[2021-11-23] Regal Partners with Flexa to Enable Crypto Payments for Movies

[DaveF]

Did not see this pop up here so:

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/268441/20211124/movie-operator-regal-collaborates-flexa-offer-cryptocurrency-payments-theaters-more.htm
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/regal-partners-with-flexa-to-enable-digital-currency-payments-for-movies-and-more-301430454.html

Regal understands that digital assets are a rapidly growing and increasingly important form of value. By adopting digital currencies for payment in its theatres, Regal is offering more convenience and choice for movie-goers than ever before. Through its partnership with Flexa, Regal is enabling instant payments using dozens of digital currencies, such as:

Cryptocurrencies including bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC), and dogecoin (DOGE);
Digital dollars and stablecoins including USD Coin (USDC), Dai (DAI), and Gemini dollar (GUSD); and
Digital tokens including LINK, ATOM, Basic Attention Token (BAT), and much more.

So AMC & Regal are both rolling out crypto payments. That just leaves Showcase / National Amusements not taking BTC for movies in terms of the big chains.
BUT.....like AMC, Regal is using a 3rd party processor not doing it themselves. Now I get it, they are a big company and it's not like they process their own credit cards so it's not unexpected that they use someone else. Still good that there is another big (ish) outlet to use BTC

-Dave

[SFR10]

like AMC, Regal is using a 3rd party processor not doing it themselves.

Personally, I have no issue with using such things but they should've gone with a slightly different route instead ^{[e.g. a payment gateway that doesn't require customers to use one of the few "flexa-enabled wallets" that has "certain limits, apart from verifying a few things"]}!

• As a result, Flexa currently enables you to spend up to $250 per account per week (across all merchants), after we receive and verify your full name, date of birth, email address, and the state or territory in which you reside.

  On "this page", they've listed $750 as their weekly limit ^{[not sure which one is correct]}.
  
  

• As part of that process, we are legally required to compare your full name, date of birth, and state or territory of residence against lists provided by the Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC"), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other government entities.
  
  At Flexa, we believe in preserving your privacy to the greatest extent possible, which is why we encrypt all of your personal information as it is transmitted to our servers, and only retain that information for the minimum duration as required by the law.

  I have a bad feeling about the highlighted part and they didn't explicitly mention how long is the "minimum duration"!

Still good that there is another big (ish) outlet to use BTC

You're right, but if I were in the US, I would've opted for a "gift card" instead ^{[less risk]}.

[DaveF]

like AMC, Regal is using a 3rd party processor not doing it themselves.

Personally, I have no issue with using such things but they should've gone with a slightly different route instead ^{[e.g. a payment gateway that doesn't require customers to use one of the few "flexa-enabled wallets" that has "certain limits, apart from verifying a few things"]}!

• As a result, Flexa currently enables you to spend up to $250 per account per week (across all merchants), after we receive and verify your full name, date of birth, email address, and the state or territory in which you reside.

  On "this page", they've listed $750 as their weekly limit ^{[not sure which one is correct]}.
  
  

• As part of that process, we are legally required to compare your full name, date of birth, and state or territory of residence against lists provided by the Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC"), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other government entities.
  
  At Flexa, we believe in preserving your privacy to the greatest extent possible, which is why we encrypt all of your personal information as it is transmitted to our servers, and only retain that information for the minimum duration as required by the law.

  I have a bad feeling about the highlighted part and they didn't explicitly mention how long is the "minimum duration"!

Still good that there is another big (ish) outlet to use BTC

You're right, but if I were in the US, I would've opted for a "gift card" instead ^{[less risk]}.

1) From other discussions around the internet they raised it from $250 to $750 a couple of months ago. But $250 is still listed in places
1a) From those same discussions you can go over that limit by using 2 different apps to spend.

2) I'm guessing since it if a financial transaction they keep it a really long time. Since Gemini is involved as one of the apps I'm guessing years for tax reporting reasons

Yeah, there may be better ways to pay to see a movie but it's still cool.

On a side note I'm guessing that we are going to see more and more stuff like this in the future. The these apps work with these merchants, and those apps work with those merchants. I see that now with merchants that use square (now named block) they you can pay with CC or with the cashapp app.

-Dave

[PrimeNumber7]

Most stores use third party providers to process non-cash transactions, such as credit card payments, so using a payment provider for crypto shouldn’t be surprising.

Regal (and AMC) is one more reason why someone might want to hold bitcoin.

I would actually be surprised to see many companies accept crypto directly (without some kind of payment processor). For the average person, using bitcoin means they blindly downloading core or electrum (possibly verifying the hash in the process). This procedure would not work for most companies, as generally, someone within the company would need to review the code, and approve its use before implementing it. A payment processor can provide its own hardware and a guarantee that payment will be received under specific circumstances.

[DaveF]

Most stores use third party providers to process non-cash transactions, such as credit card payments, so using a payment provider for crypto shouldn’t be surprising.

Regal (and AMC) is one more reason why someone might want to hold bitcoin.

I would actually be surprised to see many companies accept crypto directly (without some kind of payment processor). For the average person, using bitcoin means they blindly downloading core or electrum (possibly verifying the hash in the process). This procedure would not work for most companies, as generally, someone within the company would need to review the code, and approve its use before implementing it. A payment processor can provide its own hardware and a guarantee that payment will be received under specific circumstances.

Yes with a but, many larger businesses are (were) doing it themselves. The corner store is going to use a 3rd party processor. The local gas station is going to use a 3rd party processor.
But, BP as an example, if you go to one of their corporate owned stations does process cards themselves. A couple of airlines do (or at least did) as did a hotel chain.
It just made for a more integrated setup. Admittedly I have not dealt with that stuff directly for years but I know there used to be many places that did it themselves.

Is AMC / Regal large enough to be be able to do it themselves for a better cost then 3rd party? I don't know.

For crypto payments it size / better cost / more efficiency many not even matter. They can start with 3rd party, see how well it goes. If it goes well they keep with it and bring it in-house.
If it does not go well, then they shut the program down.

Kind of like how WalMart is on their 3rd or 4th revision of their credit card. They keep trying different things to see what will work, so far all of them have imploded, but if one really finally does I can see them leaving their current provider and bringing it in house.

-Dave

[PrimeNumber7]

Most stores use third party providers to process non-cash transactions, such as credit card payments, so using a payment provider for crypto shouldn’t be surprising.

Regal (and AMC) is one more reason why someone might want to hold bitcoin.

I would actually be surprised to see many companies accept crypto directly (without some kind of payment processor). For the average person, using bitcoin means they blindly downloading core or electrum (possibly verifying the hash in the process). This procedure would not work for most companies, as generally, someone within the company would need to review the code, and approve its use before implementing it. A payment processor can provide its own hardware and a guarantee that payment will be received under specific circumstances.

Yes with a but, many larger businesses are (were) doing it themselves. The corner store is going to use a 3rd party processor. The local gas station is going to use a 3rd party processor.
But, BP as an example, if you go to one of their corporate owned stations does process cards themselves. A couple of airlines do (or at least did) as did a hotel chain.
It just made for a more integrated setup. Admittedly I have not dealt with that stuff directly for years but I know there used to be many places that did it themselves.

Is AMC / Regal large enough to be be able to do it themselves for a better cost then 3rd party? I don't know.

For crypto payments it size / better cost / more efficiency many not even matter. They can start with 3rd party, see how well it goes. If it goes well they keep with it and bring it in-house.
If it does not go well, then they shut the program down.

Kind of like how WalMart is on their 3rd or 4th revision of their credit card. They keep trying different things to see what will work, so far all of them have imploded, but if one really finally does I can see them leaving their current provider and bringing it in house.

-Dave

Tesla for example, employs a large number of software engineers in order to develop and improve their cars (this is likely to be mostly the self-driving capabilities), so using some number of engineers to create a back-end capable of processing credit card payments would likely not have a major business impact, nor require hiring additional engineers. So Tesla can implement some system to accept bitcoin themselves with nearly zero cost.

You could probably not make similar statements for most other merchants that sell directly to consumers. Walmart for example likely has an analytics team that is decently sized that can help with things such as pricing and staffing (and other things that have tangible metrics), but I don't think they would normally create software that does something other than to help allow someone to make a decision. So Walmart would probably need to hire a team of software developers to implement payment processing software if they were to handle processing bitcoin payments from customers in-house.