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Topic: Could WalMart go for a cryptocurrency. (Read 2141 times)

sr. member
Activity: 365
Merit: 251
April 01, 2014, 02:50:58 AM
#35
Which begs the question...do people want Walmart to start accepting Bitcoin so that they can start spending their bitcoin there?

Or do they want this just so the price will go up?
I want to reach the tipping point where a company can use bitcoin to pay its suppliers and employees. I see that as meaning lots of places taking bitcoin transparently, rather than going through a third party like Gyft.

I have some coin so I will benefit from the price going up, but I also believe in Bitcoin and want it to be available for me to use in future; it's not just a stock investment.
hero member
Activity: 490
Merit: 500
April 01, 2014, 02:18:47 AM
#34
Great post TheFootMan! And yes I created an account just to say that Smiley Appreciate the effort and thoughts.

We need more people like you. As I say 'We' I'm sure some people would object to that as they'd say there's no 'We' in bitcoin, but then let's say 'We' as in the world.

As a world-citizen I'd like to see efficient trading and transfer of value across borders without limitation all over the globe.

I don't see how anyone actually could disagree with that.

If there are entities that actually use bitcoin or another cryptocurrency for nefarious purposes, then go after those people, don't go after bitcoin.

And currently fiat money is used for far more criminal activity than any cryptocurrency.


So I think we should raise our eyes towards the horizon and get away from the 'I hope X start accepting bitcoins, because then the price would skyrocket'. Instead of merely speculating and wishing for quick riches, anybody that believes in bitcoin should contribute in a constructive manner - build a business - spend bitcoins in an online store, educate others - everything helps a little bit.



hero member
Activity: 490
Merit: 500
April 01, 2014, 02:12:31 AM
#33
A lot of posts after the fact that you can spend Bitcoin at Walmart has been pointed out.

http://www.gyft.com/merchants/walmart/

Which begs the question...do people want Walmart to start accepting Bitcoin so that they can start spending their bitcoin there?

Or do they want this just so the price will go up?

Not familiar with Gyft, but a 3rd party gateway is not a bad thing.

If you read my previous long post, I think you will see what I'm aiming for there.

Point is that payment companies takes too much of a cut, while it's not necessary to take that much to process these transactions, so by chosing other payment methods, like bitcoin, the overall costs for WalMart would go down.
full member
Activity: 154
Merit: 100
April 01, 2014, 02:02:54 AM
#32
walmart is controlled by the bankers/new world order

i doubt they will go crypto, when they are in bed with the controllers of fiat

Walmart is controlled by shareholders, thanks for playing.

and them shareholders will not want crypto, them shareholders are part of the fiat beast
legendary
Activity: 3598
Merit: 2386
Viva Ut Vivas
April 01, 2014, 01:46:13 AM
#31
A lot of posts after the fact that you can spend Bitcoin at Walmart has been pointed out.

http://www.gyft.com/merchants/walmart/

Which begs the question...do people want Walmart to start accepting Bitcoin so that they can start spending their bitcoin there?

Or do they want this just so the price will go up?
member
Activity: 81
Merit: 10
March 31, 2014, 04:34:32 PM
#30
I actually think WalMart could go for crypto.  No reason why they can't but other competitors like Overstock can.
Would be revolutionary for them and a huge vouch of confidencec for us.
legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1014
March 31, 2014, 04:33:09 PM
#29
i think walmart could someday but bitcoin would have to be considered a major currency. but idk if they could do that unless the market was very stable like the usd ya know


disagree, the volatility evens out over the long run, if the payment processor is fast enough it is a non-issue

say, the conversion to usd takes 15 minutes - then sometimes they would gain, sometimes they would lose, it should average out just fine

the ccard fee is ALWAYS negative

but I think they won't take BTC for political correctness reasons.  Angry better to feed the lawyers  Tongue
member
Activity: 70
Merit: 10
March 31, 2014, 02:03:43 PM
#28
walmart is controlled by the bankers/new world order

i doubt they will go crypto, when they are in bed with the controllers of fiat

Walmart is controlled by shareholders, thanks for playing.
legendary
Activity: 2242
Merit: 3523
Flippin' burgers since 1163.
March 31, 2014, 02:03:27 PM
#27
Great post TheFootMan! And yes I created an account just to say that Smiley Appreciate the effort and thoughts.
sr. member
Activity: 434
Merit: 251
March 31, 2014, 12:55:12 PM
#26
i think walmart could someday but bitcoin would have to be considered a major currency. but idk if they could do that unless the market was very stable like the usd ya know
donator
Activity: 1218
Merit: 1015
March 31, 2014, 12:30:33 PM
#25
I'm really surprised the line-of-credit industry even permitted Overstock and TigerDirect to go forward and I'm skeptical they'll continue permitting it. The logical choice seems to be hardballing it like the computer hardware industry turned out: if you sell PCs with Windows, you couldn't sell PCs with Mac, and if you sell PCs with Intel, you couldn't sell PCs with AMD. Various commissions eventually made them pay a pittance to their competitors, but the damage by the monopolistic policies was much more severe.

If I were a major player like Walmart, I'd be very hesitant to stick my neck out like that while still relying on partnerships with the LoC industry. If VISA et al decided to drop Walmart, Walmart'd die overnight.
hero member
Activity: 490
Merit: 500
March 31, 2014, 12:12:55 PM
#24
While a price increase in bitcoin never is wrong, that's not my main motivation.

For bitcoin to be successful, merchant adaption and general use should be desired. A world where the entire chain, and you can use bitcoin for everything, is the world I would like to see. A world where you did not have to exchange bitcoins for fiat money to sustain yourself.

For example, if WalMart started accepting bitcoins, and perhaps even cut prices on bitcoin purchases to drive adaption and let customers benefit from the lack of fees, and to make book-keeping easier and faster, they could even pay delivery companies and providers of various goods in bitcoin. Employees could be given the option of being paid in bitcoins.

More and more services and goods being paid in bitcoin and less conversion to fiat money taking place , would mean that the need for fiat money would be less, and ideally vanish in the end.

It would be a bit like cash moving into digital cash. After all, the money used today in electronic systems is nothing but bits and bytes in centralized repositories controlled by rich entities. And while I'm not sure about all countries, many countries have the wast majority of purchases and payments taking place digitally. Bank transfers are cumbersome, and often time consuming, and as a customer you have to bow to any stupid rule or regulation imposed by your govt or your bank.

The very concept that a bank can freeze your assets for whatever reason, or discontinue your account for whatever reason, or be pushed to do any of these by a govt. organization is very wrong. At the same time it's wrong that they keep a record of where you spend all of your money, and them reporting this to their head masters are wrong too.

The reason bitcoin or one or more successors will succeed in the future is because it fills the gap that the current payment systems in the world does not. There's no question about it. Credit card payments are an outdated technology, and in a time and age where electronic messages can go from one side of the world to the other in milliseconds, it does not make sense that a bank transfer will take days. And also the fact that funds are checked against various lists to ensure it's not being used for nefarious purposes, more often than not bothering legitimate cutomers is wrong.

Today we live in a digital age, and countries are a concept that's kind of passe, we're all interconnected in this world, and everything works in concert. If we cut down threes in the amazons, everybody in the world is affected.

Sustainable development is important, as we cannot continue as we do today. At the same time, we see that a free market gives opportunities to people. Today, a farmer that makes honey in the US can advertise on the Internet and ship worldwide to anyone. Still some countries will stop the produce in customs. What we need for trade to flourish is less restrictions to free trade, and less restrictions to starting a business.

Any business that's visionary and thinks ahead of their time will continually monitor market developments and foresee what's going to happen, and when the changes hit the coastline like a giant flood, the ones who've prepared themselves will survive, while those who cling to old business models will die.

We see this in many industries today, unless an industry adapts, they will lose out. Instead of fighting piracy online, the movie industry should create the best possible streaming services providing the best movies to a low monthly cost. People would still pirate movies, but if you had everything at your fingertips at an affordable price, why bother with torrents if you could see the newest movie immediately at a cost lower than a couple of burgers a month.

And this is happening..

Changes are taking place in the news paper industry as well. I do think that people will pay for quality material, and doing like they try in france forcing google to pay for indexing links to newspaper articles is quite silly.

At the same time, we can look at Turkei and see how they're trying to block twitter and youtube because there's information about corruption within the Turkish government online, they even hijack google-sites and so on.

This is very stupid on a mind-staggering level. But one can understand that someone wanting to hide something wants to hide his wrongdoings at all costs.

Sadly, with the internet, there's no place to hide - there's no place to remove the truth. Once it's out there it's out there, and the Internet had played a big role in many societes around the world to create change.

And at the same time, bitcoin can help create change as well. Just imagine when some cheap hardware wallet becomes available, and everyone can use it. Perhaps it could even come with a solar panel that can charge it for you.

It could outperform M-pesa.

And the concept of freedom is important as well. If I want to transfer value to anyone in the world, I should be able to do so, instantly without asking permission from anyone.

If I read about someone working to save the rain forest in Amazonas, I should be able to donate to them no matter where in the world I am, without any 3rd party taking an excessive cut. And it should be easy, no need for complicated registration procedures or the usage of gadgets to generate and insert codes in a webform.

So you get the point, ease of use, fast transfer, and virtually no fraud.

From my side it's not a selfish act where I only want WalMart to adopt bitcoin so that I can see bitcoin price increase. I genuinely believe that at one point, there will be no option for WalMart other than accepting bitcoins.

Today, this is the state of affairs online for various payment methods:
http://www.coinometrics.com/bitcoin/btix

In the future it will not look the same, and just think how far bitcoin has gone this far, reaching a market size that of Western Union.

Western Union has been on the market since 1851, but admittedly not into money transmitting business all the time, but see how quickly bitcoin has gained the same amount of market share.

Logically the only way to deal with monetary transactions in todays society is to make it just as easy as typing in an instant message on your screen. It should be easy, and go instantly.

Bitcoin or a successor is the future of payments.

Just like the phone made telegrams obsolete, cryptocurrencies are making the current banking system obsolete.

Now, as this may sound a bit optimistic, just think of how airplanes, the railroad and even the car changed the world. All these inventions were met with big sceptisism when they came. People did not believe in it, and said it was no use for it. The Internet itself, when it first came was met with big sceptisism and pointed as a place where terrorists, pedophiles etc. would gather, and it would be a haven for criminal activity, and then think of how important it is for worldwide trade and communications today, and how it has changed the world.

We are not dreamers sitting on a forum making up wishful thinking. We're here for a reason, and change is happening. Come back in 10 years time, quote this post and tell me I wasn't right.

sr. member
Activity: 364
Merit: 250
March 31, 2014, 10:42:38 AM
#23
last I checked ... anyone could 'go' for a cryptocurrency =P

The reason I took up the subject is because WalMart is suing VISA over excessive fees. Bitcoin does not have much fees, therefore it could be an alternative, if you think long term, and have a visionary outlook on your business.

Comprende?

agreed if that they can also retaliate and use bitcoin and stop taking Credit cards, ohh how would that be a dream come true for us, wouldnt it?
hero member
Activity: 490
Merit: 500
March 31, 2014, 10:05:20 AM
#22
last I checked ... anyone could 'go' for a cryptocurrency =P

The reason I took up the subject is because WalMart is suing VISA over excessive fees. Bitcoin does not have much fees, therefore it could be an alternative, if you think long term, and have a visionary outlook on your business.

Comprende?
legendary
Activity: 2450
Merit: 1002
March 31, 2014, 10:01:38 AM
#21
last I checked ... anyone could 'go' for a cryptocurrency =P
global moderator
Activity: 4018
Merit: 2728
Join the world-leading crypto sportsbook NOW!
March 31, 2014, 09:57:02 AM
#20
Most of you probably got the news that WalMart is suing Visa over excessive fees:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/27/walmart-suing-visa-credit-card-swipe_n_5045295.html

So my thoughts are:

Could WalMart start using bitcoin, and would bitcoin be able to scale up to that task currently?

Hopefully these type of extortionate credit card fees will only highlight the advantages of Bitcoin.

I'm not even foreign to the idea that in the future, various big corporations will have their own cryptocoins. Amazon-coin, WalMart-coin etc.


I think that's a distinct possibility. I'm sure big companies like Apple, Amazon or Facebook will use their own money in the future.
hero member
Activity: 490
Merit: 500
March 31, 2014, 09:45:55 AM
#19
If bitcoin can actually help lower income types I don't think it's unreasonable that they might try to incorporate something in their financial services.  Of course, bitcoin would have to be of real benefit to their customers and at the current time it isn't.

Well - if they wanted to, they could.

- Conduct a case study to see whether it was possible for them to introduce bitcoin as a payment option in their stores.
- To drive adaption, they could team up with providers of hardware wallets, or even introduce some kind of bitcoin cards (Neo Bee Cryprus comes to mind: http://www.neo-bee.com/en/)

The motivation would be at least two fold:

* Less fees needed to be paid to VISA and other payment companies. This could run pretty high because of their sheer volumes.
* Avoidance of fraud. I'm sure some customers buy stuff with stolen cards, and WalMart's taking a loss on it.
full member
Activity: 140
Merit: 100
March 31, 2014, 09:33:38 AM
#18
Actually walmart has a corporate history of trying to help the ordinary consumer.
 
Not for altruistic reasons obviously and the net effect of their business practices is certianly debatable whether or not it helps or hinders in the end, but you can see some of this in their recent efforts to provide low cost banking, pharmaceuticals and alternative insurance to their customers.   

If bitcoin can actually help lower income types I don't think it's unreasonable that they might try to incorporate something in their financial services.  Of course, bitcoin would have to be of real benefit to their customers and at the current time it isn't.
hero member
Activity: 490
Merit: 500
March 31, 2014, 09:20:26 AM
#17
It's all about demand. Walmart will give customers what they demand.

That's how business works. They have been successful by filling customer demand. It's only a matter of time before walmart accepts bitcoin.

Don't you think that once you're big enough you could also just change something, and then the customers would have to accept it or not.

If they don't have much choice, they would have to accept it.


Certain big companies act in a way that would be unheard of if they was less popular. Paypal comes to mind.
legendary
Activity: 2506
Merit: 1030
Twitter @realmicroguy
March 29, 2014, 09:08:28 PM
#16
It's all about demand. Walmart will give customers what they demand.

That's how business works. They have been successful by filling customer demand. It's only a matter of time before walmart accepts bitcoin.
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