New Starbucks Partnership With Microsoft Allows Customers To Pay For Frappuccinos With Bitcoin (cnbc.com) 80
Earlier this week, Nestle said it was jumping on the blockchain bandwagon, today, Starbucks said it is ready to top that. From a report: The Seattle-based coffee giant is working with Microsoft and a leading global exchange on a new digital platform that will allow consumers to use bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at Starbucks. Starbucks along with Intercontinental Exchange, Microsoft and BCG, among others, is working to launch a new company called Bakkt that will enable consumers and institutions to buy, sell, store and spend cryptocurrencies on the global network by November. The platform with convert bitcoin and other cryptocoins into U.S. dollars that can be used to buy a Cold Foam Cascara Cold Brew, Matcha Lemonade or anything else at Starbucks. Starbucks has consistently been at the forefront of embracing new technologies. For instance, it added support for mobile payments in 2011. In May, it was estimated that Starbucks' mobile payment solution is more popular than those of Apple and Google.
In a statement, Maria Smith, vice president of partnerships and payments for Starbucks, "As the flagship retailer, Starbucks will play a pivotal role in developing practical, trusted and regulated applications for consumers to convert their digital assets into US dollars for use at Starbucks. As a leader in Mobile Pay to our more than 15 million Starbucks Rewards members, Starbucks is committed to innovation for expanding payment options for our customers."
According to Starbucks spokespeople, Motherboard reports, Starbucks doesn't want bitcoins, but it's willing to help people spend them -- the venture is an exchange that will allow people to convert their cryptocurrency into US dollars, which they can then spend at Starbucks locations.
In a statement, Maria Smith, vice president of partnerships and payments for Starbucks, "As the flagship retailer, Starbucks will play a pivotal role in developing practical, trusted and regulated applications for consumers to convert their digital assets into US dollars for use at Starbucks. As a leader in Mobile Pay to our more than 15 million Starbucks Rewards members, Starbucks is committed to innovation for expanding payment options for our customers."
According to Starbucks spokespeople, Motherboard reports, Starbucks doesn't want bitcoins, but it's willing to help people spend them -- the venture is an exchange that will allow people to convert their cryptocurrency into US dollars, which they can then spend at Starbucks locations.
That sounds like a bad buisness plan. (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with bitcoins is that they are too volatile. That $5.00 Coffee you bought today could have a opportunity cost of $15.00 next year. Vs using the Dollar where that $5.00 would have an opportunity cost of $5.15 the next year.
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Re:That sounds like a bad buisness plan. (Score:5, Informative)
I was thinking the opposite could be true, too: you pay with bitcoin, and before COB for the day it manages to tank and what was $5.00 worth of bitcoin is now $0.05 worth.
That's exactly why Starbucks isn't actually collecting any BTC. They're using a payment processor which is collecting BTC, and which pays them in USD on your behalf. Starbucks never actually sees a bitcoin.
Re:That sounds like a bad buisness plan. (Score:4, Informative)
That's theoretically possible, and maybe a possible situation, but not that realistic a scenario. Crypto exchange rates have been volatile, yes, but NOT nearly as volatile as you are implying. We don't see the value decreasing to 1/100th what it was or increasing 100x all in one day. The largest single-day change for BTC ever was approximately 25% which was on major news events.
Re:That sounds like a bad buisness plan. (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with bitcoins is that they are too volatile.
I'm sure Microsoft can manage a sufficiently fast price update rate using DirectX 12.0.
That's not the problem. The problem is that there can only be half a dozen Bitcoin transactions per second IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.
This means the Bitcoin transaction fee will cost more than three times what the coffee is worth.
Serious question: I wonder if anybody at Starbucks or Microsoft actually knows how Bitcoin works?
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The problem with bitcoins is that they are too volatile.
I'm sure Microsoft can manage a sufficiently fast price update rate using DirectX 12.0.
That's not the problem. The problem is that there can only be half a dozen Bitcoin transactions per second IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.
This means the Bitcoin transaction fee will cost more than three times what the coffee is worth.
Serious question: I wonder if anybody at Starbucks or Microsoft actually knows how Bitcoin works?
I imagine most people who buy a coffee with bitcoin using this method will do it for the novelty of it- and only a few times- so it's not likely to stress out bitcoin's infrastructure. People don't buy bitcoin so they can buy coffee... that's not bitcoin's main purpose. Bitcoin is more practical when used for large exchanges of wealth and goods.
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People don't buy bitcoin so they can buy coffee... that's not bitcoin's main purpose. Bitcoin is more practical when used for large exchanges of wealth and goods.
And paying for torrent and Usenet indexer membership
Re:That sounds like a bad buisness plan. (Score:4, Informative)
Serious question: Do you know why the Lightning Network was developed and how it works?
If they're going to use LN, this is a perfect application to demonstrate mass scaling.
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Seriously, go read up on the Lightning network. It will not help scale BTC the way the general public believes it will. It is a contract that you must open and fund. Once funded, you can send BTC back and forth super fast, but at the end of the day when you "need" the BTC in your account, you must close the contract, put it on BTC mainnet and be hashed just like any other BTC transaction. The Lightning Network does not help scale single, one-time transfers, like paying for coffee or paying your buddy for la
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Except you are missing the 'network' part; with modern routing techniques.
Just like you connect to your ISP, you'll open a lightning channel to a payment provider; who has open channel to as many other payment providers as they can (like ISP peering); who in turn, will have a channel to the wallet you are sending to. (the other 'last mile')
The payment providers advertise their routes with the fee rates, and the cheapest path is automatically selected.
Automatic, cryptographically secure bidding for the lowes
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Yep. If it doesn't go via the blockchain then it's open to fraud and hacking.
(eg. how many "exchanges" have already disappeared with a lot of money?)
I'm sure Microsoft Knows this (Score:2)
Starbuck probably get it converted in USD (Score:2)
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Wrong direction (Score:2)
$5 worth of bitcoin will be worth about zero next year. That $5 cash would be worth $4.98 next year due to inflation. The cup of coffee will keep your productive which is worth $100+ depending on your level of income.
If you had invested in NVIDIA 5 or 6 years ago, you'd have a 10x return on your money.
Turns out the shovels are a lot more valuable than the dirt being mined
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The problem with bitcoins is that they are too volatile. That $5.00 Coffee you bought today could have a opportunity cost of $15.00 next year. Vs using the Dollar where that $5.00 would have an opportunity cost of $5.15 the next year.
Well, as you can buy bitcoins with the $5.00 it makes no difference.
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Also the blockchain makes this too cumbersome if it becomes popular. A few cryptohipsters here or there is fine, but a million of them trying to get through that pipeline to get a cup of coffee each morning would suffocate the system.
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So Crypto is getting ... (Score:2)
... mouth-to-mouth to try and create a market nobody asked for.
You know, like Air Pods.
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Correct.
To be precise, I reject all nitrogen in the Earth's atmosphere.
I'm a purist: an oxymoron.
Re:So Crypto is getting ... (Score:5, Insightful)
... mouth-to-mouth to try and create a market nobody asked for.
It is actually worse than that.
Every time that I read something about BitCoin or any other crypto-currency it is clear that the "currency" part of it (technically described as "proof of work") is nothing more than "proof I was able to most efficiently turn a quantity of electricity into waste heat."
Given that how far we yet have to go to achieve worldwide sustainable energy production, I find it odd (hypocritical, even?) that so many socially conscious companies and organizations now effectively encourage people to waste electricity.
I get that not every occupation makes the same contribution to society, but generating crypto-currency has to rank near the bottom by producing effectively zero net benefit. Even a grave digger at the end of the day has performed a service for someone else.
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I agree, and we've seen this before.
Think of Pet Rocks and Mood Rings.
Prior to the advertising push, you didn't know you wanted those.
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Schrödinger's cat.
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Thats not what the calcs are doing (Score:2, Insightful)
But that isn't the reason for the calculations. The calculations are done to verify transactions are legitimate so nobody can post fake transactions (double spend) to the blockchain. We can argue about how efficient that process is or isn't but it is incorrect to say the proof is only turning electricity into heat. It's purpose is more than that.
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We can argue about how efficient that process is or isn't but it is incorrect to say the proof is only turning electricity into heat. It's purpose is more than that.
As long as there are viable alternatives to proof-of-work (there are) and the processing behind BTC has no point other than proof-of-work (it doesn't) then its effective purpose is only turning electricity into heat. If it were at least one of the forms of cryptocurrency which does useful work, then the work wouldn't simply be a waste, and BTC wouldn't be a waste. But it isn't, so it is, and it is.
Pay For Frappuccinos With Bitcoin (Score:1)
Pay For Frappuccinos With Bitcoin
Nope. First you'll transfer bitcoins to them (ie. give away control of your bitcoins, hello hacker target). Then you'll pay with your totally-not-a-bank balance.
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And this is how Frappuccinos will be the reason for coming GPU price hikes.
The lady doth protest too much (Score:2, Funny)
Hipsters ... buying hipster coffee ... with hipster money ... using their hipster phones ... so they can sit their with their hipster Macbooks ... using their hipster apps to post pictures to hipster social media ... so that other fucking hipsters spending their hipster money in hipster coffee shops can all knowingly nod their hipster beards in what passes as a hipster gesture of approval before posting their own hipster drivel.
It's mother fucking hipsters all the way down, I tell 'ya.
Let me guess... you disliked hipsters before it was cool to dislike hipsters.
Re:The lady doth protest too much (Score:4, Insightful)
Hipsters ... buying hipster coffee ... with hipster money ... using their hipster phones ... so they can sit their with their hipster Macbooks ... using their hipster apps to post pictures to hipster social media ... so that other fucking hipsters spending their hipster money in hipster coffee shops can all knowingly nod their hipster beards in what passes as a hipster gesture of approval before posting their own hipster drivel.
It's mother fucking hipsters all the way down, I tell 'ya.
Let me guess... you disliked hipsters before it was cool to dislike hipsters.
Impossible. It was always cool to dislike hipsters.
Re: The lady doth protest too much (Score:2)
More popular? (Score:2)
Starbucks' mobile payment solution is more popular
Not with people like me. Stuck behind someone trying to reload an account. Or doing the iPhone shake, trying to get the reader to recognize a screen barcode.
I've got cash. I'll just be a moment. Please.
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I know what you mean.
I know it is technically less secure but I still use a mag-swipe card and cash and they are both about as fast. Which is to say that they are both faster than the chip+pin cards and a lot faster than phone payments.... though, to be fair, the speed of phone payments do vary greatly depending on the method used (NFC, QR, BC, whatever), the premise equipment/system being used and the preparedness of the payer.
Every time I try to use a phone method it ends up taking me three to four times
Pizza (Score:2)
We just need Dominos to start accepting Bitcoin for pizza and we will have come full circle. I imagine they will cost significantly less than 10,000 BTC each though.
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10,000 BTC? That sounds more like the prize of a pizza at Mellow Mushroom these days.
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He's talking about the value of Bitcoins in the first ever "official" transaction.
https://qz.com/1285209/bitcoin... [qz.com]
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Yes, I remember that incidence. At the time it was a worthwhile transaction no doubt... nowadays very wasteful.
The taint of uncool. (Score:2)
What about the manager? (Score:1)
If a Starbucks manager is under pressure to increase monthly sales. (And who isn't these days. See Wells Fargo) It won't take him long to capture your Latte order and, say, triple it.
More generally, is anyone tracking BitCoin's attack surface?
No it doesn't (Score:2)
Honest question (Score:2)
Ok, an honest question about the sustainability of bitcoin.
Two features of bitcoin seem to be unsustainable:
1) The complicated processing necessary to make bitcoin work is rewarded by "mining" new coins. People use their computers to work for money.
2) The ultimate number of bitcoins is limited and "mining" will get harder and harder until there are no more coins.
So, what happens when that last coin is mined? What incentive will there be then for people to volunteer computer power to make the exponentially m
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1) Proof of work is a real problem, other options, like proof of stake are less wasteful
2) Mining a block gets the block reward (which halves periodically, until around the year 2140) PLUS the transaction fees.
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The analogy breaks down when you reach the limits of the supply. For gold to be traded, it doesn't need a massive volunteer computational network expending thousands, if not millions, of dollars of processing power running 24/7. Bitcoin does. When the last bitcoin is mined, then there will be no incentive to volunteer your data center to process the transactions.
Fluctuations (Score:2)
Paying with equity and debt (Score:2)
This was inevitable for them (Score:4, Funny)