Topic: Every Online Merchant Should Accept BTC (Read 1995 times)

Agreed, the price fluctuation is a major problem, coupled with the steep learning curve for merchants and clients.

It is good idea i think.

Bitpay doesn't answer the phone unless you pay $300 per month. All bitcoin businesses are sheety. I read another post on this forum that one out of three exchanges loses all their client's money or something. Nobody cares enough about their customers to answer the phone. Bitcoin may be cool but all bitcoin biz SUX.

I finally got verified with coinbase after, like, 40+ tries. It's been almost a week and  nobody has answered my email. The reason why I am using them is because all bitcoin biz are sheety so at least with coinbase, I keep my exposure to a minimum as I can electronically transfer USD and BTC in and out of my account. I'll just use them for the exchange and keep funds either at my bank or my BTC wallet, but never at coinbase as they are Sheety. Just look at MtGox as a prime example of how sheety. Even campBx, which I like, they are shady. Why no wire transfer? Why can't they get a freaking decent bank account so they can do ACH transfer and wire transfers? Is their credit rating Sheety? Are they solvent? At least coinbase has a proper bank account for ACH transfers/money wires. I will keep a bit here and a bit there and not keep all my dough at one exchange or service. I will also limit my account sizes with each exchange to the max daily withdrawal amount. Limiting the amount of MY dough I can withdraw is shady. It reeks of insolvency. I can understand unverified customers having limits, but if I've been verified under "know your customer" laws, why limit withdrawals? ... unless you're not solvent.

Perhaps they're all selling more BTC than they have on hand. Whoa, doesn't that describe a fiat bank system? The more things change the more things stay the same!

I use my average buy price of BTC to compare the price of a product or service, not the current BTC price.

Obviously, I am not going to use BTC if the current price is lower than what I bought BTC, which it never has been.

Example:  If my average buy is $300/BTC, the current BTC price is $600.  You don't need to be Einstein to work out what is best.

Next year your dollar will be worth less.

That means you will need more dollars to buy the same TV.

http://www.cryptosextoys.com/

These guys will show the price in dollars, bitcoin and lots of other coins. I like this system

Have you contacted BitPay?

They promote BTC as easy to implement.

Can you please elaborate this assertion that $10k when exchanged to bitcoin becomes worth less than $10k?

Maybe I have misunderstood your point.

I strongly agree.  I have a lot of friends buying bitcoin off of me in order to buy stuff - each shop that takes it encourages more of this to happen. We need to build a critical mass.

Perfectly possible to have an automated payment system that waits for any number of confirmations the vendor desires. I do.

Yeah i agree with you that Every Online Merchant Should Accept BTC and they must do so, but one thing many are concerned about is its volatile nature, even the customers are sometimes hesitant while using bitcoins because lets say you buy a TV today for 2btc that is around 1200$ today , and after one year if btc goes up  to some 1k-1500$ the same TV you purchased is @ some 3k$ which was worth 1200$ ..

Yes. This is is a great service because as a merchant, handling bitcoins can be really complicated tax-wise (depending on the country) here you have to take into account value when you got em and calculate profit/loss when you sell em then declare as you would do with stocks.  Since value is always changing that's a lot of complication for not so significant sales volume (hopefully this will increase).  When you get paid in fiat currency you just add it to your sales like a credit card sale.  However I still don't see significant sales from btc users, seems like many people keep em waiting for value to increase.

I like to tell them that I was about to buy something but I couldn't find their bitcoin address. "Can you please send me an address so I can pay you? Because I certainly am not going to give out my bank/credit card info".
  

This.
Also, Bitcoin still gets associated a lot with laundering and illegal activities. Not all merchants are willing to take to risk to associate them with this negative kind of image.

As an online merchant, I agree, BUT it is not a situation where they have nothing to lose. I just learned about bitcoins a week ago. I have been coding like crazy to implement it into my shopping cart. It is not easy and I have lost many hours not just coding but also thinking about HOW BTC is supposed to be implemented. Should I give customers a discount due to no chargebacks and lower fees? Should I list price in BTC or dollars? If it is dollars, how to I make it easy for my customers or should I expect my customers to whip out a calculator before paying? Which wallet solution? Which exchange? Should I keep BTC or convert to dollars ASAP? How do I backup my wallet? ETC.

I'll post my website on here when I'm finished, if it is not against forum rules to make business announcements on here.

It will take time to accept BItcoin as a payment for all vendors. The price fluctuation of bitcoin is worry for many merchants.
The price should be stable. And numerous new altcoins are reducing the value of bitcoin.

I am sure once the cryptocurrency stabilises it will be an opportunity.

In my market we are hearing rumours of a payment gateway company that uses the cash prepaid voucher system is seriously considering to open its product to deal with exchanges.... great news

I agree to 100%. Doing business with Bitcoin is great, especially when it comes to sensitive information.

That is why me and my partner decided to use it for our Tarot platform. Our customers can ask us any personal question they want without revealing their identity. This creates a much needed feeling of safety and trust, not to mention the simplicity of it.

We strongly believe this is the future of Tarot Online and will offer the same functionality to any other independent reader who uses our services.

As I said in the OP I do not like using my credit card on the internet.

Presently, for face to face purchases I prefer to use cash as it is becoming more worthless each day.

Eventually, hopefully, I will be left with just BTC to use for every transaction.

Coinbase and Bitpay (possibly others?) are services which enable merchants to accept Bitcoin for transactions with a fixed fiat currency value. (e.g., a $20 USD item)
These services calculate the amount of BTC the customer needs to pay at checkout then immediately convert it to USD or another fiat currency for the merchant to receive:

The merchant sets up an account on either service and enables the service as a payment gateway on their online store.  Customer adds product to their cart and sees their total in Dollars or whatever currency just like normal.  Customer then clicks "check out" and is redirected to a Bitpay or Coinbase "pay now" page which computes how much Bitcoin the customer needs to pay using the current exchange value.  Customer pays the amount, the BTC is immediately converted back to fiat and the merchant receives the Dollars via direct deposit into their bank just like accepting credit card or PayPal, Dwolla, etc.  The merchant could also decide to keep the money in BTC but the choice is up to them.

So the exchange rate problem has been solved on the merchant side at least.