Researchers for the U.S. Postal Service inspector general's office are making the case that an agency rooted in delivering mail and selling stamps can help Bitcoin go mainstream.American Banker
The inspector general's staff is urging the Postal Service to expand into financial services as part of a broader strategy to end seven straight years of losses. That may include turning local post offices into brokers for Bitcoin, a five-year-old anonymous network for issuing and moving money across the Internet.
"The post office might help address two major shortcomings that virtual currencies have today: lack of trust and lack of access," Paola Piscioneri, a director of international research at the Postal Service's OIG, said in an interview. "Today, when you transact with a virtual currency you don't know who is on the other side."
Becoming a Bitcoin intermediary means the Postal Service would have to take a business model that dates back to the 1770s and integrate it with a proto-currency that only exists on spreadsheets on the Internet. Then it would have to determine if enough of its customers would trade in Bitcoins when they're more accustomed to using post offices to buy money orders and stamps and send packages.
Bitcoin Could Be Part of Postal Foray into Financial Services
Bloomberg News
The people's money?
1 comment:
"That may include turning local post offices into brokers for Bitcoin, a five-year-old anonymous network "
all activity at the post office is on security cameras... may not be very appealing to all the "privacy"/"anti-surveillance" people who seem to be attracted to the bitcoin...
rsp,
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