The volatility of Bitcoin's exchange rate far out ways the ten percent discount.
Show HN: 10% off at Starbucks when you buy with Bitcoin
81–90 of 127 posts
Re: Show HN: 10% off at Starbucks when you buy with Bitcoin
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you, and if so, how did you address the legal issues brought up in your previous post? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7157180
Is it still money laundering now that the IRS has said that Bitcoin is property and not currency?
Yes. The IRS and FinCEN are sister agencies, so the pronouncements of one agency have little effect on the other. In this case, for IRS (i.e., tax) purposes, bitcoin is property. For FinCEN purposes, bitcoin is a "virtual currency" which results in many but not all of the same rules that apply to persons dealing in real currencies.
Re: Show HN: 10% off at Starbucks when you buy with Bitcoin
#83Can you use this service in Mexico or Canada? It doesn't seem to be covered anywhere, or maybe I haven't looked hard enough.
Re: Show HN: 10% off at Starbucks when you buy with Bitcoin
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
If someone buys Starbucks gift cards with dirty money, by selling the gift card at a discount, you get laundered money back. It's could be even more advantageous if you sell the gift cards for bitcoins, which can be sent anywhere in the world and anonymously exchanged for cash in nearly any currency/country through localbitcoins.
That's not how money laundering works. Let's say you start out with drug money. You would like to get this money into the banking system so you can use it to buy a house. This is a standard money laundering problem. If you turn up at the bank with bags full of cash, the bank will ask where you got that money from, and lots of proof that it was legitimate. They will also file paperwork with the government stating that…
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Re: Show HN: 10% off at Starbucks when you buy with Bitcoin
#85Can you use this service in Mexico or Canada? It doesn't seem to be covered anywhere, or maybe I haven't looked hard enough.
Unfortunately we are US only at the moment, but we hope to be able to serve outside the states soon.
Re: Show HN: 10% off at Starbucks when you buy with Bitcoin
#86I'd like to hear a real economist's take on this but from my personal opinion Bitcoin will never take off as a transactional currency because of it's inherently limited nature, and here's the reasons contributing to it: 1. There's a finite amount of them that can ever be mined 2. There's no central governing body control the rate of inflation/deflation through monetary policy. By definition this creates a deflationar…
From my point of view, this is not too unlike what we have without Bitcoin. With USD or CAD, consumers still have to make a decision whether it is worth exchanging a number of dollars a point in time for something else when instead they can use that money to make more money and eventually have "30 bucks next year". I can see how making more money with Bitcoin is different than with USD or CAD though, if I were to con…
See point #2. Central monetary bodies specifically change monetary policy to prevent deflation, worse case they can just print more money to cause artificial inflating to combat deflation.
Bitcoin doesn't have this defense mechanism.
Re: Show HN: 10% off at Starbucks when you buy with Bitcoin
#87I'd like to hear a real economist's take on this but from my personal opinion Bitcoin will never take off as a transactional currency because of it's inherently limited nature, and here's the reasons contributing to it: 1. There's a finite amount of them that can ever be mined 2. There's no central governing body control the rate of inflation/deflation through monetary policy. By definition this creates a deflationar…
I'm not an economist, but economists are not good at speculating either, looking at the results: As a a team, economists failed to preview every single financial crisis. Only after the shit hits the fan, media goes back to the few who were able to predict the crisis. There are always solitary birds singing out of the chorus. The chorus never get it right though. To your statements now: 1) That's true, but doesn't mea…
Your point #2 doesn't really work. You can manipulate the market in the short-term but you can't control the inherent value of the currency. Fiat currencies issued by governments can do that because they can literally just print or destroy money through monetary policy.
And I'm talking purely about bitcoin. I'm a lot more bullish on the future of crypto-currencies in general, but bitcoin has a lot of flaws that are probably deal breakers at this point.
Re: Show HN: 10% off at Starbucks when you buy with Bitcoin
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great to hear. Thank you! I love how my real question which received and answer from the company was voted down. Sorry but Starbucks is not really good coffee. I am writing this from the Philz in Palo Alto :)
Because you're wrong. Starbucks certainly makes 'good' coffee. Can you make better coffee? Absolutely. I'm enough of a coffee snob that I rarely get coffee while I'm out, preferring to make it at home where I can control all the variables. That being said... claiming that Starbucks isn't 'good' coffee is just hipster silliness... Yes, I realize it's mainstream now, and your fedora fits in better at Philz, but Starbuc…
42, not a hipster, no Fedora (well I have a VM running it). I like my coffee in the morning, french press at home (Peet's Garuda). Peet's if I am out and about and once in a great while when I get a chance I love to make it to Philz. I have disliked Starbucks coffee before it was cool thank you very much :)
The comment about Starbuck was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I guess I can see it being taken as Hipster fashion.
Re: Show HN: 10% off at Starbucks when you buy with Bitcoin
#89Can you use this service in Mexico or Canada? It doesn't seem to be covered anywhere, or maybe I haven't looked hard enough.
Unfortunately we are US only at the moment, but we hope to be able to serve outside the states soon.
Is this a concept that can be eventually used with other outlets, such as supermarket chains, or any other reasonably popular services that uses gift cards? Or am I missing something that is specific to Starbucks?
Re: Show HN: 10% off at Starbucks when you buy with Bitcoin
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfortunately we are US only at the moment, but we hope to be able to serve outside the states soon.
Is this a concept that can be eventually used with other outlets, such as supermarket chains, or any other reasonably popular services that uses gift cards? Or am I missing something that is specific to Starbucks?
Those are some really good ideas.
Starbucks was good for us for a bunch of reasons, and also hopefully there are people in the bitcoin community who like their daily Starbucks.
Edit - sentence structure