Now you can buy bitcoin along with your snacks and sodas in 3,000 Taiwanese convenience stores
2015-05-12 04:15:50
One of the greatest challenges for bitcoin entrepreneurs is figuring out how to turn the esoteric cryptocurrency into something average consumers will understand. It’s not easy to get grandma excited about blockchains and ledgers, unless grandma is a libertarian who loves the deep web.
But in Taiwan, one entrepreneur is hoping to get ordinary Joes and Janes giddy for bitcoin by making it as easy to buy as a can of Red Bull.
As Cryptocoins News reported earlier this month, Taiwanese bitcoin exchange Bitoex has partnered with Family Mart, the East Asian convenience store chain, to enable bitcoin purchases through the stores’ digital kiosks. In all of Family Mart’s 2,986 outlets in Taiwan, customers can punch in “BTC” on the machines’ “other” category of its banking section, specify the bitcoin value they hope to purchase in New Taiwan Dollars, and then pay for the bitcoin at the counter. Afterwards, customers will receive a text message confirming the purchase, and the bitcoin can be transferred from BitoEx to one’s bitcoin wallet.
