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Topic: If confirmation takes 10 minutes, how will I buy coffee at Starbucks? (Read 9948 times)

donator
Activity: 1218
Merit: 1079
Gerald Davis
sr. member
Activity: 476
Merit: 250
Don't use Starbucks; find a independent coffeeshop that takes bitcoin and support them instead!

If starbucks start accepting bitcoins the price will double in a day.

I really doubt it double in a day. I'm sure it'll raise the price and profile of BTC, but double it is a bit extreme.

Agreed.  Bitcoin isn't some tiny experiment where the money supply is worth a few million anymore.  There is pretty much no event that could cause it to double in on day.  Likewise the only events IMHO that could cause it to fall more than 50% in one day anymore are likely catastrophic (massive network wide double spend, 51% attack blocking all transactions, a fatal flaw found in SHA-256, a backdoor found in the ECC curve used by Bitcoin, etc).

Yet bitcoin lost 50% of its value in 1 day because baidu removed it from it's homepage. Were you saying back then that this was a no event either?
legendary
Activity: 1960
Merit: 1010

If bitcoin becomes massive, how will I buy a coffee at Starbucks? Will I have to pay with bitcoins and then wait 10/30 minutes before picking up my coffee?

That's an easy one. You simply buy a second coffee.
donator
Activity: 1218
Merit: 1079
Gerald Davis
Don't use Starbucks; find a independent coffeeshop that takes bitcoin and support them instead!

If starbucks start accepting bitcoins the price will double in a day.

I really doubt it double in a day. I'm sure it'll raise the price and profile of BTC, but double it is a bit extreme.

Agreed.  Bitcoin isn't some tiny experiment where the money supply is worth a few million anymore.  There is pretty much no event that could cause it to double in on day.  Likewise the only events IMHO that could cause it to fall more than 50% in one day anymore are likely catastrophic (massive network wide double spend, 51% attack blocking all transactions, a fatal flaw found in SHA-256, a backdoor found in the ECC curve used by Bitcoin, etc).
sr. member
Activity: 476
Merit: 250
For most, that is damn near impossible... I don't know of any independent coffee shops near me that take BTC. In fact, i don't know of any brick and mortar stores near me that do. To date, i have only been able to use BTC online.

I don't know of anyone that knows what bitcoin is. I have only been able to find people that know about bitcoin online.
What does this mean? That bitcoin is impossible?  Tongue
global moderator
Activity: 4018
Merit: 2728
Join the world-leading crypto sportsbook NOW!
For most, that is damn near impossible... I don't know of any independent coffee shops near me that take BTC. In fact, i don't know of any brick and mortar stores near me that do. To date, i have only been able to use BTC online.

It's early days yet. Plus, you'll only be aware of them if you go in. Some stores that accept them don't even state they do or explicitly advertise the fact. Let's see how many stores start accepting them in 2014 - I think you'll be surprised. It'll also be much easier to get smaller independent entrepreneurial shops to experiment with accepting them as opposed to big corporations. I'll probably buy a coffee with BTC the first place I see that accepts them just to try it out and encourage it's use.
newbie
Activity: 48
Merit: 0
For most, that is damn near impossible... I don't know of any independent coffee shops near me that take BTC. In fact, i don't know of any brick and mortar stores near me that do. To date, i have only been able to use BTC online.
global moderator
Activity: 4018
Merit: 2728
Join the world-leading crypto sportsbook NOW!
Don't use Starbucks; find a independent coffeeshop that takes bitcoin and support them instead!

If starbucks start accepting bitcoins the price will double in a day.

I really doubt it double in a day. I'm sure it'll raise the price and profile of BTC, but double it is a bit extreme.
sr. member
Activity: 476
Merit: 250
Don't use Starbucks; find a independent coffeeshop that takes bitcoin and support them instead!

If starbucks start accepting bitcoins the price will double in a day.
global moderator
Activity: 4018
Merit: 2728
Join the world-leading crypto sportsbook NOW!
coffee is legal, why the hell would you want to use bitcoins for that
LOL !!!

Sadly though, even though it's funny here, many people have a misconception about bitcoins, and that it's used mostly for illegl things.  I here this all the time.  While this is far from the trueth, hopefully there will be some positive marketting coming from the bigger investors some time soon.

Tell them cash is used for many illegal things.
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
coffee is legal, why the hell would you want to use bitcoins for that
LOL !!!

Sadly though, even though it's funny here, many people have a misconception about bitcoins, and that it's used mostly for illegl things.  I here this all the time.  While this is far from the trueth, hopefully there will be some positive marketting coming from the bigger investors some time soon.
hero member
Activity: 513
Merit: 509
coffee is legal, why the hell would you want to use bitcoins for that
LOL !!!
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
simple answer:

0 confirmation transactions are safer than you think, its still way harder than chargeback on a credit card

starbucks has cameras, if you steal from them than they call the police

Yes, another elegant way to put it.  Plus, just because your bitcoins are anonymous to an extent in your wallet, who's to say most companies won't ask for ID before you make your bitcoin payment.  So if you were to double spend, they'd at least have a photo ID scanned to send to the police.  Double spending is also not THAT easy to do.
legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 1217
simple answer:

0 confirmation transactions are safer than you think, its still way harder than chargeback on a credit card

starbucks has cameras, if you steal from them than they call the police
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
As I said on various other posts, things like starbucks will accept 0 verifications.  And if bigger shops work with BTc, either they wait a little, or have insurance that protects from double spending.
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
What about fastcoin?  I understand that one is teh fastest!
legendary
Activity: 2912
Merit: 6403
Blackjack.fun
The problem isn't 0 confirmation transactions it's if Bitcoin becomes mainstream for people using it as a source of payment, it will break as it can't handle the transaction load, and will become a clusterfuck of a problem.

Hasn't this been discussed over and over , and it's clear that the network can hold a great amount of transactions if we tweak it a little bit?
full member
Activity: 168
Merit: 100
The problem isn't 0 confirmation transactions it's if Bitcoin becomes mainstream for people using it as a source of payment, it will break as it can't handle the transaction load, and will become a clusterfuck of a problem.

There is that potential.   Especially as we seem to be working against a logistic function.   Most people fail to comprehend how fast things can happen.   That said, we seem to have a number of tactics available right away that just require implementation.

Some new heavy hitters coming in for mining as well.  When combined with funding we could see significant improvements happening sooner.   Note Gavin working with Coinbase may give some additional ooomph in development assisted by new capital from VCs.
full member
Activity: 896
Merit: 102
The problem isn't 0 confirmation transactions it's if Bitcoin becomes mainstream for people using it as a source of payment, it will break as it can't handle the transaction load, and will become a clusterfuck of a problem.
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1013
I met an actuary at the Las Vegas conference and told him he should apply that to measuring double spend risk and selling insurance to merchants.
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