Luxury watchmaker Breitling starts accepting Bitcoin for purchases

[Baron]

Now the customer decides to buy the watch via BitPay. This quote isn't handled by Breitling directly, but now by BitPay. Say BitPay charges 0.25 BTC for the watch. After all, volatility needs to be factored in and what not. Does the customer now pay more?

You made up a situation out of thin air. You're acting like Bitpay is trying to overcharge the customer. They don't need to do this because they already have a 1% spread to work with, and the conversion takes place pretty much instantly. All they need to do is take the customer's BTC, scrape their 1% off, and then convert the rest to USD or EUR for the merchant. This is a process they have automated and it occurs within seconds.

 

[Baron]

What? And so BitPay takes the hit when BTC drops 10% in 5 minutes. You really expect me to believe that?

100%. That's the business they are in. But again, they are converting these transactions within seconds so 5 minutes is an eternity for them.

 

[Overnight]

100%. That's the business they are in.

Well dayum, that is some nasty risky business. That's Red Dwarf and stuff.

(Sorry @Baron but I have been good for 6 months. I have buffer. )

 

[johnarb]

I was going to bring up the Bitpay invoice but for this transaction, Bitpay needs KYC so no go

@longshort if you want to go through the process, you can sign up with Bitpay and bring up the invoice here so we can calculate in realtime the discrepancies in $ value as you claim

You don't need to send BTC, the invoice will expire after 15 minutes (or 10, depends on this invoice)

 

[longshort]

You made up a situation out of thin air. You're acting like Bitpay is trying to overcharge the customer. They don't need to do this because they already have a 1% spread to work with, and the conversion takes place pretty much instantly. All they need to do is take the customer's BTC, scrape their 1% off, and then convert the rest to USD or EUR for the merchant. This is a process they have automated and it occurs within seconds.

They have two ways to make money. One is the 1% fee, the other is coming up with a conversion rate. The conversion doesn't take place instantly, it also includes the time from BitPay providing the BTC quote to the customer fully completing the checkout. That includes time like customer proofreading stuff. Not sure if I'm making this up. I guess I'm just quoting what they're saying themselves. "Factoring in volatility" really means providing a worse rate than what's on the exchanges.

 

[Baron]

They have two ways to make money. One is the 1% fee, the other is coming up with a conversion rate. The conversion doesn't take place instantly, it also includes the time from BitPay providing the BTC quote to the customer fully completing the checkout. That includes time like customer proofreading stuff. Not sure if I'm making this up. I guess I'm just quoting what they're saying themselves. "Factoring in volatility" really means providing a worse rate than what's on the exchanges.

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I understand where you're coming from, but you're reaching a little too far. You need to realize that if they were grossly overcharging customers because of ridiculous exchange rates, the word would spread and nobody would ever use them as a payment method because it would be too costly and inefficient. But most importantly, Breitling would never approve of a payment method that essentially ripped customers off. Bitpay has been around since 2011 so it's not like they are some hit and run outfit.

 

[newwurldmn]

That’s been my question the whole time. Does bitpay charge bid/ offer on the conversion rate. If you go to a breitling store in a Europe and offer to pay in dollars, they don’t change the price of the watch in euros but will charge you an fx conversion rate. I can’t imagine bitpay is offering choice markets less 1percent for an asset that swings 5percent a day and whose flows are likely biased one way.

 

[johnarb]

I understand where you're coming from, but you're reaching a little too far. You need to realize that if they were grossly overcharging customers because of ridiculous exchange rates, the word would spread and nobody would ever use them as a payment method because it would be too costly and inefficient. But most importantly, Breitling would never approve of a payment method that essentially ripped customers off. Bitpay has been around since 2011 so it's not like they are some hit and run outfit.

I paid a $9k+ Bitpay invoice in the past and there was not a noticeable spread

It would be better if one of the people that are curious could KYC and do the Bitpay transaction and post the invoice here so they will know what I'm saying is true or not

Don't trust, verify - Bitcoiners

 

[newwurldmn]

I paid a $9k+ Bitpay invoice in the past and there was not a noticeable spread

It would be better if one of the people that are curious could KYC and do the Bitpay transaction and post the invoice here so they will know what I'm saying is true or not

Don't trust, verify - Bitcoiners

I think the spread is about 25-50 dollars. But I’m the test I did the price fell by 75 dollars In the last 5 min so I might be comparing the wrong markets. It’s definitely cheaper than dealing in traditional fx.

 

[johnarb]

I think the spread is about 25-50 dollars. But I’m the test I did the price fell by 75 dollars In the last 5 min so I might be comparing the wrong markets. It’s definitely cheaper than dealing in traditional fx.

It's a fast market, in the time I was trying to capture the price of BTC, it dropped from $20,350 to $20,300 in a matter of seconds, but that's for 1 whole BTC so if the order is for 0.25 BTC, that $50 is really $12.50

In consideration of the whole transaction, a Bitcoiner spending $5K on a watch is not going to worry about getting dinged $25-50, but personally I would not complete the transaction if it was over $100 ripoff, just because of the principle of getting screwed by Bitpay

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and just so there's no confusion, of all the Bitpay transactions I've done in the past, not a single one did I feel I was taken advantage of by Bitpay (transaction)

and this goes with Coinpayment invoices as well