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Earlier this week, Shopify integrated with Coinbase to provide 100,000+ online stores with bitcoin checkout. It's really exciting to see bitcoin adoption rising

Earlier this week, Shopify integrated with Coinbase to provide 100,000+ online stores with bitcoin checkout. It's really exciting to see bitcoin adoption rising among merchants of different sizes.

aroch 12y ago
I feel like merchant adoption is being done for the sake of "looking cool" not because they really care or their users really want it. Actual adoption of bitcoin by consumers has remained relatively flat
- jcliff 12y ago
  flat based on what?
  - dictum 12y ago
    Not sure if that's what the parent reply means, but while there's no baseline to compare growth in consumer usage of bitcoin, you can compare it to the growth in business acceptance of bitcoin.
  - aroch 12y ago
    The number of bitcoin transactions/day hasn't really changed, at all, despite all these vendors adopting it. http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions
    - mrb 12y ago
      You fail at reading a graph (in your defense, the data is noisy). But smooth it by looking at the quarterly averages and it is clear there was a +40% growth from 45k to 65k transaction/day over the last year: http://i.imgur.com/XJs4V74.png http://i.imgur.com/XJs4V74.png (or see www.quandl.com/BCHAIN/NTRAN-Bitcoin-Number-of-Transactions and select "quarterly".)
      - aroch 12y ago
        No, I didn't fail at reading anything. The increase is both within the noise of the data and insignificant. 20K transactions is nothing, hell given the number of BTC that are "washed" through pools, one person could easily account for 5K of those transactions.
        mrb 12y ago
        +40% is significant (insignificance would be <5%). If it really was noise, http://i.imgur.com/XJs4V74.png http://i.imgur.com/XJs4V74.png wouldn't show a relatively smooth exponential-looking curve.
        aroch 12y ago
        Are you really arguing that a pitiful increase of 20K over a year, in a system where every single change in any holdings causes a transaction to occur, is significant for this system? I shudder to think of the reality distortion field you live in. For sake of argument, let's say that coinbase keeps 100 small, hot wallets around. Every time coinbase rearranges funds in their wallets, they could create between 1 and infinity transactions. If, on average, they rearrange funds daily in such a way that 25 transactions occurs, they would account for 50% of your increase alone. Given that all exchanges and processors routinely shuffle funds around, and every move is recorded as a transaction, you need exchanges (in total) to make 55 more transactions/day to make up your superduper exponential growth. 20K increase in transactions in bitcoin is no increase in transactions.
        mrb 12y ago
        Your math is way off. It is 20k transaction PER DAY. 5.9 MILLION transactions were processed in 2014Q2, up from 4.1 MILLION in 2013Q2. That is an increase of 1.8 MILLION!
  - sanswork 12y ago
    Number of wallets with more than pennies in them, interviews with merchants who accept it, number of transactions per day.
- adeptus 12y ago
  Maybe if you turn this chart sideways it will look flat, otherwise... up, up and away! http://blockchain.info/charts/my-wallet-n-users http://blockchain.info/charts/my-wallet-n-users
  - unbudgingprawn 12y ago
    Number of transactions would probably be a better metric http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions
    - pistle 12y ago
      "WARNING: Forgotten passwords are UNRECOVERABLE and will results in LOSS of ALL of your bitcoins!" I hate when my banker says this to me about online banking.
      - StavrosK 12y ago
        Then use Coinbase, which says "you'll have to trust us with your coin, and hope we don't get hacked".
      - aianus 12y ago
        Honestly, I prefer it to "WARNING: Your password must be 6-8 characters and contain no numbers or symbols"
  - sanswork 12y ago
    Thats the number of accounts on a website. Anyone can create as many accounts as they want and they don't limit that chart to accounts with bitcoin. It's a pointless metric that is easily faked. Given the number of wallets with bitcoin in them worth >$50 isn't really growing I'd say its pretty likely a lot of those are fake/unused accounts.
- rockyleal 12y ago
  [citation required]
- tabrischen 12y ago
  It's not only one-sided. Huge brand like Dell and Newegg lend massive streetcred to bitcoin as a legitimate method of payment and goes a long way towards changing perception about the ease of bitcoin transactions, which would drive up user adoption over time. User may not want it now because they're not familiar with the technology behind it or perceive it as being an uncommon and difficult/unsafe method to use. But once they see bitcoin as an available payment option on all their favorite retail sites, they would be interested to at least learn more about it.
- MichaelGG 12y ago
  As a merchant, this is essentially the main reason we started taking Bitcoin. But it's also because we need a payment method that our customers cannot reverse is important to us. Bigger international customers will do a wire, but there's a lot of smaller guys and Bitcoin is a bit easier than Western Union sometimes. But for Overstock and Dell? It's pure marketing.
- baddox 12y ago
  I don't understand. How would integrating Bitcoin make a company "look cool" if no one is interested in companies integrating Bitcoin?
- prawn 12y ago
  I always assumed that companies like Coinbase offered very favourable terms for building in Bitcoin support in the interest of driving forward public awareness of the currency. Obviously if Bitcoin becomes a major thing, then Coinbase is very well positioned.
glitch003 12y ago
Shopify already provided BitPay checkout and has for many months, so those 100,000+ online stores already had access to a bitcoin checkout option. Source: I operate a shopify bitcoin store

Earlier this week, Shopify integrated with Coinbase to provide 100,000+ online stores with bitcoin checkout. It's really exciting to see bitcoin adoption rising among merchants of different sizes.

aroch 12y ago

I feel like merchant adoption is being done for the sake of "looking cool" not because they really care or their users really want it. Actual adoption of bitcoin by consumers has remained relatively flat

jcliff 12y ago
flat based on what?
- dictum 12y ago
  Not sure if that's what the parent reply means, but while there's no baseline to compare growth in consumer usage of bitcoin, you can compare it to the growth in business acceptance of bitcoin.
- aroch 12y ago
  The number of bitcoin transactions/day hasn't really changed, at all, despite all these vendors adopting it. http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions
  - mrb 12y ago
    You fail at reading a graph (in your defense, the data is noisy). But smooth it by looking at the quarterly averages and it is clear there was a +40% growth from 45k to 65k transaction/day over the last year: http://i.imgur.com/XJs4V74.png http://i.imgur.com/XJs4V74.png (or see www.quandl.com/BCHAIN/NTRAN-Bitcoin-Number-of-Transactions and select "quarterly".)
    - aroch 12y ago
      No, I didn't fail at reading anything. The increase is both within the noise of the data and insignificant. 20K transactions is nothing, hell given the number of BTC that are "washed" through pools, one person could easily account for 5K of those transactions.
      - mrb 12y ago
        +40% is significant (insignificance would be <5%). If it really was noise, http://i.imgur.com/XJs4V74.png http://i.imgur.com/XJs4V74.png wouldn't show a relatively smooth exponential-looking curve.
        aroch 12y ago
        Are you really arguing that a pitiful increase of 20K over a year, in a system where every single change in any holdings causes a transaction to occur, is significant for this system? I shudder to think of the reality distortion field you live in. For sake of argument, let's say that coinbase keeps 100 small, hot wallets around. Every time coinbase rearranges funds in their wallets, they could create between 1 and infinity transactions. If, on average, they rearrange funds daily in such a way that 25 transactions occurs, they would account for 50% of your increase alone. Given that all exchanges and processors routinely shuffle funds around, and every move is recorded as a transaction, you need exchanges (in total) to make 55 more transactions/day to make up your superduper exponential growth. 20K increase in transactions in bitcoin is no increase in transactions.
        mrb 12y ago
        Your math is way off. It is 20k transaction PER DAY. 5.9 MILLION transactions were processed in 2014Q2, up from 4.1 MILLION in 2013Q2. That is an increase of 1.8 MILLION!
- sanswork 12y ago
  Number of wallets with more than pennies in them, interviews with merchants who accept it, number of transactions per day.
adeptus 12y ago
Maybe if you turn this chart sideways it will look flat, otherwise... up, up and away! http://blockchain.info/charts/my-wallet-n-users http://blockchain.info/charts/my-wallet-n-users
- unbudgingprawn 12y ago
  Number of transactions would probably be a better metric http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions
  - pistle 12y ago
    "WARNING: Forgotten passwords are UNRECOVERABLE and will results in LOSS of ALL of your bitcoins!" I hate when my banker says this to me about online banking.
    - StavrosK 12y ago
      Then use Coinbase, which says "you'll have to trust us with your coin, and hope we don't get hacked".
    - aianus 12y ago
      Honestly, I prefer it to "WARNING: Your password must be 6-8 characters and contain no numbers or symbols"
- sanswork 12y ago
  Thats the number of accounts on a website. Anyone can create as many accounts as they want and they don't limit that chart to accounts with bitcoin. It's a pointless metric that is easily faked. Given the number of wallets with bitcoin in them worth >$50 isn't really growing I'd say its pretty likely a lot of those are fake/unused accounts.
rockyleal 12y ago
[citation required]
tabrischen 12y ago
It's not only one-sided. Huge brand like Dell and Newegg lend massive streetcred to bitcoin as a legitimate method of payment and goes a long way towards changing perception about the ease of bitcoin transactions, which would drive up user adoption over time. User may not want it now because they're not familiar with the technology behind it or perceive it as being an uncommon and difficult/unsafe method to use. But once they see bitcoin as an available payment option on all their favorite retail sites, they would be interested to at least learn more about it.
MichaelGG 12y ago
As a merchant, this is essentially the main reason we started taking Bitcoin. But it's also because we need a payment method that our customers cannot reverse is important to us. Bigger international customers will do a wire, but there's a lot of smaller guys and Bitcoin is a bit easier than Western Union sometimes. But for Overstock and Dell? It's pure marketing.
baddox 12y ago
I don't understand. How would integrating Bitcoin make a company "look cool" if no one is interested in companies integrating Bitcoin?
prawn 12y ago
I always assumed that companies like Coinbase offered very favourable terms for building in Bitcoin support in the interest of driving forward public awareness of the currency. Obviously if Bitcoin becomes a major thing, then Coinbase is very well positioned.

glitch003 12y ago

Shopify already provided BitPay checkout and has for many months, so those 100,000+ online stores already had access to a bitcoin checkout option. Source: I operate a shopify bitcoin store