Presenting Bitcoin to the company I work for.

[LeeWright]

Hello all,

First of I will start by telling you that I have been an infrequent user of Bitcoin for about 6 months now and I am new to this forum. I do have a OK grasp on the Bitcoin concept and understand how to mine, trade, use Bitcoin.

OK, every month one member of the office has to "present" an idea or a product or anything that they have seen that has some relevance to the company. No prizes for guessing it is my turn and I have chosen Bitcoin as my topic.

I'll give you some background information about the company I work for so you can understand what will be relevant: I work for a relatively small UK based company (about 15 office staff). But we do trade a lot overseas, both import and export and we have a relatively large cash flow. We mostly buy from Asia (paying our suppliers with USD) and selling our products within the UK (selling in GBP) and Europe (selling in either EURO or GBP). So you can see that as a company we are constantly swapping between different currencies to process purchase orders and sales orders.

Multiple overseas ingoing and outgoing payments and exchanging between 3 currencies cant be cheap. But I'll be 100% honest here, I don't work in accounts and I don't know what these fee's are. However if there is someone with more information on this, I would be very grateful for any information shared. My theory that trading through Bitcoin could be more cost effective.

So my question to all of you users with more Bitcoin knowledge than myself is: How would a business like the aforementioned benefit from trading in Bitcoin? What are the cost savings for trading overseas (both importing and exporting) in Bitcoin rather than using more traditional methods (banks)?

Thank you for taking the time to read my post, I will be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

P.S my presentation is only going to be a 10-15min power-point slide show, so I'll just be explaining what Bitcoin is and how it could be relevant to my company.

Lee Wright

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[SgtSpike]

Hello all,

First of I will start by telling you that I have been an infrequent user of Bitcoin for about 6 months now and I am new to this forum. I do have a OK grasp on the Bitcoin concept and understand how to mine, trade, use Bitcoin.

OK, every month one member of the office has to "present" an idea or a product or anything that they have seen that has some relevance to the company. No prizes for guessing it is my turn and I have chosen Bitcoin as my topic.

I'll give you some background information about the company I work for so you can understand what will be relevant: I work for a relatively small UK based company (about 15 office staff). But we do trade a lot overseas, both import and export and we have a relatively large cash flow. We mostly buy from Asia (paying our suppliers with USD) and selling our products within the UK (selling in GBP) and Europe (selling in either EURO or GBP). So you can see that as a company we are constantly swapping between different currencies to process purchase orders and sales orders.

Multiple overseas ingoing and outgoing payments and exchanging between 3 currencies cant be cheap. But I'll be 100% honest here, I don't work in accounts and I don't know what these fee's are. However if there is someone with more information on this, I would be very grateful for any information shared. My theory that trading through Bitcoin could be more cost effective.

So my question to all of you users with more Bitcoin knowledge than myself is: How would a business like the aforementioned benefit from trading in Bitcoin? What are the cost savings for trading overseas (both importing and exporting) in Bitcoin rather than using more traditional methods (banks)?

Thank you for taking the time to read my post, I will be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

P.S my presentation is only going to be a 10-15min power-point slide show, so I'll just be explaining what Bitcoin is and how it could be relevant to my company.

Lee Wright

I can't really see a way that Bitcoin would benefit such a company unless one of the suppliers or customers was onboard with the idea of paying for items in Bitcoin or receiving Bitcoin as payment.

That said, I am interested to see other replies.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Hi Lee, we share the same last name! (And oddly enough, your first name is my girlfriend's family name too....are you stalking me?)

Any company you work for would benefit from using Bitcoin for instant transactions if that company is currently paying too much for transactions, but I'd say the logistics of the Asian side cashing out of Bitcoin once they receive it would be the reason this probably isn't such winning idea.

On that note, maybe the company might benefit more (in a trusting relationship) from Open Transactions or Ripple down the road.

[DannyHamilton]

I'd say it would be a good idea for the company to keep watch on bitcoin developments and to look for opportunities where bitcoin might provide a solution.

If the company has issues with chargebacks or other reversible transactions, bitcoin might be part of a possible solution.
If the company is paying transaction fees for moving money around, bitcoin might be part of a possible solution.
If the company is looking for ways to store reserves in a way that is protected from the inflation of supply in other currencies, bitcoin might be part of a possible solution.
If the company is interested in getting involved in currency exchange speculation, bitcoin might be part of a possible solution.

As has already been mentioned, if none of the companies customers or suppliers are interested in using bitcoin for sending or receiving payment, then the current applications may be limited.  As bitcoin adoption grows, you may find that suppliers or customers begin to express an interest in using bitcoin for payment.  If you already have a bitcoin payment system established when that happens, it may put you ahead of competitors who are just starting to look into bitcoin at that time.

[MoonShadow]

Someone (or company) always has to be the first.  Even if their suppliers don't want bitcoins, if they accept online orders for international shipment they would stand to gain from accepting bitcoin as a payment option even if they immediately sell on some currency exchange.  I'm pretty sure that there is a British exchange that you could get more solid data from, but I can't recall their name.

Oh, I found it...

https://intersango.com/about-us.php

You could also call these guys...

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Consultancy

[LeeWright]

Thank you for the reply SgtSpike, yes I completely agree, either or both supplier/customer would need to also adopt BitCoin in order for this to have any benefit. I also understand that today's BitCoin economy would be unsuited for the company I work for. However I do think as the future of BitCoin and its economy evolve there could be cost saving options for businesses that will be hard to ignore.  I'm personally of the opinion that if businesses as a whole accepts Bitcoin, this could change the way we look at modern payment systems. For example, we receive overseas payments in BitCoin and pay overseas suppliers in BitCoins. Those transactions wouldn't have any fees attached to them, you would only need to convert your nett profit into your local currency to pay, employees and tax ect. I know it is not that simple, there is the issue of trust, fluctuating prices of currency ect. But its certainly food for thought.

I promise you Matthew I am not stalking you :p We will have to put it down to coincidence this time. Interesting point you make about the market in Asia, what options are available for Asian countries to cash out in there local currency? I would assume not many. But if BitCoin continues to grow, I would assume this gap in the market would be fulfilled.

Here is something I read earlier on BitPay's website:
"Bitcoin will reinvent the way business is conducted around the world.

Paying workers in India, paying suppliers in China, and receiving a payment from Argentina can all be accomplished instantly, with no risk, for very little cost."

That's exactly what my MD will want to hear!

Thank you for the reply Danny, your comment has just come in and echoed what I have just typed "As bitcoin adoption grows, you may find that suppliers or customers begin to express an interest in using bitcoin for payment. As bitcoin adoption grows, you may find that suppliers or customers begin to express an interest in using bitcoin for payment." You made a valid point of being ahead of our competitors, something every business is trying to do.

Thank you MoonShado, I used Intersango to purchase my first BitCoin, so I am familiar with them. I have also herd a few condemning reports of this company as well, but I don't know how much truth there is to that. I think BitPay or a similar service would be better initially, they accept payment in Bitcoin and convert it to GBP and make the payment into your bank on the same day. This way we can accept Bitcoin without having to really do any legwork with currency exchanges. But of course there is a fee to use BitPay's services.

Thank you all so much for your feedback, really pleased that the BitCoin community is so thriving.

[lassdas]

Oh, I found it...

https://intersango.com/about-us.php

You could also call these guys...

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Consultancy

Please...
to recommend the Bitcoin Consultancy, or Intersango-Gang, which is actually the same group of scammers, to anyone is a really bad idea.
Those security experts are responsible for the whole Bitcoinica deasaster. They don't care about users, they just want your money.

A company (or any individual) trusting them might soon be dissapointed and probably blame it on Bitcoin.

[SgtSpike]

Thank you for the reply SgtSpike, yes I completely agree, either or both supplier/customer would need to also adopt BitCoin in order for this to have any benefit. I also understand that today's BitCoin economy would be unsuited for the company I work for. However I do think as the future of BitCoin and its economy evolve there could be cost saving options for businesses that will be hard to ignore.  I'm personally of the opinion that if businesses as a whole accepts Bitcoin, this could change the way we look at modern payment systems. For example, we receive overseas payments in BitCoin and pay overseas suppliers in BitCoins. Those transactions wouldn't have any fees attached to them, you would only need to convert your nett profit into your local currency to pay, employees and tax ect. I know it is not that simple, there is the issue of trust, fluctuating prices of currency ect. But its certainly food for thought.

I promise you Matthew I am not stalking you :p We will have to put it down to coincidence this time. Interesting point you make about the market in Asia, what options are available for Asian countries to cash out in there local currency? I would assume not many. But if BitCoin continues to grow, I would assume this gap in the market would be fulfilled.

Here is something I read earlier on BitPay's website:
"Bitcoin will reinvent the way business is conducted around the world.

Paying workers in India, paying suppliers in China, and receiving a payment from Argentina can all be accomplished instantly, with no risk, for very little cost."

That's exactly what my MD will want to hear!

Thank you for the reply Danny, your comment has just come in and echoed what I have just typed "As bitcoin adoption grows, you may find that suppliers or customers begin to express an interest in using bitcoin for payment. As bitcoin adoption grows, you may find that suppliers or customers begin to express an interest in using bitcoin for payment." You made a valid point of being ahead of our competitors, something every business is trying to do.

Thank you MoonShado, I used Intersango to purchase my first BitCoin, so I am familiar with them. I have also herd a few condemning reports of this company as well, but I don't know how much truth there is to that. I think BitPay or a similar service would be better initially, they accept payment in Bitcoin and convert it to GBP and make the payment into your bank on the same day. This way we can accept Bitcoin without having to really do any legwork with currency exchanges. But of course there is a fee to use BitPay's services.

Thank you all so much for your feedback, really pleased that the BitCoin community is so thriving.

The guys involved with Intersango are responsible for losing $500k of Bitcoinica's users' funds.  They refused to issue refunds, used poor security for the funds they held for months in the interim, and finally someone broke through that poor security and took a large portion of the user funds they were holding.  A lawsuit in California is pending against them.  I wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole, much less recommend them to anyone else!

That is a good quote from Bitpay indeed..!

[LeeWright]

Thank you SgtSpike and lassdas for confirming that Intersango is not trust worthy, happy to say I did not get burnt on my 1 transaction with them, but I wont use them again and I certainly wont recommend them to my company!

[MoonShadow]

I know not of any such problems.  I don't deal with any exchanges, personally.