According to the CoinTelegraph article 5200 Keplerk tobacco shops will start accepting bitcoin payments in form of coupons. I think they not only accept bitcoin payments but also enable customers to buy bitcoin coupons that I think are redeemable but their partner Bitmedia or maybe they are only usable withing their shop network. If anyone here is from France and can share his experience with this I would appreciate. <
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I checked it out yesterday (mind you online, not on actual French soil), and this is what I came up with:
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> France now sells BTC through tobacco selling stores. Starting today, Keplerk has deployed a solution in 5.200 points of sale, allowing customers to purchase a coupon with a facial value of 50, 100 or 250 Euros. These coupons are then used by the purchaser to, in his own time and place, load his Kepler Bitcoin Wallet by scanning the coupons bar code. I believe that the wallet is custodial, so not the best option, but the idea is to make it simple to purchase, rather much like purchasing a lottery ticket. Not the best of similes, but a means of getting to a different target audience.
Apparently, Kepler is not the first. Digycode deployed their solution first in around 10K tobacco selling stores in France using smaller coupons: 20, 50 o 200 euros. The coupon redemption process here is different, and is done through a website that allows you to send the BTC (or ETH, LTC, XRP, Dash) to a wallet address of your choice.<
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Considering that many people are not tech-savy, and that there is a whole spectre who sees Bitcoin as something distant, this approach adds to the acquisition range of options in a manner that is easier, albeit possibly perceived somewhere close to buying a lottery ticket from the store.
You obviously still need a wallet in the end. Keplerks approach seems to use their own wallet custodial wallet, whilst Digycode apparently give you freedom of choice there.