discuss Quoting a price in Bitcoin

[Kuffy]

I want sell my names for Bitcoin, so what is the best way to quote the price? Lets say I want 0.7 Bitcoin. Should I say 0.7 bitcoin, or 70 million Satoshi, or maybe I should use less popular millibits or similar. I don't really want to use dollars or other fiat currencies because of volatility.

My inclination is to use BTC 0.7, as not all keyboards and browsers support the Unicode character. 70 million Satoshi sounds frightening if you are not familiar with Bitcoin. Obviously a link to a currency converter on a site like xe.com would be an essential aid for prospective buyers.

 

[garptrader]

Given that many central banks are printing money like mad in response to the corona pandemic, there is some concern that using fixed prices in USD or Euros could be problematic if we see fiat collapse relative to goods and services. However, most potential buyers do not own crypto and are not going to send BTC to an unknown party with no guarantee they will receive the domain. Perhaps it is best to use Make Offer.

 

[Kuffy]

I agree with your comments, but I'm a Bitcoin evangelist, so I would like to increase awareness of Bitcoin as an international payment method for virtual assets. I'm hoping that if I provide an explanation with a link to a few exchanges like Coinbase, then they will start to consider it as equivalent to a regular fiat currency exchange. Your point about sending crypto to an unknown seller is possibly the greatest problem. However, it is one that we will have to address for the future, so I thought I would start to explore the possibilities now.

I've always got the fallback option of selling it through the Name Silo market place if the buyer is prepared to pay a higher price.

 

[garptrader]

I would not risk a sale because of demanding a payment method the buyer feels uncomfortable with. In reality bitcoin is not ideal for payments as transactions are slower than many ALT coins and fees can escalate when transaction volumes are high.

 

[Kuffy]

But Bitcoin is the only hard virtual asset in the crypto sphere. My domain name sales are more for saving than for income, so I won't be exchanging the Bitcoin.

If the buyer really refuses, then he can pay into my Name Silo account, and I'll buy some more names to sell for Bitcoin.

 

[The_Other_One]

I know there are at least some escrow services that work with bitcoins.

70 million Satoshi sounds frightening if you are not familiar with Bitcoin.

Sure... but on the flipside, if you talk them into it, think how it would feel to sell a domain for 70 million of something.

As far as the point about the stability of fiat currencies is concerned, it's true that these are troubled times for some currencies, and it's going to get worse. But currencies don't collapse out of a clear blue sky - there would be a number of warning signs before they get to that point. A seller would have ample time to read the writing on the wall and edit their pricing, wouldn't they? As far as short term fluctuations are concerned, I haven't been following BTC lately, but aren't the short term fluctuations in bitcoin a lot worse than in the dollar or the euro?

Your point about spreading the awareness of bitcoin is certainly well-taken, though. I have a lawyer friend who's been taking BTC for several years. I really admire him for that.

 

[tonyk2000]

I wish I could quote prices in BTC. Unfortunately, it is not practical, as I still need to sell domains, including via sedo/afternic, and a number of purchases are impluse. Moreover, by demanding bitcoin only, I'd possibly limit the geography of my buyers, as it is illegal to use btc in some countries (Russia is the latest example, they disallowed it a few days ago).

However, the following may work for own hosted website. Some sort of a widget dynamically showing prices in different currencies, including btc as the basic fixed price. It would mean that the domains are not to be listed on any marketplace (afternic, namesilo, dan etc.) with BIN, as none of them do support btc as a basic pricing currency unfortunately.

In any case, should U.S. economy continue collapsing as it currently is, U.S. based buyers will find themselves in a very uncommon situation - the thing they may want to purchase online is no more priced in USD.... Will it be bitcoins, swiss francs, euros, gold grams or...? The time will tell.

 

[Kuffy]

. But currencies don't collapse out of a clear blue sky - there would be a number of warning signs before they get to that point.

The warning signs have been there for quite some time now.

 

[garptrader]

I recall many years ago when Mexico had an approximate 3.3 peso to the dollar peg with a planned gradual devaluation. However, there were signs beforehand that pressures were building. With a few days the peso devalued 50% vs the U.S. dollar and within a few months it was around 8 pesos to the dollar. Today the Mexican peso is around 22 to the dollar. Latin America particularly Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela have a history of currency devaluations. But the fiscal irresponsibility which led to those currency collapses has been the norm in the U.S. in recent years. At what point will the dollar lose its global currency reserve status?

 

[Kuffy]

Devaluation is an interesting concept. Most people seem to report devaluation as a change in value between 2 fiat currencies. I prefer to compare it with gold, and even Bitcoin. In either case the US dollar, and other currencies, are on the skids.

When you are watching the trend in the price of Bitcoin, don't draw the line along the tops, and take that as the trend. Draw the line under the bottoms. That is a much more reliable indicator of a trend if you are looking for a store of value.