It's still not BC as currency, though: the prices are in USD, and then get converted for you. That's probably a good thing from the short term user's viewpoint, as BC is as volatile as a very smelly thing right now. There are all sorts of traps for a long-term user, though.

I'm not very well-versed in economics, but would setting prices to a relatively non-changing BTC value not actually be a good thing to stabilize its value, if enough people were to do that?

What is the incentive to do so? BTC is expected to rise in value over time since it's a deflationary currency. So any sane businessperson should expect to be constantly decreasing the BTC price over time. It's a feature, not a bug.

Yes, but the same effect happens (in the opposite direction) with a normal inflationary currency. Every few months or years, prices change to reflect their new value. When prices are doubling or halving once a week, that starts to get problematic (see interbellum Germany, 2000s Zimbabwe).

It is a small world. Charlie Shrem (CEO of BitInstant) said that the bar founders are some of his childhood friends: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=170710.msg1775228#ms...

BitPay is the #1 Bitcoin payment processor. Either Charlie or the bar founders decided that BitPay was a logical partner.

So no unusual story here. Just like in the non-Bitcoin world, initial investors are often your family/friends.

> Is there a payment dispute system for BitPay?

Almost certainly not, given that Bitcoin intentionally operates the same way cash transactions do. And BitPay specifically mentions that feature on their front page: "With Bitpay you can eliminate the risk of Fraud, Chargebacks, and Identity Theft from internet payments.".

BitPay must be kidding itself charging 0.99% per transaction.

Visa/MC charge us 1.1%