Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin usage on the merchant is increasing every year. Although it's nothing compared to the use of credit cards. Bitcoin has a $4 billion purchasing power while credit card has $3.7 trillion, but not bad for Bitcoin since Bitcoin is still growing.

“In 2020, we’re hyper-focused on providing a complete merchant experience with business features and insights, better serving other geographies with internationalization, adding more currencies, and building seamless integrations that leverage other Coinbase products,” Coinbase Commerce lead Sahil Amoli told CoinDesk.

A merchant in Paris was interviewed regarding crypto transactions. According to him, people are still not ready for crypto payments and that they prefer to keep it rather than spend it. He has a point and it's obvious why. But for him as a merchant, he prefers receiving crypto payments than PayPal. Because of the nature of his business, he often receives payments digitally because their products cost a huge amount of money. But since his business is about lingerie boutique, customers (mostly men) prefer Bitcoin than credit cards to avoid showing up on their bills what they had both.

Source:
https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-usage-among-merchants-is-up-according-to-data-from-coinbase-and-bitpay

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This just shows that some customers and merchants prefer crypto payments, no wonder why Bitcoin usage increases. As it continues to grow, customers and store owners are starting to see the real value of cryptocurrency. It can give them benefits that other payment options can't. It will make them realize that bitcoin is a lot more advantageous by making the transaction much convenient for the merchant and the customer. Like the customer doesn't need to bring money to purchase a product because they can easily pay with bitcoins using their phones as long as they have internet access.


Although just like what he said, most of us would rather choose to keep our coins than to spend it, and I'm somehow guilty about it. Most of us see the value of bitcoin as an investment that we need to store than a currency we can use for day to day transactions. One issue I see is that there's still no enough merchants that accept Bitcoin unless it's a luxury brand.

Every day, crypto adoption is increasing so I really think that there should be something that will help merchants to learn crypto payments.


Also, I've seen this poster and it catches my attention because it suits the merchants. This kind of lesson should be included in the curriculum to teach young people especially those who are in a business-related course to know cryptocurrency. Business students are the future businessmen and entrepreneurs and in the future, we will achieve more adoption so it should be taught to them. Millennials will be needing it sooner and when they grow up.  If they teach students about credit cards, why not start teaching them about crypto right?

Do you guys feel the growth of Bitcoin among merchants, like do you see increasing of shops that accept Bitcoin payment? And does add crypto to the curriculum would really make merchants accept Bitcoin?

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PS: I'm not posting this to promote the site, I just want to share the news with everyone.

In my part of the world, the UK, there are fewer options than there used to be and very few new ones coming. It looks to me the optimism surrounding merchant adoption peaked in 2014 and has been going slowly downhill ever since. Lots of places have rescinded it as an option like Steam, Expedia and others.

Coinbase forcing merchants to handle their own seeds must have put a huge dent in their business and I've only ever used one place that had Coinbase as its payment processor.

Merchant adoption will come en masse a long time down the line. The speculation phase needs to transition into a store of value and then it eventually might become a currency of sorts.

I definitely appreciate the ability to spend it. I don't expect it to grow much for a lengthy while.

There are mainly two part of the story. Bitcoin adoption is definitely on the rise and that's not surprising in any way. But there are two major things which actually determines the fate of the adoption.

1. Legality - it is a big factor behind botcoin adoption. In a country like Japan, its much easier to find a merchant that accepts bitcoin because bitcoin has a legal status there. So legality of bitcoin definitely means a lot when it comes to merchant adoption.

2. Mentality - people are greedy. Common people always look ways to make money. Bitcoin is definitely one of the most attractive assets I have seen in decades. Common people like me, simply don't want to loose the opportunity to make money. That's why they are less inclined to spending their bitcoins.

Bitcoin adoption will certainly grow on its own as more and more people will become interested about it. But these two major factors will play the biggest role in the background.

I came across www.spending-bitcoin.com a while ago. Well over 1,000 merchants are listed there.

Crypto is not a valid form of payment in most countries. You would need to use a payment processor to get the job done. The thing I am wondering is how would a merchant accepting crypto payments go about giving a refund. Would assume in fiat most likely.

Though crypto has value, unfortunately not everyone is brave enough to accept it as a form of payment. Sure there are a few merchants here and therr accepting bitcoin as payment but sadly, even those are disappearing as time passes by. Not to mention that ever since big names started closing their doors on crypto payments, independent merchants followed suit, thus bringing a rather lame adoption phase for cryptocurrency and making it a non-viable payment solution yet again since no one accepts it.

Until speculation has subsided and the craze for get-rich-quick involving crypto has died out, we may not be seeing crypto receiving the adoption and attention from the merchants it was always destined to have.

Pro bitcoin payments by Merchants are increasing. That's a good sign for adoption, yeah. I remembered one Merchant I got a chance to talk to him for a few minutes. I ask him how's the progress for bitcoin payments. And yeah, the answer is probably same like other Merchant's owners. It wasn't yet  often used. And that our countrymen isn't yet ready to spend it thus still majority, considering it as a store value than of spending it as a payment.

The adoption of bitcoin as another mode of payment to merchants is still starting that is why we can’t compare it to credit cards and debit cards. As the adoption of bitcoin increases every year more and more merchants are also thinking of adopting it just to survive and be ahead from there competitors, we may see still a few merchants who accepts bitcoin but is t is only a matter of time that bitcoin will be considered another way to make payments for our goods and services.

OMG, that sounds like some of the worst public-relations gobbledygook I've ever read. 

Merchant acceptance might be up, but I doubt there's been much of an increase in people using bitcoin to buy things--or if there has been, I don't think it's a trend that's going to stick.  Ever since I became aware of bitcoin, I've always wondered why anyone would want to spend it instead of fiat if privacy isn't a concern, which it isn't for most people.  That isn't to say I don't understand why bitcoin is revolutionary, because I do.  But for the average person it isn't necessary when it comes to buying everyday goods & services.  It wasn't necessary 10 years ago when bitcoin came out and it isn't today, so I don't see this article as anything of huge importance.

It's no surprise that most customers don't use them as payment. It's either they don't know about bitcoin or they don't want to spend it. They are indeed increasing although in my case, I haven't seen one in my country that accepts crypto payments. I know there are some merchants in my country that accepts crypto but I just haven't encountered one yet. The thing is, although I know it's increasing, I can't feel it myself. I guess we're still early for mass adoption but it's the start.


Just like what you have said, Bitcoin payment is just starting so it is nothing compared to the number of usage of credit and debit cards. It's almost everywhere like almost everyone has one. But the good thing is that even though there's debit and credit, the merchants still have a space for crypto payments. That they are still willing to accept it even though there's no much customer who uses it.

from what i've seen the merchant adoption peak happens when there is consumer adoption peak when they are also at the peak of their spending. and that happens during price rises. which is part of the reason why 2017 showed a lot of merchant adoption.
the reason why Valve,... dropped bitcoin as a payment option was the huge fees that negated all the adoption during 2017.

I think this depends on the place that you are in.

In my country, despite the legalization of cryptocurrencies, people are still not accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that much. Online, there are some mobile payments that accept Bitcoin but in terms of offline transactions or payment methods, they prefer fiat. Some say it is their investment so they will hold into it rather than use it.

Fortunately, merchants in the Philippines that accept bitcoin have been increasing over the past years. One thing also to note is that our local exchange provide different payment options for various services. These merchants saw the opportunity of bitcoin and began accepting it as a mode of payment. But I consider bitcoin as a valuable asset for investment.


This is true. While other countries have progression in the acceptance of cryptocurrencies, there are others who are still yet to be accepted as a means of payment for services/product. This also depends on the government regarding their stand with cryptocurrencies. Once they give the green signal, merchants would start accepting it as a mode of payment.

I heard of this and this definitely good news to the Philippines crypto users. It's only 11 years but crypto progress has seen progress, many country still dont trust the effect of using blockchain tech but not all even the strictest one always have an outlier to the group. We cant condemn government authorities for being so strict about this cause admit it, this is not perfect and can still be use for illegal and wrong doings which every country should lay provisions with.

Nice thread OP at least we know that the progress is increasing day by day.

Exactly, because it is more worth it to exchange it in fiat rather than spending it directly to buy things on the market, which may cost more than their regular expenses. I think we need more time before we reach that moment in which spending bitcoin is a regular thing to do in our everyday lives, where its price is almost triple the last ATH price we've had in year 2017, if that time comes, the transaction fee that we are going to pay in every transaction we've had will be like a penny.

Bitcoin usage among merchants goes up because the bitcoin price goes up,so the merchants want to get more bitcoins,before the BTC price hits the moon.Sneaky little rats.... ;D
At the same time,nobody wants to purchase stuff using bitcoin,because we are in a bull trend and the price might be at 12K USD next week.Damn it,let's just face the fact that Bitcoin will never going to be massively used for retail purchases.The number of merchants accepting bitcoin payments doesn't matter. :(

This is really funny. I understood it before the sentence even end.  ;D
It is a good thing, for those who have courageous merchants that will enter the crypto currency field as a payment option.
I am really smiling now.  :D

At my side though, I am still having a hard time to see those who can do it.
Actually, I don't see it yet.
It may really start from other countries merchant first before my own countrymen will follow it.
Sad but true.

The building of a strong merchant network is key to the success of Bitcoin. This is where most of the Alt coins are failing, because they think everything stop, once the token are developed. People need a motivation to buy the token and the motivation is usually some advantage that Bitcoin has over other payment methods.

The one used in the example of men using the token to buy sexy lingerie is one of the things that gives Bitcoin an advantage over it's competitors. The pseudo anonymity protect the user of that token and more boutiques and sex shops should be approached to ask if they would be willing to accept Bitcoin.

Why should there be a paper trail back to the customer to show his adult purchases to some centralized financial organization or the government to which it is reporting to.   >:(  

Although bitcoin adoption may move at a glacial pace,  merchants are seeing sustained traction regardless of market dips. There are many countires which bitcoin is not use a legal tender,  but there some countries which uses bitcoin as a payement gateway,,
There are many merchants which accept bitcoin and other crypto currencies as a  payment system, with the increase in no.of users using bitcoin as a payment system its popularity and usage increases, it will produce a strong merchant network which uses bitcoin as a payment gateway is the way to the success of bitcoin..

A big difficulty in adding the Bitcoin payment method to a website is volatility, confirmations, the number of customers using this payment method and the fees. Most websites will not go through the headache of adding Bitcoin payment methods to their platform due to the small number of people willing to pay through it.

The number of people using Bitcoin always peaks when the price is the highest. That's when the craze starts and then everyone goes silent until the next market ride. Therefore, it's just a hassle many websites consider they don't need. If Bitcoin will ever become a true payment method and adoption will be on a significantly higher level than it is today, adding it might become an option for website owners. Until then though, it's going to probably stay the way it is.

The merchant adoption of bitcoin as a payment gateway keeps increasing understanding the need of technology based growth. The same isn't happening with the people, because very few users have begun to spend bitcoin on their daily needs. Another thing very little number of merchants openly reveal the cryptocurrency acceptance into the business as there is very limited legal support. Japan is the only country that has got merchants in large numbers accepting bitcoin with the support of government. It is promoted as a means of cashless transaction. Similar scenario needs to happen with rest of the world to experience the real merchant adoption of bitcoin.

UX definitely needs to be improved to appeal to regular folk, but having the option to use it is a lot better than not having it at all. It sucks that adoption is slow and even uninteresting to some people, but it's always nice to know that some infrastructure exists, ready for anyone who may want to dip their toes in; can't start using it if it's not accepted anywhere after all. Heck, the fact that it's still being accepted at all despite the factors you've mentioned is a victory to me lol.


Well to be fair, most of these services offer discreet billing, so their customers often aren't bothered. But yeah, that's not enough as it doesn't protect against leaks (remember Ashley Madison?), so Bitcoin is absolutely perfect for this. Most independent workers seem to accept crypto as far as I can see, so there's that at least.

There has not been significant adoption of payments using bitcoin in my area because it is illegal if done openly. Only state currencies can be used as payment instruments. Even if someone does that, it must be done very limited and closed and the scale is small.
I strongly agree if cryptocurrency is included in the education curriculum. Students should get the right education so they can utilize this technological development well. This evolution requires quite a long time, so innovation still has a big opportunity to develop, who knows from the children that later came up with a brilliant idea that can solve problems in cryptocurrency.

You didn't provide any data or concrete information on that. So, your conclusion is based on what exactly, just an impression? That is not good way to share information.

While it's good that the adoption is increasing, the difference is too serious. It probably means that if the usage increase rates don't change, it won't ever be able to catch up and turn into something meaningful. And the example of this guy's shop is very specific. People use Bitcoin there because they don't want the purchases to be noticed (so they use it to hide something, basically). I think people should use Bitcoin not only when they'd prefer to hide what they are doing, but just to pay for any stuff. And we are very far from that yet. I want to use BTC for causal stuff, but I find myself not being able to do that because the things I usually buy cannot be bought with Bitcoin.

What I don't understand here is that Bitcoin is not really illegal in our country.

Despite the government legalizing cryptocurrency particularly Bitcoin, a lot of people are still not accepting and using it. From merchants to users, they are not aware of it and they just became aware of it when a scam or when someone gets scammed. They would call Bitcoin names that they don't really know, they don't even know Bitcoin is and they are labeling it as a scam.

At least there is a growing usage of bitcoin mate and that is what important in here,we may not forced others to learn and use bitcoin or other cryptocurrency but we can let them see what can this give them,by continue using Bitcoin and promotes to them time after time.
Let them see this as an option for now but main payment system in future.
If we can discourage them from using banks and credit cards then that is the start of what we wanted to have.

Adoption becomes difficult on the part where transaction finality is not always guaranteed for merchants. They can't just risk giving an item to customers while having to wait if the transaction goes through the blockchain.

Though I must agree on the part that cryptocurrencies should start being introduced to the curriculum. Just a brief explanation of what these are, and what are other types of digital currecies available.

PS. TL;DR would be nice for this post.

$ 4 billion is not a small number, especially for crypto because it is banned from trading in quite a few countries due to concerns about money laundering. but in my opinion the volume will not increase in the future. The problem is that money laundering will be very easy, and do you think the government will make it easy? Especially for large businesses, if they discover the privacy coin, the money laundering becomes easier and the country will become more chaotic.
I am not in favor of people using crypto because most people will think of money laundering rather than convenience. I just want Blockchain technology to be developed and applied much in life. What do you think of my opinion? or if the view on money laundering is wrong, show me. Nice to discuss with you guys.

Who would've deny? Lol. It is the reality man, I mean there are some who aren't looking at the same picture as this but majority are riding along the hype. Everybody has their own greed, especially these businesses they are dealing with it on a more practical use better than just going on without a good timing then failed, right?
Totally agree, man. Nobody wants to be that reckless especially there is a big event coming up on the scene. May be these news was brought by coming events on crypto space and want to be counted in.

not just some or few but there are now lots of them .  lots of merchants now accept bitcoin  , i can tell when i look at online and on our place or on some place where bitcoins are accepted   . they hodl bitcoin not only because they are also investing with it but they hold it because that is part of thier business  . its either they buy and sell bitcoin or use bitcoin to pay back if ever there are problems with thier transactions  .  i feel bad on you and your country because unfortunately your from one of those that bitcoin is not yet legal    but lets wait and see what will be the decision of your government soon

I would like to point out some of the main reason why people wants to use bitcoin as a part of the transactions.

Point#1 Mobile Payments
Since you have digital money, you will be able to transact anywhere you want as long as you have internet. It is easier than usual where in you need to pay using your physical money. It would really help you in terms of your transaction speed. Once the transaction speed is affected, there is a higher chance that the income is gonna go in much faster than before.

Point#2 Provides Lower Transaction Fees
Cryptocurrency is a decentralized digital currency. What is the meaning of this? There is no intermediary government involve in every transaction that you have done. Every transaction that you are doing will be cheaper than its original price since it doesn't have any tax at all.

Consumers will for surely gonna like it that makes bitcoin usage to rise up even more. Let's just try to spread the positive effect of bitcoin and introduce it to those people that doesn't even know anything about it. They will for surely gonna be amazed on how good it is and lets just hope that they will also accept it as a part of their everyday transaction.

References:
https://www.finder.com/bitcoins-international-money-transfers
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/100314/what-are-advantages-paying-bitcoin.asp

This is such a great news. Here in the Philippines, there are stores that are accepting Bitcoin now, they even consider altcoins. There are even restaurants accepting Bitcoin in Mandaluyong. Times are changing so fast and the adoption of Bitcoin is rapidly growing now compared to the last few years. The supports of merchants here is great. I think this is just the beginning

In my piece of the planet , the Franch, there are less choices than there wont to be and not very many new ones coming. it's to me the hopefulness encompassing trader appropriation crested in 2014 and has been going gradually downhill from that time forward. tons of spots have repealed it as a choice like Steam, Expedia et al. .
Coinbase compelling shippers to affect their own seeds more likely than not put a huge mark in their business and i have just at any point utilized one spot that had Coinbase as its installment processor.
Trader reception will come altogether quite while down the road . The hypothesis stage must become a store of serious worth and afterward it within the end may become a money of sorts.

I certainly welcome the capacity to spend it. i do not anticipate that it should develop much for an extended time.

Every day, crypto adoption is increasing so I really think there should be someone who will help merchants to study crypto so that bitcoin usage among merchants increases, I want in our country there is an online shop based like in Japan, which offers a wide variety of men's and women's clothing. ,, by accepting bitcoin ..

This will grow over time, as more and more people and merchants accept crypto payments. We just have to stimulate bitcoin's circulation, in order for this to be expedited, but at the end of the day, patience pays hard. So it's good that things are coming in slowly, and with enough support, we can assure a more digitized future courtesy of cryptocurrencies, of course spearheaded by bitcoin itself.

This isn't a bad stat for Bitcoin since it only got recently got integrated as a payment method on some merchant stores. It would take a lot longer before it would be able to replace the status quo payment method which are debit cards. One reason could be the fact that it's so much easier to pay with these cards thanks to the instructions of pay machines like the POS and others that helped to simplify the process of making payments for purchases at merchant stores. But its not a cause for worry as more better and efficient service would be available to facilitate Bitcoin purchases and reduce the complexity experienced in current systems. There's too many moving parts with paying with Bitcoin.