With the sharp rise of bitcoin value, it attracted the attention of the general public to this digital currency. In 2013, the value of bitcoin rose from 13 dollars to 1000 dollars. We can see that many mainstream economists in the discussion of the digital currency, many countries in the world is not only that questioned the legitimacy of bitcoin, some well-known hedge funds to buy bitcoin, in their portfolio of these behaviors, how many people feel there are some speculative bitcoin. Last year, compared to the special currency, it was the most busy year.

But is it a suitable time to start accepting bitcoin for enterprises and e-commerce sites, and to use it as a means of payment?

"In the retail industry, we have seen some companies have a better feeling than special currencies. Some retailers believe that they are businessmen, as long as the goods sold, they do not exclude the form of payment transactions in any form, "said Mahesh Gandhe, he is Rackspace Digital, product marketing manager," but on the other hand, some people are skeptical of bitcoin, they think, before the formal acceptance, with bitcoin, the federal government should normalize it."

When the online retailer decides whether to use bitcoin as a way of payment, it can consider some of the points mentioned in this article.

Spend the money to win from the dealer

Those who had bitcoins early were very lucky, because they could see that these digital currencies suddenly became a real tangible asset. When the value of coins from a few cents to rise a few hundred dollars, many early bitcoin holders suddenly got a huge windfall.

In essence, this feeling is like suddenly picking up a lot of money. Also like a gambler in Las Vegas, when he wins money continuously, he will spend a lot of money from the dealer in his pocket.

In fact, many early bitcoin holders are easily controlled by emotions. Although they get a lot of windfalls, they are not satisfied. Recently, they hope that bitcoin can become a mainstream currency. This may mean a welfare for early users who use bitcoin to deal with payment on e - commerce sites.

Here's a good example of the e-commerce site Overstock.com, which recently accepted bitcoin. In their formal acceptance of bitcoin as a means of payment for less than a day, the company's chief executive Patrick Byrne on twitter issued a tweet saying, their company has received more than 780 copies of the use of bitcoin payment orders, the total sales of more than $124 thousand. For businesses, they only provide a channel for bitcoin users who are full of passion to spend their newfound wealth, obviously, in this field has just started bitcoin feast, those who walk in front of the e-commerce company will get some benefits.

Free publicity

Now, the number of those who accept this digital currency bitcoin retailers is still relatively small, that is to say, the application of payment in bitcoin business on the site is still in the initial stage, therefore, if you accept bitcoin payment business website, it will cause the mass media reports. Roger Wu is the co - founder of Cooperatize.com, and the site is now starting to accept the payment of bitcoin. In a recent Forbes magazine article, he mentioned that "accepting bitcoin payment is both a new business and a risk, but it will also bring you a certain exposure rate, just like running the initial public relations."

The online dating site, OKCupid, is also one of the first large companies to accept bitcoin, which began accepting bitcoin in April 2013. In fact, OKCupid uses bitcoins as payment brings the sales volume is not too big, only about one thousand people with bitcoin on its website for payment, but the company has got a lot of free publicity on the Internet, there are many articles are on them, because they are the first to accept bitcoin payments dating website.

Of course, when more and more enterprises begin to accept bitcoin, the corresponding news report will also decrease. But recently, if your company accepts bitcoin payment, there is still a great chance to get some media exposure.

The instability of the value of bitcoin

The value of bitcoin is very unstable, those who accept bitcoin payment enterprises cannot real-time put the digital currency into the currency now, so in the middle there is a certain risk, because there is a possibility that the value of bitcoin will evaporate, of course, it also has the possibility of appreciation.

Moreover, bitcoin still has a possibility of runaway. In the open source solution platform PrestaShop of e-commerce, Gary Le Masson describes a specific situation, and gives this possibility to a noun, bitcoin runaway (Bitcoin Crack). Basically, the meaning of the term is, bitcoin prices will lead to a sharp decline in the situation, may drop a hundred times in the day time, but bitcoin may subsequently appear real "buy up", value and floating, in short, bitcoin value is not stable enough, it is difficult to control.

Bitcoin holders will not exchange dollars with their devalued bitcoins instead. They will rush to your e-commerce website to purchase some tangible products with this digital currency. If your site can not be updated in real time associated bitcoin prices, then as an e-commerce company, the result is likely to be the following: you received a flood of purchase order, but at the end of the day, you will find that they receive from the depreciation of the currency is already.

Monetary security

Now, almost everything is digitized, so the holders of bitcoin have to take some precautions for their digital assets. For bitcoin wallets, many security precautions have been deployed. One of the best ways is to store most of the funds in offline encrypted wallets.

As Bitcoin.org suggests, they believe that bitcoin wallet is like a wallet full of cash, for example, you are certainly not in his wallet containing $one thousand, because the money is too much, but also very dangerous, in fact, bitcoin wallet is the same, you should also have the same considerations."

If you use the bitcoin off-line storage strategy, the top priority is to quickly backup your wallet, and it is best to make multiple backups. For example, if your hard disk drive is broken, the digital photos stored in it may be lost. The bitcoin wallet is also the same. If there is a hardware failure, your wallet may also be lost. It is critical to back up multiple offline digital purses, because it can effectively protect your digital assets.

Reduce volatility and enhance security

Many online retailers are very worried about the volatility and security of bitcoin. In order to help them eliminate concerns, I will provide some tools and platforms here, which may help the electric business company. For example, Coinbase is a platform that can help merchants to easily accept bitcoin as a means of payment. Besides, in order not to be affected by the price fluctuation of bitcoin, e-commerce suppliers can specifically indicate the price of their own goods or services corresponding to their own currencies.

At the end of the day when the settlement, Coinbase can help businesses in all bitcoin transactions of goods and sales were collected, and then calculate a total sales, and put the money into the merchant account, Coinbase will charge a fee, but this fee does not exceed the total transaction amount of 1%.

For example, businesses can give a toaster is priced at $30, in the background, the amount will be converted into the corresponding number of bitcoins, then the user can pay with bitcoin, Coinbase will put bitcoin conversion in real time users pay into dollars, "Fred Ehrsam said in SXSW conference he is the co-founder of Coinbase," for businesses, there is no exchange rate risk, the whole process of payment to the merchant looked just one more payment options, but faster, cheaper."

Moreover, online retailers can not worry about the safety of bitcoin, or worry about too much money in their bitcoin purse because they can convert the daily bitcoin sales to their own currencies.

However, e-commerce companies must be very cautious when they choose the third party payment platform. At the end of February this year, the world's largest bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox went bankrupt, they estimate there are about 744408 bitcoin unit unaccounted for. Because bitcoin is not regulated, the bitcoin has become a double-edged sword. If your electric company decides to use bitcoin, it is very important to evaluate every bitcoin exchange and bitcoin platform very carefully.

Future monetary or financial architecture?

Though bitcoin is not regarded as a real currency at present, its application scope is becoming more and more extensive, and its momentum is also very strong. With this momentum, the future of bitcoin seems to be going to the two path. One way is that it has the opportunity to become a mainstream currency, people can actually buy, sell, and hold bitcoins, do not need to toss, and constantly convert bitcoins into national currencies.

The second way is that bitcoin will become a special exchange agreement, service for online currency, it will bitcoin trading platform like Coinbase to provide exchange services between buyers and sellers, the current general situation, the rate of bitcoin trading platform charge is generally not more than 2.5%. Nowadays, whether businesses accept bitcoins or not, for e-commerce companies and online businesses, the change brought by this trend is absolutely interesting.

(via TNW translation / fast carp)