You can purchase BitCoin at 3,000 Taiwanese convenience stores.

Now you can buy bitcoin along with your snacks and sodas in 3,000 Taiwanese convenience stores By Josh Horwitz at 2:00 pm on October 28, 2014 3972582984 14424483747_db4f13956b_k 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. Sound complicated? It is. Jason L. Gatewood of Taiwan’s Next Media posted a video to YouTube where he walks through the purchase procedure step-by-step. As you can see, it’s best suited for folks who have already passed Bitcoin 101. Despite the still-steep learning curve, enabling bitcoin purchases in almost 3,000 convenience stores in Taiwan is nothing to sniff at. For one thing, the island reportedly has the highest number of convenience stores per capita in the world. Spend any time in Taiwan and you’ll notice it – there’s one on nearly every block. In addition, convenience store chains like 7-11 and Family Mart (mostly the latter, more recently the former), have a lengthy history of driving foot traffic by offering various lifestyle and top-up services. Taiwan residents can head to the nearest C-store to pay bills and taxes, pick up packages, buy train and movie tickets, and even drop off dry cleaning. The average Taiwan consumer probably won’t rush to the nearest Family Mart to purchase cryptocurrency. But the safe confines of a C-store chain nevertheless make great testing grounds for the bitcoin curious. Cracking Taiwan bit by bit Like many bitcoin enthusiasts, Bitoex co-founder Titan Cheng conceived of BitoEx as a bitcoin exchange that was localized for his home market. In order to target consumers and drive adoption, he and his co-founder decided early on to target convenience stores as a point-of-sale due to their heavy concentration across the island. But getting the stores on board wasn’t easy. “At first, Family Mart thought bitcoin were like points for online games,” Cheng tells Tech in Asia. “When they finally understood what bitcoin actually was, they rejected our proposal, as they thought it might come into conflict with the law. In order to mitigate their suspicions and confirm we were abiding by the law, we did lots of extra work and research and continued to communicate with them.” BitoEx began formally cooperating with Family Mart in March, around the same time the exchange officially launched in Taiwan. But the company kept its deal with Family Mart quiet and shunned local media, likely in order to avoid too much scrutiny from regulators. In January, Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission banned the installation of bitcoin ATMs in Taiwan, and declared that neither banks nor commercial institutions should accept bitcoin. That ban remains in effect, but BitoEx and Family Mart aren’t subject to it because they only facilitate the purchase of bitcoin, not the purchase of goods and services using bitcoin. Despite the government’s cautious stance towards bitcoin, Cheng remains optimistic towards the cryptocurrency’s adoption in Taiwan. “Taiwan’s bitcoin environment is in the embryonic stage,” he says. “Right now the government views bitcoin as a product, not a currency. But simply put, Taiwan is friendly to entrepreneurship, and the government hasn’t deliberately placed any pressure on Bitcoin entrepreneurs. We sincerely hope to build Taiwan’s Bitcoin environment off of BitoEx, and Asia’s bitcoin environment in Taiwan.” In addition to Family Mart, Cheng hopes to get Bitoex services into 7-11, which has about 5,000 outlets in Taiwan, along with smaller chains Hi-Life and OK Mart. If bitcoin adoption indeed comes down to convenience, Cheng might have picked the right path. Editing by Steven Millward; top image via Flickr user synapticism You can earn free BitCoins, deposited automatically to your a/c everyday(365/30/7) at http://txa.me/u/607 & withdraw to your local bank a/c at http://www.BitPlastic.com?referid=5980 이제 대만에서는 3천개의 편의점에서 먹을거리, 소다수 등과 함께 비트코인을 살 수 있게 되었다. 비트코인 기업이 당면한 커다란 숙제의 하나가 난해하기 만한 비익 통화(crypto currency)를 일반 소비자가 잘 이해할 수 있는 것으로 바꾸는 것이다. 할머니가 web을 깊이 잘 아는 시대 첨단자가 아닌 한, 할머니를 블록 체인이나 비트코인 원장 등에 가슴뛰게 만드는 것이 그리 쉬운 일이 아니다. 하지만 대만에서는, 한 기업가가 평범한 철수씨와 영희씨가 비트코인 사는 것이 레드 불 음료수 한 개 사는 것 만큼이나 쉽게 느껴지도록 하는 사업을 펼치고 있다. 지난 달 초 크립토코인 뉴스에 따르면, 타이완 비트코인 거래소 Bitoex는 동 아시아 편의점 체인인 패미리 마트와 합작하여 편의점의 전자 가판대를 통해 비트코인 구매가 가능하도록 하는 사업을 착수했다. 대만에 있는 2,986개 패미리 마트 가게 전부에서 손님은 기계 위의 금융 거래 탭 중 "기타"와 "BTC"를 누른 다음 사고 싶은 액수의 신대만 달러를 입력한 다음 계산대에서 그 금액을 지불한다. 그러면 손님은 그 구매를 확인하는 문자 메세지를 받게 되고 비트코인이 비트코인 지갑으로 이체된다.