Amazon accepting Bitcoin - What can go wrong?

[mrcash02]

I think a high percentage of amazon customers opt for the free shipping option which can take 2+ weeks. Waiting for bitcoin to confirm, on top of a 2 week shipping time may not be that much of an inconvenience.

The "scaling problem" could be a good problem to have. One way of viewing it is: "bitcoin can't be used to buy a cup of coffee and isn't ready for a prime time, mainstream, role". The flipside of that might say that if bitcoin's network lacks the transactional volume to cover all transactions, retailers might expand their platform to include support for other crypto to fill the vacuum. One perspective is likely over-optimistic while the other is the opposite. The likely outcome could be somewhere inbetween the two.

Bitpay green lights transactions on the 1st confirmation which isn't too bad.

Amazon accepting bitcoin would be similar to an official endorsement. If the public sees amazon endorsing bitcoin while banker CEO's condemn bitcoin it will create a divide, a conflict of mainstream opinion as opposed to the typical unified front the media is often able to maintain. That could encourage the public to research and learn about crypto more rather than believe the mainstream media angle of it being a bubble, which could be a good thing even if transactions aren't instantaneous.

Thinking this way it makes sense. We are not talking about perishable food items that must be bought and consumed fast, we are talking about other products that don't have expiration date, so there isn't any problem in waiting some days or even weeks as you said to have the product sent. It's enough time to have the transaction finished paying a lower fee and if the transaction cancels because a very low fee reason, just cancel the package as well, it works fine.

And a big business like this can really make more people start thinking about Bitcoin and its advantages. There are many people who use Amazon services, but don't know or don't have interest in BTCs yet, but after an adoption like that it's possible that these people change their minds and spread the word about Crypto-Currency. It's good especially to make more sellers adopt BTC.

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[Decimation]

I mean, if you order from Amazon you're putting in your address, name, phone number, etc. So I don't really see an issue. Not only would that boost Bitcoins price but it would also give people that have large quantities of BTC an option to buy shit.

[Potato Chips]

I think a high percentage of amazon customers opt for the free shipping option which can take 2+ weeks. Waiting for bitcoin to confirm, on top of a 2 week shipping time may not be that much of an inconvenience.

The "scaling problem" could be a good problem to have. One way of viewing it is: "bitcoin can't be used to buy a cup of coffee and isn't ready for a prime time, mainstream, role". The flipside of that might say that if bitcoin's network lacks the transactional volume to cover all transactions, retailers might expand their platform to include support for other crypto to fill the vacuum. One perspective is likely over-optimistic while the other is the opposite. The likely outcome could be somewhere inbetween the two.

Bitpay green lights transactions on the 1st confirmation which isn't too bad.

Amazon accepting bitcoin would be similar to an official endorsement. If the public sees amazon endorsing bitcoin while banker CEO's condemn bitcoin it will create a divide, a conflict of mainstream opinion as opposed to the typical unified front the media is often able to maintain. That could encourage the public to research and learn about crypto more rather than believe the mainstream media angle of it being a bubble, which could be a good thing even if transactions aren't instantaneous.

Thinking this way it makes sense. We are not talking about perishable food items that must be bought and consumed fast, we are talking about other products that don't have expiration date, so there isn't any problem in waiting some days or even weeks as you said to have the product sent. It's enough time to have the transaction finished paying a lower fee and if the transaction cancels because a very low fee reason, just cancel the package as well, it works fine.

And a big business like this can really make more people start thinking about Bitcoin and its advantages. There are many people who use Amazon services, but don't know or don't have interest in BTCs yet, but after an adoption like that it's possible that these people change their minds and spread the word about Crypto-Currency. It's good especially to make more sellers adopt BTC.

Still merchants won't process your order/s until after a decent number of confirmations on your transaction has been received so if you put a low fee and it took a few days before it reached the minimum confirmations, your order could be delayed and might no longer fit to the stated free shipping time frame.

So In conclusion to that I think its still a problem although I'm sure there are users who are still willing to pay high fees for fast confirmation.

[expertofexperts]

I dont think Amazon will ever accept crypto currencies. They are regulated by country laws and going against country rules will surely hurt them. And after Morgan's and such high profile people statements, i dont think these giants are going to go into BTC etc.

[frank175]

I don't think Amazon will accept bitcoin within a short time.

[syaripudin]

I think this should be a consequence that must be agreed between Amazon and the other party that to transact using bitcoin there is of course a process that must be understood and for me it does not become a complicated problem as long as there is acceptable agreement for that matter. and I think this will be understandable for bitcoin users because it's definitely happening. to overcome this kind of thing for a faster transaction is certainly not an easy thing I think it takes a long time for an improvement to the way the transaction can be done quickly this is indeed a homework that must be addressed so that many business people who want to accept the system payment using bitcoin if it happens of course will greatly facilitate bitcoin users by way of transaction using bitcoin.

[djaliel]

I think bitcoin is not effective for payment methods, more likely to be effective for investments like gold, because the price is very expensive,
or there is a store like amazon for payment method with minimum price to buy valuable goods, and no method of payment on goods that are cheap

That can easily be 'solved' with off-chain implementations like Lightning Network, which would allow an insane number of transactions to be pumped through per second, and that potentially at ultra low cost. It will allow people to conduct micro transactions (which will significantly spark adoption in third world countries), and thus also purchase things that are priced at sub $1 levels without any problems. In that regard, it would suit you to adjust your stance on Bitcoin as currency. Currently I do admit that the fees as per their fiat value look high, but that's because the price has gone up significantly, and partly because Segwit (still) isn't being put into practice as much as I would like it to be.

yes, I hope so too, I have not understand about segwit or other recently appeared, which I know only the cost of expensive transactions that are not effective for the method of payment, especially if the store adds to the fee  

[BitHodler]

I dont think Amazon will ever accept crypto currencies. They are regulated by country laws and going against country rules will surely hurt them. And after Morgan's and such high profile people statements, i dont think these giants are going to go into BTC etc.

It won't be a problem at all for Amazon to accept Bitcoin. It's just them not seeing any benefit in doing so at this point, where we also have to take Bitcoin's current technical limitations into consideration.

We have been dealing with full blocks for quite some time now, and this hasn't changed with the activation of SegWit. From there we should just wait for second layer applications on top of Bitcoin to push things forward.

I perfectly understand why Amazon isn't yet willing to allow people to pay with Bitcoin. And if you're so desperately looking for an alternative way, then head over to purse.io ~ it allows you to buy things with Bitcoin from Amazon.

[BlackBi88]

I see a lot of people pushing for companies like Amazon to accept Bitcoin as a payment option. Have we considered the

implications of these decisions? Let's say we cannot scale to "service" the need for millions of new people who would use

this technology for the first time. What a big embarrassment would it be, if people waited 13 hours for their transactions to

be confirmed. Doing this now will hurt Bitcoin more than any other "bad" thing that has happened to it before.

We need to wait for the perfect scaling solution to address this problem, before Amazon or any other big retailer starts to

accept Bitcoin as a payment option. The Lightning Network might get us close, but it is not a proven technology yet.

Let's hear your thoughts on this? 

Currently, bitcoin is not popular so if it is a main form of payment, it will not be effective. On average, each transaction has to wait at least 5 hours to confirm, if in e-commerce, it would be very inconvenient for the customer even though transaction with BTC is very safe. Improving confirmed time with each transaction will make BTC more and more popular in the future. 

[SlimShadyMmp]

lets say bitcoin confirmations takes 2days
amazon shipping especially free take like a week and others like 4days
thats enough time to confirm payment i think
so sure people who decide to use bitcoin knows what it will take to get there

[BillCoin]

The risk of getting people to know bitcoin as a currency that "takes a lot of time to transfer" or " transfers are too expensive" is not a big deal compared to the massive adoption that bitcoin could be getting from such a move.

I believe that most of the people that are going to buy bitcoins because Amazon started accepting it, will do so because they saw the payment option on the site, searched for it and found out that the tech is cool, or they saw an article about amazon accepting bitcoin and that was the first time that they heard about crypto currencies.

Also, the current network fees are not so bad compared to other payment methods.

Bitcoin is ready for the mass adoption, the network is strong, and even if blocks are usually full, the network is still stable enough to maintain more transactions.

[mrcash02]

I think a high percentage of amazon customers opt for the free shipping option which can take 2+ weeks. Waiting for bitcoin to confirm, on top of a 2 week shipping time may not be that much of an inconvenience.

The "scaling problem" could be a good problem to have. One way of viewing it is: "bitcoin can't be used to buy a cup of coffee and isn't ready for a prime time, mainstream, role". The flipside of that might say that if bitcoin's network lacks the transactional volume to cover all transactions, retailers might expand their platform to include support for other crypto to fill the vacuum. One perspective is likely over-optimistic while the other is the opposite. The likely outcome could be somewhere inbetween the two.

Bitpay green lights transactions on the 1st confirmation which isn't too bad.

Amazon accepting bitcoin would be similar to an official endorsement. If the public sees amazon endorsing bitcoin while banker CEO's condemn bitcoin it will create a divide, a conflict of mainstream opinion as opposed to the typical unified front the media is often able to maintain. That could encourage the public to research and learn about crypto more rather than believe the mainstream media angle of it being a bubble, which could be a good thing even if transactions aren't instantaneous.

Thinking this way it makes sense. We are not talking about perishable food items that must be bought and consumed fast, we are talking about other products that don't have expiration date, so there isn't any problem in waiting some days or even weeks as you said to have the product sent. It's enough time to have the transaction finished paying a lower fee and if the transaction cancels because a very low fee reason, just cancel the package as well, it works fine.

And a big business like this can really make more people start thinking about Bitcoin and its advantages. There are many people who use Amazon services, but don't know or don't have interest in BTCs yet, but after an adoption like that it's possible that these people change their minds and spread the word about Crypto-Currency. It's good especially to make more sellers adopt BTC.

Still merchants won't process your order/s until after a decent number of confirmations on your transaction has been received so if you put a low fee and it took a few days before it reached the minimum confirmations, your order could be delayed and might no longer fit to the stated free shipping time frame.

So In conclusion to that I think its still a problem although I'm sure there are users who are still willing to pay high fees for fast confirmation.

Why can the confirmation delay make the buyer lose the free shipping feature?

[adriankmf]

totally no way amazon or any company that sell the physical product with btc.

BTC too violate, and business can be red because of that.

[malikusama]

This seems a major issue but not a critical one because already many online shops are using bitcoin as payment so they must have a valid procedure to confirm the transaction quickly and if not it can be solved with the passage of time as the technology is evolving.
The biggest advantage is that more people will get to know about bitcoin and its use and they will start using it too through amazon, so the confirmation time can get better with the time and we should not wait more to get it better first.

[richardsNY]

totally no way amazon or any company that sell the physical product with btc.

BTC too violate, and business can be red because of that.

The volatility isn't a problem at all for any store to start accepting Bitcoin. If we look at how the far majority of the stores accept Bitcoin, then it's through third party payment processors who convert all Bitcoin sales directly into fiat. Stores don't have to deal with the volatility since it's the 'problem' of the payment processor that they use at that point. I am certain that Amazon is well aware of how things go in this market, but they, whatever their reason may be, have no interest in accepting Bitcoin as payment option. So no, no store accepting Bitcoin through these third party services will end up in the red because of the volatility....

[player514]

totally no way amazon or any company that sell the physical product with btc.

BTC too violate, and business can be red because of that.

The volatility isn't a problem at all for any store to start accepting Bitcoin. If we look at how the far majority of the stores accept Bitcoin, then it's through third party payment processors who convert all Bitcoin sales directly into fiat. Stores don't have to deal with the volatility since it's the 'problem' of the payment processor that they use at that point. I am certain that Amazon is well aware of how things go in this market, but they, whatever their reason may be, have no interest in accepting Bitcoin as payment option. So no, no store accepting Bitcoin through these third party services will end up in the red because of the volatility....

I'm not exactly sure what you mean when you say "Stores don't have to deal with the volatility since it's the 'problem' of the payment processor."

That doesn't really make sense to me. Are you saying that if Amazon is selling some 100$ item and decide to take bitcoin for it, and the next day that dollar amount is worth 20$, that it's the payment processor's issue? I don't see how that really relates. It would seem like Amazon is the one taking the 80$ hit in that situation because they used fiat to purchase/obtain the item, and then are selling it to someone for bitcoin.

[Granxis]

Amazon does not need Bitcoin, so there is no such improvement, one of the things I want the most is that Bitcoin is used as a payment method. If Amazon accepts Bitcoin as the payment method, we only know this from the price increase.

[Opquar]

We don't even know if people will use that option in the first place. I'm sure most compulsive HODLers would much rather use their credit card or something. One of the reasons Amazon might not be accepting bitcoin is because it would not see much use, and there's very little pressure for them to pull the trigger.

[batang_bitcoin]

Amazon does not need Bitcoin, so there is no such improvement, one of the things I want the most is that Bitcoin is used as a payment method. If Amazon accepts Bitcoin as the payment method, we only know this from the price increase.

They don't need bitcoin but they need the demand of their customers. They are aware that many of their customers are into bitcoin and as a company that are giving such service to the people they will consider something new and if that is having a lot of support from majority of their customers. And we as riders of bitcoin, have been waiting for this day that amazon starts to accept bitcoin and who knows if they announce their support to bitcoin ebay is next. 

[RealPhotoshoper]

We don't even know if people will use that option in the first place. I'm sure most compulsive HODLers would much rather use their credit card or something. One of the reasons Amazon might not be accepting bitcoin is because it would not see much use, and there's very little pressure for them to pull the trigger.

Yeaaa that's why they have a plan to have a different place for crypto user by bought three different domain names relating to digital currencies.
Pretty reasonable move for them to not accept crypto directly and have such a smart plan.
Actually don't know what will happened then , that's just my point of view.