Are you aware of the e-shopping site called Shoppe? This platform was first launched in Singapore in 2015 then reached to Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Basically covering the south east asia. It got me thinking how Uber accepted bitcoin and I wondered if is it possible that e-shopping site accepts bitcoin?
Maybe not. Shopee is known for very cheap items and I doubt there will be people wanting to pay in bitcoin. And is bitcoin that big in south east asia? But I thought that if bitcoin gets accepted in shopee, it will be a huge sign of adoption.
There are many factors comes into play before a business decides to accept Bitcoin as a payment method.
1. Cost of storage. Bitcoin is very much prone to hacking and there are many multi million dollar hacks already happened in the crypto market. To accepting Bitcoin means a whole infrastructure and its security needs to be arranged. These things come at a cost.
2. Legal aspects. Bitcoin is not considered as a legal tender in many countries. So businesses may run into legal troubles if Bitcoin is not officially recognised in a specific country.
3. Price volatility. It's a big factor to consider before a business can start accepting crypto payments. Because businesses selling cheap products usually have a thin margin. So if Bitcoin price moves up and down, it could affect their profitability.
There could be other factors as well. Businesses accepting Bitcoin is a plus for us but that may not be same for the business themselves.