I'm living in Indonesia currently and I haven't seen anything being sold in bitcoin or any bitcoin-related advertising anywhere.
This also seems like a big drawback:
"There is currently no offline way to purchase Bitcoin through the Indomaret stores, however, since the users will need to log into their accounts and get a code."
That said, it's interesting how many essential services are a la carte here. You buy phone minutes by finding pretty much any seller on the street, handing them some cash, and they punch in some codes into their phone for you. You then use your phone minutes ("pulsa") to buy other phone credits (different tiers of 3G service, text service, etc). When your power goes out you wander down to the market and give them cash and your meter number.
This is probably a byproduct of a lack of banking and consumer credit infrastructure for most people here. Can bitcoin / other cryptocurrencies change that? I'm skeptical because bitcoin/etc don't solve the consumer credit problem. And if someone's going to go through the ropes to set up an account on a bitcoin wallet service and deposit money into it at the market, they're also likely to be able to do the same with a banking service.
So there's the credit problem (everything must be paid up front) but then there's the deposit problem. If the phone company or the electrical company just had my <whatever> ID and could withdraw from it, I wouldn't have to pay them every time the thing ran out. And I'm not really sure bitcoin/etc really solves the deposit problem here, either.
> bitcoin/etc don't solve the consumer credit problem.
True. Bitcoin should be compared to debit cards instead of credit cards. It isn't a credit-based system. The things Bitcoin is good for though (in its current stage) are more specialized, like paying someone the equivalent of $5 in Nicaragua.
> And if someone's going to go through the ropes to set up an account on a bitcoin wallet service and deposit money into it at the market, they're also likely to be able to do the same with a banking service.
Bitcoin wallets are far easier to create than bank accounts. It's by design that so few people in the world have a bank account, but anyone with an internet connection can get a Bitcoin wallet.
[+] [-] philipn|11 years ago|reply
This also seems like a big drawback:
"There is currently no offline way to purchase Bitcoin through the Indomaret stores, however, since the users will need to log into their accounts and get a code."
That said, it's interesting how many essential services are a la carte here. You buy phone minutes by finding pretty much any seller on the street, handing them some cash, and they punch in some codes into their phone for you. You then use your phone minutes ("pulsa") to buy other phone credits (different tiers of 3G service, text service, etc). When your power goes out you wander down to the market and give them cash and your meter number.
This is probably a byproduct of a lack of banking and consumer credit infrastructure for most people here. Can bitcoin / other cryptocurrencies change that? I'm skeptical because bitcoin/etc don't solve the consumer credit problem. And if someone's going to go through the ropes to set up an account on a bitcoin wallet service and deposit money into it at the market, they're also likely to be able to do the same with a banking service.
So there's the credit problem (everything must be paid up front) but then there's the deposit problem. If the phone company or the electrical company just had my <whatever> ID and could withdraw from it, I wouldn't have to pay them every time the thing ran out. And I'm not really sure bitcoin/etc really solves the deposit problem here, either.
[+] [-] tinkerrr|11 years ago|reply
True. Bitcoin should be compared to debit cards instead of credit cards. It isn't a credit-based system. The things Bitcoin is good for though (in its current stage) are more specialized, like paying someone the equivalent of $5 in Nicaragua.
> And if someone's going to go through the ropes to set up an account on a bitcoin wallet service and deposit money into it at the market, they're also likely to be able to do the same with a banking service.
Bitcoin wallets are far easier to create than bank accounts. It's by design that so few people in the world have a bank account, but anyone with an internet connection can get a Bitcoin wallet.
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] Tyrant505|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] labanux|11 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] jacquesm|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] Ad_Nauseam|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bhavinsw|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zapperen|11 years ago|reply