back to article Junk food meets junk money: KFC starts selling Bitcoin Bucket

KFC’s Canadian wing has started selling chicken for Bitcoin. The artery-clogging Bitcoin Bucket “Includes 10 Original Recipe Tenders, Waffle Fries, Med Side, Med Gravy and 2 Dips,” at a cost of however many Bitcoin equates to CA$20. KFC Canada’s page for the promotion helpfully includes live updates of that sum in Bitcoin. …

  1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    the Facebook page announcing the deal has gone viral. Just like KFC does if undercooked.

    That would be bacterial surely. A new and improved form of "viral" marketing - with extra vomit.

    1. AMBxx Silver badge
      Devil

      >>That would be bacterial surely

      Not with the current flu epidemic. It only takes on sneeze...

    2. katrinab Silver badge

      "the Facebook page announcing the deal has gone viral. Just like KFC does if undercooked."

      Or, just like their kitchens. The Environmental Health Department has shut down two of them near me for having filthy kitchens

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Oh the irony

    This article is dripping with irony just like the chicken drips with grease.

    Delicious to read.

    On the other hand, I learned something : it costs $50 to make a Bitcoin transaction. Well if it cost me that much to use my Visa I'd be using cash all the time.

    1. MonkeyCee

      Re: Oh the irony

      "On the other hand, I learned something : it costs $50 to make a Bitcoin transaction. "

      While I appreciate the point the author is making, that statement is pretty much bollocks.

      https://bitcoinfees.info/ will give you a rough estimate, which is about $20 for a rapid transaction. Maybe $10-12 for a slow one. You can make it effectively less if you have multiple transactions to complete at once, since you can do multiple input/output for a single transaction fee.

      In general I assume that paying for anything less than a tenner with bitcoin would be a bit bonkers. There's (quite literally) thousands of other crypto currencies that are much better suited to micro transactions, both on speed and cost. Plus services that allow you to pay in one coin and have the receiver get their desired coin.

      Why the hell KFC can't offer a payment provider that accepts that, which would actually be useful, rather than a pointless headline grabbing.... oh wait, that's why.

      1. Elmer Phud

        Re: Oh the irony

        "In general I assume"

        Bless

      2. Cuddles

        Re: Oh the irony

        "about $20 for a rapid transaction. Maybe $10-12 for a slow one."

        Is that supposed to be better? People are generally used to having transaction fees of $0. Even when using cards which technically have a fee, that's usually eaten by the retailer and not actually passed on to the customer (at least not directly). Complaining that a fee of $50 is "bollocks" because it really only costs $20 is rather missing the point that it costs $20 extra just to order a takeaway.

        "There's (quite literally) thousands of other crypto currencies that are much better suited to micro transactions, both on speed and cost... Why the hell KFC can't offer a payment provider that accepts that"

        Cash, Visa, Mastercard, probably a variety of other payment providers depending on location. They accept all kinds of payments that process essentially instantly and don't cost significantly more than the transaction itself in additional fees. What they don't offer is options for all the thousands of fake moneys, because they're not complete idiots.

      3. Claus Møller

        Re: Oh the irony

        So only 20$ in order to "cut out the 3rd party middleman".

        I still haven't figured out why it isn't easier to stick with the middleman. And pay instantly and without any additional costs using my traditional bank payment card and traditional money.

        Maybe I am moronic. But I still haven't seen the point in bitcoins as "money".

    2. handleoclast

      Re: Oh the irony

      On the other hand, I learned something : it costs $50 to make a Bitcoin transaction. Well if it cost me that much to use my Visa I'd be using cash all the time.

      KFC could switch to only accepting payment in Bitcoin and the Bitcoin transaction fee could rise to £1,000,000 and it wouldn't make the slightest difference to the amount of KFC I consume.

    3. Desgrippes

      Re: Oh the irony

      If you are paying 50$ you're being mugged. All the same, It is too high right now but new solutions such as Lightning is jut round the corner and there are also viable alternatives that are inexpensive to send such as Litecoin or Bitcoin Cash.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    KFC going down hill...

    It seems KFC are getting desperate to make money....may be I'm not the only one that craves for their product to go back to the early days when you picked up a piece of chicken and grease ran down your arms and fell off of your elbow. mmmmmm food.

    They were the days :)

    1. Mark 85

      Re: KFC going down hill...

      What? Go back to the original recipe? The flavor? The grease? I would in a minute. After the Colonel sold the business, he began bad mouthing the new owners for f***ing things up. The chain just keeps sliding downhill....

    2. EarthDog

      Re: KFC going down hill...

      peeling the skin off....

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You have to wait 100 minutes for a bucket? There's something that rhymes with that.

    1. AndyS

      Truck kit?

      1. jake Silver badge

        Truck hat.

    2. veti Silver badge

      Bouquet?

  5. jake Silver badge

    In 100 minutes ...

    ... one can fry their own. Easily. And a hell of a lot cheaper. Probably healthier. And still have time to do the clean-up.

    1. Kane

      Re: In 100 minutes ...

      "... one can fry their own. Easily. And a hell of a lot cheaper. Probably healthier. And still have time to do the clean-up."

      Whilst I agree with you, and also as someone who makes their own fried chicken, the point is it's not me doing it. This is the price we pay for convenience.

    2. whatsyourShtoile

      Re: In 100 minutes ...

      100 minutes is enough time for the fire department to take your burnt out body to the morgue after you put too much chicken in the oil.

      You can't make your own KFC gravy, as that is made from the drippings of thousands of fried chickens.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: In 100 minutes ...

        drippings of thousands of fried chickens.

        I'm salivating now.

      2. jake Silver badge

        Re: In 100 minutes ...

        "100 minutes is enough time for the fire department to take your burnt out body to the morgue after you put too much chicken in the oil."

        No, that's not how it works at all, as millions of home cooks world-wide prove every day. Suggestion: Learn to cook. It'll do you a world of good.

        "You can't make your own KFC gravy"

        I wouldn't if I could. Tasted it once. Once. Never again. Awful, awful stuff.

        "as that is made from the drippings of thousands of fried chickens."

        So make it yourself. After frying your bird, drain most of the grease, less about a tablespoon (15ml), out of the frying container. Leave the brown crunchy bits (BCBs, or "fond" if you're classically trained). Over medium heat, add about the same amount of flour[0] as there is grease. Stir it in for a couple minutes to remove the raw flavo(u)r from the flour. Add about a cup of milk[1] slowly, stirring constantly to dissolve the BCBs. Bring to a strong simmer/low boil and adjust consistency to suit yourself. Salt & pepper to taste. A little bit of your favo(u)rite herb from the garden at the end will impress your significant other; I usually go all traditional & add thyme with a hint of sage.

        HTH.

        [0] I use AP, my grandmother swore by Wondra, me DearOldMum uses pastry ...

        [1] Can use any stock you have lying around instead of milk.

        1. veti Silver badge

          Re: In 100 minutes ...

          Wow, someone who knows how to make real gravy. Now there's something I never expected to see in a thread about KFC.

          Have an upvote.

      3. c1ue

        Re: In 100 minutes ...

        Actually not thousands. Not even hundreds. The gravy - at least when I worked there in the 1980s as a teen - was made from one single fryer cabinet's bottom scrapings. That's maybe a couple dozen chickens.

  6. RobertLongshaft

    Bitcoin's utility these days is solely as a store of value or as a gateway crypto used for buying other alt coins.

    It's strange to be saying this but the technology has moved on and as Satoshi Nakamoto has chosen to remain anonymous bitcoin has not moved with the times.

    There are now a host of technologies which do everything bitcoin does, but faster and cheaper. Bitcoin Cash, Etherium, XRP and IOTA all bringing their own twist on blockchain or distributed ledger.

    Bitcoins dominance of the crypto market cap is declining and it would be no surprise to see it knocked off its perch in 2018

    I fully expect to see wide spread commercial adoption of these technologies in the coming months and years as they solve real world problems, the 'internet of value' is here to stay.

    1. Jedit Silver badge
      FAIL

      "Satoshi Nakamoto has chosen to remain anonymous"

      He doesn't appear to be making a very good job of it.

      1. Phil W

        Re: "Satoshi Nakamoto has chosen to remain anonymous"

        "He doesn't appear to be making a very good job of it."

        Really, who is he then?

        The Satoshi Nakamoto who really has that name and is a computer scientist isn't the creator of Bitcoin. The weird Australian guy who claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto blatantly isn't.

      2. Pseudonymous Clown Art

        Re: "Satoshi Nakamoto has chosen to remain anonymous"

        CSW is not Satoshi.

        1. Jonathan 27

          Yeah...

          Obviously, Craig Steven Wright is a an idiot who presented patently fake (and publicly available) information as proof he created bitcoin. The only reason his story picked up traction is that so many media outlets never do any sort of fact checking.

    2. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

      I fully expect to see wide spread commercial adoption of these technologies in the coming months and years as they solve real world problems, the 'internet of value' is here to stay.

      Personally, I don't. All of the financial advisers that I have heard talking about this speak of it as a bubble waiting to burst, and are steering people away from it. When financial professionals have that amount of scepticism then I can't see big corporates in too much a hurry to embrace it.

      1. KSM-AZ

        Agreed

        Most currencies have a government backing of some sort. Historically, the weaker the backing the higher the inflation rate of said currency. Bitcoin is backed by pretty much nothing. There is no government nor body that is behind the value. There are no hard assets behind the value. The fact that zillions of folks invested in a number created by an algorithm strikes me as slightly insane.

        If the balloon goes up, I would be heavily invested in ammunition?, food, tools, metals, land, you know, hard assets that are useful for something. When people don't have enough to eat, or shelter from the elements, even paper currencies fall from grace. None the less paper currency with a government (Army, Navy, Infrastructure, etc, etc) behind it generlly still has some value.

        Just not seeing bitcoin as other than a novelty. I truly expect to see it crash hard. I could be wrong, and plenty of folks will get rich off it either way . . .

        1. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

          Re: a number created by an algorithm

          Interesting analogy here.

          Currency notes have some elaborate geometrical constructions printed onto them. The idea being that the method of independently constructing that curve is difficult to mimic. The design, and planned obsolescence of such notes by necessity takes into account the likelihood of a counterfeiter coming up with a plausible fake within that timeframe.

          There must be a timeframe that would invalidate the value of Bitcoin through shortcuts in generation, or of exploiting vulnerabilties within the blockchain.

      2. Desgrippes

        What a surprise, those with most to lose are steering their clients away? I imagine the horse salesmen were rather froide on cars too.

    3. Pseudonymous Clown Art

      All of your examples are considerably more centralised than Bitcoin is. Especially XRP.

      Agreed, transaction times and fees may be lower...but the underlying security of the network is compromised.

      Convenience and security are trade offs.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        BTC will become more centralized the more the blockchain grows. Setting up a full node from scratch already takes a long time and requires more space than casual volunteers will easily commit.

        That is a problem with most or all blockchain-based systems. In the end, only specialized banks and mining pools will have the storage and powert to maintain and reboot full nodes.

    4. 's water music

      Bitcoin's utility these days is solely as a store of value or as a gateway crypto used for buying other alt coins.

      Surely it's value is mostly as a source of cheap PR and low rent click bait churnalism?

    5. Blank Reg

      I don't see any problems that are solved by crypto currencies that aren't solved by other payment methods such as cash, credit and debit cards. But then I'm not a criminal.

      1. Desgrippes

        IOT machine to machine transactions, smart contracts for loans with middle men, chain of supply tracement, censorship resistance, you must have your eyes stitched shut or maybe just tunnel vision?

        1. Blank Reg

          @Desgrippes

          You're confusing blockchain with cryptocurrency. There are uses for blockchain, but cryptocurrencies are stupid.

      2. Desgrippes

        open your eyes!

        https://www.stateofthedapps.com/

    6. c1ue

      I was just at a bitcoin meetup where an ex-Princeton professor talked for 45 minutes on all of the structural problems that Bitcoin (and *all* the other crypto schemes) have.

      Long story short: Visa processes about 4000 transactions per second with a capacity of 65000 tps. Paypal can do 130 tps or so. Bitcoin and its brethren can only do 7 - and there are *no* fixes for this on the horizon.

      And note that this professor was pushing his own blockchain/crypto scheme, so it isn't like he's down on the technology.

  7. scrubber
    Big Brother

    Anonymous Fried Chicken

    Bitcoin is useful if you don't want anyone to know you're buying KFC.

    But then so is cash...

    1. Tom 7

      Re: Anonymous Fried Chicken

      And keeping your fat arse indoors too!

  8. wolfetone Silver badge
    Headmaster

    Dear El Reg,

    This article is poor. There's not one pun about gravy in this article. Such a line as "KFC jump aboard the Bitcoin gravy train" would've sufficed.

    Tut tut tut MUST DO BETTER!

  9. mix

    Hungry?

    Rubbish idea gets large corporation lots of media coverage. a.k.a. Free advertising...

    1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

      Re: Hungry?

      That does seem the only reason they would do this.

      Who the hell would want to pay for a takeaway with bitcoin? especially given the time and cost.

      Who the hell would offer bitcon payment on a takeaway , given nobody wants it?

      hehe , bitcon , freudian slip there ...

  10. Sgt_Oddball
    Coat

    bitbucket?

    Surely their pulling our leg?

    I think someone's been at the spice if they honestly think this is practical in anyway? I also hope the marketing bod gets friered..

    I'll get my coat...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: bitbucket?

      I would have gone for cockchain as a cock is a chicken.

      1. spold Silver badge

        Re: bitbucket?

        They will be taking eggthereum next

    2. Alister

      Re: bitbucket?

      Surely their pulling our leg?

      Or maybe they're pulling our leg.

  11. Name3

    KFC seems to be really good at social media, mastering the execution of a viral campaign. Good work!

  12. Terry 6 Silver badge

    Err? "The company said it’s sold out of the buckets, and that’s not in the slightest surprising given that Bitcoin is currently rather less convenient than many other currencies: ".

    So surely they shouldn't have sold out, if they genuinely had them to sell in the first place of course.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Maybe they only sold one, for the PR?

      It was a really, really limited special offer.

      1. AMBxx Silver badge

        Sold? It would have been more profitable (less loss-making?) to have just given them away.

        1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

          "It would have been more profitable to have just given them away."

          How do we know they didn't? Can one party prove that BC were transferred between two others that don't co-operate with the first? And would *you* trust someone who buys KFC? with Bitcoin?

  13. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

    [...] while transaction fees can exceed US$50. The latter sum is more than the cost of the chicken

    A poultry sum then....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If I had to pay that I would cry fowl.

  14. Teiwaz

    Sold Out?

    It's just chicken, [mostly], not possible to sell out, not to even to the hipsters and the insane at those prices.

    So it's Kentucky Fraud Chicken after all....

    Damn, hungry now, and I've to shop first, probably end up buying those chicken stick pieces, 6 the size of cheetos in a bag for nearly £2.....

    1. Rameses Niblick the Third Kerplunk Kerplunk Whoops Where's My Thribble?

      Re: Sold Out?

      Don't talk down Cheetos, the Americans modeled their latest president to look like one after all!

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: Sold Out?

        I think you';ll find that Americans didn't model the idiot in chief, rather his cheetoness did it all by his widdle seff.

  15. ibmalone

    I have to confess to being perplexed by: "The company said it’s sold out of the buckets, and that’s not in the slightest surprising given that Bitcoin is currently rather less convenient than many other currencies"

    If demand is low then surely selling out is unlikely? Unless the implication is they never had any to sell?

  16. btrower

    Issues with Bitcoin

    I am surprised that nobody has made much of the technical issues with Bitcoin. There does not seem to be a way around them except a fork and I don't know what that fork might be.

    As of this moment, Bitcoin is still a pretty good store of value. It may continue to rise well beyond this point on that alone. However, it is hardly fit for online transactions at this point and there is no reason to expect that to get better. I was going to qualify that with 'barring a fork', but I have no idea how a fork would cure it. Bitcoin's strength is also its weakness and it may be that there is a fundamental tradeoff for which there is no workaround.

    Bitcoin may well stay up there and rise. However, crypto-currencies offering better anonymity and transaction times are bound to rise too.

    Long term I expect that Bitcoin will either become a rock-solid store of value like gold or will lose its value entirely. It is a close call, but if I had to bet right now I would bet on it losing its value and a competing currency with better features becoming the equivalent of cash due to predictable value, anonymity and better transaction features. Disclosure: somewhere in the TBs of information on my network there may be a wallet with .05 bitcoin.

    Putting on my tin-foil hat I wonder if an unaccountable U.S. government agency with an essentially unlimited black budget has pumped money into Bitcoin to forestall the movement to a currency they can't control and track. Actually, the more you know about this stuff the more promising an investment in tinfoil looks :)

    1. Blank Reg

      Re: Issues with Bitcoin

      Bitcoin is not a good store of value. It is far too unstable and could even go to zero. That's unlikely to happen with real currency short of some truly catastrophic event occurring.

      1. Joe Montana

        Re: Issues with Bitcoin

        Several currencies have suffered from hyperinflation which effectively zeroed their value, there is always the risk of catastrophic failure.

    2. d3vy

      Re: Issues with Bitcoin

      I think you'll find that it would actually require a spork.

    3. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

      Re:There does not seem to be a way around them except a fork

      In KFC? Whatever next? A waiter to escort you to your table?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wouldn't fancy standing round waiting for hour-and-a-half-old congealed fried chicken and fries!

    On the other hand, cold pizza from a 'delivered within half hour of half your money back' shack might be tempting after a few bevvies

  18. Aynon Yuser

    I don't consider KFC to be junk food. If consumed in moderation it's fine.

    1. veti Silver badge

      That's true of most junk food.

      But - top tip here - anything sold by the bucket is probably not being "consumed in moderation', nor is it meant to be.

      1. defiler

        But - top tip here - anything sold by the bucket is probably not being "consumed in moderation', nor is it meant to be.

        Mr Creosote?

  19. RobertLongshaft

    Most of the comments on this post show how little even the technical community know about this technology and it's practical application.

    Bosch are massively into IOTA

    XRP is actively being used by Money Gram and 2 other of the top 5 world money transfer businesses.

    Tron is being used by the Chinese netflix

    Etherium and NEO are piloting commercial applications

    This is just the start.

    As for all this bubble nonsense - these will be the same people who told you Facebook was overvalued at $38 a share.

  20. Congressive

    Such sadness in all these BTC hater posts

    If you hate Bitcoin, as many posters express (even the headline is a smear), you have my deepest sympathy for having missed the new worldwide gold rush. Better luck next time.

    Memo to KFC: Bitcoin is worldwide. Bring this bucket to the U.S. and I'll treat the whole neighborhood to your deliciousness simply because I can.

    Memo to BTC ignoramuses:

    1. Write a check for your chicken, and the store has to wait three DAYS for the money to clear, and it could bounce.

    2.Use a credit card, and the store has to wait one business day to get your money, and it could be contested up to a month later by just claiming the chicken was bad.

    3. Accept BTC and it's irreversible in ten minutes, the moment it goes into "pending" mode. If you want access to the funds quickly, bid high. If you're not in a hurry, bid low. If you don't mind waiting as long as a check would take to clear, bid zero. Again, once it's in "pending" mode, it can't be undone.

    Transaction fees are not fixed. Anyone who's ever traded in crypto would know that. I know why you're all angry. You hate feeling stupid. It'll pass.

    1. d3vy

      Re: Such sadness in all these BTC hater posts

      "Write a check for your chicken, and the store has to wait three DAYS for the money to clear, and it could bounce"

      Do people still use cheques in the US?

      "Accept BTC and it's irreversible in ten minutes,"

      Oh, so no consumer protection then, good to know.

      If you want access to the funds quickly, bid high.

      Im not going to enter a bidding war to get my chicken faster.

      You missed the two more common *existing* and *free* options - Use a debit card or cash.

    2. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

      Re: Memo to BTC ignoramuses

      From the consumers point of view, none of these are actually compelling reasons why he/she should pay by bitcoin.

      I believe that in Weimar Germany people became much more numerically literate because of the need to juggle figures at every visit to the shops in order to get the best value for money.

      (I will leave you to draw your own conclusions as to the relevance of the above two sentences to each other).

    3. jake Silver badge

      Re: Such sadness in all these BTC hater posts

      "hater", Prop. Noun, often used by the under-educated (usually teenagers) in order to attempt to put down actual educated people (usually adults).

      Translation of 'hater' into English: "Everybody who doesn't agree with what I have faith in, despite the fact that I (me, personally) actually have faith in the belief of the given faith, and can't actually offer up a real, honest scientific argument confirming it's existence."

      Alternative translation: "I hate adults. They don't know anything!".

      HTH, HAND.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just a publicity stunt

    They aren't accepting bitcoin for anything, just a special product with a limited number available (so they don't get killed by the transaction cost)

    I'm sure the bitcoin nuts will try to claim "look regular companies are starting to accept it" but they are not and will not. They just wanted to get some free publicity they wouldn't have got if they did an ordinary cut price special.

    The bitcoin conference didn't accept bitcoin, that tells you all you need to know about how useless it is for normal transactions now. Cryptocurrencies may eventually succeed (I think a good use would be micropayments to web sites for viewing so they don't have to fight ad blockers) but bitcoin will not be the one that wins. It has too many problems inherent to its design that make it terrible for being anything but the tulip of the 2010s.

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