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122 sats \ 4 replies \ @nullcount 9 Sep 2023 \ on: If we sold bread at a fixed price, like 5000 sats, would you buy it? bitcoin
It only makes sense to use BTC as unit of accounting for businesses which have costs primarily in BTC. The only business I can think of that works like this are LN routing nodes who's primary operating expense is bitcoin protocol fees. Even miners who can purchase their asics with BTC, have fiat-denominated opex costs (electricity).
Maybe a BTC-only software company who's main opex is payroll and their employees are paid in BTC. But for 99.99999% of businesses, their expenses are fiat-based therefore it would be a poor business decision to not account for the Fiat exchange rate when accepting BTC. Even then, the operators of the business are likely exchanging for fiat to pay rent, buy groceries, etc.
Most of the bitcoiners which pontificate on this subject have never run an actual business before and it shows. Or they operate a bitcoin business and have a skewed perspective of the median consumer's propensity to pay with BTC in the first place.
IMO, BTC becomes a payment rails for fiat denominated settlement first. Then, as fiat truly becomes intolerable for most business, through rapid debasement, capital controls, limits, etc. then people gradually reprice their time and labor in BTC.
The switch to pricing in BTC instead of Fiat will be way easier when most payments are already done with BTC on the backend.
That’s the long version of what I was trying to say ! Very well put!
We have a long way to go for BTC/SATS to be equal, let alone surpass / replace fiat.
It takes lots of boring , grinding work. It requires deep understanding of people / process / systems .
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I think that's the sort of process we're going to see. Companies that accept Bitcoin payment can do things like set wages in Bitcoin terms more easily. If labor is one of their major expenses, or if some of their other major expenses are also priced in Bitcoin, then they will be better able to really set prices in Bitcoin.
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This is why you can’t choose large businesses like a Pick n Pay, because they’re dealing with way too many variables to try such an experiment
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I mean, literally any business has "too many variables". I think what you're asking for is a business with a single decision-maker that happens to want to take an unnecessary risk by accepting an alternative currency, with no respect to that currency's exchange rate.
Instead of asking business owners to take unnecessary risks, you're better off doing whatever you can to make accepting BTC as risk-free as possible.
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