Instability

[WuLabsWuTecH]

Is it just me or is there a helluva lot of instability on the bitcoin market?  I've been watching closely again for the past couple of months and the fluctuation are wild!  How can I ever accept bitcoins as payment if I have no idea how much they are going to be worth an hour from now?

[Zilarion]

Honestly you don't have to care. Using bitpay you can simply set a price in dollars, let people pay in bitcoin and instantly convert it in dollars! And note, once bitcoin gets bigger the fluctuations will only become less!

[RandomNobody]

It's been relatively stable up until the past 2 months. Check this chart out

[WuLabsWuTecH]

I'll have to look into bitpay.  But why use bitcoin at all if I'm just going to instantly convert into USD?  Might as well use paypal or a conventional payment processor right?

As far as the fact that it was stable up until 2 months ago.  that's great, but it doesn't help me NOW when I'm considering whether to add an option to pay by bitcoin...

[Zilarion]

I'll have to look into bitpay.  But why use bitcoin at all if I'm just going to instantly convert into USD?  Might as well use paypal or a conventional payment processor right?

As far as the fact that it was stable up until 2 months ago.  that's great, but it doesn't help me NOW when I'm considering whether to add an option to pay by bitcoin...

Don't forget! Paypal asks what? 10% fee? I believe bitpay is 1%! Also, no tax as far as I am aware! So, thats a huge plus! Only the decreased cost is totally worth it!

[zappa137]

Yes the price just dropped about 20pts in a matter of minutes and then rebounded.  It's good for daytrading at least if mtgox can keep up.

[flora_digitalis]

A bitcoin always remains a bitcoin.

Problems arise only if one wants to convert to dollars.

So don't do it!

[BTC_USER_014]

A bitcoin always remains a bitcoin.

Problems arise only if one wants to convert to dollars.

So don't do it!

That's the trick! 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

I'll have to look into bitpay.  But why use bitcoin at all if I'm just going to instantly convert into USD?  Might as well use paypal or a conventional payment processor right?

As far as the fact that it was stable up until 2 months ago.  that's great, but it doesn't help me NOW when I'm considering whether to add an option to pay by bitcoin...

Don't forget! Paypal asks what? 10% fee? I believe bitpay is 1%! Also, no tax as far as I am aware! So, thats a huge plus! Only the decreased cost is totally worth it!

Payapl's fees for me average about 5-7% I believe? normal processors charge about 3-4%

But I can justify paying paypal fees since I make sales I otherwise wouldn't have.  So even though i'm paying almost double, some people may not trust me with credit card numbers and I can still make more money by doing this.

With bitcoin though, I don't know if the demand is there...

[WuLabsWuTecH]

A bitcoin always remains a bitcoin.

Problems arise only if one wants to convert to dollars.

So don't do it!

I think that this might be a good experiment to try.  Let people pay with bitcoins and see how many more sales I make/how many existing customers switch to using bitcoin instead of paypal or CC.

But I would NEVER keep bitcoins as bitcoins.  Who knows what the price of a bitcoin tomorrow is going to be?  Or even 10 minutes from now!

[Serjster]

I say that if you don't trust bitcoins then you shouldn't be accepting them as payments. Hold as bitcoin and try to run as many of your expenses in bitcoin, only convert to dollar when needed.