>A new approach some merchants have taken is to accept only Bitcoin and thus eliminate payment processing fees.
Don't count on it. Processing services will rise up to automate various aspects of bitcoin transactions, and you'll still pay those fees.
Don't count on it. Processing services will rise up to automate various aspects of bitcoin transactions, and you'll still pay those fees.
The major cost for current payment processors (i.e. mastercard, paypal, etc) is that they end up third party mediators in disputes regarding chargebacks. The Bitcoin protocol, which inherently disallows chargebacks, eliminates much of that need, thus the fees decrease. What you're paying for with Bitpay or Coinbase is a piece of software that interacts with the Bitcoin protocol for you, not a traditional payment processor that ends up mediating disputes.
That's not scalable. There are plenty of merchants out there where bandwidth and server costs alone would exceed the $30 for their "Professional" package. They're going to need to raise their prices.
> not a traditional payment processor that ends up mediating disputes.
Someone is going to have to deal with disputes, and if that is you rather than a payment processor.... Well, I wouldn't want to be in that position. The reason someone will have to, is that otherwise you will be hit with (and lose) lawsuits - most countries have some degree of consumer protection for distance sales, many countries have very extensive protection.
It is in no way clear that this will end up being any cheaper than a card processor.
I'm all for Bitcoin, but I don't see (lack of) fees as a very compelling feature.