[irdial]

The retailers who refuse to adopt Apple Pay or any other third party payment system are probably run by computer illiterates who do not understand that this is an opportunity to attach a lucrative loyalty system to every purchase, automagically updated and collected by the spender.

Cash payments are anonymous, and this has not stopped Nectar from using its cards as the unique index for their hugely successful loyalty point system. The problem here, once again, is not Apple Pay being anonymous; its computer illiteracy at the executive level.

Bitcoin of course, makes this situation even worse (better) because there is no Apple behind it at all, and zero possibility of interfacing with customer data from a centralized company like Apple. Of course, this makes no difference to the computer literate executive, since his loyalty system is a separate, bespoke customer service.

These executive grumblings are going to be short lived. Once Apple Pay and Bitcoin take off, the same people who are trying to out compete them will capitulate and embrace the new payment methods, and build loyalty system on top of them.