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This is another thing cryptocurrency enthusiasts have been doing for a long time: name dropping some companies who are supposedly embracing bitcoin but without

by magila 5y ago

This is another thing cryptocurrency enthusiasts have been doing for a long time: name dropping some companies who are supposedly embracing bitcoin but without any evidence of actual user adoption. Newegg and Overstock don't even take payment in bitcoin. They allow you to use a third party processor to exchange bitcoin for USD then immediately transfer the funds to the retailer. There's no evidence that these payment mechanisms have ever been more than a rounding error in these retailer's sales.

colesantiago 5y ago
> ...without any evidence of actual user adoption. For example of Square: > Its mobile payment service Cash App has been its flagship product. However, in recent times, while Square reported that cash transactions at its U.S. merchants as a percentage of overall transactions fell from more than 50% in 2015 to around 30% today, the bulk of the company’s revenue this past year – around 56% – came from Bitcoin transactions. Over the past year, revenue from bitcoin was $1.8 billion – a whopping 10X increase over 2019’s revenues in this category. [0] So this 10X increase isn't an indicator of adoption then, they just made up this figure? [0] https://leverageshares.com/en/insights/square-paypal-catalysing-crypto-adoption/ https://leverageshares.com/en/insights/square-paypal-catalys...
- rainjackets 5y ago
  It's an illusion of accounting [0]. Due to the accounting standards, they book the total dollar value of the bitcoin they sell as revenue, not just the fees they get. [0] https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/beneath-the-surface-of-square-incs-nyse%3Asq-huge-revenue-beat-2020-11-19 https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/beneath-the-surface-of-squar...
  - colesantiago 5y ago
    even then are you telling me there is NO user adoption?
bduerst 5y ago
It's a form of survivor bias, because companies drop bitcoin support as fast as they get it. I remember when Wordpress dropped Bitcoin because it there was more fraud than actual legit transactions.

by magila 5y ago

colesantiago 5y ago

> ...without any evidence of actual user adoption. For example of Square: > Its mobile payment service Cash App has been its flagship product. However, in recent times, while Square reported that cash transactions at its U.S. merchants as a percentage of overall transactions fell from more than 50% in 2015 to around 30% today, the bulk of the company’s revenue this past year – around 56% – came from Bitcoin transactions. Over the past year, revenue from bitcoin was $1.8 billion – a whopping 10X increase over 2019’s revenues in this category. [0] So this 10X increase isn't an indicator of adoption then, they just made up this figure? [0] https://leverageshares.com/en/insights/square-paypal-catalysing-crypto-adoption/ https://leverageshares.com/en/insights/square-paypal-catalys...

rainjackets 5y ago
It's an illusion of accounting [0]. Due to the accounting standards, they book the total dollar value of the bitcoin they sell as revenue, not just the fees they get. [0] https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/beneath-the-surface-of-square-incs-nyse%3Asq-huge-revenue-beat-2020-11-19 https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/beneath-the-surface-of-squar...
- colesantiago 5y ago
  even then are you telling me there is NO user adoption?

bduerst 5y ago

It's a form of survivor bias, because companies drop bitcoin support as fast as they get it. I remember when Wordpress dropped Bitcoin because it there was more fraud than actual legit transactions.