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With thousands of businesses around the world beginning to accept bitcoin, you have to ask: what’s the real reason? Are they genuinely attracted to the benefits bitcoin offers merchants? Are they doing it for publicity?
It probably doesn’t matter. But with services like BitPay and Coinbase that make bitcoin acceptance easy as can be, you can probably bet a good number of these crypto-friendly businesses don’t know very much about it — only that many others are joining the parade.
But according to BitPay CEO Tony Gallippi (in an interview with Bitcoin Owl), businesses who accept bitcoin should have (at minimum) a very basic understanding of the technology.
“We believe that businesses who accept bitcoin need to have a basic understanding of the technology. This is why we hold educational meetings to help individuals and businesses understand the software and how they can use it,” Gallippi said in response to a question that asked what advice he’d give business owners soon looking to accept the digital currency.
A better understanding of the technology could mean a business would be more inclined to keep bitcoins, as opposed to instantly converting them into fiat currency.
This would, in turn, help out the bitcoin economy. And while we’re probably a long way off from this, it’s exciting to learn that companies like Overstock.com are taking baby steps in this direction by setting aside ten percent of bitcoin income.
The interview also asked Gallippi some other interesting questions, like what he thought was in the future of bitcoin payment processing, to which he answered:
Over the next five years, we anticipate the demand to continue to grow for merchants wanting to accept bitcoin as a form of payment and not just from consumers. Bitcoin has the potential to change how we send and receive money, especially internationally. With many companies sourcing parts and services outside their country, making payments along the supply chain would be very easy. It would also be easy for international travelers as you would never have to convert dollars to euros (or any other currency) at an exchange before traveling.
You can read the interview in full here.
Do you agree with Gallippi’s stance on the matter? Does it matter whether or not a bitcoin-accepting business owner has a basic understanding of the technology?
[textmarker color=”C24000″]Image[/textmarker] David Ryder/WIRED
I agree with Tony.