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.
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
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.
