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johmas | 12 years ago

We began accepting bitcoin last month and aren't converting all of our bitcoin to dollars. We have several employees who accept their pay in bitcoin.

Taking things a bit further, we are optimistic about bitcoin as a payment form with our suppliers as the volatility stabilises. As an example, one of our suppliers is Belgium based and we'd be able to save on the currency exchange with those payments. We've discussed it and they didn't turn their nose up to the idea.

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minimax|12 years ago

That is certainly an interesting datapoint, though paying your employees in bitcoin... I'm not sure how I feel about that in ethical terms. What would you as an employer do if you paid someone on Friday and on Monday that paycheck only bought half as much bread as it did on Friday? Also doesn't it make income/FICA tax kind of a pain?

nazgulnarsil|12 years ago

The employer as paternal unit paradigm needs to die. If the employee wants to take a risk they are an adult and should judge the merits of the scheme for themselves.

johmas|12 years ago

That's a good question. We don't exactly view it as an ethical issue. Anyone on the team can opt-in to whatever percentage of their compensation they'd like to be paid in bitcoin. Currently no one is taking 100%.

We do educate how the currency functions and the risks there may be.

meowface|12 years ago

There are definitely a lot of risks involved in accepting Bitcoins as a salary. Anyone doing it should fully research the currency and be aware of the risks before ever accepting such an option.