Quote from: jseverson on May 14, 2018, 06:42:14 AM

Quote from: Uberse on May 14, 2018, 12:24:45 AM

Each Bitcoin transaction is a zero-sum game -- one party benefits to the same extent that the other does not benefit. So one party is guaranteed always to be fine with the volatility. And neither party knows for sure (or at all) who that beneficiary will be.

You don't think this is a big issue at all? A small business with razor thin margins could very easily lose money and lose the capability to pay their suppliers in case of a slide. That alone makes accepting it unnecessarily risky and very far from ideal. It's fine peer-to-peer, but when you have an obligation to pay and a business to run, it's a significant variable you could just do away with. They could use a payment processor to mitigate the risks, but that also defeats the purpose.

Volatility could very well be a deal breaker in a few scenarios. While I acknowledge that it gets blown out of proportion here and there, it's certainly not a non-issue. If it works for you, and it does for most of us, great. That doesn't mean it will work for everyone else though. Volatility is a problem that can presumably be solved by time and adoption, and shouldn't be swept under the rug.

You make good points about merchants with razor-thin margins -- which is the condition of a lot of merchants, probably most by far. Those merchants would not be able to afford the risk of holding the bitcoins and so would miss out on any appreciation in their value after a sale. Clearly such businesses would only put a Bitcoin logo on their door if they thought it would bring in more business. It it was too much hassle too soon without benefit they would take the decals off. I'm not sure what you mean that use of a payment processor defeats the purpose. The purpose is to increase sales and profits. If passing their bitcoins instantly through Coinbase for transfer to their bank account still results in enough more money to make the effort worthwhile, they would do it. I've made the point in other posts here that merchants might increase the feasibility of bitcoins by stipulating that there are absolutely no returns on bitcoin sales -- all sales final, and it would say so on the receipt. Also, bitcoin pricing could be highly flexible -- when the BTC price is rising, prices for BTC sales could be lower than the cash/credit-card price. When the BTC price is falling, such prices would be higher, maybe a lot higher -- ruthless pawn-shop rates.

I suspect that such merchants will eventually realize that, while BTC has volatility risk, it also has benefits that might be of unique value to them, more so than a chain or big box.