Topic: How would a (bicycle) merchant go about accepting bitcoin? (Read 514 times)

OK guys (those of you who posted recently), this topic was started over a year and a half ago, and it was that long since I posted in it.  Obviously nobody is reading the whole thread, probably just the title, and I should have locked this thing up a long time ago.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to buy an e-bike with bitcoin but did buy one with fiat.  I'm not exactly sure how much bitcoin I had at the time I started this thread (if any), but looking back on this question of mine I think it would have been a really, really bad move to spend bitcoin on a $5000 bicycle when the option to spend rapidly-inflating fiat currency instead. 

Bitcoin was under $10k back in April/May of 2020 if I'm not mistaken, and that was when I was seriously considering the purchase.  The $5000 in bitcoin I would have spent would have gone to over $30k when the new ATH was reached. 

In any case, I did end up enticing a business to accept bitcoin, which I wrote about in this thread, which I'm also going to lock.  Sometimes businesses are willing to be flexible, sometimes not.  Fortunately I didn't spend a lot of bitcoin to get my computer looked at. 

Yes, but if you convert it to USD then you are cutting out at leat one or two middle men.  Someone is going to have to pay for the conversion.  This means you are going to get a better exchange rate between your BTC and your bike.

I think this time not only bicycle riders but all classes of people in the world are selling, purchasing, and mining bitcoin. There is no problem selling or cashing it. There are a lot of ways for doing so. I am also not a Richman but a person who drives on a bicycle and does the bitcoin & cryptocurrency trade. So this is the reality that bitcoin is a unique business or currency that has won the trust of all classes and all ages of life.

i think for the first time, the seller can accept bitcoin, and verify it manually, and it there are many transaction that use bitcoin, the seller can upgrade the payment proccessor,
why i told you like that? because payment processor will ask you about the fee in every transaction, and the seller can receive same as the buyer pay it because of that fee

I agree with gentlemand. Merchantw wants USD, because they need to pay their Costa and suppliers with usd.
Let's suppose you transfer 0.07 btc to the merchant. He need to pay specialized with about 3k USD, not with 0.07 btc. Hpw will he get they money? He will need to sell it at binance/coinbase. He might even need to pay fees and taxas for that. That's is just a big trouble for him.

On the other hand, he can sell to new customers, such as thePharmacist which wouldn't buy a bike with this merchant in a normal condition (he would just look to the store closer to him with better price)

ThePharmacist could just sell 0.07 usd i coinbase and just transfer usd to the merchant. But thay might occurs in additional fees and taxes

How many people read the subject and then posted without actually reading the first post?

adopting bitcoin can be done easily, because many third-party platforms provide systems that can be integrated with payments at bicycle shops or other shops.
it just depends on the regulation and how to promote it. If the regulations still don't allow it, of course you can't accept payments using bitcoin and for promotions, it can be done easily if the surrounding community is familiar with bitcoin or is new to it.

It’s a risk:reward question for the retailer isn’t it?  If there is a simple process they can use that will allow them to make a worthwhile (i.e. profitable) sale that they wouldn’t otherwise make then I expect they would do it - reward=high.  Conversely if it’s a burden to setup or they will easily sell the bike anyway, then they likely won’t - risk=high.

As said above I guess your options are:
1. Research payment processors, and if it seems like a reasonable effort for them to setup spend a bit of time persuading them; or
2. Just convert BTC to cash and pay them with that

To be honest seeing it written down like that I think Option 2 is the likely winner … 🥲

Edited to add: the only thought is if you ask them about it AND other people have asked they may start to think, hmm, this may be worth doing … gotta be worth asking the question I would think.

If you want to accept bitcoin for your shop then provide a sign and instruction as well how your costumer can pay using bitcoin. By the way through internet or let say social media. If i were you post it because it's a big help nowadays wherein to let them know that you're accepting bitcoin..indeed its now the easiest way when it comes advertising, so must do it if you want to adopt bitcoin as a payment method.

I had similar experience while buying floor tiles. Went to buy with my friends for my home. It was far away from my home, which is around 500kms. We had planned for a purchase of $5000 worth flooring tiles. The price was quite cheap and looking at this they thought of buying and no money in hand. By the time I had bitcoins. Using that we bought. I sold bitcoin to a trader on LBC and he deposited the respective amount on the flooring tile shop owners account. We bought worth of $9000 in which $5000 paid in hard cash and $4000 deposited through a trader. Maybe OP can try this way of buying even if the bicycle trader isn't accepting bitcoin payments directly. This is just a suggestion.

Very! Though, from the specifications on the bike, it's another line for some luxury and solves the problem of fitting in some really tight spot on a busy street, it's noise free and energy saving. Looking at the fact that, it uses rechargeable battery plus, it's 28mph is something for a bike.

Though, its some expensive choice but, I doubt that's the issue here for OP. Just that, it doesn't seem to be the best time with the price of bitcoin being down but, the easiest means to some successful transaction is having a bitcoin bar code printed out. It just becomes a matter or quantifying the amount to be deposited and appropriate documentation. Perhaps OP, you've just got to try and hopefully, the merchant might be contemplating just like you if there are those within the vicinity willing to do same.

This thread reminds me of situation that still haunts me to this day;  I founded a sporting goods store back in 2009, owned and operated it until 2016.  I mostly hid in the back, working on people's guns (I offered gun-smithing services,) while my employees took care of the the retail part of the business.  Back in 2012 or 2013 a guy came into the shop and asked one of my employees if we accept bitcoin.  He was shopping for a somewhat rare rifle, and I just happened to have one on the shelf.  At the time bitcoin was about $130, and it had just dropped from a bit over $200.  He offered me 10 BTC for the rifle, which was priced at $1000.

I toyed with the idea while he showed me how to make a wallet (using bitaddress IIRC,) but being the kind of guy who never jumps into something without researching the shit out of it, I declined.

10 BTC at ~$100 would have been nice, but what really bugs me about the episode is that I had the opportunity to learn about and start collecting bitcoin 5 to 6 years before I finally got involved.  Hindsight being 20/20 and all.

Anyway, sorry to go off topic.  Carry on.

You know, I hate to do that but I think I'm going to have to--although I haven't yet talked to either bike shop I'd be interested in buying a bike from.  I just have a feeling that neither one would be amenable to accepting bitcoin unless it was very easy to get set up with a payment processor--and that would be essentially the same thing as me selling bitcoin for fiat and then buying the bike.

The other thread I created about this issue (which I can't seem to find) had some good suggestions for bike shops accepting bitcoin internationally, but I want to buy locally.  And there are retailers like overstock.com that sell a select few e-bikes, but they don't have what I want.

I agree with that, but you're being a dick.

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG:

Everyone is aware of what BitCoin is, and the vast majority of businesses REJECT IT.   Time is money, it take time, effort, and education to set up systems to accept BitCoin, it takes more time to use them, and it is not worth it for the ONE customer out of 10,000 that would want to use bitcoin instead of US dollars.   Business get more profit by putting their time and effort into other areas of their business.

You are DELUSIONAL, and do not accept reality.

Hard Facts

It is usually better to give someone the answer they NEED rather than the answer they want....    I know most people here like to be in a self supporting echo chamber of positive, " feel good " BitCoin news, but they need reality and good advice now more than ever...

Hard Facts

I am not experienced with this kinds of transactions but I think you should convert your bitcoin to physical money. I think it is very hard for this merchants to accept bitcoin as payment but if we were to educate them about cryptocurrency and such then they will likely accept the offer. The best way I think would be to pitch them a proposal about the advantages of transactions via bitcoin and tell them that they will be famous when they pioneer this kind of transaction in their own business field.

I don’t really know for you, but one thing for sure is that they are not going to agree to use Bitcoin just like that. For them to even know about Bitcoin and accept it, it’s going to take you some days of teaching them about Bitcoin and them taking time to understand it before they will agree. Another thing is that you’re a stranger to them, so how will they trust about some digital form of money, and they will also be needing that money in their bank account at anytime.

So, I will advise you yourself to convert the Bitcoin to cash and buy whatever it is you want to buy, or search for it online, I believe a search on Google will bring sites that are possibly selling bicycles for Bitcoin, but the thing is whether they will be legit.

I am seen this for the first time. I am serial user bitpay and I have not had an issue with them before, in fact, bitpay is my best crypto wallet and with the current version, new coins are added including USDC and PAX. If the op still want to buy that bicycle, I will suggest he convert the bitcoin he has to fiat and buy but if he insists in buying with bitcoin, then maybe he can find online marketplace that accepts bitcoin and search maybe he can see the type of bicycle he wants to buy

Most shops will just change it to fiat straight away.

They're not accepting Bitcoin if they use a payment processor. They're receiving dollars sent using BTC as a payment rail. In quite a few places people would rather stay away from banks and let a payment processor handle the conversion. Less potential for the bank getting arsey.

Easiest way, change your BTC for cash and give that to him.  Certainly in the current climate no one is going to want to accept bitcoin for goods. 

If they do not accept bitcoins, then it would be possible to sell bitcoins and pay them for a bicycle, this is a fairly reasonable step. Or is it extremely important for you that you buy a bike directly using bitcoins without the help of third parties?

I remember that, but they seem to have made a resurgence recently:


Apparently, they don't even charge merchants to use Coinbase Commerce. It's sort of a convenience. I'm sure most of their merchants send the cryptocurrency straight to Coinbase to cash out, which is why they offer the service.

If I were a merchant and someone gave me this idea, I'd probably add bitpay or something like that. Personally, I think accepting BTC has a lot of advantages and brings more traffic to your site. Opens you up to a new group of clients and the costs are very small.

As for the bike, do you really prefer this type with a motor integrated into the crankset, instead of the rear wheel? Wheel integrated drives have much more power.
I thought about buying an e-bike, but rather something like this: https://lunacycle.com/sur-ron-x-bike-black-edition/
 

If you don't think the merchant wants to simply accept Bitcoin, then why don't you exchange your Bitcoins for cash and pay that bike? If he uses BitPay or something similar your fees will be way too high and the merchant won't see any of the Bitcoins anyway.

Well, shoot. Can you not tell the multiple various businesses I shop at every week whom I pay in bitcoin? They've been happy to accept bitcoin for several years, they've been paying some of their staff with bitcoin, and I know at least one of them pays a supplier in bitcoin, but now they are going to find out its not worth their effort? It'll be a real hassle for them if you tell them they have to stop.

A way to hedge against it, such as using a payment processor to convert the bitcoin you receive in to fiat? And they charge significantly less fees to do so than the fees you pay when you accept credit cards? If only there were multiple different companies offering exactly this!

Look, we all know you are 100% in gold and will say anything to try to push your false agenda, but at least try to make sensible arguments? Saying things which are provably and demonstrably false just makes you look silly.

Hard, why not go posture somewhere else?

OP is asking for a simple answer to a simple question.

You can harangue your loved ones about Bitcoin's shortcomings over dinner tonight instead.

There are NOT enough people that want to pay in Bitcoin to make it worth the TIME, MONEY, and effort for a business to learn how to accept and deal with BitCoin.   They are far better off using that time and effort into other areas of the business.

ALSO, there is a huge DOWNSIDE and risk to using bitcoin, since its price can collapse in ONE BUSINESS DAY.   Even if there were a way to hedge against this, it would BE EXPENSIVE, another reason for a business NOT to use bitcoin.

This is one reason why BitCoin has FAILED in its initial promises,  as a way to pay for ordinary transactions.   Now bitcoin has FAILED as a safe haven asset " Digital Gold " the moment an economic crisis hit, and there is a long way to go down from here.  Dump that BitCoin, and buy that bike quickly 

Hard Facts

OK, then.  I don't think that my quest to buy a bike with bitcoin is ego-driven, but who knows.  However, you're correct that I'd have to spend way more bitcoin right now than I would have a month ago.  I don't think my purchase is going to happen in the immediate future, so maybe we'll see bitcoin rebound and I won't have to shell out as much for a bike--if it ever happens.

I think it's for the better, as they allow people to pay for stuff with bitcoin if that's what they have, and it doesn't really matter to me if a merchant is a bitcoin supporter or not.  Besides, I think processors like Bitpay are necessary to mitigate the volatility risk on the merchant's side.  If businesses had to accept bitcoin outright and then do whatever they're going to do with it, I don't think there would be nearly as many accepting bitcoin--and there really aren't a lot to begin with.

Expensive choice man! In this price, I can get a quarter liter motorcycle from Honda in my country! I am sure something must be special about this bicycle since the price is so high! Anyway, coming back to your concern!

At this stage, it is better to get a visa prepaid card from Bitpay and load that card with required amount of bitcoins. You can simply swipe a visa card at any POS that accepts Visa - the merchants doesn't need to accept bitcoin there. It serves two purposes - you get your bike using bitcoin and merchant gets their money without using bitcoin. Hope this helps and congratulation in advance!

I think people need to let their spiritual beliefs go with this particular subject. All the merchant wants is dollars in their bank. They do not give a fuck about S2X or whatever.

For better or worse that's all Bitpay do and they must have held thousands of hands by this point. There's Coinbase too but I think they make merchants handle their own seeds now which is why their processing business has collapsed, probably intentionally.

No, the US.  But I appreciate the suggestion and you're correct about what I was asking here.  It's not as simple as this:

Lol, which isn't a solution to my problem at all.

That would be true for any merchant that didn't already accept bitcoin, but I don't suspect it would be easy to convince a business to start doing so if they're either unfamiliar with what bitcoin is all about or perhaps have a bias against it.  I might be inclined to sweeten the deal for the bike shop, however. 

I don't think any business is going to want to accept bitcoin outright because of the volatility--that's what makes payment processors so important for merchants. 

Actually the simplest method (might not be legal in some countries) is for the shop owner to get his/her very own bitcoin wallet. As simple as that, a mere p2p transaction.

For legality maybe he/she could use his own fiat to make accounting happy, just make it look like he/she is giving a gift from his/her own pocket, no one really needs to know he actually got bitcoin.

To do it formally it depends on each country's regulation.

I think OP is asking for some the simplest solution for the seller when it comes to accepting BTC as a payment method. For start this include software which will be used for payments, that need to be easy for install and easy for use. Second thing is that seller is secured against sudden price changes in a way that procesor provider is making crypto-fiat transaction instantly at the time of payment or after 1 confirmation.

I use most of the payment processors, and I can comment some of them from the point of buyer. CoinPayments was very popular in past, they have a very good signature campaign here on forum, but then they are forced to restrict operations in some countries (list) which including New York (NY)&Washington (WA) in USA. I must say that after that many sellers stop to use them, and I did not using they service in last 12 months.

Regarding CoinGate, I use them a few times, and the only thing that may be a little strange about their service is the fact that the payment will not be completed until the transaction is received 6 confirmation. Absolutely unnecessary if you ask me, 2 confirmations would be enough.

What I would recommend to the OP (because he is from USA) is Commerce Coinbase, which I use many times as buyer without any problem, very easy and simple payment processor, at least for buyers. From what can be read integration for merchants can be done in just few simple clicks :

First of all, I definitely wouldn't suggest BitPay. It has a well deserved reputation of being terrible. Roger Ver is a heavy investor in it, it supported Segwit2X and continues to support BTrash, and you won't be able to use it to buy your bike without completing KYC as the value is over their arbitrary limit.

BTCPay are a good payment processor, but still require the merchant to manually sell the bitcoin for fiat, if that's what they want to do. Others I've seen used in the past which support instant BTC-to-fiat conversion for the merchant are CoinGate and CoinPayments, but I don't have any experience of using these myself.

As AGD says, the simplest option would be to get him to set up his own wallet and accept bitcoin directly. If he wants to then register on an exchange to sell for fiat, then he can do that too.

I guess OP's trying to see if there's an easy way for merchants to accept Bitcoin AND have it all settle on his backend in normal fiat (which is highly likely for a bike shop unless they're prepared to do separate accounting for bitcoin payments.

I would say here BTCPay Server but this requires the merchant to get elbow deep in some learning curve first.

MisterTango has something similar to BTCPay and I know at least one other merchant using it well and easily (or as easily as BitPay).

In Netherlands, in Bitcoin City, they're all very happy with BitKassa -- it converts to Euros and onboarding's a snap. If I remember, you're in the UK OP?

The easiest solution is to print out a sign "Accepting Bitcoins" and a QR of his Bitcoin wallet

I started a thread a while back asking if anyone knew of any bicycle retailers that accepted bitcoin--in particular, I was looking for someone who had a selection of e-bikes and would take bitcoin.  Unfortunately all the suggestions I got didn't help me much.

Right now I actually have enough bitcoin to buy the bike I was originally looking for, but I don't have a clue as to whether there's a retailer who sells the Turbo Vado and who accepts bitcoin.  But there are two local bike shops selling it, and I was thinking about going to one of them and asking if they'd accept bitcoin.

The issue is that I don't know what the bike shop would have to do in order to hook up with a payment processor, because I seriously doubt they'd take bitcoin outright.  Does anyone have any experience with processors like Bitpay?  Are there others?  Is it a pain in the ass for a merchant to use one?  Those are some of the questions I have, and I'm looking for answers from those who might know.  I don't want to make my request at the bike shop and then have no idea what I should suggest they do.

I was also thinking I could entice them by suggesting that I give them a little free advertising on bitcointalk by writing about my experience after the sale.  Heh heh.