There's already a few things like this IIRC. I can't recall them off the top of my head, but I have seen something like this around, where you scan a QR and tap "send" it then sends it (through the service) to the other account. All the transactions were handled "in-house" so there were no transaction fees (from regular bitcoin use). IIRC you could withdraw with bitcoin or USD. There's also that ATM in canada(?) that has gotten some pretty good use.
You're right, they have something close. However, this seems to leave the merchant with BTC, which they have to exchange. I would guess that more would be interested in getting USD from the exchange, at least in the near term. Thanks.
https://coinbase.com/docs/merchant_tools/payouts "When you enable "instant exchanges", bitcoin you receive for merchant orders will no longer be sent to your Coinbase wallet. Instead they will be sent directly to Coinbase and exchanged, ensuring that you get the the exact local currency price that you set in the merchant tools. .... Let's look at an example. Suppose you create a payment button with a USD price of $10, and sell ten orders during the day. Your payout at the end of the day will be for $100 USD, regardless of how the price of bitcoin changed during the day. After deducting our 1% fee (plus $0.15 for the bank transfer) you will receive $98.85 to your bank account."
Ah, so there you go. Thanks. Most merchant set prices in their local currency and get paid in their local currency. For this "instant exchange" service we charge 1% plus $0.15 to convert the bitcoin you receive into your local currency (the same price if you manually sell bitcoin). They should really make that more readily accessible. I have to imagine that there are a number of merchants that would love to put a "Bitcoin accepted here" sticker in their window, but don't realize how painless it could be.As a merchant, you never need to hold bitcoin or expose yourself to any exchange rate risk if you don't want to.
Most merchants are extremely hesitant to change anything in their payments process. Even if you told them that there are X number of people wanting to use it and it costs only 1% to process, they'll be skeptical at first. The credit card processing industry was/is overrun by seedy ISO's, tagging on steep discount rates via hidden fees etc. Getting someone to adopt a new revenue stream, via a new somewhat untested currency that is digital in nature would be hard at first. The best way to go would be top down. Sign "Starbucks" and the rest will follow. By the way, this is the route Square went. They got Starbucks to commit to having a number of stores rollout Square acceptance. It was huge news that Square leveraged to get mom and pop coffee shops/small restaurants across the country to sign up. It didn't last long as the product/process had a number of failings and Starbucks pulled the plug.
coinbase allows them to withdraw USD at any time (or so they claim). I'm pretty damn sure I've seen some similar services as well. None particularly stick out though. And nothing is quite yet wide spread. Most use is online, which bitcoin already supports. I could see a service like this (or as you described) becoming popular with "normal" people. Those who just deposit money, and can spend it like usual, with the other end getting USD as well. From the outside it'd look like USD->USD but the middle man would be bitcoin? bitcoin->USD would also be useful. It'd be nice to able to pay for lunch in bitcoin :D