What is not generally know is that before Bitcoin reached a five figure value that lots of freelance workers and people who had no bank account were being paid in Bitcoin. An increasing number of well know household name companies also accepted Bitcoin as a payment method.
When the price of Bitcoin was on the up these companies were still prepared to accept Bitcoin as a method of payment. But in the early weeks on 2018 the price of Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) took a tumble.
At this point some companies put a temporary hold on the use of Bitcoin as a payment method before re-instating it some weeks later. Why? Well the answer was very simple the price of Bitcoin was showing big fluctuations on a hourly basis. So any Bitcoin payment had to be cashed into a Fiat currency immediately to avoid a big lose should Bitcoin lose too much value very quickly.
The upshot of this is that in the volume of sales companies such as Microsoft do on an hourly basis this could amount to a big lose or profit depending on the market price, now that then becomes a gamble and companies such as Microsoft won’t gamble like that, they are there to sell products.
If you image that having taken a Bitcoin payment that the price doubles then your sale is worth twice as much, happy days. But should the price halve you could well lose all or most of your profits. Hence the no gamble scenario.
Now if you are selling physical or digital goods then you can make it an option to add Bitcoin as a payment method, this can be a good strategy when the price is stable or on an upward trend, it simply mean that you have to keep you eye on the current price of Bitcoin and remove the payment option if the price is fluctuating so much that a downtrend would wipe out you profits.
If you had a client who was wanting to pay in Bitcoin (and some will) would you refuse that payment?
Accepting Bitcoin payments does have its advantages, its fast and cheap and there are no bank charges, which is why the banks do not like cryptocurrencies. A strategy to employ is to retain half your profits in Bitcoin, which will mean that when the price rises that your “reserve” will be worth more than when you started. Obviously the converse is also true which is why you should hedge your bets.
Whatever strategy you decide to use, Bitcoin is here to stay so its a decision w you really ought to consider.