Discussion
Bitcoin, the contraversial peer-to-peer cryptocurrency is a growing idea slowly moving from the geeks arena and into the mainstream. Business owners; how much interest do you think there would be in a course for non-nerds covering the basics of what it is, how it works and how you could use it in your business? The focus would be on how to take customer payments, secure your bitcoin wallet and how to convert back to real currency.
I think there may be a market for providing training and services surrounding Bitcoin to non-tech businesses. Any thoughts?
I think there may be a market for providing training and services surrounding Bitcoin to non-tech businesses. Any thoughts?
_rubinho_ said:
Bitcoin, the contraversial peer-to-peer cryptocurrency is a growing idea slowly moving from the geeks arena and into the mainstream. Business owners; how much interest do you think there would be in a course for non-nerds covering the basics of what it is, how it works and how you could use it in your business? The focus would be on how to take customer payments, secure your bitcoin wallet and how to convert back to real currency.
I think there may be a market for providing training and services surrounding Bitcoin to non-tech businesses. Any thoughts?
Hey Rubinho,I think there may be a market for providing training and services surrounding Bitcoin to non-tech businesses. Any thoughts?
Not a bad idea, I believe there's already some online courses explaining the technicalities and benefits to businesses, but it's certainly a growth area especially here in the UK.
I've been 100% focussed on Bitcoin professionally since the start of the year. I'd be happy to assist in any way I can
Michael
shigs said:
Hey Rubinho,
Not a bad idea, I believe there's already some online courses explaining the technicalities and benefits to businesses, but it's certainly a growth area especially here in the UK.
I've been 100% focussed on Bitcoin professionally since the start of the year. I'd be happy to assist in any way I can
Michael
Michael, thanks for your help. It's an idea I'm mulling over so I will definitely contact you if I take it further. Online courses are one thing but there's value I think in visiting a customer's site, throwing things up on a whiteboard and taking a Q&A face to face. The barrier to understanding is quite high and just reading online, no matter how well written, will turn many people off. Not a bad idea, I believe there's already some online courses explaining the technicalities and benefits to businesses, but it's certainly a growth area especially here in the UK.
I've been 100% focussed on Bitcoin professionally since the start of the year. I'd be happy to assist in any way I can
Michael
gregf40 said:
It's not going to take off IMO.
I would avoid it at all costs.
That's an interesting viewpoint and one I think is shared with many people. I'd like to hear your opinions on why if you'd like to expand. In it's current form I think you're right but if the right services are built on top to hide the technicalities (just like in the conventional banking system) then maybe not. I would avoid it at all costs.
The difficulty is that it has all the right qualities in theory but its too volatile.
It would be like taking AIM mining shares in return for your goods. Unless you cash out into 'normal' currency then your value will fluctuate wildly. Unless you are a very high margin business or want to be hedging your exposure it doesn't seem to make sense to take it except as a Shoreditch roundabout hipster experiment.
The principles are fine but while its like ultra volatile gold I can't see it having applications in e-commerce.
I also seem to recall the conversion back to your own local currency is quite hard to do in decent amounts with a reasonable spread in a timely manner. I am happy to be proved wrong.
I have looked into this as I would be interested in creating a site offering simple Options on BitCoin if I could get the liquidity and reliablitly for the required hedging etc.
It would be like taking AIM mining shares in return for your goods. Unless you cash out into 'normal' currency then your value will fluctuate wildly. Unless you are a very high margin business or want to be hedging your exposure it doesn't seem to make sense to take it except as a Shoreditch roundabout hipster experiment.
The principles are fine but while its like ultra volatile gold I can't see it having applications in e-commerce.
I also seem to recall the conversion back to your own local currency is quite hard to do in decent amounts with a reasonable spread in a timely manner. I am happy to be proved wrong.
I have looked into this as I would be interested in creating a site offering simple Options on BitCoin if I could get the liquidity and reliablitly for the required hedging etc.
Bullett said:
Why would you choose to use bitcoin over real money?
See that's the point.... You've hit the nail on the head! for the first time ever we actually have a choice! Bitcoin can allow for transactions that "real" currency just simply can't facilitate.
We live in a world where 2billion people have access to the internet but only 1 billion of which have what we would call "modern" banking facilities. Bitcoin has much less importance for developed nations where financial equality and neutrality is not a key concern of ours. Bitcoins real potential is literally catering for the 6 billion people on this planet who have ZERO access to financial markets / banking (2.5billion of which are adults).
shigs said:
See that's the point.... You've hit the nail on the head! for the first time ever we actually have a choice!
Bitcoin can allow for transactions that "real" currency just simply can't facilitate.
We live in a world where 2billion people have access to the internet but only 1 billion of which have what we would call "modern" banking facilities. Bitcoin has much less importance for developed nations where financial equality and neutrality is not a key concern of ours. Bitcoins real potential is literally catering for the 6 billion people on this planet who have ZERO access to financial markets / banking (2.5billion of which are adults).
Call me daft, but if they have ZERO access to financial markets (religious reasons aside), it's fairly unlikely that they will fall down in awe at a digital currency that is a peculiarly ennui-driven fad in the West.Bitcoin can allow for transactions that "real" currency just simply can't facilitate.
We live in a world where 2billion people have access to the internet but only 1 billion of which have what we would call "modern" banking facilities. Bitcoin has much less importance for developed nations where financial equality and neutrality is not a key concern of ours. Bitcoins real potential is literally catering for the 6 billion people on this planet who have ZERO access to financial markets / banking (2.5billion of which are adults).
shigs said:
Bitcoin can allow for transactions that "real" currency just simply can't facilitate.
We live in a world where 2billion people have access to the internet but only 1 billion of which have what we would call "modern" banking facilities. Bitcoin has much less importance for developed nations where financial equality and neutrality is not a key concern of ours. Bitcoins real potential is literally catering for the 6 billion people on this planet who have ZERO access to financial markets / banking (2.5billion of which are adults).
So it offers me no benefit as a Uk business? I can transact in £ $ Eu or many other currencies. I don't see why I would choose something else.We live in a world where 2billion people have access to the internet but only 1 billion of which have what we would call "modern" banking facilities. Bitcoin has much less importance for developed nations where financial equality and neutrality is not a key concern of ours. Bitcoins real potential is literally catering for the 6 billion people on this planet who have ZERO access to financial markets / banking (2.5billion of which are adults).
Also how would these people with no banking access actually acquire bitcoins?
Given how much much it's spiked and dropped over 2014, I think I'd rather receive payment in Zimbabwean dollars.
One minute, you're selling goods worth £10 then suddenly they're worth f
k all then worth £5 (numbers plucked out of the sky). How the hell can you deal with that as a business?
One minute, you're selling goods worth £10 then suddenly they're worth f
k all then worth £5 (numbers plucked out of the sky). How the hell can you deal with that as a business?Some interesting opinions here and good discussion.
It is new technology and only the most keen early adopters are using it for real goods transactions. Harking back to the foundings of real currency I am certain there were many who said it wouldn't catch on because there was nothing wrong with trading goods and services directly. Nowadays we're getting increasingly cashless individually with the actual banking system itself being entirely electronic. Bitcoin (and similar) are now enabling wholly electronic transactions without a central clearing bank. There are reasons this is empowering in both the first- and third-worlds.
Exchanging fiat money for Bitcoin is a major downside to its adoption currently. I have personally lost money when the Tradehill and MtGox exchanges collapsed. Presently the exchanges are relatively small and disconnected. This makes them vulnerable to bankruptcy and open to manipulation. National regulations can make it complicated and expensive to deposit and withdraw money too. Services such as Coinbase are making it easier by being user friendly, based in a stable country and connected to major banks. Unfortunately the UK lags the USA with the UK based service Blockchain, who have recently secured $30million in venture funding, unable to get a UK business bank account and accept GBP deposits.
Addressing volatility and its affect on pricing, there's no real difference to providing goods and services in another currency. Your pricing needs to take into consideration the exchange rate to BTC from the local currency and calculate prices based on that. Due to the volatility you may need to sample the exchange rate more frequently and update accordingly. If you can update prices in near real-time and offer product in EUR or USD there's no reason why you can't offer in Bitcoin either. BluePurpleRed's options site idea is very interesting.
As for why would you want to take Bitcoin over other forms of payment. I don't think it's an issue of one or another. It is an alternative and one you may like to offer customers for their convenience. You may also be able to access a wider market without providing hundreds of foreign currency options by allowing Bitcoin payments instead for some regions.
It is new technology and only the most keen early adopters are using it for real goods transactions. Harking back to the foundings of real currency I am certain there were many who said it wouldn't catch on because there was nothing wrong with trading goods and services directly. Nowadays we're getting increasingly cashless individually with the actual banking system itself being entirely electronic. Bitcoin (and similar) are now enabling wholly electronic transactions without a central clearing bank. There are reasons this is empowering in both the first- and third-worlds.
Exchanging fiat money for Bitcoin is a major downside to its adoption currently. I have personally lost money when the Tradehill and MtGox exchanges collapsed. Presently the exchanges are relatively small and disconnected. This makes them vulnerable to bankruptcy and open to manipulation. National regulations can make it complicated and expensive to deposit and withdraw money too. Services such as Coinbase are making it easier by being user friendly, based in a stable country and connected to major banks. Unfortunately the UK lags the USA with the UK based service Blockchain, who have recently secured $30million in venture funding, unable to get a UK business bank account and accept GBP deposits.
Addressing volatility and its affect on pricing, there's no real difference to providing goods and services in another currency. Your pricing needs to take into consideration the exchange rate to BTC from the local currency and calculate prices based on that. Due to the volatility you may need to sample the exchange rate more frequently and update accordingly. If you can update prices in near real-time and offer product in EUR or USD there's no reason why you can't offer in Bitcoin either. BluePurpleRed's options site idea is very interesting.
As for why would you want to take Bitcoin over other forms of payment. I don't think it's an issue of one or another. It is an alternative and one you may like to offer customers for their convenience. You may also be able to access a wider market without providing hundreds of foreign currency options by allowing Bitcoin payments instead for some regions.
_rubinho_ said:
Addressing volatility and its affect on pricing, there's no real difference to providing goods and services in another currency. Your pricing needs to take into consideration the exchange rate to BTC from the local currency and calculate prices based on that. Due to the volatility you may need to sample the exchange rate more frequently and update accordingly. If you can update prices in near real-time and offer product in EUR or USD there's no reason why you can't offer in Bitcoin either. BluePurpleRed's options site idea is very interesting.
Problem is that for most businesses who don't trade internationally, you don't have to worry about currency fluctuations. The hairdresser on the high street isn't really going to be affected on a daily basis (the cost of hair spray may go up by 10p over a 3 month period - not something they need to worry about, really) but they don't need to worry about the rate going from 1 unit to 700 units in value in a 2 month period (or whatever happened to Bitcoin).Hoofy said:
_rubinho_ said:
Addressing volatility and its affect on pricing, there's no real difference to providing goods and services in another currency. Your pricing needs to take into consideration the exchange rate to BTC from the local currency and calculate prices based on that. Due to the volatility you may need to sample the exchange rate more frequently and update accordingly. If you can update prices in near real-time and offer product in EUR or USD there's no reason why you can't offer in Bitcoin either. BluePurpleRed's options site idea is very interesting.
Problem is that for most businesses who don't trade internationally, you don't have to worry about currency fluctuations. The hairdresser on the high street isn't really going to be affected on a daily basis (the cost of hair spray may go up by 10p over a 3 month period - not something they need to worry about, really) but they don't need to worry about the rate going from 1 unit to 700 units in value in a 2 month period (or whatever happened to Bitcoin).That's my understanding of your objection unless I have got the wrong end of the stick.
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