How to get Starbucks, Peet's Coffee and Coffee Beans Tea Leafs to accept BTC?

[jamesc760]

Let's start an online petition. I don't know how. Please someone who knows e-marketing, get the campaign going. I will support it. When I'm buying coffee at Peet's, I try to use Google Wallet, if available. I'd prefer to pay with bitcoins, if only to support mass adoption.

What do you think?

[Krabby]

I don't like coffee...

[Bitcoin_is_here_to_stay]

Let us just wait Btw, why are you so desperate to do your penny purchases with btc? Seems harder then with good ol' cash.

[CIYAM]

I don't know how many times it has to be pointed out to people that Bitcoin is *not ready* for such mainstream usage (without some sort of side-chain or other parallel system).

You do understand that at the moment it can only handle 7 TPS at the most (and as most miners are not filling blocks to anywhere near the capacity probably quite a bit less)?

Imagine the negative publicity that would occur when people are trying to pay for a coffee with Bitcoin but it goes cold before a single confirmation can occur (which if the network was jammed due to too many txs could easily be an hour or more) - or even worse the negative impact on retailers if they decided to do 0 confirmation coffees (to supply them while still hot) only to find out that a bunch of "smartarse nerds" had tricked them with so called "double spends".

Although 0 confirmation payments for services such as VPS/VPN can work (easy enough to cancel the service if the payment doesn't confirm) the same can't be said for actual exchange for goods.

So apart from those services that can handle 0 confirmation without any real risk the focus for now IMO should be on greatly improving things like international money transfer where Bitcoin shines (despite its poor performance when compared current PoS systems).

[jamesc760]

I don't like coffee...

Do you like tea, perhaps?

[jamesc760]

Let us just wait Btw, why are you so desperate to do your penny purchases with btc? Seems harder then with good ol' cash.

I am not desperate to do anything. With your attitude, btc will fail, what the f&ck are you doing in the bitcoin speculation forum?

[jamesc760]

I don't know how many times it has to be pointed out to people that Bitcoin is *not ready* for such mainstream usage (without some sort of side-chain or other parallel system).

You do understand that at the moment it can only handle 7 TPS at the most (and as most miners are not filling blocks to anywhere near the capacity probably quite a bit less)?

Imagine the negative publicity that would occur when people are trying to pay for a coffee with Bitcoin but it goes cold before a single confirmation can occur (which if the network was jammed due to too many txs could easily be an hour or more) - or even worse the negative impact on retailers if they decided to do 0 confirmation coffees (to supply them while still hot) only to find out that a bunch of "smartarse nerds" had tricked them with so called "double spends".

Although 0 confirmation payments for services such as VPS/VPN can work (easy enough to cancel the service if the payment doesn't confirm) the same can't be said for actual exchange for goods.

So apart from those services that can handle 0 confirmation without any real risk the focus for now IMO should be on greatly improving things like international money transfer where Bitcoin shines (despite its poor performance when compared current PoS systems).

I know about the transactions per second problem, if it's a problem since the devs can easily modify the limit.

I think "double spend" problem, if it's a problem, is a remote possibility; I know of only one arguably successful "double spend" incident (cex).

So, you are saying that we shouldn't attempt to get mass adoption going? Just stick to international transfer? What are you really afraid of?

[jamesc760]

I am sick and tired of people pointing out the errors of attempting a mass adoption of bitcoins at popular coffee stores.

Please, if you have nothing constructive to offer, such as how to get this going, please do NOT post here. This is my thread and I'm making it a rule. Again, unless you have constructive suggestions, GTFO.

Thank you and have a nice day!

[jamesc760]

Someone pointed out to me that I could use Gyft to pay for coffee and stuff. I already knew that. What I'm interested in, is DIRECTLY paying with btc, not through some 3rd party.

[bitcoinsrus]

Well here is the way I look at it. Overstock accepted. Then larger companies like dish is about to use it. Rather than aim for the big name brands, why not try for the local small ones (locals or others looking for alt payment methods). Then maybe the big guys would join.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/18/business/bitcoin-your-way-to-a-double-espresso/

[mwizard]

Here is one possible way this could work and be simple to implement.  The customer would see a simple bitcoin transaction.  In detail:

1) The Starbuck's Point of Sale terminal would have a bitcoin payment icon which when clicked starts the process.

2) The dollar value of the order is immediately passed to Coinbase (or similar) which take the dollar value of the order, converts to Bitcoin at the current rate and adds a small transaction cost (to cover Coinbase costs).

3) The Starbuck POS terminals then displays a QR code with the Coinbase generated address and the Bitcoin transaction value provided by Coinbase.  

4) The customer then scans the QR code with their own phone and taps to pay the Bitcoin value to Coinbase.

5) The original order value is then immediately credited by Coinbase to Starbucks in the local currency.  The sale is complete.

All Starbucks has to do is to use an interface provided by Coinbase.  The Starbucks internal systems only see the original local dollar value.  

Coinbase (or similar) does the Bitcoin part of the transaction and bears any risk.   Obviously no-one is going to wait around in a coffee shop for the normal Bitcoin confirmation.

The customer sees a pure Bitcoin transaction which happens immediately. The customer has no idea a third party is involved.

[cypherdoc]

Here is one possible way this could work and be simple to implement.  The customer would see a simple bitcoin transaction.  In detail:

1) The Starbuck's Point of Sale terminal would have a bitcoin payment icon which when clicked starts the process.

2) The dollar value of the order is immediately passed to Coinbase (or similar) which take the dollar value of the order, converts to Bitcoin at the current rate and adds a small transaction cost (to cover Coinbase costs).

3) The Starbuck POS terminals then displays a QR code with the Coinbase generated address and the Bitcoin transaction value provided by Coinbase.  

4) The customer then scans the QR code with their own phone and taps to pay the Bitcoin value to Coinbase.

5) The original order value is then immediately credited by Coinbase to Starbucks in the local currency.  The sale is complete.

All Starbucks has to do is to use an interface provided by Coinbase.  The Starbucks internal systems only see the original local dollar value.  

Coinbase (or similar) does the Bitcoin part of the transaction and bears any risk.   Obviously no-one is going to wait around in a coffee shop for the normal Bitcoin confirmation.

The customer sees a pure Bitcoin transaction which happens immediately. The customer has no idea a third party is involved.

This is the system that Coinkite employs; a POS handheld system that settles immediately on their internal system afaik.

[Torque]

Here is one possible way this could work and be simple to implement.  The customer would see a simple bitcoin transaction.  In detail:

1) The Starbuck's Point of Sale terminal would have a bitcoin payment icon which when clicked starts the process.

2) The dollar value of the order is immediately passed to Coinbase (or similar) which take the dollar value of the order, converts to Bitcoin at the current rate and adds a small transaction cost (to cover Coinbase costs).

3) The Starbuck POS terminals then displays a QR code with the Coinbase generated address and the Bitcoin transaction value provided by Coinbase.  

4) The customer then scans the QR code with their own phone and taps to pay the Bitcoin value to Coinbase.

5) The original order value is then immediately credited by Coinbase to Starbucks in the local currency.  The sale is complete.

All Starbucks has to do is to use an interface provided by Coinbase.  The Starbucks internal systems only see the original local dollar value.  

Coinbase (or similar) does the Bitcoin part of the transaction and bears any risk.   Obviously no-one is going to wait around in a coffee shop for the normal Bitcoin confirmation.

The customer sees a pure Bitcoin transaction which happens immediately. The customer has no idea a third party is involved.

This is the system that Coinkite employs; a POS handheld system that settles immediately on their internal system afaik.

Don't Coinbase and BitPay merchant services already do this?  IIRC, they are already doing off-exchange transactions (that post immediately) if the client wallet and merchant service are the same.