable but their partner Bitmedia or maybe they are only usable withing their shop network. If anyone here is from France and can share his experience with this I would appreciate.

5200 locations accepting BTC as a payment adoption is huge in my opinion, not only that but it is mentioned in the article that giants like Decathlon and Sephora will start accepting BTC by 2020. What do you think is the quickest way to adoption? Big retailers or small local tobacco or coffee shops which people go to on a daily basis?

There is no quick way to adoption, i don't think. People need to know that their money will be secure, which means regulations and at least some price stability. Sure, risk-takers that still don't know about BTC will learn about it if many different brands start working with it, but that's a handful when compared to the entire world, which is the real target. Tobacco can bring thousands, or even millions, but it wouldn't matter as long as billions don't know or don't care to try.

[Darker45]

According to the CoinTelegraph article 5200 Keplerk tobacco shops will start accepting bitcoin payments in form of coupons. I think they not only accept bitcoin payments but also enable customers to buy bitcoin coupons that I think are redeemable but their partner Bitmedia or maybe they are only usable withing their shop network. If anyone here is from France and can share his experience with this I would appreciate.

5200 locations accepting BTC as a payment adoption is huge in my opinion, not only that but it is mentioned in the article that giants like Decathlon and Sephora will start accepting BTC by 2020. What do you think is the quickest way to adoption? Big retailers or small local tobacco or coffee shops which people go to on a daily basis?

The quickest way to adoption is when both business giants and small shops accepting Bitcoin at the same time. That is real quick adoption, like magic! And the governments would be shocked at it and they are left with no other option but to legally accept Bitcoin as a form of payment and issue regulations as quick as magic as well lest some precious taxes will not go where they are due.  

I wish we don't have to answer the "which".

[mk4]

I'm not sure that tobacco shops are ideal for increasing Bitcoin adoption. This is relatively snall volume but smoking is not so popular anymore and in many countries there are legal restrictions about smoking. Also, tobacco.insistira isn't very well welcomed in some countries anymore so this doesn't seem to me as a good way for Bitcoin promotion.

Baby steps. Small volume sure, but at the end of the day it's still volume. Also, I'm pretty sure smoking is still very popular. It just hugely depends on what country you're in. Don't expect giants like Amazon to be immediately jumping in on bitcoin without seeing demand; and the demand should start from somewhere- from smaller shops like this one. Bitcoin is publicly thought to be almost mainly used for buying drugs anyway, so using bitcoin to buy tobacco is an improvement I would say.

[DdmrDdmr]

According to the CoinTelegraph article 5200 Keplerk tobacco shops will start accepting bitcoin payments in form of coupons. I think they not only accept bitcoin payments but also enable customers to buy bitcoin coupons that I think are redeemable but their partner Bitmedia or maybe they are only usable withing their shop network. If anyone here is from France and can share his experience with this I would appreciate. <…>

I checked it out yesterday (mind you online, not on actual French soil), and this is what I came up with:

<…> France now sells BTC through tobacco selling stores. Starting today, Keplerk has deployed a solution in 5.200 points of sale, allowing customers to purchase a coupon with a facial value of 50, 100 or 250 Euros. These coupons are then used by the purchaser to, in his own time and place, load his Kepler Bitcoin Wallet by scanning the coupon’s bar code. I believe that the wallet is custodial, so not the best option, but the idea is to make it simple to purchase, rather much like purchasing a lottery ticket. Not the best of similes, but a means of getting to a different target audience.

Apparently, Kepler is not the first. Digycode deployed their solution first in around 10K tobacco selling stores in France using smaller coupons: 20, 50 o 200 euros. The coupon redemption process here is different, and is done through a website that allows you to send the BTC (or ETH, LTC, XRP, Dash) to a wallet address of your choice.<…>

Considering that many people are not tech-savy, and that there is a whole spectre who sees Bitcoin as something distant, this approach adds to the acquisition range of options in a manner that is easier, albeit possibly perceived somewhere close to buying a lottery ticket from the store.

You obviously still need a wallet in the end. Keplerk’s approach seems to use their own wallet custodial wallet, whilst Digycode apparently give you freedom of choice there.

[audaciousbeing]

According to the CoinTelegraph article 5200 Keplerk tobacco shops will start accepting bitcoin payments in form of coupons. I think they not only accept bitcoin payments but also enable customers to buy bitcoin coupons that I think are redeemable but their partner Bitmedia or maybe they are only usable withing their shop network. If anyone here is from France and can share his experience with this I would appreciate.

5200 locations accepting BTC as a payment adoption is huge in my opinion, not only that but it is mentioned in the article that giants like Decathlon and Sephora will start accepting BTC by 2020. What do you think is the quickest way to adoption? Big retailers or small local tobacco or coffee shops which people go to on a daily basis?

Tobacco shops is a good development towards adoption but to be sincere its not enough to the kind of adoption we are looking at. One thing to consider is that several government authorities are against tobacco now in conjunction with environmental and health activist are clamoring for the ban because of the effect on human body and the impact on even people who are secondary users of the product. The right attraction should be the big retailers and local coffee shops because businesses like that cut across boundaries, cultures, believes or philosophy. Talk about the Amazons, McDonald or other supermarket chains all over the world those are the ones that can make real change and adoption.

[mk4]

Just because it'll increase the usage of bitcoin doesn't mean we should celebrate this news. Tobacco is problem to the health and smoking shouldn't be encouraged. This would only make selling of this (death trap) easier in countries that have banned tobacco selling which is a bad publicity news for bitcoin.

It's not that we're 'celebrating' the usage of bitcoin for negative things like what you're implying, The focus here is more of that this is good news because bitcoin is actually being used(one way or another) for payments. Get over it, people will use bitcoin for whatever purpose they like, just how people can also use filthy US Dollars to buy tobacco or weed or whatever that's unhealthy. It's not like people wouldn't buy tobacco if bitcoin didn't exist right?

[dothebeats]

Tobacco shops seem like small transaction amounts though, you'd really have to pay for quite a lot of cigarettes or nice cigars for the transaction to really be viable.

It's still a multi-billion dollar industry though, and most prime tobaccos cost more than hundred USD, and could go way more depending on the name and the quality of the tobacco. While this may not be a viable market to start adoption, it still is huge enough to gain some sort of traction to help kickstart things. I just don't expect that this will get huge immediately but hey, at least it's something!

Now to top it all off, I wonder if coffee shops would start to do the same? Coffees and cigarettes work well together (in relieving anxiety and stress, and also giving you cancer).

[Wexnident]

According to the CoinTelegraph article 5200 Keplerk tobacco shops will start accepting bitcoin payments in form of coupons. I think they not only accept bitcoin payments but also enable customers to buy bitcoin coupons that I think are redeemable but their partner Bitmedia or maybe they are only usable withing their shop network. If anyone here is from France and can share his experience with this I would appreciate.

5200 locations accepting BTC as a payment adoption is huge in my opinion, not only that but it is mentioned in the article that giants like Decathlon and Sephora will start accepting BTC by 2020. What do you think is the quickest way to adoption? Big retailers or small local tobacco or coffee shops which people go to on a daily basis?

The smaller, local ones. Big companies have good products, advertisements and such sure but the masses mostly still stick around those small local ones. And it is actually these types of masses that are most of the time ignorant of crypto, so with the adoption of local shops could potentially influence these buyers, making the community larger than it is now. Ignoring the negative publicity about tobacco, the sign of adoption is still great news and even if it is tobacco shops doing the adoption, small steps right?

[Lizzylove1]

Tobacco industry is one of the most lucrative business in the world despite the fact the Federal ministry of health in my country has a caution that smokers are liable to die young. Millions of dollars are been made from Tobacco sales in my country. Every sector will be moved to accept bitcoin in the future for ease of transactions.

[Astvile]

Tobacco shops seem like small transaction amounts though, you'd really have to pay for quite a lot of cigarettes or nice cigars for the transaction to really be viable.

Tobacco shop isn't limited to one product only, they also offer services for smokers. To be clear I'm not a smoker but I have some friends who does smoke tobacco and even though you can see tobacco transactions are small amounts actually there are millions of purchases that  are happening every day in tobacco industry for sure, and to think that 5200 Kepler branches will enable it is a big thing for spreading bitcoin awareness to people.

[blckhawk]

Tobacco shops seem like small transaction amounts though, you'd really have to pay for quite a lot of cigarettes or nice cigars for the transaction to really be viable.

I agree that it's not that viable of an option to use in such small amounts. However, I'm still glad of this news since it signifies further spread of information regarding bitcoin and much better, attract more investors when people had known the background of cryptocurrency by curiosity. It's still a fact that a large percentage of population have vices and one of them is smoking.

If it's premium tobacco that is bought by higher class people, then maybe it's more acceptable since prices would be way up than the general street tobacco. Either way, it's a great start and addition to continuous efforts that bring Bitcoin back into spotlight once again.

[jake zyrus]

Others may think that tobacco business is only a small one but I disagree. I don't know in other countries but here in my country, cigarettes are everywhere. According to what I have searched, ONE company (philip morris) produces over 800 billion cigarettes each year... It only shows that cigarette business are not a small time. Imagine if you sum up each cigarette brand's production.

To conclude things, cigarette businesses are not small and it can help to increase mass adoption. The bigger the companies who'll accept bitcoin and other coins as a payment, the bigger chance for bitcoin to achieve mass adoption faster.

[Upgate]

Tobacco shops seem like small transaction amounts though, you'd really have to pay for quite a lot of cigarettes or nice cigars for the transaction to really be viable.

Just what I was thinking about, this is more or less like a little transcation however every little more adoption is a win for global bitcoin adaptation.
However bitcoin adaptation is not something that can be swept under the carpet anymore