

Ask HN: Why Don't You Accept Bitcoin - alexvision

I&#x27;m currently doing a thesis on why companies choose not to accept bitcoin. I&#x27;d love to chat about why you don&#x27;t accept bitcoin or hear your comments below.<p>If you would be happy to participate in my study you can book a time here for a 15-20 minute chat: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;alexmanusu.youcanbook.me&#x2F;
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jacquesm
Because I invest my time there where it will generate a return. Accepting
bitcoin from users that have other means of payment cuts into the bottom line
directly (and I'd have to somehow integrate bitcoin into my administrative
processes, good luck with that), and accepting bitcoin from users that don't
have other means is going to add a very very small fraction of the income
that's already there.

In short, I don't accept bitcoin because it is pointless and most companies
that do accept bitcoin do so for the PR value, not because it benefits their
bottom line.

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dlss
I agree with this.

Two points though:

1\. PR value does benefit your bottom line

2\. Almost all serious web proxies accept Bitcoin. I believe they do this more
for product reasons than PR reasons.

Which is to say your answer could be put more simply as "I don't think my
customers would value my accepting Bitcoin as much as other features I could
be adding."

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jacquesm
Bitcoin is a 'huge' thing in tech circles, but outside of that it's still tiny
and since implementing bitcoin is non-trivial (especially from an
administrative point of view) it's my time that I'm worried about, not what my
customers would value (they've very likely heard about bitcoin but do not have
any). I get an infinite amount more email about implementing paypal (3 per
year) than about implementing bitcoin (0).

So I'd be wasting my time. As for PR value, I'd rather get that from unique
content or a the quality of the service than from promoting still relatively
obscure payment methods because the press is 'hot' on anything bitcoin.
Besides, when Apple or Amazon do it it is noteworthy, when camarades.com does
it nobody will care.

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rebelidealist
Two reasons.

1\. Price volatility

2\. Bitcoin is designed to be deflationary. Most people that buy Bitcoin are
letting it sit there and hoping that their investment will go up rather than
using it for purchases.

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Avalaxy
1\. that's no issue when you just use Bitpay/Coinbase to exchange the Bitcoins
for USD/EUR immediately.

2\. first of all, that's not true. More Bitcoins are created every day so it's
inflationary, not deflationary. Secondly: that would be a good reason to
accept Bitcoin. Who doesn't like getting paid in something that will
appreciate in value?

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gacba
Simple. My customers aren't asking for it and really don't care. If I'm not
focused on them, I'm missing the point of my business. The day they start
banging on my door and telling me they'll leave because I don't have Bitcoin
support, I'll happily add it. Until then, it's not on my radar.

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fauigerzigerk
1\. Volatility

2\. Regulatory uncertainty

To some degree (2) causes (1). Both the threat of regulation and the lack of
regulation cause volatility, and that issue not going to go away any time
soon.

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dlss
My reason is simple: Bitcoin doesn't natively support recurring payments.

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Igglyboo
Neither does any other currency. (credit cards != USD)

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cweagans
Because Bitcoin holds no value to me.

