A company outside the U.S. owes me money. They want to send it to me with Bitcoin. It appears to me the value of a bitcoin varies greatly from one day, or sometimes one hour, to the next. My question is, if the company pays me in bitcoins what happens if the value drops significantly before I can sell them and convert them to cash? Also, where is a trusted place to sell bitcoins?
Thank You
Your safest bet is probably to have them transfer during the weekends (saturday is usually calm, today not so much though) or not before a quick rise in price. You can also negotiate an extra fee to account for volatility, which would be what you deemed fair. I guess you could also accept pending that they match the difference in exchange price at the time you sell, since this is easy to verify by them as it takes almost precisely an hour for a transaction to confirm.
You should also ask them to sent directly to an address you have on a BTC exchange, so withing an hour of them sending it you can exchange for $//Yen/etc. I would test this first with a small amount first since I don't hold much BTC in exchanges - I know you can do it that way.
I would also verify my personal information first, so you can transfer the money out as soon as you receive and exchange the BTC for cash.