Sorry to zing. What we see for many tens of thousands of paying customers on CellarTracker is that in aggregate the valuation data on CellarTracker is very helpful for them in terms of establishing a standard for insurance purposes. In general, there will always be variation. An insurer will pay replacement value is which often somewhat higher. If people go to sell wines from their collection, they will realize something somewhat lower. So as with everything your mileage may vary. Your cases are valid but also extreme edge cases that individuals can choose to adjust for. Are you actually using CellarTracker? I find no user who has ever registered a real name (a required albeit hidden field) of James Billy on CellarTracker.
I’m not on cellartracker.
No criticism. Just an observation. I guess you can’t cover every angle.
Isn’t selling wine using bitcoin simply a means to avoid paying VAT or sales/income tax?
If you sell wine for hogs or gold, the various taxing entities still want their cut, BTC is no different.
If a licensed seller exchanges wine for BTC, they would be crazy to not pay those taxes. If a non-licensed seller exchanges wine for BTC, they have additional issues, but the taxing entities definitely will expect their cut.
I think the people advocating for BTC on this thread are mostly (maybe entirely) advocating for BTC as an exchange medium, not a method to avoid taxes. There appear to be plenty of people who use BTC to avoid taxes, but I don’t think that’s been a thrust in this discussion.
-Al
That may be true for the members of this Board Al, but as I understand it that is a prime benefit of bitcoin for sellers of merchandise. Is there really any other reason for merchants to prefer bitcoin?
How much work is it to implement? Seems a definite edge case for now at least, but if it is fairly quick and easy to implement and maintain… but guessing there are far better ways to spend developer time right now.
Pulling in the actual exchange rate tables is trivial–in fact we filter them out right now. The bigger problem is that a lot of the currency libraries out there don’t support format/display of these properly. We’re not going to be the ones to write that code. Also, it is not just BTC. There are quite a few currencies so a rather slippery slope. So punting for the foreseeable future.
Dear T.Altmayer,
Let me quote Bitcoin.org to explain why we use Bitcoin as payment:
Choose your own fees
There is no fee to receive bitcoins, and many wallets let you control how large a fee to pay when spending. Most wallets have reasonable default fees, and higher fees can encourage faster confirmation of your transactions.
Protection against fraud
Any business that accepts credit cards or PayPal knows the problem of payments that are later reversed. Chargeback frauds result in limited market reach and increased prices, which in turn penalizes customers. Bitcoin payments are irreversible and secure, meaning that the cost of fraud is no longer pushed onto the shoulders of the merchants.
Fast international payments
Sending bitcoins across borders is as easy as sending them across the street. There are no banks to make you wait three business days, no extra fees for making an international transfer, and no special limitations on the minimum or maximum amount you can send.
No PCI compliance required
Accepting credit cards online typically requires extensive security checks in order to comply with the PCI standard. Bitcoin still requires you to secure your wallet and your payment requests, however, you do not carry the costs and responsibilities that come with processing sensitive information from your customers like with credit card numbers.
Get some free visibility
Bitcoin is an emerging market of new customers who are searching for ways to spend their bitcoins. Accepting them is a good way to get new customers and give your business some new visibility. Accepting a new payment method has often shown to be a clever practice for online businesses.
Accounting transparency
Many organizations are required to produce accounting documents about their activity. Using Bitcoin allows you to offer the highest level of transparency since you can provide information to verify balances and transactions through the block chain. For example, non-profit organizations can allow the public to see how much they receive in donations.
Which of course means customer has no payment-related recourse for retailers who don’t ship, send incorrect product, send in hot weather, etc
Yep. Bitcoin payments make sense only for the receiver- which is why (in part) they are most popular for ransoms. 
Customer can ask for escrow payment.
For what’s left, honest people exist! In case of incorrect product I don’t see the difference between Bitcoin of fiat currency payment. Same problem
to John P,
Gold is backed by the following:
- a 5000 year history of value.
- a verifiable physical entity.
- multiple industrial uses.
FWIW, I own almost no gold (all of which is incorporated into devices I use on an everyday basis) and no bitcoin.
Dan Kravitz