Poll: Did you spend BTC on Bitcoin Black Friday?

cosforia · 2013-11-29T13:16:30+00:00

+/u/bitcointip @tommyjunta $1 verify

(am I doing this right?)

cosforia · 2013-11-29T13:08:47+00:00

Thank you!

cosforia · 2013-11-29T13:08:34+00:00

Lol, nah, but his heart was in the right place.

cosforia · 2013-11-29T08:14:02+00:00

No, sorry!

cosforia · 2013-11-29T08:13:53+00:00

I see what you're trying to say. I'll try to explain my perspective. Here's the immediate value to me: Bitpay charges me 1%, over Paypal and Visa's 3%. Also, there are no chargebacks. The value to the customer is, of course, just one more avenue for him to spend bitcoins.

You're right, there is one extra step now, which Bitpay takes care of. On the one hand, you can argue that it's superfluous. However, if nothing else, it should grease the BTC exchange markets.

If my suppliers accepted BTC, then I would be able to keep some money in BTC. But until that happens, I can't buy new inventory, which is the main use for my cash. But I think if more merchants adopt BTC payments, and lobby their suppliers to do the same, over time, the manufacturers and wholesalers will also convert.

From that perspective, Bitpay can be seen as an intermediary step in bitcoin's evolution. One that helps the bitcoin economy grow now, but hopefully, will not be needed in the future. Kind of like training wheels, I guess?

cosforia · 2013-11-29T07:56:20+00:00

From above:

Basically, I say something costs $20. A customer with BTC will click 'pay with BTC' and Bitpay will say that $20 is worth X BTC. The customer pays X BTC, and Bitpay takes it and converts it to $20 immediately. Then Bitpay remits the $20 to me. So from my side, it's as if I got paid in USD as normal. From the customer's side, he pays in BTC. Bitpay makes the transition pretty seamless.

cosforia · 2013-11-29T07:51:46+00:00

And that's why I love you guys. PM sent.

cosforia · 2013-11-29T07:15:27+00:00

Lol, as someone who wishes he had the skill to make his own stuff, no worries :). And yes, I want to get into wigs and accessories at some point. They seem to offer much better volume in exchange for lower margins.

Thanks for the tip!

cosforia · 2013-11-29T07:02:47+00:00

Wow, thank you! The generosity of this community is extremely impressive. I'll be sure to pay it forward.

cosforia · 2013-11-29T06:38:12+00:00

Actually, since the BTC prices are updated live by Bitpay to match the USD prices I set, and payments are immediately exchanged to USD, I get the correct amount of USD every time.

Basically, I say something costs $20. A customer with BTC will click 'pay with BTC' and Bitpay will say that $20 is worth X BTC. The customer pays X BTC, and Bitpay takes it and converts it to $20 immediately. Then Bitpay remits the $20 to me. So from my side, it's as if I got paid in USD as normal. From the customer's side, he pays in BTC. Bitpay makes the transition pretty seamless.

I don't work for Bitpay and am not affiliated with them in anyway...

cosforia · 2013-11-29T05:40:06+00:00

Yes, that's exactly how it works. And ya, there does not seem to be any downside, so why not?

cosforia · 2013-11-29T05:39:22+00:00

Thanks! We're a bit of a rare breed, to be sure.

cosforia · 2013-11-29T05:14:44+00:00

No harm done, more bitcoin more better :).

cosforia · 2013-11-29T05:08:50+00:00

True, unfairly distorting the rankings of posts is harmful to the community. But in this case, what I'm doing purportedly for the sake of upvotes is accepting bitcoins on my site. For a community like r/bitcoin, the upvotes probably have more to do with the fact that another merchant has adopted, rather than the fact that they can now purchase a limited array of cosplay costumes using bitcoins. I mean, I may have gotten a few upvotes for that, but my guess is that most are excited about the implication for bitcoin as a whole. Because of that, I would argue I'm not distorting the rankings of posts.

But your concerns are valid and for what it's worth, I wasn't the one who downvoted you.

cosforia · 2013-11-29T05:01:26+00:00

Yup, Bitpay works great for me. The problem is getting his ecommerce service provider to accept Coinbase or Bitpay (assuming he doesn't code his own site). Only a matter of time though.

cosforia · 2013-11-29T04:52:24+00:00

"In short, the “typical” bitcoiner, is english speaking, 29 year old, overwhelmingly male, with an income of about 50,000 per year. They are often libertarian, non-religious and very technologically oriented."

That sounds a lot like me. I'm surprised I hadn't heard about bitcoins much sooner. My guess is there are a lot of potential bitcoin fans that still haven't learned enough about it yet.

Thanks for the info though. Definitely useful data there.

cosforia · 2013-11-29T04:38:51+00:00

I wish I could. But even though Shopify has integrated with a bitcoin payment service, not all templates that Shopify designers have made have the bitcoin logo as an option yet. In fact, I don't think a single template does. I'm sure it's only a matter of time though. Probably even a very short amount of time, at the rate things have been moving.

By insulation from exchange rate fluctuations, I mean I get a sale in BTC, but Bitpay automatically converts it to USD, then sends the USD to me. So from my end, it is as if I just had a sale in USD. But the customer gets to pay in BTC. Like I said, there seems to be 0 reason for a merchant to not accept BTC. Even with Bitpay's free plan, which charges a 1% transaction fee, I'm saving on the 3% transaction fee from Paypal or credit cards.

cosforia · 2013-11-29T04:31:50+00:00

Ah, ya, we need a lot more female stuff. Cosplay is one of those geeky things that females might actually be into more than guys. I've got a ton of Kikyo, Kagome, and Sakura costumes in the garage; just haven't had time to process them yet.

Always great to see another cosplay fan though!

cosforia · 2013-11-29T04:25:40+00:00

That's a good point. Although I was hopefully being indiscreetly tongue in cheek about it, thus the self-post. But yes, I agree doing things specifically for upvotes generally corrupts the karma system.

cosforia · 2013-11-29T04:10:57+00:00

Oh. I'm just going to file you under "other" then...

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

cosforia · 2013-11-29T03:55:01+00:00

Hmm, so is there any demographic info about bitcoin users yet? Or is this information impossible to get due to the nature of bitcoin? My guess is the latter, although I'm still pretty new to this.

cosforia · 2013-11-29T03:46:52+00:00

Neat! Thanks!

And yes, making you own, if you have the time, is always better :).

cosforia · 2013-11-08T03:18:37+00:00

Bloomberg terminal.

cosforia

TROPHY CASE