Author

Topic: easy way to get merchants to accept bitcoin (Read 742 times)

newbie
Activity: 30
Merit: 0
April 06, 2014, 09:22:40 PM
#9
If a business owned website accepts Bitcoins they will potentially increase the amount of business that they get. How much does it cost for a business to set up the Bitcoin payments processor ?
member
Activity: 246
Merit: 10
Scammers gave the community a bad reputation that's why a lot of people won't start accepting Bitcoins
sr. member
Activity: 364
Merit: 250
I think giving them a bitcoin with a bitcoin number and working for coinbase or bitpay to get them to sign up to accept bitcoin would be great, but Do they have Pos for bitcoin?
hero member
Activity: 700
Merit: 500

As much of a player Bitcoin truly is, we need to keep in mind that he is still a very young dude.  In a recent blog, Bitcoin entrepreneur and Gyft CEO Vinny Lingham considers if it may, in fact, be unadvantageous in the short term to heedlessly drive new merchant integration:

Quote from: "Finding Equilibrium — Searching for the true value of a Bitcoin, By Vinny Lingham"
https://medium.com/p/ba5f3fcce103
What’s now happening when new merchants start accepting Bitcoin is that it’s giving people who have existing coins the ability to use it as a currency and effectively “sell” their coins to the merchant. The processors such as Bitpay (which Gyft uses to sell gift cards) then in turn either sells these coins to private buyers (off book) or via exchanges (such as Bitstamp) to exchange for local currency for the merchants. This money is understandably used to continue to replenish inventory and operate their business, and more importantly, pay taxes to Uncle Sam.

Although many Bitcoiners are hoping for more large retailers like TigerDirect and Overstock to adopt Bitcoin, it may have a negative impact on the BTC price as these retailers will most likely convert 90% of their coins to cash — putting additional selling pressure on Bitcoin. This outcome may not be as desirable in the short term, but it will create a better long-term outlook for Bitcoin given the liquidity options. Again, if you asymmetrically add large retailers without driving consumer adoption at the same time, the demand supply curve will shift undesirably.

As the number of transactions via Bitcoin processors increase, it ultimately creates more sellers in the marketplace — which obviously creates downward pressure on the trading price. Now, I’m not saying that this is a bad thing in the long term, but the problem is that if you have asymmetric growth in new Bitcoin users and Bitcoin “acceptors”, it will create a lopsided marketplace which will suppress the price — which is exactly what is currently happening. We’re seeing the impact of this in the market right now, I believe.

Discuss  Wink


I'm not going to say that is right or wrong (as I don't know, but I don't truly buy it); if it is accurate, it is probably one of the reasons bitcoin isn't being promoted as effectively as it could be (immediate gains vs long term value.)  Then again the price decrease, coupled with more transactions, doesn't necessarily mean less profit for exchanges short term (as long as the price decrease and increase in transactions is proportionate.)
sr. member
Activity: 241
Merit: 250
Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

As much of a player Bitcoin truly is, we need to keep in mind that he is still a very young dude.  In a recent blog, Bitcoin entrepreneur and Gyft CEO Vinny Lingham considers if it may, in fact, be unadvantageous in the short term to heedlessly drive new merchant integration:

Quote from: "Finding Equilibrium — Searching for the true value of a Bitcoin, By Vinny Lingham"
https://medium.com/p/ba5f3fcce103
What’s now happening when new merchants start accepting Bitcoin is that it’s giving people who have existing coins the ability to use it as a currency and effectively “sell” their coins to the merchant. The processors such as Bitpay (which Gyft uses to sell gift cards) then in turn either sells these coins to private buyers (off book) or via exchanges (such as Bitstamp) to exchange for local currency for the merchants. This money is understandably used to continue to replenish inventory and operate their business, and more importantly, pay taxes to Uncle Sam.

Although many Bitcoiners are hoping for more large retailers like TigerDirect and Overstock to adopt Bitcoin, it may have a negative impact on the BTC price as these retailers will most likely convert 90% of their coins to cash — putting additional selling pressure on Bitcoin. This outcome may not be as desirable in the short term, but it will create a better long-term outlook for Bitcoin given the liquidity options. Again, if you asymmetrically add large retailers without driving consumer adoption at the same time, the demand supply curve will shift undesirably.

As the number of transactions via Bitcoin processors increase, it ultimately creates more sellers in the marketplace — which obviously creates downward pressure on the trading price. Now, I’m not saying that this is a bad thing in the long term, but the problem is that if you have asymmetric growth in new Bitcoin users and Bitcoin “acceptors”, it will create a lopsided marketplace which will suppress the price — which is exactly what is currently happening. We’re seeing the impact of this in the market right now, I believe.

Discuss  Wink
sr. member
Activity: 364
Merit: 250
The main reason people won't start accepting Bitcoins is because scammers gave the community a bad reputation, up to the point people think that Bitcoin itself is a big scam  Sad
newbie
Activity: 9
Merit: 0
Merchants want to accept BTC to gain customers for their natural products and services lines, they don't currently seek to manage another potential hassle outside of this if they can avoid it. I think it's a great idea for mass adoption though, just may be that considering expected in-person volumes, regulations, and marketing required to get a system like yours off the ground (which would then only create a new market that could take over their better profits at the online exchange) make it a clear non-priority for big exchanges. So at the moment neither business is all 'that' interested in helping us redistribute digital currency at their expense unfortunately, even though most of us in here accept your logic.

Having said ALL that I still think Bitcoin being obtained at 'Point of Sale' is the inevitable path of the future once the social viewpoint shifts slightly, so I'm working on a project to do something similar: creating a solid web app to split restaurant bills and give change back from CASH into BTC - where anyone can send bitcoin and have friends or customers retrieve funds by phone, email or twitter. http://coinninja.io
full member
Activity: 154
Merit: 100
If we engage more and more merchants and websites to use bitcoin it would reach people easily
hero member
Activity: 700
Merit: 500
This seems simple to me:
(could be applied to other coins as well)

1. Major exchanges prepare a sales package for interested parties.
2. People utilize the sales package and pitch accepting bitcoin to a business (could know the owner, could not, doesn't matter.)
3. Exchanges give a percentage of the fee they charge the business for transactions/sales of bitcoin (preferably paid in bitcoin.) 
4. Exchanges profit from more activity, coupled with potential increase btc value (and the fact the exchange owners probably hold a lot of btc)

This doesn't put any pressure on large bag holders, mining companies, or anyone who should be promoting bitcoin, just for the potential gains they receive.
It is a simple standard sales procedure used for essentially everything from fertilizer to mutual funds, that doesn't even cost the exchanges anything (except for the sales package, materials, etc.)

I guess it is still more profitable to manipulate the market than to actually build it, because otherwise the people running these exchanges (which i'm going to assume are a hell of a lot smarter than me) would have implemented something like this already.


   




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