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New Starbucks Partnership With Microsoft Allows Customers To Pay For Frappuccinos With Bitcoin (cnbc.com)
Earlier this week, Nestle said it was jumping on the blockchain bandwagon, today, Starbucks said it is ready to top that. From a report: The Seattle-based coffee giant is working with Microsoft and a leading global exchange on a new digital platform that will allow consumers to use bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at Starbucks. Starbucks along with Intercontinental Exchange, Microsoft and BCG, among others, is working to launch a new company called Bakkt that will enable consumers and institutions to buy, sell, store and spend cryptocurrencies on the global network by November. The platform with convert bitcoin and other cryptocoins into U.S. dollars that can be used to buy a Cold Foam Cascara Cold Brew, Matcha Lemonade or anything else at Starbucks. Starbucks has consistently been at the forefront of embracing new technologies. For instance, it added support for mobile payments in 2011. In May, it was estimated that Starbucks' mobile payment solution is more popular than those of Apple and Google.
In a statement, Maria Smith, vice president of partnerships and payments for Starbucks, "As the flagship retailer, Starbucks will play a pivotal role in developing practical, trusted and regulated applications for consumers to convert their digital assets into US dollars for use at Starbucks. As a leader in Mobile Pay to our more than 15 million Starbucks Rewards members, Starbucks is committed to innovation for expanding payment options for our customers."
According to Starbucks spokespeople, Motherboard reports, Starbucks doesn't want bitcoins, but it's willing to help people spend them -- the venture is an exchange that will allow people to convert their cryptocurrency into US dollars, which they can then spend at Starbucks locations.
In a statement, Maria Smith, vice president of partnerships and payments for Starbucks, "As the flagship retailer, Starbucks will play a pivotal role in developing practical, trusted and regulated applications for consumers to convert their digital assets into US dollars for use at Starbucks. As a leader in Mobile Pay to our more than 15 million Starbucks Rewards members, Starbucks is committed to innovation for expanding payment options for our customers."
According to Starbucks spokespeople, Motherboard reports, Starbucks doesn't want bitcoins, but it's willing to help people spend them -- the venture is an exchange that will allow people to convert their cryptocurrency into US dollars, which they can then spend at Starbucks locations.
The problem with bitcoins is that they are too volatile. That $5.00 Coffee you bought today could have a opportunity cost of $15.00 next year. Vs using the Dollar where that $5.00 would have an opportunity cost of $5.15 the next year.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
... mouth-to-mouth to try and create a market nobody asked for.
It is actually worse than that.
Every time that I read something about BitCoin or any other crypto-currency it is clear that the "currency" part of it (technically described as "proof of work") is nothing more than "proof I was able to most efficiently turn a quantity of electricity into waste heat."
Given that how far we yet have to go to achieve worldwide sustainable energy production, I find it odd (hypocritical, even?) that so many socially conscious companies and organizations now effectively encourage people to waste electricity.
I get that not every occupation makes the same contribution to society, but generating crypto-currency has to rank near the bottom by producing effectively zero net benefit. Even a grave digger at the end of the day has performed a service for someone else.
Hipsters ... buying hipster coffee ... with hipster money ... using their hipster phones ... so they can sit their with their hipster Macbooks ... using their hipster apps to post pictures to hipster social media ... so that other fucking hipsters spending their hipster money in hipster coffee shops can all knowingly nod their hipster beards in what passes as a hipster gesture of approval before posting their own hipster drivel.
It's mother fucking hipsters all the way down, I tell 'ya.
Let me guess... you disliked hipsters before it was cool to dislike hipsters.
Impossible. It was always cool to dislike hipsters.
We can argue about how efficient that process is or isn't but it is incorrect to say the proof is only turning electricity into heat. It's purpose is more than that.
As long as there are viable alternatives to proof-of-work (there are) and the processing behind BTC has no point other than proof-of-work (it doesn't) then its effective purpose is only turning electricity into heat. If it were at least one of the forms of cryptocurrency which does useful work, then the work wouldn't simply be a waste, and BTC wouldn't be a waste. But it isn't, so it is, and it is.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Starbucks was going to get involved with blockchain technology eventually. Starbucks is a chain, and there's one on every block. Synergy.
I don't trust atoms -- they make up stuff.