Please explain this to a total newbie

[hiloh]

At the moment the vast potential of cryptos is 99% unrealized.  These are just the very first days - the genesis of a new paradigm.  It might succeed, or it might fail.  Only time will tell.

The current volatility mitigates cryptocurrencies' veracity as true currency.

[MoneyCoin]

no different than if they paid you in dollars, the value of the dollar is always losing value as well, its just harder for the average person to see that...

[finalmoney]

you never know, they value might double by the time you get your btc, anyway, everybody thinks now is a good time to buy btc.

[hiloh]

everybody thinks now is a good time to buy btc.

in any market, that sentiment usually precedes a crash.

[nytemare]

A company outside the U.S. owes me money. They want to send it to me with Bitcoin. It appears to me the value of a bitcoin varies greatly from one day, or sometimes one hour, to the next. My question is, if the company pays me in bitcoins what happens if the value drops significantly before I can sell them and convert them to cash? Also, where is a trusted place to sell bitcoins?

Thank You

There is a good chance the price of bitcoin could skyrocket over the next few years. Hold on to them.

[quentinadam]

If you are interested to withdraw your USD funds into a EUR or GBP bank account, I can make a payment at current USD/EUR or USD/GBP exchange rate to your bank account with 0% commission.

If you want more info, please check my post:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195665.msg2034134

The easy part is sending the BTC's and getting them into dollars at MtGox or another exchange. The problem is getting the dollars from the exchange and to your bank account. If you are in the US, I thing dolla might be the best route. Otherwise you are likely to be forced to use bank wire that is slow and may have some uncool fees.

[Therence]

Bitcoins are extremely divisible! i.e. 3.2345645645 BTC is a real figure that can exist! It depends on the total amount owed, but personally I'd probably prefer payment in BTC

Most of the trades below 1.0 will be far less interesting due to validation, it needs 0.1 (10%!) to get validated in a less-than-year time, for small transaction it's not interesting.

Even ripple which is meant to be able to easily do small trades, usually gateways will refuse trades which are too small, sadly.

[JoeChmoe]

no different than if they paid you in dollars, the value of the dollar is always losing value as well, its just harder for the average person to see that...

Not nearly at the rate bitcoins can lose value though.

If OP has the money to potential lose then I would suggest holding on to the coin.

[moundtown]

A company outside the U.S. owes me money. They want to send it to me with Bitcoin. It appears to me the value of a bitcoin varies greatly from one day, or sometimes one hour, to the next. My question is, if the company pays me in bitcoins what happens if the value drops significantly before I can sell them and convert them to cash? Also, where is a trusted place to sell bitcoins?

Thank You

Hi - the volatility of bitcoin is the issue. They could send you the bitcoins at a value and it could drop greatly, or, it could in fact increase greatly. Essentially to clear the debt, say it's $100 you might say 1btc for $100. By the time you "convert" it might be 95 it might be 105.

fastcash4bitcoins is my preferred vendor.

I checked out fastcash4bitcoins but they appear to have a problem keeping enough funds on hand. Their PayPal payout option runs out of funds just a few hours after they refund it. Do you know of any other vendors that have a PayPal payout option?

[melonedged737]

 I would accept fiat currency only and not bitcoin.

[moundtown]

Another newbie question. If the company that owes me money uses EUR currency how would I get the USD equivalency of that if they pay me in bitcoins?

[usafinders]

Sounds like a good deal.

[Foxpup]

Another newbie question. If the company that owes me money uses EUR currency how would I get the USD equivalency of that if they pay me in bitcoins?

You sell your bitcoins for USD. Doing that while getting the best exchange rate without getting ripped off (hint: don't use PayPal or eBay, no matter what) is entirely your problem, not theirs. That's why I strongly recommend you don't use Bitcoin for large transactions until you're confident that you've got it all figured out. Again, you don't have to accept bitcoins unless you have a contract that says you do.

[moundtown]

Another newbie question. If the company that owes me money uses EUR currency how would I get the USD equivalency of that if they pay me in bitcoins?

You sell your bitcoins for USD. Doing that while getting the best exchange rate without getting ripped off (hint: don't use PayPal or eBay, no matter what) is entirely your problem, not theirs. That's why I strongly recommend you don't use Bitcoin for large transactions until you're confident that you've got it all figured out. Again, you don't have to accept bitcoins unless you have a contract that says you do.

Why not use PayPal? People here and other places have recommended exchanges that offer PayPal payouts like fastcash4bitcoins and bitcointopaypal. Are these not safe to use?

[lentil-soup]

Yes. Coinbase is very easy to use. Set up a free account, link a verified bank account, go to the merchant tools and check the box that says "instantly convert to USD" (or whatever it says), make sure the "Keep at least xx BTC in my account" box is unchecked. Now, anytime someone sends bitcoins to that address, they will be sent to your bank account at the end of the day at the exact value that they were when they were sent to you, minus a 1% + $0.15 fee. It's really super simple.

For example, if you make 10 $10 USD sales throughout the day, you will get $100 - $1.15 = $98.85 USD sent to your bank at the end of the day, regardless of the value of BTC.

I hope this helps!