The issue with Bitcoin in commerce
scipioerp.com
scipioerp.com
Neither servicebot, nor killbill (the plugin doesn't work anymore)
So how can i add bitcoin in SaaS products?
There is no Opensource Subscription management product which supports most of the gateways including bitcoin.
Customers request that they want to pay for our VPN SaaS through bitcoin but we didn't find anything like chargify, recurly, chargebee supporting bitcoin.
When accepting bitcoin is soo difficult, no idea how it will grow.
I don't know why SaaS developers don't gangup and roll out Opensource self hosted chargebee like subscription management product with ability to support any gateway.
Then we'll not have to reinvent the wheel again and again while creating any new SaaS products.
We can solve it once for all.
It seems everyone implements their own billing flow which is often difficult for user to understand as every product uses it's own billing flow.
Why not a unified flow?
Some developers simply add stripe and are done with it.
I think this is leaving 20% on the money on the table which comes through other payment methods like cryptos, wire transfer (manual), skrill, western union, yandexpay, webmoney which is very popular in Soviet block countries.
Back in the days, we tried very hard to have a good native integration with the blockchain for recurring payments (see the "Extension for BIP-0070 to support recurring payments" thread on the bitcoin-dev list: https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2014...). It didn't go anywhere unfortunately, so we added support for the major providers at the time (Bitpay, Coinbase, ... see http://killbill.io/blog/coinbase-integration-experiment/).
In the end though, as the interest for Bitcoin as a currency decreased, none of our users were interested to offer Bitcoin as a payment mechanism anymore. We've since put this experiment on the backburner. Happy to revisit whenever there is demand for it.
Regarding other non traditional payments methods (wire transfers, Boleto, etc.), this is absolutely supported and heavily used outside of NA.
That being said, due to Bitcoin being rough around the edges, a workable paper invoice needs the following components:-
- The invoice amount in source currency.
- The trigger & window when payment is expected. (e.g. T+1 day after bill of lading presented)
- The seller Bitcoin address, both in text and in QR-code form.
- The reference exchange rate index; e.g. xe.com for VND:USD and Tradeblock XBX for USD:BTC
- Reminder to provide TxID after payment.
- No. of confirmations for finality.
A scenario I usually share is the export of frozen chickens to Iran. While food is supposedly exempted from US sanctions, banking friction make this trade a nightmare. I'm hoping some entrepreneurs are willing to use Bitcoins as a workaround and share their expirience.
Acquiring sufficient inbound channels to receive large payments is still a significant problem though.
I don't think that the added complexity of 2nd layer improvements will keep Bitcoin from being a standard in the business world.
A big realization of mine the past few weeks however, is that with the decreasing difficulty curve, the price of BTC will simply sink lower and lower.
https://www.coinwarz.com/difficulty-charts/bitcoin-difficult...
Bitcoin, and other cryptocoins, have dropped their difficulty by about 30% over the past few months, which means it is now 30% easier to mine BTC. Unfortunately, that sets a new price floor for the miners. Miners are now willing to sell BTC at 30% lower prices.
Assuming the previous average was ~6500 USD / BTC, the current price of ~3500 USD/BTC is still far lower than 30% difficulty. Suggesting that miners aren't quite making money yet from the difficulty drop.
The good news is that if you posses this kind of insight into such an unpredictable stochastic process, then there are plenty of financial instruments that allow you to make significant profits on your big realisation.
Look: the inverse is ALSO true with bitcoin. When the price rises, more miners join, raising the difficulty, raising the price of bitcoin.
And as I stated earlier: when the price falls, miners leave, dropping the difficulty, dropping the price further.
If there was an actual trade I was going to make, it'd be that BTC will remain volatile. Except everyone already knows that fact, so there really isn't anything novel I'm proposing. I'm simply noting that the momentum trade is probably stronger in the BTC world than in typical financial instruments.
The State regulates and issues currency, always have always will.
This is false, and "people behind Bitcoin" can teach you more about this: https://nakamotoinstitute.org/shelling-out/
We know the following work to at least a modest degree:
* A functional state that can manufacture demand by requiring its use in trade and/or tax payments (fiat) * Basing the currency on a natural resource with widely recognized scarcity (gold and silver) * Using an asset with actual utility as a currency (salt, grain) * Putting the currency in the hands of perceived-trustworthy adults (countries who replace their own currency with the USD)
We know some things don't work:
* A free market regulating on reputation and news alone (see pre-Civil War "wildcat banking") * A state with nothing to lose (see the Weimar Republic) * Blatantly speculative ventures packaged as a currency (like the Russian MMM scandal)
We're still deciding if some things work:
* Mathematical algorithms * Hard-coded economic policy decisions * Smart contracts
There's also an interesting trust relationship in currency.
With conventional currencies, the trust usually begins with the issuing institution or materials, and that's leveraged into support for the currency. If you believe Ottawa won't be sucked into a black hole tomorrow, you'll trust a 10CAD note. If you expect gold to be desirable in 2025, you'll take a sovereign for your Christmas bonus.
In the crypto world, the currency itself is the most trustworthy component, and it's more necessary to build trust and credibility around its community instead. (Noun)coin may be technically bulletproof, but if it's surrounded by pump-and-dump traders, dark-web drug dealers, and people who blame the Federal Reserve for their kidney stones, Grandma won't touch it.