I ordered pizza online using gyft.com a week ago in the same amount of time it takes to typically do so with a credit card. I bought 'new' bitcoins from an exchange. I only purchased the number of coins requested by the invoice (0.165 if memory serves me). I sent these coins p2p by pasting the receiver's address in my send wallet. There were some advantages.
1. NO ONE got my credit card number. The merchant didn't get killed by CC transaction fees.
2. Identifying information was given only to the exchange where I got my coins (they already had this) & Papa Johns (they know me too).
3. I used the web interface. Mobile & bitcoins don't jive IMO.
4. I paid 4% less than the face value of the card $19.20 (including exchange fees of $0.09) for 0.165BTC for a $20 gift card.
5. I actually enjoyed the pizza.
Disadvantages: My pizza purchase was not completely anonymous?? This has never been a concern of mine.
It is likely that I will repeat in the future.
Edit: OT Anything that adds liquidity, especially quick liquidity, is a good thing for Bitcoin IMO.
Topic: Gyft accepts bitcoins... demand to rise? (Read 2248 times)
Convert BTC to giftcards is huge. A lot of investors, miners, don't want to do wire transfers. Much easier to move it over to giftcards, spend a little here and there, without running it through the banking system.
No iOS sucked, but now you can use the website. I've used it 4-5 times already. The fees are very small.
No iOS sucked, but now you can use the website. I've used it 4-5 times already. The fees are very small.
I see a flaw in your logic: Gyft is likely to sell the BTC they receive, effectively replacing their customers in the market.
Edit: don't get me wrong though, this is great news.
Edit: don't get me wrong though, this is great news.
Selling to buyers. It all just goes back into the system.
Gyft is one of the things giving bitcoins some sort of real value. It will certainly help the prices in the long run.
Nope
Gyft is one of the things giving bitcoins some sort of real value. It will certainly help the prices in the long run.
This will increase the liquidity of BTC, making it easier to spend. This will have a positive effect in the legitimacy of bitcoin as a whole. I don't see this really affecting the price in an upward way but might serve to harden the floor, as this is more of them trying to tap into a niche market more then them trying to expand the bitcoin ecosphere.
I consider myself hip to tech, what the hell is gyft?
It's a scheme for spying on bitcoin users.
Notice how these "gyft cards" must be linked to a facebook or google account and must be spent on a US-based (aka trackable/traceable) cellular phone.
And their website blocks tor.
And their website also blocks any users with private browsing enabled.
Yeah, this is pretty much worthless.
I consider myself hip to tech, what the hell is gyft? Nonstarter.
It's not monumental news. It's just normal good news, of the type we've been seeing nonstop for the past few months, just slightly outweighing the bad news 
This will allow people who have BTC to convert it to USD but not USD to BTC.
I don't see why this would help the price in the short term.
If anything it would reduce the amount of USD in the system, lowering the USD price per BTC.
Having one extra company accepting BTC will be good in the long run, but I don't see anyone thinking "wow! I can convert my USD to BTC and back again?!?"...
I don't see why this would help the price in the short term.
If anything it would reduce the amount of USD in the system, lowering the USD price per BTC.
Having one extra company accepting BTC will be good in the long run, but I don't see anyone thinking "wow! I can convert my USD to BTC and back again?!?"...
I wanna make something clear here, why would any normal dumb average citizen go out of there way to use bitcoin?
Its tedious.
It only makes sense when the bitcoin alternative offers benefits to cash, debit, credit, or bank transfer or whatever. Even then such a thing would take time.
I think we're on a downtrend. Enough with this grasping of straws.
Anyways, the concept is cool but for now (short term) I don't think it's going to matter much.
Its tedious.
It only makes sense when the bitcoin alternative offers benefits to cash, debit, credit, or bank transfer or whatever. Even then such a thing would take time.
I think we're on a downtrend. Enough with this grasping of straws.
Anyways, the concept is cool but for now (short term) I don't think it's going to matter much.
I see a flaw in your logic: Gyft is likely to sell the BTC they receive, effectively replacing their customers in the market.
Edit: don't get me wrong though, this is great news.
Edit: don't get me wrong though, this is great news.
I don't see the flaw. Consider that anyone who wants to buy the Gyft cards in the first place will need to buy bitcoins. They aren't going to know how many exactly they need, so they'll just buy "some" and use "slightly less than some" when they buy their first Gyft card. Add up all of the remainders on thousands of smartphone users and you have a lot of purchased, not-really-circulating bitcoins (like a lot of pocket change). That will undoubtedly make bitcoins more scarce and thus drive the price up.
Regardless, once people go Bitcoin they never go back 
It'll bring more users to Bitcoin, no doubt.
It'll bring more users to Bitcoin, no doubt.
Or I can sell my Bitcoins myself and use the okpay debit card to purchase everything directly, with less fees than bitpay charges.
I see a flaw in your logic: Gyft is likely to sell the BTC they receive, effectively replacing their customers in the market.
Edit: don't get me wrong though, this is great news.
Edit: don't get me wrong though, this is great news.
well damn, too true.. now all we need to do is convince gyft to hold.. haha
I see a flaw in your logic: Gyft is likely to sell the BTC they receive, effectively replacing their customers in the market.
Edit: don't get me wrong though, this is great news.
Edit: don't get me wrong though, this is great news.
Gyft adoption is actually a pretty big deal, as now indirectly a lot more real world merchants (that you actually see in your neighborhood) are accepting bitcoin.
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/09/your-bitcoins-are-finally-worth-something/
Does this mean there will be less bitcoin supply (as you now need to sell for fiat less often), and incrementally more demand (as the utility has increased) leading to a significantly higher btc price?
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/09/your-bitcoins-are-finally-worth-something/
Does this mean there will be less bitcoin supply (as you now need to sell for fiat less often), and incrementally more demand (as the utility has increased) leading to a significantly higher btc price?
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