Bitcoin Forum

My question is if u see something u would like to buy and this item is offered at a lower price if paid using bitcoins, providing that you don't already have a wallet or coins would you take the time to set up a wallet and buy bitcoins just to be able to receive a discount on the item u wish to purchase?
I believed atm most people would not bother and pay full price,
WHY IS THIS SO?

It depends on the price of the item. Let's say I saw a $10 mouse pad at a 20% discount. As a guy with no bitcoins I wouldn't even bother to register on some exchange. On the other hand you can buy a car with BTC, e.g. Tesla, in such case getting into BTC is worth it.

Would bitcoin atm,'s help with this problem of small and instant payments in bitcoin for goods do u think?

For larger purchases if btc meant a decent discount, yes I absolutely would

I sometimes pay a premium if I can pay in bitcoin. My privacy is worth something. I rarely use anything except bitcoin for online purchases anymore. So for me the question is "Would I use a bank card if they offered a steep discount?" 
Maybe, but it has to be a good deal.

like others said i think it depends on the price and item you are selling and even in that regard everybody is different

Yes, but we need easy to use ATMs, not like those first generation Robocoin machines, that required you to scan your hand for like a minute before it allowed you to actually do anything.

yes i will pay in bitcoin.

This is pretty much how I feel as well. For items that give enough value to take the time to get BTC, it is well worth it. For example, if I can save $50 off something by spending 10 minutes dealing with Bitcoin, it's a definite yes.

yes i would. it is easy as 123 paying online is very convenient.

Yes... but the problem is that there needs to be more efficient ways of getting bitcoins more fast.. like atms and that stuff

The question wasn't in relation to paying with Bitcoin if you already had it, it's about obtaining Bitcoin so you can pay for something.

this. It's all itdepands about what price if for an item.

Only someone buy in bitcoin

The main obstacle right now is the pain-in-the-ass factor of exchanges (identity verification and bank account transfers--ugh!). Right now the answer to your question is no. If Circle can deliver on its promise to provide instant Bitcoin purchases via credit card, I would say yes.

It would also help if the benefits were there to help make it worth going through the work. Even discounts on items would go a long way.

Coinbase can do instant purchases but you have to go through quite a bit of identity verification and add a credit card as a backup.

Trust is the issue. And people do not change unless he has to.

Would I? Yes... this is a bitcoin forum, I think everyone here would...
Would other people? Probably not. Think of it like this, would you buy African Dollars that fluctuate in price to pay for something for what seems to be a cheaper price?

+1

To maintain my privacy, I have even gone as far as creating a fake Amazon account with a mail drop address and funding my purchases with Amazon Gyft cards paid with BTC.

I would if the difference was large enough to bother with the conversion process
Example a unit on ebay costs 120 dollars but the same thing can only be bought with bitcoin and or a service I don't use payza etc at around 70 dollars then I may be obliged to going and making an account that uses Bitcoin
Although if I use a service that gives me a bit of a bonus like Ebates would need to weight if I get a bigger cash back value than if I pay with BTC.
That said if it took two weeks to verify with an exchange to get BTC or a buy it now button then I probably would not bother if I needed it right away.

when the price is steady, i think  it is worth considering

if it is cheap,i could like to pay directly by BTC,it is fast and low fee;if the price is high,i will consider use BTC escrow.

I plan to phase out fiat as the bit coin economy grows. I am all ready converting 50% of my disposable income to bit coin and hoping to increase that amount to the point that I am paying only my mortgage and buying food with fiat.  

Spending 5-10% per year

I do not think you can hide your ip address very well unless using tor.

Does Amazon allow tor user to purchase item?

because first of all, people who are not familiar with bitcoins, have only heard of them in a negative way most likely.
secondly, are there that many (well-known) merchandisers that offer a cheaper price when paying with btc ? (including exchange fees etc)

I bought various things with bitcoin, which would not have been possible without it. It provides me much freedom to buy things over the internet. I think cryptocurrency will make life much easier for all people, and will make people buy more things online.

It depends on the amount of the discount and the time it would take to set everything up.

There would be a small number of public acceptance if people could get a discount on a product and then stopped using bitcoin, or if they only used Bitcoin to get the discount.

Bitcoin should be sold based on it's security and speed.

Bitcoin can be sold to merchants based on it's low costs.

If it was an item I really wanted and it was on sale through bitcoin I would definitely buy it and yes if I didn't had coins I would buy bitcoins and then use them to buy that item.

In this scenario, when buying cheaper using btc i will go through btc.
But regular shopping is not preferred to made it through btc.Better is to hold them cause is an investment afterall.

Yes if I see something I can't find in the store or somewhere else
That or if the thing in the store is inferior to the product available for order online.

But it's not just for the first time -- if you start having some BTC on hand, you will always get these sort of discounts. IMO, in the future, some market niches (adult entertainment industry, for one) will use BTC and will give discounts for people to use it. No chargebacks...

right now bitcoin is like free money, so people dont care to spend lot of it!

bitcoin is not free money. In order to obtain BTC a person much either invest to purchase a miner to mine BTC, give someone fiat to purchase BTC or sell something of value in exchange for BTC.

The OP states that the consumer would need to exchange fiat for BTC and then use BTC to purchase something at a discount.

The "immoral" industries, like porn, legal pot, certain medical procedures, alcohol have a huge incentive to accept bitcoin. Not only would it be much more difficult for them to get robbed (when they deal with cash) but they would not have to deal with chargebacks which can eat into their profits significantly

To answer the OP's original question, yes after learning about the benefits of Bitcoin I would certainly buy a product using bitcoin.

Yes, I'm glad to pay in Bitcoin if it possible.

For example, store or company which accepts Bitcoin, can buy an ATM like Lamassu,RoboCoin ecc. and then place it out there of their store, so, If I'm interested I can buy Bitcoin from the ATM and then buy something to the store  ;D

Yes, I would pay in bitcoin because it is much easier than PayPal or any of those systems.

Majority of people are lazy and also, not so many have wallets on their smartphones and also I can't find items to be paid for using BTC IRL.

Hmmm I don't know about AFK, but for me.. it allows me the possibility to purchase things abroad online without any troubles. So in a way, bitcoin is the lazy solution to visa for me  :)

Well, I think that's the distinction to make. I would love to be able to use my coins at more brick-and-mortar businesses (as opposed to web-based). Other than restaurant delivery through Foodler (which unfortunately is a bit lacking in my area), and a store here and there that accepts Gyft, there isn't much.

i paid many times with BTC,one miner PSU broken in warranty,i paid 0.2BTC to my customer.It is fast and easy.

Depends from person to person. I created PayPal account only to protect my credit card data from bunch of users. I created skrill account only to cut my expenses in trading some Bitcoin (much lower fees than PayPal). So yes, i would if change is something i feel is worth it. 1$ is not worth it for sure...5$+? Who knows, depends on my mood in that moment. 10$+ sure, i would.
So...bsicly, answer would be: "depends on how much that "something" costa and how much i would be able to save". I'm guessing, more expensive item is, better price i would get.

Many people are lazy, but those people also want something for nothing. If a merchant is offering a discount for paying in BTC, and has a way to procure BTC right there then most people would have very little reason not to get this discount.

If they can save $5 on their purchase for spending 5 minutes at a bitcoin ATM then it would be worth it, that works out to be $60 per hour.

Would depend on what % of discount you get. Remember when aquiring bitcoins you often have to pay a premium to obtain them.

If you're just going to buy your bitcoin back and pay a spread while doing so, what's the point? How big of a discount are we talking here?

I already bought some small thing with bitcoins, its not big issue to pay through bitcon.

Looks like people are hoarding it rather than using it.

The point would be to get the discount from the merchant.

The point the merchant may offer the discount is to get you to see how Bitcoin works.

This is not true.

If everyone had to pay a premium then it would not be a premium it would just be the market price

There is a bid-ask spread (difference between what people are ready to offer for bitcoins, and what people are ready to sell bitcoins for)
Add to that transaction costs, if any.
Plus when you buy something using your existing bitcoins which you mined/bought at a low price, it may generate a tax liability.  ;)

The bid-ask spread on exchanges are generally very low

If its cheaper then yes.

The lite wallets should be more publicised. Asking for a day to sync will turn off newbies.

Almost everyone will go for a discount even if it is 2-3% on a $50 purchase

It seems that almost all posts are missing the point of the question, and assume that the customer already has a substantial pile of bitcoins.

But the question was: if the client has no bitcoins, what is the advantage of

   have dollars in the bank --> buy bitcoins --> pay merchant with bitcoins

over

   have dollars in the bank --> pay merchant with dollars
 

Case in point:
Sold something yesterday and offered the buyer the choice of either:
A) $400 by PayPal (sent as gift so no fees to me)
B) $360 worth of bitcoin

They did NOT already own bitcoin.

Guess which they chose?

depending on the items being offered, if the object is an electronic device, gadgets and the like may be. but how to luxury goods, or jewelry. I think it would be quite complicated for both

That is a 10% difference. Is that what PayPal charges?

If they choose bitcoin, how much did the pay to get 360$ worth of bitcoin?

It seems that coinbase finally implemented a feature that lets you automatically buy back the coins you spend.

I think this is something that a lot of people were waiting for. This way they can spend their bitcoins and not worry about it costing them more over time.

Having it automatically buy coins back for you is much more convenient than having to do so yourself everytime you buy something.

They would only need to pay $360 to get $360 worth of bitcoin. It may take some time to get KYC verified with an exchange but that is all they would need to pay

If they buy at an exchange, they will have to pay the exchange trading fee.  To get the money to the exchange, they will have to pay some bank transfer or credit card fee.  Realistically, how much would they have to pay, in all, to use that bitcoin payment option?

Please note again, that the question is about customers who do not own the bitcoins yet.

They chose paypal.

So, the inconvenience (and expense - might have cost them $7 in exchange fees) of acquiring the bitcoin was not worth $40 to this buyer. A tech-savvy buyer, based in San Francisco.

It's anecdotal, but I think THIS is exactly what bitcoin needs to overcome to hit mainstream use. It's got to be easier for consumers to acquire/pay using bitcoin. The incentive has to outweigh the perceived hassle.

Indeed.

I suppose he would pay for the coins at the exchange with Paypal or with his credit card, so  one should add the fees for that to the $7.  And then there may be a delay before the money is available for trading.  And another delay for moving the coins from the exchange to BitPay or to you.

Volatility is another big obstacle.  If you post the bitcoin price as a fixed amount of BTC, you run the risk of the USD/BTC rate going down, in which case you would lose money.  (Last Friday it dropped 8% in a couple of hours, for example.)  A smart customer or competitor may wait for the rate to drop, and then buy lots of merchandise from you at below-market price.

Conversely, the customer runs the risk of the rate going up while he is buying the bitcoins.  To guard aganst that possibility, he has to send perhaps 5-10% more money to the exchange than he would need at the current rate.  If the rate does go up that much, he will end up paying more via bitcoin than via Paypal.  If the rate does not go ub by that much, or goes down, he will be left with a few extra dollars at the exchange, or a few extra BTC; which he must retrieve and spend elsewhere, otherwise he would lose money all the same.

If you post the bitcoin price as "the BTC equivalent of 360$", you merely push some(but not all) of your risk to the client.

I gather that Coinbase and Paypal have some mechanisms to alleviate some of these risks and hassles. I don't know the details, but even if they offer a fixed USD/BTC rate for the day, it only reduces the volatility risks, it does not eliminate it.

At this point, bitcoin payments options are advantageous only for people who already own a pile of BTC and want to cash on some of it to buy stuff.  Those options let them skip a couple of steps in that process.

I pay in bitcoin all the time, but that's because I am a trader, and spending in bitcoin is the principle way that I cash out my gains. If I weren't a trader, would I buy BTC to spend? No. But I might buy BTC to invest and spend down the road, if I were that type of investor.

Bitcoin atm often ask a higher price than the market price. For example in my town the atm charges 480 euro for a bitcoin while kraken asked 438 at the same time. That's a 10% markup or so.

Only if the profit is really big (either a single large transaction, or the prospect of repeated small transactions) or you already considered bitcoin before is it likely for someone to convert to bitcoin.

Still I know several people who are looking into bitcoin but are waiting for it to become more accepted by companies before they want to invest in it. So companies promoting and encouraging bitcoin may not individually stimulate someone to directly buy bitcoins just to spend them right away, but eventually the communed effort will.

It's like asking if people would buy a gift card just to spend it right away. People buy gift cards but spend it later. And usually they give it to a friend.

Such a great feature and this is a sign that bitcoin will have a long time increasing its price..

It is great that we can now use bitcoin while keeping money in the bitcoin economy

I believe most people would. Especially if the discount outweighed your belief of an immediate rise in BTC prices.

i love paying in bitcoin, but that's mainly because my coins are pure profit at this point. so i love being able to spend with ease without dipping into my bank account.

Being on a bitcoin forum it's not surprising, but I actually go out of my way to use merchants that accept bitcoin. This probably costs me more in time and money, but I have philosophical reasons for doing so.

That being said, I think most people I know would find switching to bitcoin for everyday purchases cumbersome at the moment. I believe as the momentum of this technology continues it will lead to higher accessibility and ease of use,  and then adoption will increase as people/merchants notice the benefits.

The inconvenience would only be something that would happen one time. If a customer were to use this merchant multiple times then they could receive this discount multiple times when dealing with the inconvenience only one time.

Exchanges do not generally charge that much in exchange fees. A $7 fee for a $360 purchase would be something that localbitcoins might charge, but you would not have to deal with the inconvenience. BTC-e for example only charges 0.2% trading fee for example.

But the customer still has to transfer all the dollars of the multiple purchases to the exchange (or BitPay, Coinbase, etc.) in order to buy the bitcoins.  So the route dollars-->bitcoins-->merchandise cannot incur in less fees than dollars-->merchandise.

Besides, the BTC price is still not rising, and may as well fall.  At this time, buying bitcoin is not a sensible medium-term investment.  That includes buying a bunch of bitcoin now in order to make multiple purchases over the next weeks or months. 

At this time, paying with bitcoin only makes sense if one already has bitcoins that were mined or bought for investment, and has decided to sell them.  If the merchant actually accepts bitcoin, the route bitcoin-->merchandise would incur in less fees than bitcoin-->dollars-->merchandise.  However, most bitcoin payment processors like Bitpay actually do the latter, so the dollar transmission fees must be paid by someone sometime.

The customer could simply go through the KYC of getting verified for instant buys of BTC on coinbase (hassle but no money).
The customer could then buy exact amount of BTC needed, send BTC to merchant (less the discount) receive the merchandise.

The price of BTC may rise or fall as it is nothing more then speculation to say it will go in a specific direction over a certain time period.

this is a huge incentive for new merchants to start to accept bitcoin.

depend if the item sale limited edition maybe i can use my real money to buy
because if use bitcoin i must create my walet and buy from exchange and it cost much time just concerned after my bitcoin process finish the Item has sold out

But see the bolded sentence above.  In order to buy the BTC one has to send dollars to Coinbase.  How could that route be cheaper than sending  those dollars directly to the merchant?

The BTC price just fell 10$ (from ~586$ to ~576$) over the last few hours.  Who is going to absorb that volatility? (Whover does it will want some extra margin to compensate the risk.)

The merchant is offering a discount for paying in bitcoin. The route does not need to be cheaper, as it would not be cheaper, but would essentially cost the same (you could potentially have to "pay" the spread that coinbase charges).

Short answer is no.

Cash still has the lowest fee. And credit card sometimes gives promotion/discount.

There is zero economic incentive to use bitcoin for local trade.

Thanks, that is the problem: the customer who does not have the bitcoins yet will end up paying more by paying with bitcoins than by paying with dollars.  If any such customer tries to pay with bitcoin just out of curiosity, he will be disappointed.

Therefore those services are not going to help bitcoin adoption; they cater to the bitcoin believers who already have bitcoins and want to spend them.

I would like to think that each transaction I do in BTC is ensuring the value in the future... plus I instant buy to keep my long position

Right now I like my bitcoins. I don't want to lose them, so I would not pay with them. But when the price hits the $2000+ range, then I will consider paying with them.

When you buy something with a credit card, the merchant will need to pay fees to the credit card processor for processing the transaction, this will normally translate into between 2%-3% with the rate probably being closer to 3% then 2%. The merchant will need to account for some level of fraud and/or chargebacks that the credit card company will need the company to pay for (these costs can vary widely from industry to industry). The customer will ultimately pay for these costs in the form of higher prices. These costs are essentially hidden from the customer.

As of ~5 minutes ago, the buy price on Coinbase was $561.80, the sell price was $559.96, and the spread between the two prices was $1.84 or ~0.32%. Assuming offering such a discount would have a zero effect on sales, a merchant could afford to offer a 3% discount for paying in bitcoin and would have profits stay the same (no net cost). The customer would need to pay the coinbase "fee" of ~0.32% but would still end up paying ~2.68% less then they otherwise would. This is not only a lower net cost to the customer but the costs are more transparent.

Most people still hoarding bitcoin.

Those willing to spend it only spending it on mining equipment.

Ok, ok, but how does the customer send the money to Coinbase?

They can use their bank account, one that does not carry any fees.

Nah, I spend bitcoin all the time. But I took out my initial investment (and much more) a long, long time ago. And I trade with the profits..... so whenever price drops and I manage to profit in coins, I put some aside for spending when we go back up. :)

I would probably not go through all the effort just for some discount, unless the product is expensive enough.

If i regularly buy something at a store and it give a permanent discount i might consider.

But of course people do not only buy bitcoin in the hope of discounts. Bitcoin is many things and has many reasons why you should buy it.

And why can't they use such an account to pay the merchant?

What does Coinbase do to avoid fees on dollar deposits, that merchants cannot do?

Or are you considering international purchases?  In that case going through bitcoin could save money over paying directly with dollars; but bitcoin-based payment processors do not yet reach overseas, do they?  (And for most overseas purchases, transportation and customs taxes will dwarf the credit card fees.)

Certainly, if I were to (ahem) want to pay for some sort of adult entertainment on the internet (cam site, porn, etc), then bitcoin would be the way to go. No handing ID info to shady websites. Nothing weird showing up on credit card bills...

No reason not to, assuming there were shops to spend it on. A lot of places where credit card penetration is low, bitcoin would be a very good payment method (it's true here in the Philippines).

1) There are fees for bank-to-bank transfers, except for transfers between acounts with the same bank. Those fees are usually to big compared to what's being paid for. And of course, there are the traditional payment methods, debit cards and checks. The choice between that and bitcoin is usually a matter of conveniece and savings.

2) Are you referring to how Coinbase could avoid fees per dollar deposit into THEIR account? Or the transfer FROM the sender's account?

3) There are some international vendors accepting bitcoin using bitpay, cashcashpinoy.com (http://cashcashpinoy.com) is one of them. And shipping charges will always be there, regardless of payment method.

If I can get a discount then sure and then replenish the BTCs. Otherwise I would rather keep hold of them as I believe they will be worth more.

You can but this would carry a lot of risks, risks that coinbase manages and takes. It is also slow as ACH usually takes 2-3 days to be received by the other bank.

Shipping and tariffs (customs taxes) are big for most international purchases, however bitcoin would still save money on the transaction as it would reduce overall costs.

If it was for small purchases I wouldn't bother trying to get into bitcoin just to make a small saving on something small however take something like a car and then you would be talking especially if I could save quite a bit paying with bitcoins over my own cash.

My OP was made because i was selling a bike on gumtree for $150 i think but also said half price if paying in bitcoin just to see what interest i got from it, not one person wanted to pay in bitcoin but everybody asked "what is it"? Some researched it and came back saying it just looked to hard for them to bother with. I know its not that easy to begin with and it made me think with all the money being put in to bitcoin why is it still not easy for the average joe?

For someone who is not a computer geek and has not owned bitcoin yet, getting some seems indeed a hassle.  (People recommend signing transactions on a separate computer, not connected to the internet, and then moving the signed TX to the main computer via USB stick. I presume that 99% of mankind would stop reading right there.)

It is surprising, but not TOO surprising, that a 75$ discount wasn't enough to drive people to do it.  Maybe they suspected a scam or something? ("Is the bike worth 75$ only?" "Why is there a discount for paying with Drugcoin?")

If there is no discount other than the fees that the credit card takes from the merchant, paying with bitcoin is still not worth it for domestic purchases.  Paying via bitcoin costs X = (bank wire fee) + (Bitpay fee) + (bank wire fee), whereas paying with dollars through bank wire costs only Y = (bank wire fee).  Obviously X is greater than Y, and those fees will be added to the bare item cost, no matter who pays them.

It is not right to compare X to Z = (credit card fee). People normally pay merchants with credit cards instead of bank wire because it is easier, faster, safer (can be cancelled) , and delays the actual payment until after receipt of the goods.  On these aspects, the bitcoin route is a lot worse than paying the merchant with bank wire.

The bitcoin route may save money on international payments, since it replaces one international bank transfer by two domestic ones plus the money-to-bitcoin and bitcoin-to-money conversion fees, which may still be cheaper overall.  However, for international purchases the possibility of delaying and canceling the actual payment is even more important for the customer, so he will probably choose to pay with credit card anyway.

Bitcoin payment processors like Bitpay and Coinbase presumably know this, so they are targeting people who already own bitcoin and want to spend some of it.  There are some 12 million coins already in bitcoiner's wallets; if each of them gets used only once for purchase through those companies, at current market price that means they would process 7 billion dollars and collect perhaps 70 million dollars in fees -- not bad.

To convince the average joe to adopt bitcoin, someone would have to pay the difference X minus Y for him.  Some bitcoiners may be willing to donate their money to the cause, but companies are created to make profit, and they would never do that.

If you own 1 BTC that you bought for 10$, it is worth using it to buy a TV that costs 600$, because you will be realizing a 590$ profit in that purchase.  Basically, whoever buys that BTC from Bitpay will be paying those 590$ for you.  It would be almost the same thing as selling that BTC for 600$ on an exchange and paying the TV with that money.

However, if you then were to buy 1 BTC for 600$ to "replenish your reserve", that profit will vanish: you would be paying 600$ for the TV, plus several fees.  If you don't want to reduce your BTC holdings, it is better to buy the TV with dollars, by bank wire directly to the merchant.

People will adapt. This is exactly the same story which was with first e-mails, smartphones etc. Information will spread. Also, herding behavior is very strong with people, just look at the success of whatsApp  - whose business model is "pay for something you already get for free". They only succeeded thanks to the herd behavior. And the herd day of bitcoin hasn't really come yet.

People using bitcoin right now are like people who used Nokia Communicators or Windows Mobile palmtops. And yeah, it is worth noting that when the smarphone revolution really kicked off, both Nokia and Microsoft missed the train.

Don't own any coin. As many posters here pointed out, converting bitcoin to fiat to pay seems like a hassle and increase transaction cost.

Most poeple just hold BTC to get wealthier and never use it to pay for shit.

Why not use xxxcoin?  ;)
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/xxxcoin/

I think this will turn out to be very true. Over time people will come up with ideas to make BTC more user friendly and easy to use for people who are not technically inclined (circle possibly). People will also understand bitcoin better then they do today.

True. Everybody uses e-mail these days. But how many are bothered about the protocol which makes this possible?

Pay with bitcoin in my country is my dream, i didn't see any merchants accept bitcoin, there is only one online store accept bitcoin in my country. One day if i have a store i will accept bitcoin as payment.

Wow. I'm actually surprised no one took you up on that offer in order to save $75.

That really speaks volumes about the state of Bitcoin usability.

"speaks volumes" really? Do you know the term samplesize?

Again thats the problem. Most people just hold, in hopes of making more cash. Why would you pay with Bitcoin if you barely have 1 BTC in the first place? If your were getting paid with BTC instead of fiat for your job, then that's something, because BTC wouldn't be such a rare thing to own. But while BTC is mostly achiveable by exchanging it for FIAT first, people don't see the point. It's like paying with a piece of gold instead of paying with something as mundane as FIAT.

But it is a visious cycle.

If people don't intend to spend bitcoin, noone will offer it as payment solution. Now if noone offers it as payment solution, it will not grow.

It is a chicken-egg problem and I think the community is doing just fine with spending their bitcoin!

A real use case example with multiple people expressing interest and not a single person being able to take him up on his offer says a lot.

I'm not trying to make a statistical inference here. The fact that no one was able or willing to google 'buy bitcoin', buy some, and buy the guys bike and save 50% is not an ideal situation is it?

I would love to see a similar experiment repeated on a larger scale to gather more data. But in the mean time his original point of bitcoin not being easy to use for the average Joe holds true, does it not?

I bet you would be more successful offering a 10% discount than 50%.

If you first hear about bitcoin and someone offers you a 50% discount out of the blue, wouldn't you be skeptical? Like: what is his angle, what does he gain by that?

Many shops that offered BTC with discount had many inquiries from Bitcoin newbs. There is interest there, but not on a random craigslist site...

The interest might be there, and it seemed to be with the bicycle sale since he said everyone was asking about it. But it's still not easy to buy and use for average people unfortunately.

Even if that holds true, this is changing everyday. I don't know when you started getting into bitcoin, but basically years ago it  was 100 times harder to get btc.

I think an offer for a 50% discount would likely be some kind of a scam because the costs associated with accepting other types of payments are not going to be that big, especially with selling a bike. The amount of the discount should always be less expensive then accepting non-BTC payments as the consumer and the merchant would share the cost savings.

I've actually overpaid for some items from Overstock.com just to thank them for accepting Bitcoin as payment. I think that having major retailers such as Overstock accepting Bitcoin is a huge part of what will make Bitcoin successful.

The biggest improvement in my opinion has been localbitcoins. Gox was the orginial "easy" way to get BTC and for people into Bitcoin it was good compared to p2p paypal or cash in the mail. But hopefully things continue to get better as time goes on.

Yes, I would.
If everybody just hold bitcoin and never spend, why merchants or anybody would want to offer bitcoin as payment option?
Of course, I will spend my Bitcoin wisely, and try to save something for the future :)

I don't think localbitcoins is particular easy to use.

Companies like coinbase and circle will be the real improvement.

Nah man not a scam just an old good bike i had that i didnt use anymore and thought it would be a good experiment to see if i could sell it for bitcoin. Same bike was selling on net for around $200 so i didnt think id have any trouble selling. It sure was an eye opener that most people dont know about btc and if they do then they dont want to give up their fiat.

I would only pay in bitcoin if the price was lower than paying in my local currency (dollars).  This would apply for all purchases with the only exceptions being something I wouldn't want to appear on a bank statement, like porn and gambling.

i can eventually pay in bitcoin but it depend on the price

Would you pay with an asset? because thats what BTC is so far.

There are a few joints here in my home town that support BTC, including some good cafe's and bars.
I had a beer with BTC once but so far I am trying to keep it personal and not spend it.

Read the thread before posting then your might know whats for sale.

Exactly, it's the snake that eats it's tail tale. We need to solve this, somehow, break free from this loop. But truth the told, who can afford paying with Bitcoin besides early adopters or already rich FIAT guys? Other than that and you are taking unnecessary risks that can have a serious impact in your life, wheres filthy rich guys can't afford paying with anything they want.

Paying in btc is awesome if you know a little math. Sure the bitcoin is the better option when we talk about online purchases, because it still saves your privacy and some bank transaction fees. But should be taken into consideration the exchange rate at the moment. If you want to buy something that costs $100, it should be 0.18 in btc. Summarizing this with the amount of time needed for your miners to mine one 1btc to the price per unit of electricity and see if paying in btc is reasonable at the moment of the purchase, I think.

Check your math again... If paying in bitcoin through a bitcoin processor like Bitpay or Coinbase (which is the only option for most stores that "accept bitcoin"), there are two bank transfers: when you send money to buy bitcoin, and when the processor sends money to the merchant.

Bitcoin may be more economical than bank transfers for international payments.  Otherwise it is just a convenient option for people who have old cheap bitcoins and have decided to cash on the profit.  It may (or may not) save some money, compared to selling the bitcoins on an exchange and sending the money to the merchant.

In that case paying in btc for small purchases is completely meaningless.

Sure it's not. I agree with JorgeStolfi. But holding the coins is also not a solution, hoping that the exchange rate will increase and people will get rich. Nothing too good is one-sided.

Regardless if you are actually trying to scam others or not, most people will see it as a scam. If you were to offer a much smaller discount then you will have a much easier time selling it and will likely be able to sell it for bitcoin. If the buyer chooses to pay in fiat then you could simply convert that fiat to BTC via LBC or an exchange.

sometimes when we buy any item with bitcoin, there are a lot of discount we can get, as example if we buy laptop or gadget, we can get discount until 20%. If this is continues, maybe I will always paying anything with bitcoin, hopefully this is always happen when we shop ...

I would like to know who is paying for those discounts.  The merchant, because he likes bitcoins?  Bitpay, to attract new customers?

One sad fact about bitcoin is that there is practically no reliable data on the bitcoin economy.  The few numbers that we have (such as the transaction statistics from the blockchain, and the trade volume at the exchanges) are hard to interpret because they may include large fraction of "fake" traffic, and/or miss a large fraction of the real traffic.   For example, we do not know how much Bitpay and Coinbase are processing per day, and what kinds of good/services dominate.  We do not know how many bitcoin owners there are, and how the bitcoins are distributed among them.

I certainly would prefer making payments in BTC because it prevent invasion of privacy.

Yes, if I had enough BTC to spend.

Up to 20%? Are you sure? I didn't realize that the margins on laptops was so high.  :)

Someone just posted in another thread that Newegg is giving 30% discount on orders above 500$ paid in bitcoin.  Not confirmed but not denied either.

A good free-market capitalist should buy all their stock with bitcoin and then sell it on eBay with a 25% markup.  :D

Unless their plain (non-discounted) price already is 35% over the rest of the market, of course.  ;D

No one that is rational would take you up on either of these offers. No one is going to sell you a cash like product (or something that can easily be converted to cash at a specific price) that is under the market value. Nor will anyone be willing to pay an above market value for this product.

The only exception to this rule is to get some level of privacy, however all transactions need to be reported in order for them to be valid so this would not apply.

I'm not buying anything with bitcoins untill they will gain a stable price.

If the discount is 20% then the merchant would be paying for it. They would offer this level of a discount to attract additional customer they would not otherwise be able to get to buy from them. They would likely be hoping to get people who would otherwise be holding bitcoin to spend some of their bitcoin at their store. Their margins would likely be large enough so these sales would not be money losers.

If the discount is closer to 4 or 5% then the credit card companies would essentially be paying for this discount. This would be reflective of the cost that it would cost merchants to accept credit cards plus the cost of chargebacks that merchants have to bear.

I already bought some small thing with bitcoins, its not big issue to pay through bitcon.

The fact that transactions are irreversible is still an advantage but also an disvantage when using btc to pay things in real life.

depends if the sale of a limited edition item, maybe I can use my real money to buy it
because if I use bitcoin I should make my wallet and buy from the exchange
not to mention my bitcoin processing time thus making the goods sold out

for me
yes i would pay in bitcoin because for now i have much bitcoin.

I would pay for sure in bitcoin, in this way I support the currency and maybe increase its adoption.

Well, if it was happening a couple days ago, it doesn't seem to be happening now. I just tried to order a desktop PC. It actually applied a 20% discount before choosing payment method. After choosing bitcoin as a payment method, the amount did not change.

I would pay at a premium, and be paid at a discount for Bitcoin.

I pay in bitcoin all the time, but that's because I am a trader, and spending in bitcoin is the principle way that I cash out my gains. If I weren't a trader, would I buy BTC to spend? No. But I might buy BTC to invest and spend down the road, if I were that type of investor.

Thanks!  Sorry, but that was what people claimed in some other thread.  I gave googled it now, it was/is just a 2-day-only offer, 75$ for purchases over 300$, or 150% for purchases over 500$:
http://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Info/NewsroomDetail.aspx?ID=1354&Type=3

Thus the max discount was 30% if you buy exactly 500$, less for other amounts.  If their "normal" discount is 20% then it is not that impressive.

Still, I would like to know who was picking up the tab of that discount: Newegg or Bitpay?

This could very well be a glitch with they shopping cart software. AFAIK their official offer is $75 off orders $300 or more when paying with bitcoin. So any other scenario would mean that the customer is potentially liable for this difference if they don't pay in bitcoin (maybe the discount would be removed if you choose a payment method other then bitcoin).

I would pay with bitcoin on some occasions.
Once BTC completely stabilizes I would be more than willing to pay with BTC.

Currently I just use BTC to quickly send transactions with no fees.
Nothing big really.

Best options for a pinchpenny  :)

Of course yes, if the discount/the price is very big  ;D
If the discount very small/the item price is mall, i will use fiat

But if i already have wallet & enough bitcoin, i will use bitcoin  :D
And this case is not usually happen

Interestingly enough Newegg has a promotion for Bitcoin going on right now that is testing that theory out
If you buy an Xbox One using newegg for 399.99 and get 50 dollars off its 349.99 + 20 dollars for shipping and that can't be beat anywhere else as it is a fixed price item.
By the same token if they bought 500 dollars of merchandize they would get to spend another 100 dollars and get 150 dollars off a 500 dollar purchase.
So 350+40 for shipping is = 390 dollars still cheaper than what they would get an Xbox for in the Store + They get a 100 dollar item basically free.

So in my opinion some people would do it if they find something they want, especially if its a fixed price item and they can still save more money and get more stuff than if they went to a Walmart to check it out :).

No, because I am unable to at least own 1 BTC. Once I have 1BTC in savings, i can spend some.

When you have these levels of savings, anyone that is looking to buy something that is also sold on newegg would be crazy not to take up this offer. You could simply buy more bitcoin on an exchange in the amount that the item retails for and end up with more bitcoin then what you started with.

I think this is what will drive the adoption of bitcoin to the masses. Since merchants have lower costs associated with processing bitcoin related payments, they will be able to pass along these savings onto their customers.

i am using bitcoin already

Why would you do this? It would be better economically to use an exchange to first convert to/from fiat. (assuming that the discount is large enough to overcome the costs associated with accepting a fiat based payment).

Alot of people would like to reduce the amount of dollars they keep so paying a premium might even be feasible.      You could say the same of people who buy gold, why would you do that when the price dropped since 2011 now but they see it as a hedging positive to have in security, not reliant on just dollars to hold value (might even appreciate in value as might btc but unlikely for dollars).
   Maybe if I can pay in BTC then my wallet has no dollars in it and I can feel more secure in some ways certainly from physical loss



If its a percentage discount then yes people will do it.    This offer is done with credit cards and store cards, apply today and we'll give 10% discount or whatever.  I'd do it for bitcoin even I'd not heard of them.   Really do need to make applications or setup easy for people to do, btc is still a bit esoteric I think possibly

If they didn't want to hold a lot of dollars then they would accept dollars for a transaction and then use an exchange to convert these dollars into bitcoin. You really cannot assume that the price will work in your favor, as it will not do this all of the time.

Market arbitrage is good stuff
If there was more examples of this in the real world especially if online stores make great deals on fixed price items I can see a lot more Bitcoin users  and interested people getting into it for the first time.

if it's worth it , then yes
if not , i won't bother buy BTC for that item

Sometimes I feel like BTC isn't good enough right now.
Just by looking at it right now it's going down pretty fast.

Of course. Technically, that is the reason why I am here. Learning and studying bitcoin in my spare time also relaxes me. I love to think this one is going to be big.

It depends on how much would I save for doing that. And how much time I thought it would take me to do it.

i will pay for sure if there is a discount for payment with bitcoin

There's no real reason for me, as a consumer, to buy bitcoin in order to pay with it. It's just too much hassle. However, as someone who bought in 2013, I'm happy to spend here and there.....

So far, only newegg and dell offering discount when paying in bitcoin.

The offer is for limited time only.

Gyft offers a discount as well. I think it is something like 3%, though I could be off. But every time I buy a gift card on Gyft, I turn around and use the "points" I just earned to buy another gift card.

More stores will start doing the same. 5% discounts are quite viable, when you take into account Paypal/credit cards fees plus the risk of being scammed.

This discount on gyft comes out to ~4% after you factor in the points. The companies that gyft buys the gift cards from likely give them a similar discount in exchange for not paying via credit cards as the companies' credit card costs are about this much.

Of course, that is one of the reason that Im here.  :D

Just trying to play the devil's advocate - Most stores do not offer discounts when you pay with cash. So why would they offer discounts with bitcoins? :)

Cash costs money for a business to process, its possible bitcoin could be more efficient for them though Im not sure thats the case. Its no surprise tech companies are first to trial bitcoin as it garners alot of attention so they can divert some of the advertising budget it can be argued!

Richard Branson didnt have to take bitcoin and Im not sure its an advantage for him really however think of his product in contrast and it totally makes sense.  He wants to capture some of that spirit for customers to feel when buying into his project also.  Its not finished, its very much a vision he is carrying out and very grand as is the concept of bitcoin and its usage.    Neither product is absolutely essential, both are flights of fancy :P

Bitcoin is not as widely accepted as it could be, so I guess some people would not bother to buy bitcoin just to get a discount. In fact buying bitcoin can kill the discount.

If there is something that I need to buy and I couldnt pay in cash then I could pay in bitcoin

Yes of course. Most people are here for the promise of $1000/BTC. Most of them doesnt even spend their BTC.

Suppose a wife spends today  0.25 BTC for a pair of shoe, and after a few days the BTC value doubles or triples... The husband will kill her! 😁😁😁

Of course I will pay in bitcoin. Invest - Bet (sometimes) - Buy and of course Spend

why not?
but of course it still depend on the price
if that thing cheaper when i buy with bitcoin i'll buy it, no problem

I prefer to keep them in cold storage but I could spend some satoshis to buy ebooks.

It's important that the money flows and not 100% is in cold storage. Unforotunately I dont have much so I havent done any groceries with something that could very well be worth millions a couple years, but I try to spend a couple satos in this and that to contribute.

Dollars can go up in value too though and have recently.   The swiss have a law soon to pass where 20% of their notes will be backed by gold, so should none of their population spend till they know the results.   In Norway the currency is backed by about 200k per person I think, because of their oil.  So their currency could also double, certainly vs Dollar and its endless trillions of debt.

The husband should try to earn some cash in btc not just hold it, that would be the best thing.   Till people really demand to be given BTC in exchange for their labour, skills or commodities we wont see the real economic picture for crypto play out.  Its a bit of a chicken and egg situation

Hoarding (saving) is actually a good thing. It's what gives a currency its value. If everyone is always spending their money, the money becomes worthless because nobody wants it. So the goal should be to get more people to save, because that increases the depth of the Bitcoin markets, and allows more capital (read: value) to flow through them. Currently the Bitcoin markets are actually rather shallow. They only allow a dozen million dollars' worth of value to flow through per day. With more hoarding, that number can skyrocket to billions of dollars per day. Of course, like I said, you shouldn't hoard 100% of it obviously.

I'm currently saving in bitcoins all what I earn, waiting for the next rally.

You actually have this backwards. If no one spends any bitcoin then there is nothing that would give it any value. There is no reason why everyone would want to buy bitcoin for the sole purpose of it increasing in value.

If there is a vibrant bitcoin related economy on the other hand then people will buy bitcoin with the intention of being able to spend it with lower costs then if they had spent money in other ways (via credit card or WU for example)

I have paid BTC to buy something. BTC will only grow as adoption grows.

That is the main idea there. In the future, I want to pay in bitcoin too

I won't pay in bitcoin untill its value will be around 5000 dollars, the are currently too much undervalued.

That will be in two to five years.

People is not gonna buy nachos with an investment (its what it is now because you are risking fiat money to own btc, unless you are the lucky ones in big signature campaings or something, or obviously you got a shit ton in the early days).

Yes I save and spent small amount to buy coffee or breafast

People who think that bitcoin is an "investment" are acting recklessly with their money. What you are essentially doing is encouraging people to not spend their bitcoin and to instead hoard, which is very bad for bitcoin over the long term because it means the overall bitcoin economy is lower then it otherwise would be

I would totally create a wallet and buy it at a lower price. It takes literally seconds to set up a wallet.

I dont know why people are so singular minded, if dollars can be saved and also used, spent and earnt all at the same time.   Why would anyone describe BTC as too precious to use, keep some back if you like but its supposed to be spent.       I use BTC when its available instead of cash, think of it as supporting the company you buy from because it should be lower cost then credit cards.   So you are giving profit to companies which have taken the bother to use BTC and you have avoided VISA and ultimately the whole big bank leveraged up house of cards which is going to collapse one day, sooner we start on alternatives the better

I guess when companies start making payments to their employees in bitcoins (as overstock plans to), people will start spending their bitcoins freely.

I personally would buy it with coins for a cheaper price.

The only thing I still don't like is that its still relatively hard/complicated to buy bitcoins. If I want to make a bank transfer to an exchange I need to send a minimum of X thousand €/$ or use a third party exchange where I have to do the same with extra authentication process that takes who knows how long. Seriously, why can't I just send 100-200$ to an exchange and buy coins? (Off-topic maybe, what's the easiest way to do it in small steps like 100-200$?)

As of right now, nope. Not enough btc. It would be like owning 1 once of gold and buying with it.

Buy from people directly and you can buy small amounts I think Borisz, try local bitcoin or I guess there must be other places that give small amounts

Thanks! I will see if I can find some smaller exchanges (?) or alternatives. Localbitcoins is cool, unfortunately I live at a place where there are no sellers nearby...

there's nothing stops me to pay with btc  ;D

Try a bitcoin atm if you have one in your area or if not why don't you just try some of the respected members on this forum, I'm sure they will help out with small btc buys. Use escrow!

Yes, I would.
If everybody just hold bitcoin and never spend, why merchants or anybody would want to offer bitcoin as payment option?
Of course, I will spend my Bitcoin wisely, and try to save something for the future

The article retells Andreessen's scenario of someone paying in bitcoin at the supermarket cashier by pointing his smartphone camera at the QR address on the sales terminal's screen.   Shouldn't the supermarket wait for at least one confirmation before acknowledging the payment?

Thanks for the advice! I might as well try it here on the forums.
Unfortunately there are no Bitcoin ATMs in my country.

Actually I found some places that accept alternative payments like Western Union, without any lengthy verification process, but the fees were simply outrageous.

Maybe try marcotheminer he does loans but might do a small sale and his trustworthy, I've dealt with him before.
Tomatocage is another good member that might help or be able point you in the right direction.

I just paid my Dish Network bill on line and was pleasantly surprised to see that one option to pay was "Bitcoin".  So add Dish to the other huge companies that deal in Bitcoin. 

There is a point in which Bitcoin will reach critical mass and take off, and I think we are about to reach that point. 

It is now inevitable. 

Why would you, tho, just for the sake of hoping this contributes the price going up? Or because you really needed to use Bitcoin to buy that? See, thats why we are crashing. Theres always an element of speculation in every single Bitcoin though.

Right now I see it as advertising for Bitcoin.

When the dollar is crashing, and inflating to the moon, and banks are 'buying in' to pay off their bad loans, people will be wanting to stick their wealth somewhere where it will be safe.  And now you can pay your Dish Network bill with it, as well as a lot of other things.  

Given we will have to print fiat to the moon for our present federal budget, the value of our energy/creativity/life/time, or 'wealth', will be in jeopardy.   That IS going to happen.

Bitcoin will be there, and it will be a world currency with inherent value.

BUY AND HODL.

Thanks for the info! I will remember these names.

Indeed, Bitcoin may be a potential safe haven in such a scenareo, but he's right tho, why would someone spend? Bitcoin seems to me like exactly that, a safe place to store your wealth in a world were banks can fuck you up at any given time, but let's be realistic, can be Bitcoin considered a currency when most people that gets into Bitcoin are going to Buy and Hodl? I reckon the small % of people spending Bitcoin for goods are wealthy Bitcoin people (super early investors) otherwise it seems like a waste of money.

If people do not spend/use their bitcoin for anything then the bitcoin economy will not prosper. If the bitcoin economy does not prosper then there is no reason for bitcoin to have any value in the first place

I buy with btc thing that i need from pc components to every day stuff.


I totally agree with you

Spend, spend, spend!

absolutely, i would buy some HW pieces with my btc, and maybe use them for mining, but i doubt there is still soem profit to be made

But how can you expect people to waste their btc in commodities that can be adquired with fiat? because it feels like exactly that, a waste. Its like buying gold, then going to the supermarket with gold.

Circulation of BTC increases its value.