As an aside (and hence in a separate post), I am interested in what is currently the longest Bitcoin flow "chain". I shall give context for what I mean by this:
To my knowledge, most stores that accept Bitcoin from an end customer convert to fiat immediately. This represents a 2-chain, as seem below:
Some stores keep all or some of the Bitcoin and use it to pay employees, thus forming a 3-chain:
Customer → Store → Employees
I suppose there must be at least one store that buys at least some of its goods from another company that accepts Bitcoin, which is another 3-chain:
Customer → Store → Company
(If the aforementioned Company then paid employees in Bitcoin, then it would be a 4-chain!)
I am aware that most business relationships are far more complicated than this. Indeed, the Bitcoin ecosystem is better modelled as a web that a single chain. But I am still curious as to what the longest documented chain is. Does anyone know of any 4-chains, or even longer ones (not including, of course, infinite loops)?