Will We Ever Be Able to Buy Starbucks Coffee with Bitcoin?
Tags: Starbucks, Ecommerce, Token, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

Starbucks «misleading» case

Three weeks ago, there was a case with misleading report that was quickly observed by many mainstream mass medias, and which made us believe that Starbucks was going to accept Bitcoin. It is not clear whether it was a simple misunderstanding or a deliberate attempt to mislead everyone. However, later Starbucks denied it would soon accept Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as payment methods for its range of coffee and food products.

Thus, New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), operator of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), announced plans to create a new “global platform and ecosystem for digital assets” dubbed “Bakkt,” alongside a group of big name enterprises including Starbucks, BCG and Microsoft.

«New Starbucks partnership with Microsoft allows customers to pay for Frappuccinos with bitcoin» CNBC News

Following the major announcement, a number of mainstream media ran misleading headlines, such as the CNBC’s “New Starbucks partnership with Microsoft allows customers to pay for Frappuccinos with Bitcoin” — directly implying that the partnership would mean customers could purchase items at Starbucks with crypto.

Then, a spokesperson for the multinational coffee chain, clarified in comments to Motherboard that, in fact, “customers will not be able to pay for their Frappuccinos with Bitcoin,” but rather the company is part of a new venture creating a platform (Bakkt) to “convert digital assets like Bitcoin into U.S. dollars, which can be used at Starbucks”

In fact, this case has nothing to do with technologies, blockchain and etc. and is just a representation of how information can be used to mislead (and manipulate) in the modern world, leading us to doubt if it will ever be possible to pay for our products and services with crypto currencies.

No coffee for Bitcoin

Unfortunately, we have to admit that Bitcoin, in its present form, cannot be used as an everyday mean of payment. It looks more like an asset than a currency. The struggle with Bitcoin as a currency is transaction speed. It takes time to process a Bitcoin transaction as it is added to the blockchain’s ledger, and the waiting time to get it approved. In fact, processing a transaction can take more than 30 minutes.

The long processing time means that, approval for a purchase at a local shop, could take a very long time. You can imagine the line in the grocery store if every customer had to wait for their transaction to get confirmed on the blockchain, no one would ever shop again using Bitcoin. I bet none of you would like to wait 30 minutes before confirmation of payment for getting your Frappuccino, would you?

The only possible solution now is the exchange-services that would undertake your «burden of confirmation», and give you your traditional money in advance and then receive your crypto currency.

Nevertheless, we believe that there is an alternative which is much closer than everybody thinks — the utility token.

The utility tokens are usually used within the framework of certain application which usually solve the problem with confirmation, as these applications have their own wallets and perform all operations in their own currency — tokens.

Thus, the «Starbucks Token» will have much more chances to be successfully used than Bitcoin while buying a Frappuccino. Our STQ token will be more convenient to use when ordering a product in our Storiqa Marketplace than trying to buy something on Amazon with crypto. The utility tokens have better infrastructure, therefore, making them more suitable for such operations.

It is not necessary to wait for when Bitcoin will become a universal mean of payment accepted all over the world. Now you have the perfect opportunity to start to use the benefits of crypto currencies and utility tokens in your everyday life, so don’t hesitate, get your utility tokens and go buy or pay for something with them!