this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2025
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It's not going to happen. You can't price things when the value of the currency changes every 10 minutes.
That is not what's stopping people from paying for things in bitcoin. When you buy something in BTC you pay the equivalent to whatever you would have paid in the local fiat. And on the vendor side, merchant services often convert that paid BTC into fiat in the moment after the sale. Both parties are insulated from volatility in the context of the exchange. What actually keeps people from paying for day to day goods and services in BTC is Gresham's Law, the observation that nobody wants to pay for purchases with an appreciating asset, so long as there's also a depreciating asset they could pay with instead.
You’re aware we just use the conversion price in fiat, right?
I don't know what you're saying. If I charge a particular amount for a loaf of bread and then the cryptocurrency value drops halfway through the day then that person still has the bread but I now don't have the money.
The whole point of currency is to get away from the fluctuating value of exchange that everyone had to deal with when we used to buy things with gold and semi-precious stones.
Vendors can immediately sell upon receipt. And prices rarely change that much in a day, usually it's a few percent at most (within the credit card fee range), especially for the currencies targeted at actually being currencies instead of scams.
This ^
Most vendors do frequently sell or convert to stablecoins to avoid this problem, and in times of uncertainty, they often charge more to cover the eventual losses
What is the point of using them if you are expected to switch them to an actual real fiat just to keep your value?
Well, you said it: using crypto.
I believe you don't hold massive stacks of cash under your bed, though you might occasionally withdraw cash.
I also believe you don't keep all your money on your normal bank account. You invest some, as investing is better in some situations.
Well, for crypto it's the same. Sometimes it's better to pay in crypto, like in situations where you don't want to be tracked because you're privacy concious, or maybe because you don't trust or hate banks, or because you like the technology and want to see it develop, or because of international payment/transfer fees, or because your economy is overinflated (like in poorer countries)...
You can also decide to take the potential risks and hold the crypto, or just swap to a stablecoin. Stores prefer switching to fiat to simplify their legal declarations, have clear incomes and expenses. They just accept crypto because customers want to pay with it.
That happens to every currency, BTC is more volatile than many, but things can be priced.
Also until twiddling is made illegal, prices can be set by some other currency or some function, and be calculated in BTC from that, and displayed on electronic price tags for example.
Never gonna happen is a bit of a stretch. It used to be a thing. Steam accepted bitcoin. They stopped accepting it due to volatility and high transaction fees at the time. You still price things in your local currency but convert at checkout. There are "plug and play" payment processors who can handle it now.. Spar in Switzerland accepts it.
But imo, its not something regular people should be using anyway.
The fact that they stopped due to volatility kind of proved my point.
I thought your point was it was never happening? I provided examples where it did happen in the past and where its happening now. Volatility of the price vs USD is not the biggest issue if the payment processor gives the vendor USD back after the transaction. If the vendor believes in crypto, they can decide to keep it as well. Had Valve chosen to hold their crypto earnings in 2016 for a few years, they'd have seen even larger profits. But thats beside the point. I personally believe they canned it more because of transaction fees. At the time, bitcoin network was oversaturated due to an explosion of popularity which reduced it to unusable levels for everyday transactions.
You should be focusing on why other vendors are still supporting crypto and asking yourself why.
Never happening doesn't mean they don't try.
Fees are predictable. Volatility is not. If you can't make sure the money you are paid retains its value then the price you are selling something for is also volatile rather than inert.