How can we price things in Bitcoin with hyperinflation going on?

[Lethn]

So I'm at a dilemma, I'm currently working on a short manga and I want to price it cheaply $3 - $5 at most but there's this problem when you want to deal purely in crypto where most people in my view incorrectly keep trying to price everything in paper. We all know that the Bitcoin price is a result of hyperinflation to the max rather than Bitcoin actually being worth anything ( Now that it's easily slaughtered the $1000 mark I think Bitcoin will keep going to $5000 ) so how are merchants supposed to price things? Do we suck it up for now and push the prices in Bitcoin lower and lower knowing they'll readjust later on after paper money collapses or do we ignore paper money right away and just price things in crypto so that we don't suffer losses?

As for those neo-keynesians out there who I know are lurking the board, this isn't a problem with Bitcoin being deflationary, this is a problem with paper money being inflated so much that 1 Bitcoin is now going to be worth several thousand and people just haven't realised it yet so they're cashing out thinking they're going to be rich.

Let me know what you guys think I should do because I am struggling at the moment, one thing I was talking with people about was taking the price hit and trading mainly in altcoins because people connect them to Bitcoin rather than the dollar so maybe that's a short term solution for all this inflation going on, people will be more willing to trade with them because they don't feel the need to cash them out for paper or they don't think they're worth as much as Bitcoins.

[Erdogan]

Just change the price every now and then, just like you would do with fiat.

[Lethn]

I'll just have to try and see what works won't I? This is the problem with the internet, you have no idea what the hell is going to happen.

[eternaluniverse]

i really hope people start working with centibits and millibits it seems like people still dont understand/want to deal with fractions of a currency. Once people get over this, I don't see alt coins being around for much longer.

[Rodyland]

Pretty sure you mean hyperdeflation, not hyperinflation.

Like it or not, the economy still runs on fiat, and people will still look at your bitcoin price in fiat-converted terms.

[jballs]

I'll just have to try and see what works won't I? This is the problem with the internet, you have no idea what the hell is going to happen.

word.

I would not spend a bitcoin on a trinket (or anything else) if you put a gun to my head. Because from here on out all I would think is "damn I spent 1 bitcoin for that and it wound up costing me an extra 5k in 4 months."

what is worth that? Not much.

You are better off switching to a stable currency (USD or euro whatever) for the long haul. I know you all have a dream with BTC but it is now a commodity to be exploited for a speculative mania and I doubt anything will stop that. Let it play out.

PS- technically this is deflation, not inflation. Inflation you would be needing more btc to buy less stuff. It is not dollar inflation ass measuring dollar vs anything else is not the same effect. BTC now worth same as gold...in USD terms.

Good luck.

[Lethn]

Pretty sure you mean hyperdeflation, not hyperinflation.

Like it or not, the economy still runs on fiat, and people will still look at your bitcoin price in fiat-converted terms.

Wait, you're right lol the dollar is getting hyperinflated but Bitcoin is remaining the same and becoming more valuable with more purchasing power.... Oh fuck me lol I still have a lot to learn the thing is, I don't know whether Bitcoin is going to stay like this and 0.005BTC is going to become a small amount again so I'm going to have to think things over carefully.

i really hope people start working with centibits and millibits it seems like people still dont understand/want to deal with fractions of a currency. Once people get over this, I don't see alt coins being around for much longer.

I really hate that idea and I'm sick of people who obsess over trying to glorify fractions of Bitcoin, I will always price my coins the normal way, if people are so easily driven away by reading decimals they can go some place else. Oh and LOL at you jballs for calling paper money stable at these prices, I'd actually like to measure Gold/Silver against Bitcoin but there are even less people doing that for now.

I made this thread precisely because paper money is unstable as fuck and I'm not sure what to do yet, the thing is I always calculate very pessimistically, I have no idea how many sales I could get from my short manga, never mind the Jewellery as I increase the stock of everything.

[Krona Rev]

A merchant could charge 4 mbits (about $4 today) and promise to refund 2 mbits if the price doubles within six months. In general, a merchant could give several such options. For example.

1. Pay 3 mbits today with no possible future refunds.
2. Pay 4 mbits today with a refund of 2 mbits if the price doubles within six months.
3. Pay 5 mbits today with a refund of 2.5 mbits if the price doubles within six months and a further refund of 1.25 mbits if the price quadruples within the next year.

This amounts to building option contracts into the pricing model. The effect is to reduce the volatility risk taken on by the customer.

[Lethn]

That sounds a lot like the pay what you want model Krona Rev, which may well be the best option in the case of manga at least, I couldn't do it with physical products because they always tend have materials and labour cost associated with them, I think I'll come up with something now, we'll see what happens.

[justusranvier]

So I'm at a dilemma, I'm currently working on a short manga and I want to price it cheaply $3 - $5 at most but there's this problem when you want to deal purely in crypto where most people in my view incorrectly keep trying to price everything in paper. We all know that the Bitcoin price is a result of hyperinflation to the max rather than Bitcoin actually being worth anything ( Now that it's easily slaughtered the $1000 mark I think Bitcoin will keep going to $5000 ) so how are merchants supposed to price things? Do we suck it up for now and push the prices in Bitcoin lower and lower knowing they'll readjust later on after paper money collapses or do we ignore paper money right away and just price things in crypto so that we don't suffer losses?

Maybe think outside the box and switch to a different revenue model entirely?

[Lethn]

Pay what you want seems to be the answer

[Krona Rev]

I didn't intend for it to be like Pay What You Want, so I probably shouldn't have extended the description with different options. Let me stick with one option:

The customer pays 4 mbits and the merchant promises to refund 2 mbits if the price doubles within 6 months. Here's what should happen when the customer buys one unit. Let's assume the current price is 1 mbit = $1.

Step 1. The customer sends 4 mbits to the merchant and sends a refund address.
Step 2. The merchant cashes out 2 mbits for $2. The merchant then is ensured of having been paid at least these $2. The merchant holds onto the other 2 mbits.
Step 3. Wait 6 months. If at any time during the 6 months the price doubles, then the merchant sends the 2 mbits to the refund address.
Step 4. At the end of the 6 months, if the merchant still has the 2 mbits, then the merchant sells them at the current price. Note that this price is necessarily 1 mbit < $2, so the merchant pockets less than $4 at this step.

For the merchant, the effective price was between $2 and $6. By varying the values, the merchant can decide on a comfortable range of prices.

[Lethn]

That seems needlessly complicated, I'd rather just do pay what you want or price it cheap, I think that might be the best option, I think what I'll do is while the manga is ongoing I'll do the pay what you want option and then when it either finishes or gets halfway there I'll let them purchase a discount pack ( Kind of like what valve do with steam games ) and let people buy in bulk as proper customers, that way I won't have to risk pissing off customers early on by accidentally charging too much for 1 volume.

I'm also going to put up the manga in it's early stages on Bittorrent so hopefully when the manga is about to end and I release the pack there will already be enough interest to buy it.

[jballs]

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

[eternaluniverse]

Pretty sure you mean hyperdeflation, not hyperinflation.

Like it or not, the economy still runs on fiat, and people will still look at your bitcoin price in fiat-converted terms.

Wait, you're right lol the dollar is getting hyperinflated but Bitcoin is remaining the same and becoming more valuable with more purchasing power.... Oh fuck me lol I still have a lot to learn the thing is, I don't know whether Bitcoin is going to stay like this and 0.005BTC is going to become a small amount again so I'm going to have to think things over carefully.

i really hope people start working with centibits and millibits it seems like people still dont understand/want to deal with fractions of a currency. Once people get over this, I don't see alt coins being around for much longer.

I really hate that idea and I'm sick of people who obsess over trying to glorify fractions of Bitcoin, I will always price my coins the normal way, if people are so easily driven away by reading decimals they can go some place else. Oh and LOL at you jballs for calling paper money stable at these prices, I'd actually like to measure Gold/Silver against Bitcoin but there are even less people doing that for now.

I made this thread precisely because paper money is unstable as fuck and I'm not sure what to do yet, the thing is I always calculate very pessimistically, I have no idea how many sales I could get from my short manga, never mind the Jewellery as I increase the stock of everything.

Its not glorifying it, its people whom aren't scared of numbers explaining to the slow people what bitcoins going to be like a few years from now when its worth 5k, 10k, etc.

[Lethn]

Yeah, because you totally aren't trying to take advantage of people who don't understand the system so you can break up 1 Bitcoin and spend that instead of having to spend whole ones.

[Pente]

A merchant could charge 4 mbits (about $4 today) and promise to refund 2 mbits if the price doubles within six months. In general, a merchant could give several such options. For example.

1. Pay 3 mbits today with no possible future refunds.
2. Pay 4 mbits today with a refund of 2 mbits if the price doubles within six months.
3. Pay 5 mbits today with a refund of 2.5 mbits if the price doubles within six months and a further refund of 1.25 mbits if the price quadruples within the next year.

This amounts to building option contracts into the pricing model. The effect is to reduce the volatility risk taken on by the customer.

+1

Sounds like one of my killer deals when I use to play Monopoly as a kid.

I may try that with some of my Ebay listings. Unfortunately, I think the concept may be beyond the average person's intelligence.

What if Bitpay offered a service like this as a special promotion?

[cdog]

Its definitely an issue, a few weeks back I bought a few pairs of sneakers for 26 litecoins

LTC-->rocketship

Those were some expensive sneakers man