Topic: [ANN] Introducing LIMOCOIN from Bit-Pay (Read 3636 times)

Therefore, the rider can easily pay in advance, like prepaying for gas. Once pumped, you get your change. Once the rider reaches his destination, he receives change, but doesn't have to wait for conformation because at this point he trusts the driver in not going out of business in 10 minutes.

That's correct.  Only the cabbie would need to setup a merchant account.  The rider can use any bitcoin wallet service (though, be aware, some of the mobile wallets can have delays in sending out transactions that make them unsuitable for such in person transactions).  We are committed to providing solutions that are based on the open bitcoin protocol.  We believe that the open standard nature of bitcoin is what will make it succeed.  If we were to require the buyer (rider in this case) to have a bit-pay account, then we would have no advantage over the walled garden solutions that the various mega-corporations currently offer.

good idea.  I will look into this. 

Most likely you could even give your app as a library to myTaxi for seamless integration. In the end, success of bitcoin is all about politics and such a cooperation would definitely have major impact.
myTaxi drivers already provided billing information.

Are you planning to promote this in some big cities? I guess due to an overlap of target audience, it might be interesting to contact MyTaxi or similar services that are rolling up the taxi market right now.

Good luck and I'm looking forward to finding taxis when I set "Bitcoins only!" as a comment along with my myTaxi call.

The drivers lease the cabs, and the owners of the cabs care less what they report. The cabbies are independent contractors. The cab owners don't handle any of their financial work with the except of processing their credit card sales, of which the cabbies have to wait to get paid, couple with paying for the privilege of using that service. It's even against the law for a cabbie to not accept credit cards. He'll lose his license. As far as preferring cash, it's to their best interest to have as little on their person as possible due to thieves. Same as the pizza delivery guy, but unlike the pizza guy, a cabbie can't just go home after each fare or two and put his cash in a cookie jar. He's on the road for the duration of his shift, otherwise he loses money. BTW, his shift consists of whatever hours he wants to work, more or less, depending on the availability of the leased cab.


I don't think this is the case. Correct me if I'm wrong, but only the cabbie needs to set up an account.


During slow periods, Rashid just fires up his Twitter account and announces sales. He could even do a promotion with Bitcoin. It doesn't necessary mean he'll get a sale directly after announcing a sale, but by him doing such, it affords him brand awareness--Chicago Cabbie--possibly for a future fare.

~Bruno~

I'm making an assumption, but I think the reason cab drivers also want to accept cash is to avoid taxes...

If cab drivers report more rides to their home office, then they have to pay taxes on that money.

I'm guessing this as well as the fees associated with credit cards are both reasons why cabbies prefer cash.

Maybe the home office also takes a cut of proceeds for the day.

Next time I'm in a cab, I'll mention this.  Although, I stick to trains & buses mostly these days cuz I'm cheap.

So if I understand this right, the driver and the rider needs a to set up a Bit-pay account before they can use this service.

If this is the case you should have rolled it out in a single market that 1.  has a lot of drivers and 2.  has a lot of bitcoin users that use a taxi.  Then notify the bitcoin community in that market that XXX Taxi Co. accepts bitcoins.

Otherwise, what is the chance that a rider that knows about bitcoin and has a Bit-pay gets into a taxi driven by a taxi driver that knows about bitcoin and has a Bit-pay account.

I think a better use of your programming talent would be to create online payment processors for all the content management systems and their associated shopping carts (though Bit-pay has a few which is a start).  That way if an online marketplace or vendor wants to accept bitcoins they can do it easily.

Otherwise I think this is cool and hope bitcoin users that ride in a taxi asks their taxi driver if they accept bitcoins.  If they don't then pull out your phone and show them how.

Fantastic job.

This looks great, guys!

Again, with the option for direct deposit to a bank account, there's little reason for a driver with the smartphone tech to NOT accept bitcoins now (he can always charge a premium if he wants.)

And the winner was Chicago Cabbie because Rashid uses twitter.

Scene out of Taxi:

Six drivers sitting around a table. A call comes in to the dispatcher. Pick-up at 5th and Elm and drop off at the airport. Asks the drivers who wants it. Nobody moves. Then states that they're paying with Bitcoin. All six drivers race to their cabs to see who'll get there first.

This is an excellent idea. As someone who has travelled internationally on many occasions I can really see the value of this for both the merchant and the traveller. Who wants to fiddle around with foreign cash or hand your credit card to an unknown taxi driver in a foreign country? From driver's perspective who wants to accept a credit card from some unknown foreign country. There is a reason why many merchants do not wish to accept credit cards from many parts of the world. What is the driver to do before Bitcoin refuse to take the fare based on the passenger's country of origin?

It can be useful to many more, yes.  But drivers are a unique case.  They need to spend their time driving, not futzing around on their wallets and trading.  An app like this that just lets them punch in the amount and hit the button is very useful. 

Seems strange to market a payment service/processor to one specific sector... seems it would be useful to more than just cabbies/limo drivers.  Just my 0.02 BTC.

Not knocking the OP at all; the more people we have producing services like this, the better.  Keep at it!

LimoCoin provides a new opportunity for them to show off their bad taste. Are you guys from San Fernando Valley or mainland China? 

As soon as that leather Bitcoin wallet is completed for Chicago Cabbie, I'm making a beeline to ChiTown to close this deal once and for all.

~Bruno~

In fact, it seems to be a pretty good interface for anyone who is mobile. For example, vendors at art fairs or hippie markets. Travelling farmers markets who rotate locations throughout the week. Beach vendors and so on.

Restaurants and Drivers have different needs.  The back-end processing is the same.

Limocoin will include a directory of participating drivers, and this supports multi-currency.  Limocoin is a nice optimized interface for their exact needs.