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I suppose taking payment in Bitcoin would require frequent price adjustments, so I was wondering what the thought process is for merchants out there accepting BTC.
Do most people just set price based on Fiat market value of product/service then convert to BTC? Is this a floating price?
If it were me, I I'd offer a pretty hefty discount to take payment in sats.
What are merchants experience with this?
280 sats \ 1 reply \ @Jon_Hodl 24 Nov
I have only seen merchants accept it at the current market rate but I have spoken with some that were considering using various moving averages to set a price floor to protect them from the price falling out.
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My question is more about the price fluctuation, not the risk of a fall out. Assuming most businesses still pay most their bills in Fiat, they would need to adjust prices based on the local conversion to be profitable.
If Bitcoin priced in Fiat jumps 50% in one month, then doesn't it make sense to decrease the BTC price of your product accordingly? Or leave it where it is and take profit? I'm wondering how it works in places like Bitcoin Beach or Madeira where Bitcoin more commonplace.
In places where BTC has a foothoold in a local economy, there may be a market value of, say, a coffee priced in BTC that a business has to match to stay competitive.
In a place where btc is less common, there's no market adjustment and a merchant would have more choice.
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Merchants as legal entities need to price everything in fiat, as that what are accounting requirements from the government, also taxes need to be paid in fiat.
When doing person to person trades, I often look at the BTC/EUR exchange rate, set price in sats and don't look at volatility for a next few days.
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The transaction will be considered as payment in property, which is perfectly legal. When doing taxes the merchant will have to report the income based on fair market value of Bitcoin in fiat at the time of the payment.
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Interesring. Maybe a good best practice then to keep a spreadsheet of the purchases with their $/btc value at time of purchase then. Unless there are apps that automate this.
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I sell my posters for bitcoin at a set price in bitcoin.
Usually I adjust the prices every quarter to keep my margin about the same.
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51 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 24 Nov
I think there is a multi family real estate owner on SN who gives tenants a 10% discount for paying in bitcoin. Of course rents don't fluctuate as much as other prices may.
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Nice. Saylors bear-case forecast is like 20% apr in fiat shitcoins over the next 21 years, so I guess a 10% discount would still be "profotable," as long as he hangs onto it.
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Some people are more UoA maximalists and pick a bitcoin price (e.g., 10m sats) and stick with it. Probably not sustainable since it makes their products more and more expensive in USD terms over time.
What's worse, I've found, is what happens when the transaction isn't spot: say I do some work for a client beginning on Jan 1, when BTC/USD = 100k. Then I finish the work and ask for payment on Jan 30, when BTC/USD = 120k. At which rate (USD or sats) does the dude pay me?
Worse still: I did a job for a guy a few years ago where he'd pay me half by finish and half by end of year. When he paid me first, BTC was ~40k. When he paid me second it was like 20k or something.
These sort of merchant-customer, client-employer relations get weird.
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Worse still: I did a job for a guy a few years ago where he'd pay me half by finish and half by end of year. When he paid me first, BTC was ~40k. When he paid me second it was like 20k or something.
It's all about the width of your margins.
If he had paid you all at once, you'd still have gotten the same sat amount, so unless you have to spend those sats to pay your fiat bills I don't see a problem here.
The trick is to have enough fiat cash flow to meet your fiat liabilities, then everything above that you can store in sats and not worry above their fiat value.
Wide margins allow you to lower your time preference.
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Exactly. If the business accepted Bitcoin exclusively, then there would probably be some fiat bills to pay. Therefore trading it for local currency would be necessary ar one point or another. I would think adjusting to prices to market value would be necessary to stay competitive. If coffee is 2000 sats then I might whip out my lightning wallet today and buy one. But if the price jumps 50% in two weeks and the coffee shop hasn't adjusted their proces then I'll more likely walk down the street and get a fiat coffee, holding on to my 2000 sats.
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My experience with pricing in BTC isn't enthusiastic at all. Whatever I've seen so far is high priced in BTC and less priced in fiat.
Someone needs to make an e-commerce platform that gives a hefty discount paying with Sats.
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I just started my business without accepting government issued currency or considering price against BTC. As a disclaimer: without experience in business or Bitcoin, I started my color grading business up last week as Bitcoin-first. My prices are set in sats according to halving, not USD/BTC price; based on the value I give considering the expense of the miners. So my business is literally: marketing on SN and Nostr; prices in BTC; Monero accepted.
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