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Is this as big as it seems to me? This seems huge. Is it huge? I can't tell. Should I be excited? I am. Now if only I could make it easier for people to pay me

by jordigh 12y ago

Is this as big as it seems to me? This seems huge. Is it huge? I can't tell. Should I be excited? I am. Now if only I could make it easier for people to pay me in bitcoins for small freelance work...

XorNot 12y ago
Can you accept Coinbase payments? That's the thing here: Coinbase is just another payment processor. Most businesses are used to having to accept "some extra payment processor". Since you get to do some sort of announcement, which more most companies means you get to be in the news in a semi-positive way, why not? It's risk free for them - or at least only as risky as their ability to sue Coinbase for missed payments.
- jordigh 12y ago
  > Can you accept Coinbase payments? I don't need help for accepting bitcoins. I trust bitcoins themselves, I consider them a real currency, not something that has to be immediately exchanged for centralised currency. So I'm fine just accepting them without an intermediary. My hope is that as bitcoins get more popular, businesses like Coinbase will seem less important. Instead, I need help getting bitcoins from all the people out there who have no idea how to get bitcoins.
  - wdewind 12y ago
    > My hope is that as bitcoins get more popular, businesses like Coinbase will seem less important. > Instead, I need help getting bitcoins from all the people out there who have no idea how to get bitcoins. If these two sentences don't sum up BTC I don't know what does.
  - taylorwc 12y ago
    I would contend that though you are at the tail end of the curve that doesn't need an intermediary, many of your customers are likely to need/desire an intermediary to facilitate for the people you mention, with no idea how to get bitcoins. Regardless of whether you, I, or HN hates Coinbase or loves Coinbase, they provide a layer of accessibility to an otherwise intimidating ecosystem.
    - yen223 12y ago
      > I would contend that though you are at the tail end of the curve that doesn't need an intermediary If you want to do away with intermediaries, what Bitcoin needs is a large ecosystem, such that my BTC never needs to be converted to USD to be useful - I want to be able to be paid in BTC, then to be able to exchange that same BTC for food. The food vendor in turn needs to be able to exchange that BTC for, say, a car. For that to happen, Bitcoin needs a critical mass of adopters. Unfortunately, the Bitcoin feature of capping the number of total BTCs in circulation means that the number of BTC users will always be limited.
      - phantom784 12y ago
        Bitcoins are very divisible. As more and more people use Bitcoins, the coins become worth more and people can simply trade smaller and smaller pieces of them. The limited supply doesn't limit the number of users.
        nitid_name 12y ago
        They do have a division limit though. One satoshi is only four orders of magnitude smaller than a penny (US). EDIT: answered my own question
        natrius 12y ago
        The blockchain describes stakes in a conceptual ledger. The current limitations on divisibility are easy to change in the future. 21 million is arbitrary and meaningless.
        gnaritas 12y ago
        > The current limitations on divisibility are easy to change in the future. Not true. > 21 million is arbitrary and meaningless. Also not true. Changing either of those things requires a hard fork of the network and a majority consensus among the miners globally which is in no way "easy to do".
- rational-future 12y ago
  Suing a startup company with no tangible assets is not much of an insurance. How much does it cost for the biggest travel company in the world to set their systems to accept bitcoins, pass a contract through lawyers, train support, etc? I'd say at least as much as the value of appearing in the news. So IMHO Expedia sow the huge value of the BitCoin payment system.

by jordigh 12y ago

Is this as big as it seems to me? This seems huge. Is it huge? I can't tell. Should I be excited? I am. Now if only I could make it easier for people to pay me in bitcoins for small freelance work...

XorNot 12y ago

Can you accept Coinbase payments? That's the thing here: Coinbase is just another payment processor. Most businesses are used to having to accept "some extra payment processor". Since you get to do some sort of announcement, which more most companies means you get to be in the news in a semi-positive way, why not? It's risk free for them - or at least only as risky as their ability to sue Coinbase for missed payments.

jordigh 12y ago
> Can you accept Coinbase payments? I don't need help for accepting bitcoins. I trust bitcoins themselves, I consider them a real currency, not something that has to be immediately exchanged for centralised currency. So I'm fine just accepting them without an intermediary. My hope is that as bitcoins get more popular, businesses like Coinbase will seem less important. Instead, I need help getting bitcoins from all the people out there who have no idea how to get bitcoins.
- wdewind 12y ago
  > My hope is that as bitcoins get more popular, businesses like Coinbase will seem less important. > Instead, I need help getting bitcoins from all the people out there who have no idea how to get bitcoins. If these two sentences don't sum up BTC I don't know what does.
- taylorwc 12y ago
  I would contend that though you are at the tail end of the curve that doesn't need an intermediary, many of your customers are likely to need/desire an intermediary to facilitate for the people you mention, with no idea how to get bitcoins. Regardless of whether you, I, or HN hates Coinbase or loves Coinbase, they provide a layer of accessibility to an otherwise intimidating ecosystem.
  - yen223 12y ago
    > I would contend that though you are at the tail end of the curve that doesn't need an intermediary If you want to do away with intermediaries, what Bitcoin needs is a large ecosystem, such that my BTC never needs to be converted to USD to be useful - I want to be able to be paid in BTC, then to be able to exchange that same BTC for food. The food vendor in turn needs to be able to exchange that BTC for, say, a car. For that to happen, Bitcoin needs a critical mass of adopters. Unfortunately, the Bitcoin feature of capping the number of total BTCs in circulation means that the number of BTC users will always be limited.
    - phantom784 12y ago
      Bitcoins are very divisible. As more and more people use Bitcoins, the coins become worth more and people can simply trade smaller and smaller pieces of them. The limited supply doesn't limit the number of users.
      - nitid_name 12y ago
        They do have a division limit though. One satoshi is only four orders of magnitude smaller than a penny (US). EDIT: answered my own question
        natrius 12y ago
        The blockchain describes stakes in a conceptual ledger. The current limitations on divisibility are easy to change in the future. 21 million is arbitrary and meaningless.
        gnaritas 12y ago
        > The current limitations on divisibility are easy to change in the future. Not true. > 21 million is arbitrary and meaningless. Also not true. Changing either of those things requires a hard fork of the network and a majority consensus among the miners globally which is in no way "easy to do".
rational-future 12y ago
Suing a startup company with no tangible assets is not much of an insurance. How much does it cost for the biggest travel company in the world to set their systems to accept bitcoins, pass a contract through lawyers, train support, etc? I'd say at least as much as the value of appearing in the news. So IMHO Expedia sow the huge value of the BitCoin payment system.