Which sane merchant would want to receive such a volatile commodity in return for his goods and services?
After what I saw this weekend I will be recommending that my friend offer the intraday low for staying in his hostel. If you as a customer think this is just a wobble in the price you can always wait a day for it to go up.
I'm not sure if you are serious. If you are I suggest you ask 20 merchants if they'd want to use a currency that can have 40% daily swings and see how many you find. My bet is not one would.
I am serious. I think it would do his business good to accept BTC. I am NOT suddenly suggesting to him that he takes BTC *because* it is swinging so wildly, rather I am suggesting he takes BTC in general and needs a way of not getting burnt in the short term until things settle down.
I agree with you totally something swinging so wildly is deeply unattractive to any merchant. That is why my suggestion is that he only takes the days minimum rate. The customers can take it or leave it. If they think the rate is unusually low they can wait till it rises.
He would need to move it to an exchange and transfer it to dollars pronto. He is unlikely to lose on a sustained basis by doing this (ie the rate may rise or fall on any given day from the time he quotes a price to the time he converts to dollars)
Forgive me if I am bit off topic. It is less about Mt Gox and more about how a volatile BTC is making it hard for me to make a case for a "real merchant" to accept them.
Tim