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Shopify Merchants Can Now Accept Bitcoin

shopify.com

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Re: Shopify Merchants Can Now Accept Bitcoin

#11

Post by TomGullen »

nedwin wrote: post #2

We were looking at adding Bitcoin to our startup but worried about the volatility. What if all our customers paid in Bitcoin and it crashed? The reverse is also true - we might gain upside if the price continues to Skyrocket - but how do you protect yourself from this?

It's called variance. It will either go up or down. However, the general trend of Bitcoin is upwards so it's easier to argue that it's more likely to go up in value. So accepting Bitcoin as payment is +EV in my opinion.

However, some businesses currently could suffer if they accepted Bitcoin due to it's volatily. If you're selling SAAS your cost is tiny so accepting a more +EV payment currency is probably beneficial.

However if you're selling physical widgets on very slim margins and don't have anything in place to reduce your exposure via quick selling of Bitcoin, and cashflow is/could be an issue it's probably not suitable.

Re: Shopify Merchants Can Now Accept Bitcoin

#12

Post by sheetjs »

> You can choose to receive your payments in Bitcoins (paid into your Bitcoin wallet) or paid in your local currency directly into your bank account every business day.

If you choose to receive local currency, what rate do you receive? Are you guaranteed a rate? Does it fluctuate daily (and as a result, can you quote prices so that they change daily as well?) and do you know the rate in advance?

Re: Shopify Merchants Can Now Accept Bitcoin

#13

Post by pushrax »

sheetjs wrote: post #12

> You can choose to receive your payments in Bitcoins (paid into your Bitcoin wallet) or paid in your local currency directly into your bank account every business day. If you choose to receive local currency, what rate do you receive? Are you guaranteed a rate? Does it fluctuate daily (and as a result, can you quote prices so that they change daily as well?) and do you know the rate in advance?

https://bitpay.com/bitcoin-exchange-rates

Re: Shopify Merchants Can Now Accept Bitcoin

#14

Post by sheetjs »

pushrax wrote: post #13
sheetjs wrote: post #12

> You can choose to receive your payments in Bitcoins (paid into your Bitcoin wallet) or paid in your local currency directly into your bank account every business day. If you choose to receive local currency, what rate do you receive? Are you guaranteed a rate? Does it fluctuate daily (and as a result, can you quote prices so that they change daily as well?) and do you know the rate in advance?

https://bitpay.com/bitcoin-exchange-rates

Yes, they note that they use bitpay on the website:

> Our new Bitcoin integration is available through BitPay and can be used alongside other payment services, like Shopify Payments and PayPal.

But they don't mention whether there are any service fees added by Shopify

Re: Shopify Merchants Can Now Accept Bitcoin

#15

Post by brianalkerton »

sheetjs wrote: post #14
pushrax wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://bitpay.com/bitcoin-exchange-rates

Yes, they note that they use bitpay on the website: > Our new Bitcoin integration is available through BitPay and can be used alongside other payment services, like Shopify Payments and PayPal. But they don't mention whether there are any service fees added by Shopify

We treat Bitpay transactions the same as any other in terms of fees/pricing. There's a 1% or 2% transaction fee on plans with lower monthly fees, but those are waived if you use Shopify Payments for credit card acceptance (even on Bitpay transactions).

A better breakdown can be found here: http://www.shopify.com/pricing

Re: Shopify Merchants Can Now Accept Bitcoin

#16

Post by [deleted] »

blhack wrote: post #4
nedwin wrote: post #2

We were looking at adding Bitcoin to our startup but worried about the volatility. What if all our customers paid in Bitcoin and it crashed? The reverse is also true - we might gain upside if the price continues to Skyrocket - but how do you protect yourself from this?

Bitpay immediately converts your Bitcoin payments to USD. Customers pay with BTC, but you receive USD.

[deleted]

Re: Shopify Merchants Can Now Accept Bitcoin

#17

Post by nedwin »

orenmazor wrote: post #10
nedwin wrote: post #2

We were looking at adding Bitcoin to our startup but worried about the volatility. What if all our customers paid in Bitcoin and it crashed? The reverse is also true - we might gain upside if the price continues to Skyrocket - but how do you protect yourself from this?

The BTC support we offer is through a 3rd party merchant gateway. As a shop-owner, you are simply accepting payments via BitPay (our partner) which converts the BTC into a currency you find acceptable and deposits it into your accounts.

Awesome, thanks for letting me know. Time we revisited BTC payments then! :)

Re: Shopify Merchants Can Now Accept Bitcoin

#18

Post by adrow »

So if someone is running conversion tracking at checkout for analytics etc... what currency gets reported? The post says:

"You can choose to receive your payments in Bitcoins (paid into your Bitcoin wallet) or paid in your local currency directly into your bank account every business day."

If your shop currency is set to GBP but someone pays in BTC, what gets populated if using {{ shop.currency }} and {{ total_price }} for example?

Re: Shopify Merchants Can Now Accept Bitcoin

#19

Post by aresant »

Very exciting.

I think they could further enhance merchant adoption by rewriting with an even more laser beam focus on the "benfits" vs. the "features"

Eg eliminate the top paragraph entirely and rework their current bullets to something as simple as:

- - - -

Start accepting Bitcoin today and you'll:

a) Get paid your full retail price in your local currency (or in Bitcoins if you prefer) settled daily.

b) Pay less than half the fees of a normal credit card transaction (about 1%).

c) Never receive another charge back.

Click here to add Bitcoin to your store right now.

- - - -

The wording isn't perfect ( particularly bullet (a) ) but you get the point.

The "positioning" of Bitcoin as a currency is hard to understand for most merchants and ALWAYS leads to questions about volatility etc.

So in the spirit of "Don't make me think" anybody building Bitcoin as a service startups should work hard on messaging.

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