That is what I notice as well. A good number of merchants do accept Bitcoin, but that doesn't change the market dynamics of Bitcoin for better as it is just funneled back as a sale into the market through Bitpay etc.
It does change the market dynamics, because more merchants will exchange their goods for bitcoin. It's just not progressive. Most still rely on intermediaries, which is the situation we were trying to avoid in the first place.
I'm afraid that there are two causes:
- Merchants want immediate conversion to fiat, which can't be done if they do self-custody.
- Potentially mistaken interpretation of some legislation. Doing self-custody electronically is, no doubt, a brand new thing, which might sound too good to be legal.
Well ok so it would change the market dynamics for all the goods that are in stock and have been bought with Bitcoin. That would draw more Bitcoin out of circulation.
But regarding the intermediary thing, isn't that the gap that could be closed by a full-fledged software that is fully adapted to applicable legislation and easy to handle for the merchants? There is already massive accounting software out there. What do you think is holding software companies back to tap their toe in the water and try to build something where merchants could more or less get started with plug and play?