A Guy Who Owns A Bitcoin-Only Electronics Store Is Revealing Everything On Reddi

[CoinsForTech]

http://www.businessinsider.com/e-commerce-with-bitcoin-2014-3?IR=T

 

[Massimo80]

http://www.businessinsider.com/e-commerce-with-bitcoin-2014-3?IR=T

How does he deal with crazy fluctuations in Bitcoin's exchange rate?

[FeedbackLoop]

http://www.businessinsider.com/e-commerce-with-bitcoin-2014-3?IR=T

How does he deal with crazy fluctuations in Bitcoin's exchange rate?

Nice! How come I never heard of this store? Been spending my coins in stupid BitPay crap!  




Edit: oh it's BitPay....   Was all excited, due to the above quote, with the prospect of a merchant that would take Bitcoin and use it without dumping for USD immediately.

[seriouscoin]

http://www.businessinsider.com/e-commerce-with-bitcoin-2014-3?IR=T

How does he deal with crazy fluctuations in Bitcoin's exchange rate?

Nice! How come I never heard of this store? Been spending my coins in stupid BitPay crap!  




Edit: oh it's BitPay....  


 
 

whats so bad about bitpay?

[cryptoanarchist]

http://www.businessinsider.com/e-commerce-with-bitcoin-2014-3?IR=T

How does he deal with crazy fluctuations in Bitcoin's exchange rate?

Nice! How come I never heard of this store? Been spending my coins in stupid BitPay crap!  


Edit: oh it's BitPay....  

whats so bad about bitpay?

People are under the misguided impression that when merchants exchange bitcoin for USD that that is somehow bad for bitcoin. They think that it results in a lot of selling off that lowers the price.

[seriouscoin]

http://www.businessinsider.com/e-commerce-with-bitcoin-2014-3?IR=T

How does he deal with crazy fluctuations in Bitcoin's exchange rate?

Nice! How come I never heard of this store? Been spending my coins in stupid BitPay crap!  


Edit: oh it's BitPay....  

whats so bad about bitpay?

People are under the misguided impression that when merchants exchange bitcoin for USD that that is somehow bad for bitcoin. They think that it results in a lot of selling off that lowers the price.

Comeon you ruined the fun..... 


Also to add..... international business does currency exchange all the time. (Euro to USD...etc). I guess we should stop all those trades.... bad bad bad...

[Massimo80]

international business does currency exchange all the time. (Euro to USD...etc). I guess we should stop all those trades....

But EUR/USD rate is much more unlikely to have a sudden 20% drop (or rise) in value...

Seriously, how can any business reliably accept Bitcoin payments when prices can swing so wildly?

[seriouscoin]

international business does currency exchange all the time. (Euro to USD...etc). I guess we should stop all those trades....

But EUR/USD rate is much more unlikely to have a sudden 20% drop (or rise) in value...

Seriously, how can any business reliably accept Bitcoin payments when prices can swing so wildly?

Wow.....  

My comment isnt about volatility of bitcoin.

But Its mocking at the idea of having BTC/USD exchange is bad.

They think Bitpay is harming BTC due to that.
  

[googlemaster1]

Increasing the velocity and practical use does nothing of the sort even if they convert 100% of USD right away.  The people who have bitcoin are going to continue to have it, and others might be inspired to get it because of what you can actually by with it.  I mean, if you could pay your rent, buy your groceries and medical expenses in bitcoin, even if they converted to USD immediately... don't you think that would be good for BTC in the long run?  Of course it would.  Derp

[btbrae]

Companies holding Bitcoin isn't going to help anyone at this stage, as the Bitcoins will just sit there. They probably can't use them to pay for most of their expenses yet (tax, rent, wages, suppliers). The main downside to them selling is it prevents the price going up in the short term, but in the longer term the increased liquidity will benefit the Bitcoin economy. The price wouldn't be anywhere near what it is right now if Bitpay or someone like it didn't come along yet.

[CoinsForTech]

Hi all,

Sorry I've just logged in and seen your responses!

It is true that we exchange the large majority of BTC at the point of sale. Unfortunately I cannot see this changing anytime soon. Merchants who deal with high margins or who accept fiat on top of BTC will be able to keep more of their coins. For us we would run out of money within a few weeks (but would have a whole lot of BTC that we cannot pay our overheads with!)

I posted this in the reddit thread.

We accept payments via BitPay. In a market like ours the majority of funds must be exchanged automatically. Our margins generally range from 3~10%. If we did not exchange the coins you can see how easy it would be for us to be in the negative. Even a relatively non-volatile 24hours could leave us with less money than we need to cover overheads. Essentially we keep the profit in BTC as that is mine and my partners money. We exchange the rest because otherwise we would be speculating on fiat costs that need to be paid. Not good for stress levels and not worth the risk!

It is early stages and almost everyone is buying BTC to profit which I understand, but we are using it to efficiently process huge amounts of money for orders from a bunch of different countries. We are doing this on the cheap and using traditional infrastructure as little as possible. Isn't that what bitcoin is all about?

[hurricandave]

    I think bitcoin is a great way for tech savvy merchants to expand their market across international borders. They set the price of goods to their local exchange rate and anyone in the world can pay for the goods without the foreign exchange getting in the way. I don't have to own USD and EURO and this or that. Government Transaction limits and declarations don't flag the process either. The international foreign exchange desks charges WAY more to convert your currency than what it costs to purchase OR sell bitcoin .

[FeedbackLoop]

On the comment about BItPay: I think Bitpay is great and have used it many times with different merchants.

I was just under the impression, from the post above mine, that this merchant was taking the bitcoins himself and then managing them which, on my view, would be on a whole new level of greatness. Therefore my outburst.

Imagine a merchant taking the bitcoins and then paying their hosting costs in Bitcoin also, maybe an employee, maybe a supplier... all BitPay is definitely less exciting but still good at this stage of Bitcoin's life.
   

[CoinsForTech]

On the comment about BItPay: I think Bitpay is great and have used it many times with different merchants.

I was just under the impression, from the post above mine, that this merchant was taking the bitcoins himself and then managing them which, on my view, would be on a whole new level of greatness. Therefore my outburst.

Imagine a merchant taking the bitcoins and then paying their hosting costs in Bitcoin also, maybe an employee, maybe a supplier... all BitPay is definitely less exciting but still good at this stage of Bitcoin's life.
   

We do pay our very few employees and live support in bitcoin  . We benefit with live support in particular as it is outsourced internationally.

[hurricandave]

   If you don't mind, I am curios where your business is located, just city,state so I could have an idea of shipping times?

[Lethn]

http://www.businessinsider.com/e-commerce-with-bitcoin-2014-3?IR=T

How does he deal with crazy fluctuations in Bitcoin's exchange rate?

Bitcoin's price fluctuations are nothing when you look at the hyperinflation going on, that's what most merchants who accept Bitcoin recognise, also I hardly consider Bitstamp skipping about between $1000 to $500 to be some kind of terrifying thing that's going to kill us all, fact is, the dollar is much worse than that.

[medUSA]

   If you don't mind, I am curios where your business is located, just city,state so I could have an idea of shipping times?

I think the business is located in Australia.
The website says: All prices shown on CoinsForTech.com are inclusive of Australian GST
http://coinsfortech.com/shipping-and-taxes/

[murraypaul]

http://www.businessinsider.com/e-commerce-with-bitcoin-2014-3?IR=T

How does he deal with crazy fluctuations in Bitcoin's exchange rate?

Bitcoin's price fluctuations are nothing when you look at the hyperinflation going on, that's what most merchants who accept Bitcoin recognise, also I hardly consider Bitstamp skipping about between $1000 to $500 to be some kind of terrifying thing that's going to kill us all, fact is, the dollar is much worse than that.

Really?
What is the maximum dollar value fluctuation over the last year, compared to say the Euro or Yen?
I'm going to go out on a real limb here, and say it hasn't doubled or halved in value.
US inflation rate right now is around 1.5% year on year. Hardly hyperinflation, is it?

[Lethn]

Where do you think they're getting all those trillions from? Magic? They have to print it, this is causing hyperinflation.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YTyPGaEsBcw/T0Kd1nS9zJI/AAAAAAAABQw/MhD1cWnfJI8/s1600/Purchasing%2BPower%2Bof%2BU.S.%2BDollar.jpg

All paper currencies are fucking up, it's not just the euro or yen but seriously do you not wonder why you have to exchange so many more dollars for other currencies like the pound of the euro haven't you noticed the exchange rates? I'd rather stick with a currency that goes up and down rather than one that just goes down constantly.

[murraypaul]

Where do you think they're getting all those trillions from? Magic? They have to print it, this is causing hyperinflation.

No, it isn't.
I'm not sure you know what the word means.

The International Accounting Standards Board does not establish an absolute rate at which hyperinflation is deemed to arise. Instead, it lists factors that indicate the existence of hyperinflation:
- The general population prefers to keep its wealth in non-monetary assets or in a relatively stable foreign currency. Amounts of local currency held are immediately invested to maintain purchasing power
- The general population regards monetary amounts not in terms of the local currency but in terms of a relatively stable foreign currency. Prices may be quoted in that currency;
- Sales and purchases on credit take place at prices that compensate for the expected loss of purchasing power during the credit period, even if the period is short;
- Interest rates, wages, and prices are linked to a price index; and
The cumulative inflation rate over three years approaches, or exceeds, 100%.

This is hyperinflation:

Zimbabwe[edit]
Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe was one of the few instances that resulted in the abandonment of the local currency. At independence in 1980, the Zimbabwe dollar (ZWD) was worth about USD 1.25. Afterwards, however, rampant inflation and the collapse of the economy severely devalued the currency. Inflation was steady before Robert Mugabe in 1998 began a program of land reforms that primarily focused on taking land from white farmers and redistributing those properties and assets to black farmers, which disrupted food production and caused revenues from export of food to plummet.[65][66][67] The result was that to pay its expenditures Mugabe’s government and Gideon Gono’s Reserve Bank printed more and more notes with higher face values.
Hyperinflation began early in the 21st-century, reaching 624% in 2004. It fell back to low triple digits before surging to a new high of 1,730% in 2006. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe revalued on 1 August 2006 at a ratio of 1 000 ZWD to each second dollar (ZWN), but year-to-year inflation rose by June 2007 to 11,000% (versus an earlier estimate of 9,000%). Larger denominations were progressively issued:
5 May: banknotes or "bearer cheques" for the value of ZWN 100 million and ZWN 250 million.[68]
15 May: new bearer cheques with a value of ZWN 500 million (then equivalent to about USD 2.50).[69]
20 May: a new series of notes (“agro cheques”) in denominations of $5 billion, $25 billion and $50 billion.
21 July: “agro cheque” for $100 billion.[70]
Inflation by 16 July officially surged to 2,200,000%[71] with some analysts estimating figures surpassing 9,000,000 percent.[72] As of 22 July 2008 the value of the ZWN fell to approximately 688 billion per 1 USD, or 688 trillion pre-August 2006 Zimbabwean dollars.[73]
Date of
redenomination   Currency
code   Value
1 August 2006   ZWN   1 000 ZWD
1 August 2008   ZWR   1010 ZWN
= 1013 ZWD
2 February 2009   ZWL   1012 ZWR
= 1022 ZWN
= 1025 ZWD
On 1 August 2008, the Zimbabwe dollar was redenominated at the ratio of 1010 ZWN to each third dollar (ZWR).[74] On 19 August 2008, official figures announced for June estimated the inflation over 11,250,000%.[75] Zimbabwe's annual inflation was 231,000,000% in July[76] (prices doubling every 17.3 days). By October 2008 Zimbawe was mired in hyperinflation with wages falling far behind inflation. In this dysfunctional economy hospitals and schools had chronic staffing problems, because many nurses and teachers could not afford bus fare to work. Most of the capital of Harare was without water because the authorities had stopped paying the bills to buy and transport the treatment chemicals. Desperate for foreign currency to keep the government functioning, Zimbabwe’s central bank governor, Gideon Gono, sent runners into the streets with suitcases of Zimbabwean dollars to buy up American dollars and South African rand.[77] For periods after July 2008, no official inflation statistics were released. Prof. Steve H. Hanke overcame the problem by estimating inflation rates after July 2008 and publishing the Hanke Hyperinflation Index for Zimbabwe.[78] Prof. Hanke’s HHIZ measure indicated that the inflation peaked at an annual rate of 89.7 sextillion percent (89,700,000,000,000,000,000,000%) in mid-November 2008. The peak monthly rate was 79.6 billion percent, which is equivalent to a 98% daily rate, or around 7× 10108 percent yearly rate. At that rate, prices were doubling every 24.7 hours. Note that many of these figures should be considered mostly theoretic, since the hyperinflation did not proceed at that rate a whole year.[79]
At its November 2008 peak, Zimbabwe's rate of inflation approached, but failed to surpass, Hungary's July 1946 world record.[79] On 2 February 2009, the dollar was redenominated for the fourth time at the ratio of 1012 ZWR to 1 ZWL, only three weeks after the $100 trillion banknote was issued on 16 January,[80][81] but hyperinflation waned by then as official inflation rates in USD were announced and foreign transactions were legalised,[79] and on 12 April the dollar was abandoned in favour of using only foreign currencies. The overall impact of hyperinflation was 1 ZWL = 10^25 ZWD.
Start and End Date: Mar. 2007- Mid-Nov. 2008
Peak Month and Rate of Inflation:Mid-Nov. 2008, 7.96 billion percent[82]