Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on November 19, 2013, 08:24:15 AM

Quote from: ex-trader on November 19, 2013, 08:22:11 AM

It is consumers who decide what payment mechanism succeeds and Bitcoin is inferior for POS transactions to credit cards, since credit cards offer protection for free, whereas Bitcoin doesn't. Only a fool would pay with Bitcoins for any goods if they could pay with cards.

That is why Bitcoin will never take off for buying goods other than where it has advantages such as in very small payments or cross-border where the parties do not have access to usual methods.

Really? If your gas station (the one you have gone to 500 times in your life and never had a problem) offered you a 3% discount everyday for paying with Bitcoin you would be a "fool" to take it? What if Amazon.com, Papajohns, or some store you routinely use and trust did?

I just don't believe that that will happen for many reasons.

Firstly, most significant companies pay less than 3%, I paid under 2% on one of mine and don't forget that the blockchain fees are currently 1% plus the cost of using BitPay or another application provider. So the savings are minimal (and will be less again for companies the size of Exxon or Amazon). Also until that firm can pay for it's goods in Bitcoins it must then change the BTC back to Fiat which costs more fees and also runs the risk of the amount they receive changing due to the price volatility.

Commercially it just doesn't make sense, which is why most providers who currently offer BTC do it for a small part of their business as an advertising gimmick, or because they are Bitcoin enthusiasts happy to gain some coins.