Re: Bitcoin at the Pump, ideas

I saw in a recent thread about how it would take forever to get bitcoin to be accepted at the pumps of gas stations due to most pumps not having internet access. It got me thinking, what if instead of a bitcoin credit card styled solution, there was a QR code at the pump with a wallet address, sending BTC to that QR through your wallet address would notify a server inside the store and turn the pump on for the amount of bitcoin you sent?

What if you wanted to pump until your gas was full, would there be a way for the pump to check the amount available before you pumped, so that it could pull it afterward?

I think a lot of pumps have internet access... I am assuming that is how you are able to currently stick your credit/debit card directly into the pump machine (rather than having to walk into the gas station itself).

I'm sure a one of those bitcoin debit cards would solve this problem and allow people to purchase gas with BTC, but getting a Gasoline Company to accept BTC themselves is a different beast entirely...

No the dispenser does not do any transactions of any kind. The POS handles all the credit/debit transactions. All the card reader does is just that...it reads the card, sends the data to the POS and then waits for authorization.

I would think this would no be compliant with VISA/MC rules. A merchant must keep data encrypted that contains the credit card information, and if data is sent from the pump to inside the store then it would either need to be unencrypted during this time or something inside the store must be able to decrypt the data. I think having some kind of device that can decrypt any CC data (the POS would likely need to be replaced often) would be a security risk.