Quote:
Originally Posted by Manic!
It's not 3-5%. It's less. Companies that except bit coin sell them right away. If they had to hold them for 7 days no one would except them because the prices change so much. It also shows that companies don't think the currency has any long term value. It's a pain in the a$$ right now for a person to buy bitcoins and use them compared to using paypal or a credit card.
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It's at least 3%, usually with a flat $0.30 or so tacked on. So if you want to sell something like a song for $1, you actually only get $0.67. That doesn't sound like a lot, but if you are counting on a lot of volume, it's ridiculous. Say you do 100K in sales of a song or an app - that means you are paying $33,000 in fees. With bitcoin, the fees would be about $10.
Companies that "accept" bitcoin can sell them or keep them right away, depending on preference. That doesn't show that "there's no long term value". (the fact that they're accepting it at all indicates the opposite). What it shows is that they have to buy products in a currency other than bitcoin and thus need to liquidate income at the rate they charge immediately. The same thing happens when you sell something in USD but the buyer spends in CAD. You have to give that rate right away, and convert it back immediately. Otherwise you may lose out on currency fluctuations. Also note that there are ridiculous fees for both the buy AND the seller when different currencies are used in addition to the credit card processing fees..
Yes, like I said, it's a pain in the ass to buy bitcoin. Just like it was a pain in the ass to get on the internet before AOL and ISPs existed.
During those times, if you wanted to show your mom in Toronto what your christmas tree looked like, you would have to take a photo, go to the store and have it developed, wait a few days and pick it up, paying $5-10 or whatever. Then you would have to put it in an envelope, walk to the post office, buy a stamp, pay $0.33 or whatever, and wait a few days for them to receive it. Now you can just take a picture of it with your phone, and immediately send it to them via email or instant messenger - or even stream it live.
We'll be looking at banks and credit cards the same way 10 years from now.