Someone posted a constructive criticism of BTC on econsultancy - comments?
Hi everyone,
Disclaimer: the below is NOT my post - it's from a user called "Philip Rooke" who posted what I consider to be a very constructive (but negative) comment regarding bitcoin's potentials for adoption.
Second disclaimer: Thing is, I love bitcoin but I can't find counter arguments to the guy. And the reason I'm interested in understand why he might be wrong is because I'm considering promoting bitcoin as part of my consultancy business. If a client comes to me with the list below, I'd be honest: I'd struggle.
Comments?
----- THIS IS NOT MY POST _ SEE http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/63620-will-bitcoin-have-a-positive-impact-on-ecommerce for the actual thread ----
The second is personal conjecture. I fail still fail to see why it is beneficial to consumers and therefore ecommerce. Credit cards, direct payment or other methods work well and cost the consumer nothing. Therefore I do not see why the average consumer will want to use it. If they do not see a compelling reason to adopt it then no retailer will. Therefore I do not think I will ever have to work with Bitcoin for my customers.
As a mass market retailer I tried to find 10 reasons as to why the average consumer might want to use Bitcoin:
1) Better security - but most customers are not unhappy with transaction security via existing methods, they live with risk. And those that are worried tend to shop with trusted brands to reduce the risk rather than move payment methods.
2) Zero % fraud - This is a retailer problem not a consumer one. Most credit cards offer fraud protection to consumers. The cost covered by the transactor and retailer, so the consumer does not care. Retailers cannot force consumers to use payment to suit their needs. I promise you that if I could reduce the 1% fraud on my business I would.
3) Lower costs - not to the consumer, very few retailers offer lower costs to non-credit card payers. Many are not allowed under their payment contracts. Other than tickets for events and travel it is rare to extra charges for credit cards and most consumers have debit cards.
4) Less complexity - hmmm so a consumer has to get another currency from their every day one and then try and work out the pricing. Well that will be easier.
5) Ideology or "sticking it to the man" - the mass market is "the man", works for the man or does not care. Therefore this will always make it a minority issue.
6) Taking out the middle man - only has an advantage if the consumer gets a lower cost or cares about "sticking it to the middle-man"
7) Speed of transaction - the average consumer does not care. "I make a payment I get my product. I guess the money gets there in the end". If you are transferring large enough amounts that interest over a 24 hour transaction becomes a problem them yes this may be of interest. But this has only happened 2 times in my life when buying or selling a company, and simple methods exist to deal with it, this is not mass market.
No regulating tax authority - but most consumers pay income tax from salary and buy goods from VAT tax paying retailers. Perhaps some self employed people might like the idea but then the companies who pay them still have to declare payments. So only tax avoiding rich or criminals will care.
9) e-wallet - this ideas I like but I have seen plenty of evidence that people are using paypal as a wallet. And in the last decade their have been 1000s of attempts to get to critical mass on e-wallets. The people who win here will be mobile phone billers who can use the phone as a wallet and have the consumer already. I bet on Vodafone or O2 over Bitcoin.
10) Accepted globally. I have to over 40 countries in my life and never had a problem with Visa or Mastercard. For personal reasons I have had to send money to Tanzania, Ethopia and Cambodia but standard cheap banking systems have never been a problem. So only useful if you are trying to do business in very strange places. Again not mass market.
So in the end Bitcoin seems to be a system that will work for tax avoiding rich who are anti-establishment and need to send money to really difficult places. Being ironic it sounds like rich public school boys on their year off before university. But it is not mass market.
I receive 100s of requests a month from consumers and our ecommerce platform sellers wanting Amazon checkout and payment. We have yet to have one for Bitcoin.
If Bitcoin is not mass market then it will be of little use to ecommerce retailers and platforms. And that was the title of my thought opinion.
Again I am more than happy to be proved wrong. But I want to see and argument for mass market usage. If you are hunting for ideas also look up Beenz, Flooz and Speedbucks.
Phil
----------------------- The above is not my intellectual property - post is at http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/63620-will-bitcoin-have-a-positive-impact-on-ecommerce --------
Disclaimer: the below is NOT my post - it's from a user called "Philip Rooke" who posted what I consider to be a very constructive (but negative) comment regarding bitcoin's potentials for adoption.
Second disclaimer: Thing is, I love bitcoin but I can't find counter arguments to the guy. And the reason I'm interested in understand why he might be wrong is because I'm considering promoting bitcoin as part of my consultancy business. If a client comes to me with the list below, I'd be honest: I'd struggle.
Comments?
----- THIS IS NOT MY POST _ SEE http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/63620-will-bitcoin-have-a-positive-impact-on-ecommerce for the actual thread ----
The second is personal conjecture. I fail still fail to see why it is beneficial to consumers and therefore ecommerce. Credit cards, direct payment or other methods work well and cost the consumer nothing. Therefore I do not see why the average consumer will want to use it. If they do not see a compelling reason to adopt it then no retailer will. Therefore I do not think I will ever have to work with Bitcoin for my customers.
As a mass market retailer I tried to find 10 reasons as to why the average consumer might want to use Bitcoin:
1) Better security - but most customers are not unhappy with transaction security via existing methods, they live with risk. And those that are worried tend to shop with trusted brands to reduce the risk rather than move payment methods.
2) Zero % fraud - This is a retailer problem not a consumer one. Most credit cards offer fraud protection to consumers. The cost covered by the transactor and retailer, so the consumer does not care. Retailers cannot force consumers to use payment to suit their needs. I promise you that if I could reduce the 1% fraud on my business I would.
3) Lower costs - not to the consumer, very few retailers offer lower costs to non-credit card payers. Many are not allowed under their payment contracts. Other than tickets for events and travel it is rare to extra charges for credit cards and most consumers have debit cards.
4) Less complexity - hmmm so a consumer has to get another currency from their every day one and then try and work out the pricing. Well that will be easier.
5) Ideology or "sticking it to the man" - the mass market is "the man", works for the man or does not care. Therefore this will always make it a minority issue.
6) Taking out the middle man - only has an advantage if the consumer gets a lower cost or cares about "sticking it to the middle-man"
7) Speed of transaction - the average consumer does not care. "I make a payment I get my product. I guess the money gets there in the end". If you are transferring large enough amounts that interest over a 24 hour transaction becomes a problem them yes this may be of interest. But this has only happened 2 times in my life when buying or selling a company, and simple methods exist to deal with it, this is not mass market.
No regulating tax authority - but most consumers pay income tax from salary and buy goods from VAT tax paying retailers. Perhaps some self employed people might like the idea but then the companies who pay them still have to declare payments. So only tax avoiding rich or criminals will care.9) e-wallet - this ideas I like but I have seen plenty of evidence that people are using paypal as a wallet. And in the last decade their have been 1000s of attempts to get to critical mass on e-wallets. The people who win here will be mobile phone billers who can use the phone as a wallet and have the consumer already. I bet on Vodafone or O2 over Bitcoin.
10) Accepted globally. I have to over 40 countries in my life and never had a problem with Visa or Mastercard. For personal reasons I have had to send money to Tanzania, Ethopia and Cambodia but standard cheap banking systems have never been a problem. So only useful if you are trying to do business in very strange places. Again not mass market.
So in the end Bitcoin seems to be a system that will work for tax avoiding rich who are anti-establishment and need to send money to really difficult places. Being ironic it sounds like rich public school boys on their year off before university. But it is not mass market.
I receive 100s of requests a month from consumers and our ecommerce platform sellers wanting Amazon checkout and payment. We have yet to have one for Bitcoin.
If Bitcoin is not mass market then it will be of little use to ecommerce retailers and platforms. And that was the title of my thought opinion.
Again I am more than happy to be proved wrong. But I want to see and argument for mass market usage. If you are hunting for ideas also look up Beenz, Flooz and Speedbucks.
Phil
----------------------- The above is not my intellectual property - post is at http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/63620-will-bitcoin-have-a-positive-impact-on-ecommerce --------