Local Restaurant 'Gifting' App Itson.me adding Bitcoin and Alts for Payment

Itson.me allows users to pay for literal drinks, coffee or food at local restaurants from anywhere in the world. Soon, it will be incorporating Cryptocurrencies.

Itson.me is a local gifting app that goes a step beyond the likes of Groupon by allowing users to purchase items directly off of a restaurant's menu for their friends and family at anytime from anywhere. In an exclusive for Cointelegraph, they are announcing their upcoming acceptance of Bitcoin, Litecoin, Peercoin and Blackcoin, with more altcoins possibly to follow in the future.

Itson.me will reportedly be using the CXC.bid platform, enabling them to accept virtually every cryptocurrency, although support is focused on the four mentioned, for now. They expect integration to be ready in April but stated that in a worst case scenario, CXC integration will go live in “less than 60 days.”

We should take a moment to note that itson.me is a separate entity from itsonme.com, and that itson.me says they are currently in legal action with itsonme.com. Very few merchants appear to be accepted on itsonme.com and the site is rarely visited.

Itson.me is an interesting take on the growing online gifting market. Unlike Groupon (which allows users to send a voucher for a predetermined and discounted rate) or Gyft (which facilitates the purchase and sending of gift cards), Itson.me allows users to purchase things directly off of the menu. Can't make it to your friend's birthday, but know what bar he or she is planning on going to? Now, instead of buying an impersonal gift card, you could purchase them a specifically made drink, or maybe some nachos.

Some restaurants on the Itson.me app do allow you to buy gift cards also, if you want to go down that route, but there is something special about looking at a menu and buying your friend a beer and snacks at the bar he or she is at, while you sit at home miles away.

 

 

Itson.me is based in Las Vegas and started as a Las Vegas only app. It has since expanded to several cities around the United States, with a focus on Southern California (New York City is the sole East Coast city accepted at the moment and only has one supported restaurant), but is currently expanding at a nice pace.

One of the main themes of the app is to encourage gifting locally, rather than through the big name chains that one would typically see on the likes of egifter or Gyft. The goal behind adding cryptocurrencies as a payment form on their service is to bridge the huge gap currently between cryptocurrencies and brick and mortar stores.

David Leiber, the CEO of Itson.me, explained the reasoning behind the app as a whole, and adding cryptocurrencies:

“[W]e are going to be a bridge from crypto currency communities and supporters into the local brick and mortar businesses that make our cities unique. The businesses that employ most of our friends and family members. The businesses that pay into our local taxes, schools and support our local charities. That ItsOnMe® going down the crypto path drives a global economy into local community and that is really exciting for consumers and the businesses on our platform. Now a business that is on the ItsOnMe® platform can automatically accept these digital currencies without changing or doing one thing different and that is a pretty big deal.”

Itson.me is working closely with developers in and around the Blackcoin community to accept cryptocurrencies. Their role is an advisory one, one in which they plan to continue to make improvements, and make sure the app's security features will perform properly with cryptocurrencies and CXC.

There is also a connection between Blackcoin and CXC. CXC is “actively supported” by the Blackcoin Foundation. Itson.me will be using CXC.bid as its crypto-payment processor. We have been told that Casheer was considered, but CXC was chosen due to its decentralized nature. CXC can accept any coin traded on any of the supported exchanges (Bittrex, Cryptsy and Poloniex) and can be customized as to how much of each coin is instantly liquidated into Bitcoin or held as its own. The merchant is then responsible for turning that bitcoin into fiat through a more traditional exchange. Other than the three exchanges, CXC doesn't depend on any centralized services. It raised funds using a coin by the same name, and every purchase of the CXC software license is put towards a purchase of the CXC coin on exchanges, in an attempt to reward the investors that originally funded the project.

CXC coin has seen little movement since its launch earlier this month, and only has 100 unique addresses at this point. However, the CXC cashier app can run, regardless of the coin's success or failure.

We will have more on Itson.me cryptocurrency integration when it goes live, in the meantime you can check out its Android and iOS apps.

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