Retailers will have to provide discounts for using btc, but all the major CC companies have it in their contracts with businesses they must sell stuff the same price regardless of using a CC or not. It makes it hard for bitcoin to gain traction on its principle benefit - no / minimal fees.
> all the major CC companies have it in their contracts with businesses they must sell stuff the same price regardless of using a CC or not
Those clauses were recently struck down due to a class-action lawsuit. Retailers are now pretty much free to set different prices for any payment option as they see fit.
Most of them won't though. It's a disincentive to your customers to dangle a cheaper, but more difficult option in front of them. When the customer is ready to buy, you don't want them to think "wait, maybe I'll get this tomorrow when I pay in cash..."
Because they may decide in the intervening time not to bother buying it at all.
Didn't know that. It does mean, though, that these companies need to pass the savings on to the consumers. And if they are using coinbase and taking out fiat they aren't saving as much as they could going strict btc and only paying a 0.01% or whatever fee to get expedient confirms in the blockchain. Or hell, wait the hour and don't ship until payment is confirmed, and pay absolutely no fees ever.
