Japanese To Pay Utility Bills Using Bitcoin (thestack.com)

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Japanese To Pay Utility Bills Using Bitcoin (thestack.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Monday September 26, 2016 @09:25AM from the digital-currency dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Stack: Japanese citizens will soon be able to pay their utility bills using bitcoin. The facility is being provided by Coincheck Denki, a new service offered by the Japanese bitcoin company, which will be available to users in November. Coincheck outlined the new plan on its website. Also called 'Coincheck Electricity,' it will allow users to pay their electricity bills directly from their Coincheck bitcoin wallet. It also offers a discount plan for heavy users of electricity, with 4-6% of the total bill discounted for heavy users of electricity who pay in bitcoin. Coincheck's parent company, Reju Press, initially partnered with Mitsuwa Inc., to create the bitcoin payment system. Coincheck now works with Mitsuwa subsidiary E-Net Inc., and has formed a partnership with Marubeni Power Retail Corporation, which operates power plants in 17 locations in central Japan. Marubeni has offices in 66 countries worldwide, although no plans have been announced to take the bitcoin payment option outside of Japan. While the initial bitcoin payment rollout is for electricity bills, Coincheck plans to expand its offerings to bitcoin payment for 'life infrastructure,' to include payment of gas, water and mobile phone bills. It may even partner with landlords to allow customers of Coincheck to pay rent using bitcoin. The bitcoin payment plan will be rolled out in Chubu, Kanto (including Tokyo) and Kansai regions to start, with additional areas to be added sequentially. The company hopes to offer bitcoin payment options to one million electric customers within the first year.

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Finally anonimity! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-26 09:27 · Score: 4, Funny

Finally I can pay my utility bills completely anonymously!
-AC
1. Re:Finally anonimity! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-26 09:54 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  This is a great way for a Government to find out who bitcoin users are, because they are voluntarily giving their names, addresses, etc. Everyone knows "normal" people don't use subversive crypto-currencies, so their info will be submitted to various gov security watch lists.
2. Re:Finally anonimity! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-26 10:26 · Score: 0
  
  All transactions are public. +1 for being funny though, just had to point this out in case someone got confused.
3. Re:Finally anonimity! by bobbied · 2016-09-26 11:23 · Score: 0
  
  Finally I can pay my utility bills completely anonymously!
  -AC
  I'm sorry sir, we have no record of a payment on your electric bill for last month. Either pay up now or we are going to shut you off....
  What, you paid using BitCoin? Can you prove that sir? I didn't think so.. (click)
  
  --
  "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
4. Re:Finally anonimity! by ASDFnz · 2016-09-26 12:09 · Score: 2
  
  What, you paid using BitCoin? Can you prove that sir? I didn't think so.. (click)
  You genuinely don't know how bitcoin works do you?
5. Re:Finally anonimity! by rtb61 · 2016-09-26 12:39 · Score: 0
  
  I know how bitcoin works, its a pyramid scheme, first in make the money, last in make the loss. So what is the scam on paying energy bills via bitcoin, a lie straight off the bat, you are not paying energy bills with bitcoin, you are paying someone to pay that bill with real money and you pay them in bitcoin and of course the big scum, screwing you over on the bitcoin exchange rate and guess who will sell you bitcoin at a higher rate than the rate they charge when you want to sell that bitcoin for energy. Now of course the extra sneaky bit, you have to get your bitcoins first and they are the bitcoin exchange, so you are basically giving them interest free real money, so you can sit on imaginary bitcoing earning no interest and one day kaboom, oh boo hoo, all those bitcoins you owned got stolen and the owners of the exchange retire to a extradition free tax haven. Keep in mind you can always empty a bitcoin vault with a usb stick and that pile of stolen bitcoins can not ever be identified as stolen, try doing that with a pile of cash and gold.
  
  --
  Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
6. Re:Finally anonimity! by ASDFnz · 2016-09-26 12:56 · Score: 1
  
  I know how bitcoin works................
  Yeah... no you don't. You long angry rant goes a long way to showing that.... seriously... do you really believe that people don't steal cash and gold?
7. Re:Finally anonimity! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-27 04:01 · Score: 0
  
  Yes I can prove it because it is documented in the blockchain.
8. Re:Finally anonimity! by bobbied · 2016-09-27 06:47 · Score: 1
  
  What, you paid using BitCoin? Can you prove that sir? I didn't think so.. (click)
  You genuinely don't know how bitcoin works do you?
  Oh I know how it works and that EVERY transaction is publicly verifiable and traceable FOREVER and I've said so many times before. What else is that "block chain" thing anyway? I was making a joke about the joke... But I guess the amusing subtlety of what I posted got lost for some of you..
  
  --
  "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
9. Re:Finally anonimity! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-27 16:29 · Score: 0
  
  You caught hold of the one mildly questionable analogy in an otherwise perfectly sensible rant, and ignored the rest.
10. Re:Finally anonimity! by allo · 2016-09-27 23:29 · Score: 1
  
  He's right, especially about the pyramid scheme. People just do not want this to be true, because they depend on more people coming, so there are more people below them in the pyramid. The founder(s) know it's such a scheme and have reserved enough cheap bitcoin in the beginning to be millionaires now.
Good by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-26 09:29 · Score: 0

Japan, and really the rest of the world is much more progressive than the US. The US is still stuck with the bible.
What problem is being solved here? by DrNico · 2016-09-26 09:44 · Score: 1

Currently my utility bills are debited directly from my bank account. I'm fine with that.
1. Re:What problem is being solved here? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-26 10:16 · Score: 0
  
  creating demand, crypto currency is generated by wasting huge amounts of electricity, why wouldn't want the energy companies want it to be more popular
2. Re:What problem is being solved here? by ShanghaiBill · 2016-09-26 10:46 · Score: 2
  
  creating demand, crypto currency is generated by wasting huge amounts of electricity, why wouldn't want the energy companies want it to be more popular
  Nobody mines bitcoins in Japan. There is no benefit to Japanese utilities when bitcoins are mined in Oregon or Iceland. Iceland has the lowest electricity rates, but Oregon is close and has no sales tax.
3. Re:What problem is being solved here? by PRMan · 2016-09-26 11:01 · Score: 1
  
  You clearly don't have the same electric company that I have...
  
  --
  Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
kinda cool by w3bd4wg · 2016-09-26 09:45 · Score: 2

paying for the same thing they are made of....
Great for the Yakuza by gachunt · 2016-09-26 10:10 · Score: 1

A win for the pacific triad.
Obligatory by penguinoid · 2016-09-26 10:34 · Score: 4, Funny

1) Mine bitcoins using electricity
2) Pay electricity bill using bitcoins
3) Loss!

--
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
marijuana by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-26 10:59 · Score: 1

Growing marijuana indoors requires a lot of electricity, and selling marijuana via the Dark Net generates income in Bitcoin. This is perfect, those utility companies know what they are doing! ;-)
RECs, TRCs, and now BitCoin? Woot! by xeno · 2016-09-26 11:43 · Score: 3, Insightful

Wait... "Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), also known as Green tags, Renewable Energy Credits, Renewable Electricity Certificates, or Tradable Renewable Certificates (TRCs), are tradable, non-tangible energy commodities" (src:WikPed) in the US... and now I can directly pay for power consumption in another locale with a currency I can directly generate from power here... that I can can receive or sell thru these commodity markets? And it's international/lets one avoid taxes and currency markets or end-run them? Woot! Here in the PNW US, bitcoin mining is relatively profitable... maybe another couple of racks in Wenatchee are in order. Or Iceland.
TL;DR: Bitcoin is just another TRC... only international.

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I think not...(*poof*)
Munchies by Princeofcups · 2016-09-26 12:27 · Score: 1

So we can expect cheaper home grown hydro weed in Japan now?

--
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
Volatility by manu0601 · 2016-09-26 12:55 · Score: 2

How do they address bitcoin change rate volatility?
1. Re:Volatility by ThatsMyNick · 2016-09-26 15:21 · Score: 1
  
  The same way they address price volatility of oil/natural gas or wholesale electricity. For BTC volatility, I bet they just use an intermediary to handle the BTC to yen conversion and only deal with yen in their end. No volatility on their end.
2. Re:Volatility by DerekLyons · 2016-09-26 17:49 · Score: 1
  
  By getting a quote right before presenting the customer with his amount due, and then dumping the received bitcoin ASAP before transferring the yen to the utility company. Presumably they charge a modest "transaction fee" to cover small fluctuations.
3. Re:Volatility by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-27 06:06 · Score: 0
  
  It evens out at the end of the day. You don't have to care about it really. Overall over the years BitCoins has gained value. Even if you lost some money because of the fluctuations (which happens with EVERY currency) you'll also have gained some. As it has and is increasing in value over the long term you actually win out by not caring about what its current value is at any given moment.
Canada Bylls.ca by millette · 2016-09-26 13:23 · Score: 1

I've been using bylls.ca for a couple of years now to pay different bills. I'm in Québec, Canada.
Are they better than Coinbase? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-26 13:50 · Score: 0

I, for one, am not going to bother sending all my data, a brain scan, and a semen sample to a company that will then take my money and then make me wait for a week before actually filling the order just to pay my water bill.
Who's the first joker by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-26 15:15 · Score: 0

To pay a carbon offset in bitcoin...
Come on now.....I know I can count on one of you.
Good source for news from Asia in English. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-26 15:32 · Score: 0

http://nextshark.com/ has a crazy amount of good stories.
Energy cost higher than reward by Roodvlees · 2016-09-26 21:13 · Score: 1

What will happen to BitCoin if the energy cost of mining BitCoin becomes more expensive than the coin you get?
Will you just have less miners and people using the coins already mined?

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Thank you, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many others, for courageously defending humanity, my freedom and more!
1. Re:Energy cost higher than reward by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-27 02:15 · Score: 0
  
  Every 2 weeks the "difficulty" adjusts based on the hashrate. So the cost to create coins and the price of a coin can't decouple for very long before the difficulty re-adjusts to compensate. What this means is that the cost to create coins goes down with the price (and vice-versa). But the security of the network also goes down as the hashrate drops.
Block Chain Editing Tool by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-27 00:42 · Score: 0

With this newly revealed block chain editing tool, sounds like a good idea to me.
Japanese NOT To Pay Utility Bills Using Bitcoin by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-27 02:32 · Score: 0

"Japanese To Pay Company Bitcoin To Pay Their Utility Bills Using Regular money"
You have actually been able to do this as long as there has been bit coins and people willing to accept them.
Re:RECs, TRCs, and now BitCoin? Woot! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-27 02:35 · Score: 0

Bitcoin mining is ONLY profitable if you steal the electriciy.
Re:RECs, TRCs, and now BitCoin? Woot! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-27 06:58 · Score: 0

Electricity is basically free in Eastern WA if you can get it at a wholesale rate.
Grand Coulee Dam alone pumps out 6000 MW.
Otherwise if you live close enough to the switch yards and you can probably soak up enough lost electricity through induction. Or own a farm under one of the 500kV lines, install a fence near by.. you know the rest. I've never verified it, but I had heard some farmers in NZ did this once, and eventually got caught - I guess Trans Power noticed they were losing a little too much compared to normal line losses.