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123 sats \ 3 replies \ @Undisciplined 27 Dec \ on: Implications Of Alby's New Pricing bitcoin
I've thought about this a bit and I think there are a couple of ways to approach it.
- Give hefty discounts for paying in bitcoin, based on some future estimate of bitcoin's purchasing power. That might be hard on the business, which has immediate fiat expenses, but it would be a boon to the ecosystem as a whole and really help bitcoiners take another step towards unit of account. Maybe the resulting expansion of the ecosystem makes up for the shortfall.
- Do some sort of average bitcoin pricing, like some utilities companies do. The customer would get a flat monthly rate based on current exchange rates, or expected or whatever, and then the next year's prices would be adjusted to account for any shortfalls or overpays as well as the updated exchange rate.
In terms of point 1, I think the argument for accepting bitcoin as a competitive advantage is a good one. If I can charge you 10-15% less than my competition because I am getting paid in bitcoin and I am confident it will go up in value that should be a boon to my ability to attract customers.
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I think the discount has to be much steeper, though. Bitcoin can move 10-15% in a day, which would leave your bitcoiner customers "underwater".
For it to be a better rate, reliably into the future, I'm imagining a 50-90% discount. That's what I think would be tough. Alby can't pay their bills with the courage of their convictions.
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Alby is just selling software and cloud hosting so the margins are pretty significant. Might be feasible for them to offer a 50% discount to get paid in Bitcoin. I don't think it is as feasible for a small business that has employees and suppliers who need to be paid in fiat. If you started from scratch you could work out deals with employees and suppliers to pay them in Bitcoin as well but then you are going to end up spending most of your Bitcoin.
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