Merchants could drive the bitcoin adoption

[notig]

One common thread I often see is "why should your average consumer purchase with bitcoins rather than with a credit card?"

There are some valid reasons often cited but one point I don't see ever made is: "because you already have bitcoins".

If you already have bitcoins then it would be cumbersome to convert them to cash on an exchange and then wire the money around to then use a more traditional payment method *if* you could just purchase the item directly with bitcoin.

So the question then becomes "why would people already have bitcoins?"

Here is why it might happen.... from the standpoint of a merchant it is a clear advantage to accept bitcoin. By accepting it you automatically increase the possible size of your user base. If you are an online website, for instance, someone from another side of the world could pay you easily.  You get your money faster than with credit cards (typically one day rather than a week or more) . Fraud is impossible so there aren't any chargebacks to worry about.  And the cost of implementing bitcoin acceptance is usually negligible. At the most basic level you could do what pirate bay did and simply paste a public address on your site. Or you could do it through other ways..... for instance shopify has bitcoin integration.

The point is that as more and more merchants accept bitcoin because of clear advantages they will seek to take advantage even more... by paying employees in bitcoin. They can typically save an additional amount if they do not have to convert all of their bitcoins into dollars with payment processors like bitpay. If employees accept such offers to be partially paid in bitcoins then "they will already have bitcoins". Which relates to my first point. So now the question becomes why would employees accept to be paid in bitcoins? Here are a couple of reasons.... if the price is eventually stable enough, and bitcoin is accepted widely enough then it might be a good idea to have part of your salary in bitcoins because some of that cost that is saved on the merchants side could be passed on to you. Or it would be advantageous because you know that by having bitcoins and it was widely accepted you could spend them while travelling or while later retiring to another part of the world and therefore not have to convert to another currency. Or it could be that the price was stable but also enticing because it did not lose value like dollars do on a longer term basis.

[notig]

no takers ?

[tspacepilot]

I basically agree with you and I hope you are right.  I've seen a lot of notifications about new merchants now accepting btc.  I hope the trend continues.

[An amorous cow-herder]

So the question then becomes "why would people already have bitcoins?"

Because they are hodling.
So, "why are they hodling?"
Because they believe the price will rise. And a rountrip (spending bitcoins and then moving fiat into an exchange and buying fresh coins for those spent) is actually more expensive than using conventional payment systems still. So, "who was first, the egg or the hen?"

[travel-trousers]

bitcoin can never replace cash as it's too slow and merchants all need speed....

We need something faster for the world...

[skivrmt]

bitcoin can never replace cash as it's too slow and merchants all need speed....

We need something faster for the world...

I can see online merchants accepting it, almost all of them eventually.  Because they can wait for 2 confirms, 6 confirms, whatever they desire.  I can also see smaller purchases, like coffee shops and what not, accepting them, like many do already.

But I do agree it will tough for major retailers to accept it.  It simply takes too long to confirm payment.  People use the facts Visa can support up to 10k transactions / second, BTC is around 7 / second.  Long way to go.

[An amorous cow-herder]

But I do agree it will tough for major retailers to accept it.  It simply takes too long to confirm payment.  People use the facts Visa can support up to 10k transactions / second, BTC is around 7 / second.  Long way to go.

Actually BitPay seems to allow for zero confirms as well. Not sure if only up to a certain amount and/or only if a sufficient mining fee is in the transaction but my purchase for a pizza was "confirmed" instantly.

[notig]

bitcoin can never replace cash as it's too slow and merchants all need speed....

We need something faster for the world...

A merchant gets the actual money from a bitcoin transaction far faster than a credit card transaction. If they convert to cash with something like bitpay it is only 24 hours. If they keep the btc it is simply when the btc arrive.

[skivrmt]

bitcoin can never replace cash as it's too slow and merchants all need speed....

We need something faster for the world...

A merchant gets the actual money from a bitcoin transaction far faster than a credit card transaction. If they convert to cash with something like bitpay it is only 24 hours. If they keep the btc it is simply when the btc arrive.

Its not about the speed of getting cash, its about confirming the cash is actually there.  With a cc it takes a matter of seconds.  With Bitcoin it takes a longer depending on confirms needed.