I think they could further enhance merchant adoption by rewriting with an even more laser beam focus on the "benfits" vs. the "features"
Eg eliminate the top paragraph entirely and rework their current bullets to something as simple as:
- - - -
Start accepting Bitcoin today and you'll:
a) Get paid your full retail price in your local currency (or in Bitcoins if you prefer) settled daily.
b) Pay less than half the fees of a normal credit card transaction (about 1%).
c) Never receive another charge back.
Click here to add Bitcoin to your store right now.
- - - -
The wording isn't perfect ( particularly bullet (a) ) but you get the point.
The "positioning" of Bitcoin as a currency is hard to understand for most merchants and ALWAYS leads to questions about volatility etc.
So in the spirit of "Don't make me think" anybody building Bitcoin as a service startups should work hard on messaging.
I also have a fraud-screening app that is tightly integrated with Shopify: https://www.merchantprotector.net/
If you choose to receive local currency, what rate do you receive? Are you guaranteed a rate? Does it fluctuate daily (and as a result, can you quote prices so that they change daily as well?) and do you know the rate in advance?
> Our new Bitcoin integration is available through BitPay and can be used alongside other payment services, like Shopify Payments and PayPal.
But they don't mention whether there are any service fees added by Shopify
The reverse is also true - we might gain upside if the price continues to Skyrocket - but how do you protect yourself from this?
If all your customers paid in BTC, it's very true that you might take on an unacceptable level of risk. But as a practical matter, accepting BTC as an alternate form of payment might be a great way to diversify your holdings.
However, some businesses currently could suffer if they accepted Bitcoin due to it's volatily. If you're selling SAAS your cost is tiny so accepting a more +EV payment currency is probably beneficial.
However if you're selling physical widgets on very slim margins and don't have anything in place to reduce your exposure via quick selling of Bitcoin, and cashflow is/could be an issue it's probably not suitable.
If you go with the first option, nothing is really different. You accept bitcoin, but you get the payment in your currency.
"You can choose to receive your payments in Bitcoins (paid into your Bitcoin wallet) or paid in your local currency directly into your bank account every business day."
If your shop currency is set to GBP but someone pays in BTC, what gets populated if using {{ shop.currency }} and {{ total_price }} for example?
Definitely going to check this out.
