On infinite confirmations and stability for online retailers

[MsEve]

Hello there… I spent the last three days reading the wiki, this forum, various sites and doing an immense amount of google searches to find answers before asking questions here in the forum. I do however have a few that I can't seem to find answers for. Also, just want to say that I don't think that I've been this excited about something virtual since first coming online in the early nineties.
 
1. Do confirmations continue to arrive after receiving bitcoin infinitely?
I went to the Faucet today to try out receiving bitcoin and received the bitcoin fine. However, at the time of writing this I'm up to over 81 confirmations underneath the status tab for this one transaction. Is there something I need to do to stop them from increasing in number or is this how it works.

The wiki doesn't explain this very well stating simply:
"write about blocks and confirmations here."

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Using_Bitcoin#Transaction_confirmations

2. What is the most stable way of setting up to be able to accept Bitcoin on one's site?
I am an established online retailer and visual artist who is interested in using Bitcoin to sell my fine art and handmade paper goods. I have been selling online for close to four years now and have a positive reputation. As I can not accept Bitcoin through the site I sell on I'll be creating a special page on my blog for this purpose.

I noticed many individuals and organizations who accept Bitcoin donations such as EFF simply place their wallet number on their site. Is that the best way to do it until things stabilize more? I'm already aware that there are a few shopping cart systems that already have modules developed for them but sadly, are not systems that I currently use.

3. Does unticking the Generate Coins under Settings within the client stop mining for good?
I do not have interest in mining as my computer is already bogged down with too much to do.

Anyhow, thank you all

[1714787757]

1714787757

[1714787757]

1714787757

[1714787757]

1714787757

[bitlotto]

1. Each confirmation is a new block on the chain. It will go on forever. The bigger the number the more it's "set is stone". Blocks will always come.
2. My guess is you would probably want to price your stuff with BTC. Then when someone wants to buy it you give them a unique address that they just have. Once you get payment with that address you know that person did indeed pay. If you use the same address for everyone you have no idea who paid what.
3. No. You can turn it back on later but with just one computer it will probably be a very long time before you actually get anything though...

[MsEve]

Thank you so much bitlotto for the clear responses.

I do plan on pricing in BTC only for this particular series of artworks and prints. However I'm noticing that retailers of real life goods are basing there prices on the going exchange rates. I don't think this is realistic this early on in the game especially when it's next to impossible to transfer funds into one's currency or you reside in an area where it's highly unlikely that there will be another Bitcoin user within 200 KM (500 KM) of where you live in the foreseeable future.

The price of real life goods should not be based on exchange rates because the retailer selling the goods is out of pocket for shipping costs, the item and in my case the time it took to create the item. Once there are much more retailers who accept BTC then the prices will naturally come down over time to what one would pay in USD or CAD for instance.

While exchange rates are good for getting your BTC into USD or CAD, the value of goods priced in BTC should be inflated more than what they are because of the current risk involved in actually selling them.

I've been thinking a lot over the last few days and trying to decide how to price my items in BTC and not USD or CAD because USD or CAD has no relevance to real life goods or services that are purchased with BTC at the moment.

And by having inflated prices it will force the community to not hoard… and spread the BTC love around so that the marketplace can begin to thrive and attract other retailers and services… Maybe. I don't pretend to understand economics but shouldn't scarcity inflate the price in BIT in and of itself alone?

[gigitrix]

MsEve, you describe the problem quite well. It seems that people are going to have to use BTC as "poor man's USD" for a certain period of time, before there is so much acceptance of BTC that you can live off of it on it's own!

[MsEve]

Yes, there is no way that I could live off of Bitcoin right now. But using it as a marketing tool could be an effective or rather alternative way to promote one's goods or services that are available in other currencies too.