4 ms·

Japan is a huge part of this. Since the government approved btc as a currency, Peach Airlines has started taking bitcoin, huge chains of convenience stores lik

by xiaoma 9y ago

Japan is a huge part of this. Since the government approved btc as a currency, Peach Airlines has started taking bitcoin, huge chains of convenience stores like FamilyMart have been accepting payments in bitcoin, etc. It's still a tiny portion of total commerce but an absolutely massive jump from previous bitcoin usage.

glandium 9y ago
Also, bitflyer, a bitcoin exchange, is running TV commercials in Japan (Source: I live in Japan, I've seen it first hand)
davidgerard 9y ago
> Since the government approved btc as a currency, i.e., regulated it in any way at all; specifically, they said exchanges could trade BTC and ETH. > Peach Airlines has started taking bitcoin, no, they ran press releases saying they may well by the end of this year probably. > huge chains of convenience stores like FamilyMart have been accepting payments in bitcoin, etc. no, one of their payment processors added a bitcoin option; there's so far no evidence of non-negligible usage. You're inadvertently parroting speculative bitcoin hype here. The general rule with all bitcoin (and blockchain) media coverage is that there's always much less to it than there appears.
- xiaoma 9y ago
  > "You're inadvertently parroting speculative bitcoin hype here. The general rule with all bitcoin (and blockchain) media coverage is..." I was in Japan two weeks ago and saw for myself. I was actually surprised about payments being taken in bitcoin when I heard a customer at a FamilyMart talking about it and double checked with the clerks just to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding. I may have misunderstood the timing with Peach's support, since I wanted to book in NTD (the currency of my bank account) anyway. That said, exactly none of my comment comes from speculative media coverage. It's literally all from first-hand experience interacting with companies as a customer.

by xiaoma 9y ago

glandium 9y ago

Also, bitflyer, a bitcoin exchange, is running TV commercials in Japan (Source: I live in Japan, I've seen it first hand)

davidgerard 9y ago

> Since the government approved btc as a currency, i.e., regulated it in any way at all; specifically, they said exchanges could trade BTC and ETH. > Peach Airlines has started taking bitcoin, no, they ran press releases saying they may well by the end of this year probably. > huge chains of convenience stores like FamilyMart have been accepting payments in bitcoin, etc. no, one of their payment processors added a bitcoin option; there's so far no evidence of non-negligible usage. You're inadvertently parroting speculative bitcoin hype here. The general rule with all bitcoin (and blockchain) media coverage is that there's always much less to it than there appears.

xiaoma 9y ago
> "You're inadvertently parroting speculative bitcoin hype here. The general rule with all bitcoin (and blockchain) media coverage is..." I was in Japan two weeks ago and saw for myself. I was actually surprised about payments being taken in bitcoin when I heard a customer at a FamilyMart talking about it and double checked with the clerks just to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding. I may have misunderstood the timing with Peach's support, since I wanted to book in NTD (the currency of my bank account) anyway. That said, exactly none of my comment comes from speculative media coverage. It's literally all from first-hand experience interacting with companies as a customer.