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ONE MID-SIZED TOWN somewhere in Ireland will play host to a trial scheme on abandoning the use of 1c and 2c coins in Ireland later this year.
The National Payments Plan, published by the Central Bank of Ireland today after two years of development, includes a recommendation that one town should be identified later this year to run a pilot scheme where 1c and 2c coins would no longer be in use.
The plan recommends that the scheme be trialled in one Irish town in December of this year – where retailers and shoppers will be encouraged not to bother carrying 1c or 2c coins, or offering them as payment for a transaction.
While merchants would still price their products or services to include the 1c or 2c coin, the price would be rounded to the nearest 5c if the customer is paying in cash.
This would mean that a bill of €49.38 would be rounded up to €49.40, for example, while a bill of €49.37 would be reduced to €49.35
Similar schemes are already in use throughout Finland and the Netherlands, where the small coins are still legal tender but rarely used in practice.
“Participation in the pilot will be entirely voluntary on the part of both the retailer and the consumer,” the report suggests.
“No recommendation will be made whether to apply this nationally until the outcome of the pilot is known.”
The report leaves it up to the Central Bank to identify the town which will play host to the trial, and to encourage customers and retailers to take part.
As had been reported earlier this week, the plan also encourages the inclusion of €10 notes in ATMs, so that customers with balances below €20 would be able to access some of their cash without entering a bank.
The report also sounds something of a death knell for cheques, which are earmarked as a particularly expensive method of payment as they require the physical distribution of paper and manual oversight to process.
It recommends that the re-presentation of unpaid cheques should end from next February, while the Government and businesses are to stop sending cheques to each other by the end of 2014.
Elsewhere, the report encourages the use of mobile-based payment system, and says all taxis should be able to accept credit card payments by 2014.
Further, the country’s banks and the Department of Finance will work together to introduce a ‘standard bank account’ offering a minimal number of services for certain groups of society who do not currently have banking facilities.
The report finds that Ireland wares worse than the European average in terms of the total amount spent on payments costs, and that the public could save up to €1 billion a year by increasing the use of electronic forms of payment.
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I’m already mining IrishCoin http://irishcoin.org/
Dell computers have been accepting bit coins for almost a year now.
They future is here. Physical money is so last Millenium
Just looking at the price of bitcoins now, its still financially unsafe method of currency to invest or store. If you both 1 btc in Sept, its already worth a hundred euro less today. It’s been dropping steadyily all year and the hope at even mining btc yourself has since past and only possible now by massive well funded farms. It takes longer now to mine a single btc due to the algorithim and size of the block increasing, the cost of electricity to run the AISC computer and the steady downward value of bitcoin. It stands currently at 285 euro today and it was valued at 380 in Sept and 480 euro in June. Unless you buy it from an exchange and immediatly use it for a transaction theres a good chance your losing money still.
Derek, you are selecting higher prices from earlier this year as your benchmark bit there have been lower prices earlier this year too, and far lower prices if you look further back into its history. Overall it is still a remarkably high performing investment and can only be viewed with a negative outlook if you assume a downwards trend in the future. Its value is certainly volatile and unpredictable but there has been a great investment for many people, even if you invested early last year. Ultimately, the price is the least interesting aspect of bitcoin. The problems it solves and range of applications of blockchain technology is where the value lies.
Unless it turns out to be entirely speculative and have no backing or intrinsic value… Tulips looked like a remarkably good investment up until 1637.
And at least when those people lost all their money they could grow some pretty flowers to cheer themselves up… Lol
Bitcoin is as legit if not more legit than the Euro. All it takes is for people to stop considering the euro legal tender and its gone, same for bitcoin.
I agree with you Martin on it being a worthwhile investment for those who bought say early ’13 when it was at it lowest starting off and skyrocketed by 15 fold last Dec. A lot of people made a lot of money there and are still in the green.
With its future, I only wish for its success and growth, anything which takes control of currency away from banks and self interest monopoles who worryingly have already turned their attention to buying btc, is welcome. It needs to steady off however soon and settle more where within a week it can fluctuate a by fifty dollars, once this happens and more Institutes and companies get on board and accept transactions with it I think it has the potential to become a real future contender.
It started off Jan 3rd 2009 and had been through several bubbles since then. I wouldn’t be so sure that the 2013 bubble is the last. The value must increase as adoption grows due to the scarcity built into the protocol. If you believe that we have seen peak adoption levels already then there will not be another profitable bubble and you should not invest.
All currencies require a degree of consensual delusion. What is the intrinsic value of a dollar? The warmth from burning it? What is the benefit of having your currency backed by a government? That they can confiscate it from your bank account if the economy takes a nosedive? There is a reason The University of Nicosia runs a masters degree in digital currencies and accepts bitcoin as payment for all courses. Cypriots have experienced the “benefits” of a government backed currency.
You clearly don’t know what ‘Legal Tender’ actually means…
It’s not ‘most people think it’s worth something’ it’s if I owe you a debt and I pay you using ‘legal tender for all debts private and public’ you can’t sue me and claim you were never paid.
You didn’t mention legal tender in your previous post Drew. I addressed the specific points you raised “no backing or intrinsic value”. Each country can grant bitcoin legal tender status if it chooses to do so. Just because it’s not legal tender today in Ireland today doesn’t mean it can’t be or won’t be in the future. Today bitcoin is legal currency in many countries and several, including Germany and Australia have indicated that is may be granted legal tender status in the future.
I will avoid using this currency if possible.
Can’t beat pirated software !!
Glen is a paid shill for The Pirate Bay.
Aye aye Ayer I’m guilty I’ll walk the plank now!
Cha Ching!
What a mad headline,
This just in:
I bought a loaf of bread in a major supermarket, it was not tesco or dunnes!!
Bit silly alright, its the way they get an extra click from people going into article to find out its microsoft
I’m going to start using eir-coin
Hopefully more places in Dublin start accepting.
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