Why don't popular micro/freelancers sites adopt bitcoin?

[uneng]

Bitcoin is almost 14 years old, countries have already regulated it or passed laws considering it legal tender, each new day another ATM is settled somewhere in the world, the most influent men in the world confessed they own bitcoin or have interest for it, big companies have been going through the same path.

However, online platforms which offer opportunities for freelancers, which could be the most benefited ones by adopting bitcoin on the practice seems to just ignore it. Sites like OneForma and ClickWorker don't care about improving their payment methods and actually, they are more than one decade late already. They keep forcing users to use Paypal or Payeer, which are terrible depending where you live, as these international payment services are forced to follow local regulations from countries where taxes are heavily imposed over their citizens, especially those who venture working online.

Unfortunatelly there isn't any bitcoin micro tasks site around with the same weight those mentioned sites have on the virtual environment...

In your opinion, why do these popular platforms act like this and completely ignore bitcoin? And why doesn't a platform of the same kind, but using bitcoin, is able to develop itself to compete against the big ones?

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[mk4]

Truth be told — potential regulatory problems aside, I'm quite certain that demand for bitcoin payments is just so low that it might not make sense for them to allocate manpower into having bitcoin payments.

And why doesn't a platform of the same kind, but using bitcoin, is able to develop itself to compete against the big ones?

We actually have existing crypto freelance sites. Obviously userbase is drastically lower than major freelance sites though.

[noorman0]

Bitcoin is almost 14 years old, countries have already regulated it or passed laws considering it legal tender,

As far as I know it's just Elsalvador.

If you mean adoption as a payment instrument, of course the main problem is that regulations don't allow it. Their popularity can easily become a public spotlight, influence many to follow in their footsteps, and invite government scrutiny. After all, bitcoin is decentralized and cannot be censored. They on the other hand could have secretly and with other "characters" been adopting bitcoin all along without us knowing it.

[TheUltraElite]

In your opinion, why do these popular platforms act like this and completely ignore bitcoin?

The number of people who are willing to accept bitcoin as payment is smaller than the number of people willing to accept fiat payments.

Truth is that in majority of countries from where freelancers comes from, bitcoin is still in its baby steps, with some countries proposing an upcoming ban while some talking about regulations today and pulling out tomorrow. In such "unstable" situations, those who depend on freelance work for daily bread would rather go with the safer option, which is always fiat.

For them thinking about inflation and decentralization is more of a luxury than an necessity. Hence the lack in voice from their side as well.

And why doesn't a platform of the same kind, but using bitcoin, is able to develop itself to compete against the big ones?

There are such platforms, but they are much less popular. In fact whichever crypto-based project you try to develop when competing against a mainstream project, the former always ends up being a smaller one. Hard truth, it will like that for sometime.

[Charles-Tim]

Truth be told — potential regulatory problems aside, I'm quite certain that demand for bitcoin payments is just so low that it might not make sense for them to allocate manpower into having bitcoin payments.

I do not think it should be because of this, the payment  will just be an agreement between hirer and hire and no one to lose. The reason about this would be because of regulatory problem like you have commented.

We actually have existing crypto freelance sites. Obviously userbase is drastically lower than major freelance sites though.

What I just noticed about freelancing sites is that the ones that have been existing before are not giving way for new ones, people prefer to use the old freelancing sites like Upwork. This could be as a result of their stringent rules before accepting new freelancers, because hirers will want to hire quality freelancers, compare to new sites that will still be looking for hirers and hirees.

[OmegaStarScream]

Truth be told — potential regulatory problems aside, I'm quite certain that demand for bitcoin payments is just so low that it might not make sense for them to allocate manpower into having bitcoin payments.

And why doesn't a platform of the same kind, but using bitcoin, is able to develop itself to compete against the big ones?

We actually have existing crypto freelance sites. Obviously userbase is drastically lower than major freelance sites though.

I don't think I can agree with you on this one. Implementing bitcoin payments shouldn't require that much work unless they're planning to run their own nodes, etc. which most businesses are not interested in doing.

As for the demand, then I'm pretty sure a lot of people would like to see it, maybe they just didn't show interest. Freelancer platforms are full of developers and tech-savvy's, exactly the type of people who you would expect to be interested in bitcoin.

We can also look back a little, and see that Fiverr used to accept Bitcoin (2014-2017). So even now, 5 years later when the demand should be higher, it seems like there's still no interest to add it.

[mk4]

I don't think I can agree with you on this one. Implementing bitcoin payments shouldn't require that much work unless they're planning to run their own nodes, etc. which most businesses are not interested in doing.

Sure, not to mention that they can easily use the likes of BitPay and Coinbase Commerce. I think that they simply think it's not worth the time, regardless if difficult to implement or not.

As for the demand, then I'm pretty sure a lot of people would like to see it, maybe they just didn't show interest. Freelancer platforms are full of developers and tech-savvy's, exactly the type of people who you would expect to be interested in bitcoin.

We can also look back a little, and see that Fiverr used to accept Bitcoin (2014-2017). So even now, 5 years later when the demand should be higher, it seems like there's still no interest to add it.

Let's assume that even at the very least 5% of the technical people on Fiverr/UpWork are interested in Bitcoin payments. Yes, that may be a decent reason for these services to add bitcoin payments. But then again, it's not like these people would leave just because they didn't add(or they removed) bitcoin payments. It's likely to just be a no biggie factor for their users.

[hugeblack]

There are several reasons for this:

 - Bitcoin price volatility: Many services will prefer paying with cash because it is stable, and therefore perhaps paying in stablecoins will be better than BTC.
 - Earn free bitcoin: Despite all these years, I see that more and more people are looking for ways to earn free bitcoin instead of buying it or working for it.
 - Ease of using cash: With cash, you can buy bitcoin and other things other than bitcoin.

Generally, when companies like Google, Facebook or PayPal (direct payment) start accepting Bitcoin in one form or another, we need individual adoption.

[dkbit98]

In your opinion, why do these popular platforms act like this and completely ignore bitcoin? And why doesn't a platform of the same kind, but using bitcoin, is able to develop itself to compete against the big ones?

Biggest problems are with regulations in many countries and you can't have one rule for all in this case.
Second thing that is preventing more business to accept Bitcoin payments directly could be transaction fees that can sometimes be higher, and inability to revert transactions.
Easy solution for them would be using something like BTCPayServer and accepting LN payments, but I don't most of them will lever use this for selfish reasons.
If big tech ever accepts some method of crypto payments in global scales it will be one they create themselves, so they can control supply and turn accounts on/off.

[The Cryptovator]

Don't expect much, it will take time. Today or tomorrow Bitcoin would be accepted everywhere. But for that, we need more solutions as well. Most freelancing platform works like a middleman. So they regulate everything and settle the payment. Here is Bitcoin volatility creating issues for those platforms based on fiat. Not every buyer or seller just wants to accept or receive payment in Bitcoin. Otherwise, there should be a p2p marketplace where buyers or seller could choose their payment methods accordingly, and the platform works as an escrow. On the other hand, a well-known centralized platform should follow regulations. It's not very easy that we are thinking. It's not all about interrogation payment gateway.

[Captain Corporate]

 Fiverr has it, right? I mean thats what matters. As long as fiverr has it, then it is going to be used in the freelance work and you can pay however you want. I remember that you couldn't withdraw bitcoin, but you could pay with bitcoin, thats what they had at the time. Fiverr is bigger than most of them combined. Obviously nothing is a "fiverr" anymore due to inflation and increasing demand for higher pay, which is %100 understandable. However, the idea of fiverr was to get something done for cheap, nowadays you can see few thousand dollars worth of work there, its no longer a fiverr deal, its just straight up freelancer deal, so its no longer "micro" as you require.

[PX-Z]

Let's assume that even at the very least 5% of the technical people on Fiverr/UpWork are interested in Bitcoin payments. Yes, that may be a decent reason for these services to add bitcoin payments. But then again, it's not like these people would leave just because they didn't add(or they removed) bitcoin payments. It's likely to just be a no biggie factor for their users.

I remember fiverr accepts bitcoin using coinbase years ago but you can't withdraw bitcoin only paying, their reasons is coinbase convert it to usd once bitcoin payment is done.

They can do it again today IMO but regulations hinder it particularly for US people who are required to submit their personal info first.

[stomachgrowls]

In your opinion, why do these popular platforms act like this and completely ignore bitcoin? And why doesn't a platform of the same kind, but using bitcoin, is able to develop itself to compete against the big ones?

Biggest problems are with regulations in many countries and you can't have one rule for all in this case.
Second thing that is preventing more business to accept Bitcoin payments directly could be transaction fees that can sometimes be higher, and inability to revert transactions.
Easy solution for them would be using something like BTCPayServer and accepting LN payments, but I don't most of them will lever use this for selfish reasons.
If big tech ever accepts some method of crypto payments in global scales it will be one they create themselves, so they can control supply and turn accounts on/off.

Exactly and thats why we arent seeing adoption/recognition out of these freelancing sites.They would just create on their own possibly in near future and i do also agree with that fee issue.
Regulatory issues would really be that common or would be next in line whenever centralized services would be dealing with decentralized will really have that corresponding
possible issues or problems would be facing on.

This is why im not really that expecting much that time will come that these sites/companies would be accepting or adopt bitcoin but it would be good if they would be having that
reconsideration.

[batang_bitcoin]

There are some freelancers website that are accepting crypto but, they really are a dedicated crypto platform and marketplace. I get that unlike those existing freelancer websites and marketplaces, they're relying on the existing payment method, PayPal, Transferwise, Xoom and other payment methods that pays fiat. But as said, there could be a conflict on their business and regulations of their government where they're located and that's why they don't adopt it yet. I'm waiting for a freelancers website like freelancer.com or upwork to allow bitcoin payments for their users. But I think it will take time as I've read a question about the subject from someone there in the latter and answered that they're not just ready yet and they're not interested of adopting bitcoin, something like that.

[goinmerry]

Because freelancers themselves want mostly fiat for payments. Easy to use, no need converting, convenient, etc. If only there's a demand coming from them to the site to support adopting bitcoin, it might be considered. Most employers also still prefer fiat payment that's why even the freelancer site supports crypto-payment, if the employers don't prefer it, the main salary will be on fiat.

[coupable]

However, online platforms which offer opportunities for freelancers, which could be the most benefited ones by adopting bitcoin on the practice seems to just ignore it. Sites like OneForma and ClickWorker don't care about improving their payment methods and actually, they are more than one decade late already. They keep forcing users to use Paypal or Payeer, which are terrible depending where you live, as these international payment services are forced to follow local regulations from countries where taxes are heavily imposed over their citizens, especially those who venture working online.

In my country, even PayPal and Payeer are not supported. Payoneer is the only option but only with virtual card and you can imagine how much fees it costs, and when you withdraw to your bank account it shouldn't exceed to $6000 per year. The majority of freelancers here (they are already not that great community) use bitcoin or other major altcoins USDT in specific.
Freelancing plantforms are all regulated within countries where cryptocurrencies are not yet supported. From another side, people looking for freelancer workers don't even know about bitcoin or aware to use it.

[mk4]

I remember fiverr accepts bitcoin using coinbase years ago but you can't withdraw bitcoin only paying, their reasons is coinbase convert it to usd once bitcoin payment is done.

They can do it again today IMO but regulations hinder it particularly for US people who are required to submit their personal info first.

As far as I know accepting BTC as payments is fairly safe regulatory wise if AML/KYC was a requirement in the first place. The only reason to not implement BTC payments(for regulatory reasons) is to prevent potential future regulatory-related problems.

[countryfree]

 Fiverr has it, right? I mean thats what matters. As long as fiverr has it, then it is going to be used in the freelance work and you can pay however you want. I remember that you couldn't withdraw bitcoin, but you could pay with bitcoin, thats what they had at the time. Fiverr is bigger than most of them combined. Obviously nothing is a "fiverr" anymore due to inflation and increasing demand for higher pay, which is %100 understandable. However, the idea of fiverr was to get something done for cheap, nowadays you can see few thousand dollars worth of work there, its no longer a fiverr deal, its just straight up freelancer deal, so its no longer "micro" as you require.

Correction, it' not longer possible.

Yes, it was possible to pay at Fiverr with BTC but they stopped accepting this payment method at least 2 years ago. They said too few people were using it.

[Accardo]

The reason for this can be traced down to double spending. It's rare though but it's possible if the person is an expert and have majority of the hashrate so such person can mine faster than others and would be able  solve ahead of the confirmed transaction because he can rewrite the block chain. Why most of them also don't look into Bitcoin is for fair trading. Bitcoin price is volatile and the confirmation of a transaction can stay pending for a long time. Who will pay for the funds if it disappears because a buyer sent money to an address with the wrong network. If the price fluctuate on user's balance after Its been deposited how can such a thing be controlled. So there are many reasons why they should not accept bitcoin. Freelancers can accept bitcoin on their own outside of the freelancing platform. Bottom line, accepting Bitcoin will increase the number of payment complaints on the platform.

[Taskford]

For sure they know bitcoin but provably they are avoiding any issue towards using it since we know there are government agency will question this acceptance since this is not regulated to them, also many of freelancers and clients are not accepting this currency yet so this bitcoin insertion is not surprising to see if this is not added to them because majority will pick USD towards anything especially volatile e currency.