[tptacek]

Exactly what is Bitcoin accomplishing in this scenario? Ohio won't actually accept them; rather, it contracts with a third party that immediately exchanges them for USD, which is what Ohio actually accepts. Ohio maintains no BTC inventory nor any exposure to Bitcoin. Not only that, but this apparently binds taxpayers to Bitpay's exchange rate.

What is this doing that you couldn't accomplish by simply selling BTC and remitting in cash?

[em3rgent0rdr]

Reducing friction when interacting with government. The alternative of using a credit card carries stiff fees (~2%) [1].

[1] https://www.irs.gov/payments/pay-taxes-by-credit-or-debit-ca...

[JamesBarney]

I doubt after you pay the transaction fee, and bitpay takes it's cut you'll be paying less than 2%.

[kasey_junk]

This program charges at least 1% fees. The FAQ is fairly nebulous on the max fee.

Seems like there are easier ways to get payment processing fees lowered for Ohio than exposing tax payers to currency markets.

[smsm42]

That sounds suspiciously like the owner of the conversion service knew somebody within Ohio government's IT management, for values of "knew" ranging from "friends" to "bribed".

[sova]

PR