How Bringin makes it easy and safe for merchants to Accept Bitcoin?

Last modified on November 23, 2023

Introduction

Thanks to the amazing grassroots initiatives, Bitcoin adoption has been steadily growing in Europe over the last few years. Getting something so novel and unfamiliar being accepted by people is a big challenge that requires an effort that could span decades, especially when it is something as integral to their day-to-day lives as the money they use to transact.

We’ve been accustomed to think about money in a certain way. And a transition would be preferable to outright disruption.

According to BTC Map, there are over 3500 merchants in Europe that accept Bitcoin.

If we want to get this number higher, and make it simpler for people to spend Bitcoin for goods and services, we need to address certain challenges that lie ahead.

Challenges to Overcome if One Wants to Accept Bitcoin payments

Price Volatility

Owing to poor liquidity in the order books and immature market infrastructure, Bitcoin’s price is still prone to volatility, which means its price fluctuates quite a bit over the course of a day. Even its strongest proponents believe that it makes sense to use Bitcoin as a long-term savings instrument or a store of value rather than something used for everyday transactions.

The widely held belief is that volatility will come down as adoption goes up and liquidity in the markets improves.

But the drawback is that as a result, merchants tend to stay away from using Bitcoin as anything more than a risky, speculative investment at best.

Legal and Regulatory Concerns

Merchants and businesses, with their best interests at heart, do not want to be operating outside the law of the land. Any sort of legal and regulatory uncertainty with a particular undertaking would make a majority of them stay away from going through with it.

Bitcoin has suffered from this. Already unfamiliar and strange to those who come across it, the position of regulatory authorities has not helped with its reputation.

Lack of Adoption

This is kind of a chicken and egg problem when it comes to merchant adoption.

Merchants don’t want to accept it because others they source their raw materials and products from don’t do so, and the others don’t do it because their employees don’t accept Bitcoin as salaries and so on and on it goes.

Despite the growing interest in Bitcoin, its adoption is still limited because of this reason.

Technical Barriers

Accepting Bitcoin and lightning payments requires a certain degree of technical knowledge when it comes to securing funds and taking self-custody, which can be a barrier for many merchants, especially small businesses.

It could prove hard for businesses to accept Bitcoin when a lot of time is demanded from them to learn and understand the various technical nuances of how wallets work and the safety mechanisms they need to put in place to ensure that their funds aren’t stolen.

Accounting and Tax

Bitcoin transactions can complicate accounting and tax reporting. Using two monetary instruments side by side, namely Bitcoin and Euros, results in a lot of challenges in book keeping and filing for taxes. Every European country has different laws and regulations when it comes to taxation.

Thanks to its volatility that we mentioned earlier, the challenge becomes greater as capital gains might be incurred while holding Bitcoin in their balance sheets. And since Bitcoin is not a legal tender anywhere in Europe, people are forced to sell it while filing for taxes, unless they accept payments privately, which becomes a problem because they’ll have to make their entire inventory procurement and sourcing processes private.

Addressing Challenges with Bringin

We have made thoughtful design decisions to solve these challenges to make it easy and safe for merchants to start accepting Bitcoin.

Simplified Bitcoin-to-Euro Conversion

Bringin’s design flow is built to be friendly towards those who don’t have much experience with using Bitcoin.

The app lets merchants convert Bitcoin to Euros by following a simple, three step process and get funds deposited into their bank account instantly.

Accounting and Reporting Tools

Our sleek and intuitive dashboard has a separate section that merchants can use to generate reports of their past transactions and conversions.

This makes report-generation for tax filing, accounting and inventory management seamless.

Self-custodial

Merchants who use Bringin don’t have to worry about giving up custody of their funds, be it on-chain or lightning.

What’s more, we don’t hold custody of your Euros either. Funds are sent directly to your own bank account once the conversion is done.

Bitcoin-Only Focus

Bringin has a goal of building sustainable and meaningful products that will provide actual value to those who use them. We used to support other projects, but dropped them when we realised that only Bitcoin can help us achieve this goal.

Dedicated IBANs

To make fund transfers and conversions absolutely safe, Bringin provides dedicated IBANs to every user who creates an account with us.

This makes our app the safest way to convert Bitcoin to Euros by reducing the risk of users’ funds being frozen or accounts being blocked off because of regulatory pressure.

In conclusion, while there are challenges in merchant adoption of Bitcoin, Bringin is addressing these challenges and making it easier for merchants to accept Bitcoin. As more merchants begin to accept Bitcoin, it is expected that consumer adoption will also increase, leading to a more widespread use.

If you are looking for the most reliable solution to easily liquidate, sell Bitcoin to instantly receive Euros into bank account, get access to you Bringin IBAN account today.