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Bitcoin Businesses

French Tobacco Shops Will Sell Bitcoin and Ethereum Starting January 2019 (venturebeat.com) 121

Tobacco shops are a staple of daily life across France, selling cigarettes, newspapers, magazines, and lottery tickets. Come January, these most traditional of merchants will take a plunge into the future by adding cryptocurrencies to their wares. From a report: The French Federation of Tobacco Vendors (French Confederation Nationale des Buralistes), which represents the 27,000 tobacco shops in France, announced that it has approved plans for its members to sell Bitcoin and Ethereum to customers. The program is expected to start in 3,000 locations in January, eventually rolling out to all tobacco shops across the country. Of course, the timing is somewhat less than ideal, as prices of cryptocurrencies have been in free fall most of this year. Just this week, Bitcoin hit a new low for 2018. While the effort is seen as a new potential revenue source for these merchants, it remains far from clear how interested the general public is in owning cryptocurrencies.
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French Tobacco Shops Will Sell Bitcoin and Ethereum Starting January 2019

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  • "French Tobacco shops... selling cigarettes, newspapers, magazines, and lottery tickets."

    Well, that's the stamp of financial legitimacy right there. Classy!

    • "French Tobacco shops... selling cigarettes, newspapers, magazines, and lottery tickets."

      Well, that's the stamp of financial legitimacy right there. Classy!

      Smells like freedom. Where the guns at?

    • "French Tobacco shops... selling cigarettes, newspapers, magazines, and lottery tickets."

      Well, that's the stamp of financial legitimacy right there. Classy!

      True, no where near the financial legitimacy as say a Magic the Gathering Trading Card Exchange that was handling 70% of all bitcoin transactions in 2014, before it noticed that 850,000 bitcoins were missing and shut down and filed for bankruptcy.

      Seriously, I did not make that up.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • by bkmoore ( 1910118 ) on Saturday November 24, 2018 @12:36AM (#57691436)
    Wasn't the original point of crypto to act as a replacement for cash in order to purchase goods and services? Not the other way around? Shouldn't the tobacco shops be accepting crypto as a form of payment for goods and services?
    • Wasn't the original point of crypto to act as a replacement for cash in order to purchase goods and services?

      Yes, but the point is you would buy the bitcoin from the tobacco shop to use to purchase things you could not buy at the shop, hint hint...

      Either way you are buying something to burn later for some form of enjoyment.

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Yes, but the point is you would buy the bitcoin from the tobacco shop to use to purchase things you could not buy at the shop, hint hint..

        Ah, you mean a way for the French to pay their outstanding taxes, right?

        (Do those tax agency scammers even speak French? In Canada they seem to get upset if you ask them to speak in French. After all, service in your preferred language is your legal right...)

        After all, you buy BTC (Back Taxes Credit) at BTC machines to pay your taxes owing. (Yes, that's what they call the

    • Ah yes, I'll just take my laptop to the store so that I can use my electronic wallet, because all the online wallets are regularly hacked and offer none of the protection of an actual bank account!
  • Hurry! (Score:5, Funny)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Saturday November 24, 2018 @01:09AM (#57691480)
    One pack of Luck Farts? That will be 3 bitcoins please. Four if you don't hurry
    • Perhaps each marchand de tabac could be issued a spinning wheel. When told the customer will pay with bitcoin, he gives it a spin and where it stops will indicate how many bitcoin his pack of Gitanes will cost, from 0.01 up to 999. It's just as likely to be right as any other means of determining its "value".

  • This should convince even the most ardent cryptocurrency believer that it’s over - it’s time to move on.

    • Funny thing about cultists.. when they realise they've been burned, some will leave. When burned again, a few more will leave. Each subsequent burning reduces the pool to a few fervid fanatics who WILL NOT give up.

      • like the cults, they imagine themselves "the faithful" the "true followers" that God will bless

        Of course it's really Jim Jones and the Koolaide

    • no "the advocates" still are harping that it's the solution to all economic ills and the greatest investment vehicle conceived by the mind of man.

      [favorite crypto currency currently going to shit] is POISED, ready to EXPLODE, going to go MAINSTREAM, AVOIDS THE FLAWS the fiat currencies have

      bwhahaha, these idiots are pissing away their money on their delusions, have converts and followers pissing away their money....unbelievable!!!

  • I am anticipating poor sales, as BTC is circling the drain.

  • Now my financial investments can go up in smoke, in addition to my other purchases from that shop.

  • But they'll help you die penniless as well. What a brilliant idea.

  • No one is offering to BUY Bitcoin and Etherium? Suckers...
  • Until you can get Bitcoin from a shop or bank it will never be adopted as a currency. Frankly, it's a pain in the ass to buy and even more so when it's depreciating by the day. On this basis it's useless as a currency for casual shoppers.
    • bitcoin and all the others can't be a currency anyway by definition.

      It's a game point, nothing more. soon enough people will leave the game it will collapse.

      • Anything can be currency if enough people recognise it and arrive at a consistent valuation
        • no, too illiquid, which is one of many problems the so-called cryto-currency have. that delay makes consistent valuation impossible. add the problem of not being accepted in most places and we find none of the cc can be called currency or money.

  • I wonder who will use that service. Except for the case of people getting infected with ransomware, the interest for cryptocurrency in the general population is rather low.

Real Users are afraid they'll break the machine -- but they're never afraid to break your face.

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