Should Watt Wagons Accept Bitcoin?

[pushkar]

Hello all,

A LOT of our prospective customers (and current customers) have approached us about wattwagons accepting bitcoins. We have done some research and looks like our ecommerce provider allows us to accept cryptocurrency (BTC and ETH).

Anecdotallly this will add ~5% to the price since the merchant fees is fairly high.

Thoughts ? Feedback ?

 

[pennybags]

I just looked it up. That is a cool idea.
I am not into crypto, just fully invested in TSLA. However it will make your bike attractive to a lot more buyers.

I'd say 5 % is acceptable, knowing the daily fluctuations.

 

[Ayl]

@pushkar I think it's a good idea.

 

[onlineaddy]

The 5% fee seems prohibitedly high to make cryptocurrency a worthwhile alternative payment method; no?

 

[pushkar]

The 5% fee seems prohibitedly high to make cryptocurrency a worthwhile alternative payment method; no?

Its basically 7% - but we already budget for the 2% fro Credit cards.

Essentially there are times between the time the payment is accepted / settled and there may be a difference in those rates. So this allows to cover for that variation.

 

[scrambler]

Why you would want to be paid with something that fluctuates that much is beyond me
Not mentioning the huge energy drain and environmental impact this thing has on the planet ...

 

[BruceBrown]

If you can afford to run the company and sit on the Bitcoin without converting it to cash it will be great for you.

 

[pennybags]

Why you would want to be paid with something that fluctuates that much is beyond me

IMO payment options are great for consumers. If the merchant is willing to bear the risk. Watt Wagons is upfront about the % of risk they are willing to bear.

Not mentioning the huge energy drain and environmental impact this thing has on the planet ...

I just googled energy usage, and this statement caught my attention - (source)

“Energy use in itself is not bad,” Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of digital asset management firm CoinShares, told CNBC. “Sending and storing emails uses energy. Yet, we don’t infer email to be bad because it consumes energy.” “What we have here is people trying to decide what is or is not a good use of energy, and bitcoin is incredibly transparent in its energy use while other industries are much more opaque.”

That is not to say that "email" is tainted (if you will).

If you realistically look at it, I would say they are literally taking resources and converting them into currency in one step. It is much more efficient than a traditional way to convert earth's resources into money - historically one would paying people to dig up a mine, take dirt to factories, purify the gold, sell the gold and THEN put money in the bank.

So in a weird way Bitcoin is better than most stuff we do today. Lol.

 

[pushkar]

If you can afford to run the company and sit on the Bitcoin without converting it to cash it will be great for you.

I will be talking to my suppliers to see if they accept bitcoin

 

[pushkar]

IMO payment options are great for consumers. If the merchant is willing to bear the risk. Watt Wagons is upfront about the % of risk they are willing to bear.



I just googled energy usage, and this statement caught my attention - (source)

“Energy use in itself is not bad,” Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of digital asset management firm CoinShares, told CNBC. “Sending and storing emails uses energy. Yet, we don’t infer email to be bad because it consumes energy.” “What we have here is people trying to decide what is or is not a good use of energy, and bitcoin is incredibly transparent in its energy use while other industries are much more opaque.”

That is not to say that "email" is tainted (if you will).

If you realistically look at it, I would say they are literally taking resources and converting them into currency in one step. It is much more efficient than a traditional way to convert earth's resources into money - historically one would paying people to dig up a mine, take dirt to factories, purify the gold, sell the gold and THEN put money in the bank.

So in a weird way Bitcoin is better than most stuff we do today. Lol.

Wow.. that is hilarious. I never looked at it this way. ha ha.

 

[fooferdoggie]

its a risk for sure right now its going up but you Neve know.

 

[garryjacobs]

I use Full-Stack Marketing & PR
for crypto companies from flexe.io. Here is the link to https://flexe.io/crypto/ where you can read more about their services.

 

[pushkar]

So we tried to accept ETH and BTC via a provider for a single order (as a test)

Unfortunately, we effectively lost 17% of the payment in the 2 days the payments cleared . The issue is that the payment providers are still owned by "banks" so even though the BTC / ETH is in our business account, we cant switch to USD due to anti fraud / anti whatever regulations. Sucks..... but may be we can find a provider who is quicker.

The issue will still be fraud protection / chargebacks etc etc. So .. it is not a technical challenge.. but more a real life money challenge.

 

[scrambler]

Cant say I did not warn you

 

[pushkar]

Cant say I did not warn you

You did!! ha ha ..

Fortunately we only lost $17 on the order . I can live without coffee till the late afternoon.

 

[JakEmAll]

I like crypto currency, but I can't see the FED really letting go of their power and authority. That trickles down to the banks. Crypto will have to gain strength on the global arena first. Not there yet...if ever.

 

[opimax]

No, need the coffee! what are the benefits of crypto over the established methods? real question

 

[JakEmAll]

No, need the coffee! what are the benefits of crypto over the established methods? real question

Principle. Current currency is fiat. This means people in power get to arbitrarily decide value. Crypto is simply a technological way of flipping the bird at The Man.

Other than that, nothing

 

[opimax]

Thx, doesn’t seem like Pushkar got to flip but was flipped for $17…serious new tech takes time to iron out bugs

 

[scrambler]

This is not about bugs but about the speculative volatility of the currency.
Between the time you get paid and the time you cash out you could be making extra money or loosing money...
You are basically gambling up your business income at a giant casino