That's my takeaway too.
The HUGE points here are:
1) Large retailers are willing to go to great lengths to get lower transaction fees.
2) They are pre-conditioning consumers to use alternative methods of payment.
I agree 100% with point 1.) 110%. I figured retailers would want to save 2-3% but I underestimated they had taken it this far or gotten so much support on their side.
Its the consumer standpoint that is the missing piece. I believe that it is only through strong incentives (cash) or a direct discount at stores. That consumers will put fourth the effort to learn something new. They want the consumer to d/l the app, and go through what will be to most a completely new way of checking out.The next issue is the makers of the app are wanting to charge a steep start-up fee to retails and I think it mentioned a annual fee. The only thing I find surprising is that they have gotten many retailer to all ready agree to pay this. In my eyes they are only saving a fraction of the money they should and are trading one master for another.....
If we can offer a bank card, consumers get to use the same checkout methods that they have been so used to for years. In addition it will require no upgrades to retailers or retraining of their staff. The linchpin of our model is partnering with a bank and getting consumers to open the account to begin with. Oh and the bank has to be able to make our bitUSD liquid and do it for hopefully no more then 1% fee. If its more the 1% we afford to offer the great incentives and with fees ranging 2-3% we got to make it good for both retailer and consumer. Not just retailer as stated in the article above.