What kinds of legitimate businesses accept BitCoin?

[LegalEagle]

My main interest in BitCoin has been the concept.  However, after reading through these forums, BitCoin seems as if it's gaining traction, and I'd like to buy some BitCoins and hold them as an investment (just for fun--not a serious investment).  My main concern is the liquidity.  What kinds of fees are associated with exchanging them for regular money?  What kinds of (legitimate) businesses accept them?

Thanks!

Edit:  Also, anyone care to speculate on the odds of good returns?

[jsaechao1]

ya i would also want to know who uses bitcoin.

[Vladimir]

Bitcoin Magazine accepts Bitcoin both for subscriptions and ads. Moreover we have started to geniunely quote our ad rates in Bitcoin even without real-time changes based on daily exchange rate fluctuations.

See http://bitcoinmagazine.net/subscribe , give it a try even  

[Severian]

 What kinds of (legitimate) businesses accept them?

Start here and keep scrolling down:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Internet_.26_Mobile_services

There's quite a mix. It's not a complete list either.

I'm curious: what constitutes a legitimate business?

[Luno]

I guess that the OP asks about the value of Bitcoin outside the community. Which businesses that use just Bitcoin in relevance to him investing in it.

A hairdresser in the street next to me accepts Bitcoin.

What he does wrong:

1. He only advertises it on his web page (no sign in the window).

2. His price in BTC is now 50% higher than for the same haircut in DKR,-

3. You pay him by mailing him and then gets his wallet address by mail and pay him before you get your haircut.

So payment processors are the important business now in the chain of development. They are the ones to watch. When Bitcoin "Buy buttons" and teller integration are easy for shops to get started with, the low transaction fees of Bitcoin will make it really take off.

I'm gonna have a friendly chat with my hairdresser.

[Malophor]

Do you think merchants see BTC as an opportunity to charge more for a service? Is this because it adds overhead and costs them to convert it back to a fiat currency?

[Intrinsic]

Anyone out there accepting BTCs in brick and mortar storefronts?

I am curious how you work this in with your accounting/bookkeeping.

Do you quickly convert to a recognized currency?
Do you buy products/services for your business with BTC?
How has the IRS tax reporting gone? 

[Bitznbitz]

http://www.thebitcoinreview.com/sites.php?catid=2&subcatid=9

a list of places accepting bitcoin for webhosting

[MarkOST]

Incorporating bitcoin into small and large businesses would be no harder or expensive than modern day credit cards.


Credit Cards and Machines require costs up front to setup and fee's to use for each transaction. This should cancel out bitcoin's conversion prices.

Credit card payments often remaining pending for 2-3 days until cleared. They can also be reversed, or obtained via fraudulent measures. Bitcoins on the other hand are instant. Once you have them there is no chance of reversal.

The constant fluxuations of bitcoins will probably stablize when the rate of minning and mass speculation comes to much more maneagable levels. Stores could easily add a automatic conversion tool to all prices. Even in places like Walmart I see many prices tags are now digital and update by a centralized computer.