The same phenomenon can be found in the credit card industry. Until the last few years many businesses did not accept the American Express card. They had two reasons for this: The card had limited membership and the rate paid to American Express by the business was three times higher than Visa/MasterCard.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin can never enter the mainstream if businesses refuse to accept it. This means that not only are many different businesses going to need to embrace the paradigm but large business will also have to get involved. This means that eventually business like the ones mentioned above will have to add cryptocurrencies to their accounting processes.
There are currently more than 30,000 businesses worldwide that are accepting cryptocurrencies, mostly Bitcoin, for payment and others who are also making payroll and paying for expenses with Bitcoin. The latest of these to join the lineup is 1-800-Flowers. This company has been a groundbreaker for many years, introducing the first 24x7 toll free number along with internet presence for retailers. The company has a wide selection of flowers, flower arrangements and gifts which can be delivered straight to the customer’s door by one of the thousands of distributors around the globe.
The company says that it will be processing cryptocurrencies through Coinbase and negotiations are currently underway between Coinbase and 1-800-Flowers where it was reported that the brother of the company’s founder and current President is overseeing the negotiations. 1-800-Flowers is not the first floral company to move into Bitcoin, however. CheapFlowers.com, which is owned by Impulse Communications and part of the Teleflora network, which has become very popular, along with the smaller BloomNation and a few other small Teleflora agents have also begun to accept Bitcoin.