Bitcoin Forum

If you've stumbled onto a stash of bitcoins and want to do some online shopping, the bad news is you probably won't be buying much.

This year, the cryptocurrency is only accepted by three out of the top 500 online merchants, reports Bloomberg. That's down from five from last year, making using Bitcoin to buy things from merchants a lot tougher.

The lack of merchants is puzzling, given the gains from bitcoins recently -- one bitcoin is worth more than an ounce of gold -- and may be a sign that the cryptocurrency is better off as an asset than currency.

The Bloomberg report also mentioned that transaction fees could be an issue why the crytocurrency is not widely accepted. With fees climbing, smaller transactions aren't worth it compared to using other payment methods.

https://www.cnet.com/news/you-cant-really-shop-much-online-with-bitcoin-says-report/

I am not too worried with this news as i am not into bitcoin to purchase things and i do consider it as an asset class but if i am having the capability to purchase things with it ,then it is great,i am happy about it,the price of one bitcoin is worth more than an ounce of gold does not mean that it can be considered only as an asset because we can divide one bitcoin into units,so it is not a big issue. ;)

I agree. Currently, bitcoin is not meant to do micro transaction because of couple of reasons. Namely high transaction fee and slow confirmation time and of course the volatility of price. That's why bitcoin is now used as investment instrument by most people. Bitcoin has still a long future ahead and maybe one day we gonna see that it will be universally accepted as payment method.

What are the things that you can't buy? I personally haven't find any issues buying anything. If you want to buy anything from Amazon, there is purse.io, If you are buying from eBay then buy their gift cards from gyft or somewhere else and redeem them and buy, If you want to buy games there is Steam and G2A, If you want to use a reship company there is Shipito, a hosting plan? Vultr.com, recharging your phone? Bitrefill and the list goes on and on. The fees are also back to normal, It's simply that people still using high fees or their wallets are not doing the necessary updates.

There are now many ways we can use Bitcoin to purchase online. But what is happening is that many Bitcoin holders are still holding their hoard of Bitcoin in anticipation of a surge of value especially after August 1. Now, there are those who are converting their Bitcoin to altcoins and there are those who prefer to get the fiat equivalent.

As a currency, we should expect volatility and speculation to be a part of the traits for Bitcoin and they are serving Bitcoin well for some years now. But these traits can also turn off many merchants, making them like a two-edged sword.

I was just reading an article where Morgan Stanley was stating that due to this drop in the top 500 merchant acceptance, Bitcoin acceptance has basically dropped to zero, and is heading down even deeper.... On the other hand, that article did include some worthwhile info, where they are mainly referring to Bitcoin being a speculative asset rather than a tool people are using to settle purchases. That part I can definitely agree with. I personally have never seen full value in Bitcoin as currency solution, due to the ongoing volatility. We just have to admit that fiat is doing its job well in that aspect.