I’ve changed my mind about Bitcoin’s volatility being an excuse not to accept it

I used to think Bitcoin was way too volatile for merchants to accept it as payment. I even said here that I get why some people avoid it. But honestly, my view has shifted; I'm not buying the "too volatile" excuse anymore. Bitcoin's absolutely worth it, despite the ups and downs. So, I’ve got this account at one of the biggest banks in my country. I've left money sitting in there for ages, but I haven't touched it in about three years. I figured it was good to keep it just in case I needed it quickly. But two years back, I stopped using it completely. This January, I tried to pull some funds out, and it was flagged for "no debit." I went to the bank this month to sort it out, and honestly, it’s been one of the most annoying experiences I've had with banking, and I've had my share. That account is still locked for withdrawals, even after I wasted so much time there last week. The wild part? I can still get money into the account, but I can't take any out. I received funds last month and in December, and yet here I am. No amount of Bitcoin's volatility can compare to this hassle. My money's been sitting with them for over two years, and it's been part of what they’re using to make even more cash. I'm not even asking for them to share the profits; I just want my money back, and I've given them all the necessary docs.

For me, my position in this matter hasn't changed. That excuse is worth it atleast for the time being until it gets to a more stable state, I can't incure losses in form of volatility just because I want to transact in Bitcoin. OP, you are a Nigerian, atleast you should know some bank sand their staff are corrupt and are always looking for ways to extort their customers.  Haven't you heard about the missing 550 million Naira fixed depoxit of Dr. Eke Agbai and similar cases? These things happen all the time, personally, I even trust and prefer fintech companies like Opay to our traditional banks because you rarely encounter such problems and even if you do, it is handled swiftly online without even needing your physical presence. Since the money was for emergency, you should have locked it in an active bank account then liquidate when the need arise.

I don't know your country of residence and the rules on account dormancy may differ. But in most cases, 2 years of non activity on accounts is long enough to place the account on dormancy. As odd as this may sounds, it's actually to protect your account from unauthorised access. Dormancy is the bank way of saying we don't know whether you're still alive but you can prove your liveness by visiting their branch with require documents to reactivate your account. Everything with banks require excess patient since they have lots of customers to attend to. They are just playing safe because you'll hold them responsible for not securing your money if anything happens during that long time of no activity. We don't longer compare bitcoin to banking system because they are not on the same level at all. Bitcoin will never freeze for long time of no activity in your wallet but you loose everything forever if you lose your seed without anyone to blame or sue. Based on current bitcoin price, bitcoin is 18% higher than it was last 2 years and 150% in last 3 years. You'll definitely be in profit suppose you invest that money in bitcoin. But how certain you'll still hold the Bitcoin until this moment if you had invested the money?

I don't think the stress of retrieving a dormant account makes Bitcoin better for receiving payments. Besides the volatility, there's the lack of demand for Bitcoin as a means of payment by people in many countries, there's also th volatility of transaction fees and the wait for confirmation. For personal holdings, the volatility doesn't affect it at all since I mostly appreciates in value.

Volatility should not be an issue because third parties can quickly convert your BTC to USDT if you are concerned about a price drop. Regarding the bank hassle, it is pretty common that even after submitting any necessary documents, it can take months for them to activate your bank account. The strange part about your story is that your bank account was suddenly deactivated despite having a maintaining balance. Fortunately, Bitcoin does not have this type of system; the only issue is that if you withdraw your BTC to some strict exchanges that require the source of the coin, and you do not provide it, your account may be frozen. However, there are few alternatives, including non-KYC P2P exchanges.

it is natural to be annoyed. it seems that terrible service, unnecessary bureaucratic complications and the occasional account being made dormant are very common problem in your country, right? it is a fact that the price of bitcoin fluctuates a lot. this is a big concern especially for jobholder or businessmen who have to pay salaries, rent or suppliers at the end of the month. but compared to the amount of control and third party risk that bank in any underdeveloped country impose this price fluctuation will seem insignificant to many people i can talk about a middle ground which I am now using with great success. you can take payment in bitcoin or usdc if your country has the opportunity. you can immediately cash out 70 to 80% of the money through binance p2p or an exchanger. keep the remaining 20 to 30% in bitcoin. this will act as your safety net in case the value of the currency drop or the bank fail people are moving away from this old fashioned banking system, but very slowly. however those who have had this bitter experience like you will actually prefer bitcoin at any cost. i'm sure gradually this number will increase

The account you have has been classified as a “dormant account” by the bank, so whether you like it or not, you’ll need to work with the bank to have them unfreeze your account, and that process is time-consuming and a hassle. But as a customer, you should realize that banks have rules on their platforms, and you need to monitor your accounts even if you don’t consider the money in them important - after all, it’s your money, and leaving it in the bank for too long without checking on it isn’t a good idea. This is regardless of whether accepting Bitcoin is better or not, because your case here is purely due to your own negligence, that’s what I see.

No matter how much you tolerate volatility, the main obstacle is the law. The government dictates you not to abandon the old system in any way such as if you want insurance for your business, use only fiat. Apart from that, there are safety and efficiency factors. Even if there were some speed solutions, it still didn't quite meet their expectations.

Anyone who doesn't want to adopt Bitcoin can come up with any excuse or story just to cover up. With the current state of developing that Bitcoin has experienced there is no longer, any good excuse that will be good for anyone not to adopt Bitcoin. Anytime I experience excuses such as volatility I just know that such persons are not ready to adopt Bitcoin, so is just trying to cover up with volatility.

You’re from Nigeria, you should know better how things works there.. I’m not sure what they define as dormant, whether it’s not receiving or sending out at all for a particular period or It’s having 0 balance for a certain period. Judging by your case..it has to be, you didn’t ‘send out’ till it reaches a timeout  and your account was classified as dormant. Don’t blame them they are just following the rules , MOYIN should expect sort when you keep your money on a centralized body like bank. Try it with any Centralized Exchanges too, leave your assets for 2 years without doing anything, then try to withdraw everything all of a sudden... There’s high chance they freeze your account too unless you’ve always been active using their app from time to time without carrying out any TXs. If you want full control, be your own  bank.

I don't know how you perform reactivation of your dormant account, but I don't think it will be that hard if you follow their terms and rules. There's a dormancy fee for not keeping it active so you should secure payment for that. However, that won't still be an enough reason for people to shift into bitcoin. Its volatility limits the effectivity of bitcoin as a currency that's why using bitcoin as a currency may not be the best option. But if you take bitcoin as an investment, surely that volatility factor will serve as an asset for bitcoin to reach an unlimited value and price.

Few things can be more persuasive than learning that as a result of a banks bureaucratic red tape, you cannot even access your own hard-earned cash. You own Bitcoin ("you own the keys"), so no one will be able to place a "no debit" label on your wallet!

I understand the fact that you're in great desperation from your bank account experience, but do you believe that using bitcoin instead of bank or using bitcoin as a fiat is the real solution to that?  I don't think so, you will still face the same disappointment with bitcoin since bitcoin's volatility will lead you to experience roller coaster of emotions, one day the price is high and the next day the price is low, so how will you manage using bitcoin as a currency? Fiat is still the most in demand option for now, and banks are there as they backed up fiat. If you can manage to be more patient and solve that issue, I think it will still be done as long as you agree to their rules as well.

Businesses can opt to accept Bitcoin as payments and use the auto convert features on some good exchanges like Bitpay or Strike to USDT or USDC, just to shield themselves from the volatility scare. Any business not ready to accept change is always the business with the 'too volatile' excuse as a placard over heads. The tech to bypass too volatile situations of Bitcoin is already in use and present, one just got to do the proper research and seek out the best that suits them, because the lightning network is indeed fast, cheaper and a more convenient network than bank fees and third party involvement.

Your post is a little contradictory because volatility of bitcoin does not have any connection to the stressed you passed through accessing your account you abandoned for 3 years. The right comparison would be to compare that to saving the money in bitcoin in your private wallet, those are the close case to clearly shows the advantages of holding bitcoin over fiat and the advantage of self custody over centralised platforms. The volatility of bitcoin is still a major factor stopping lots of businesses from accepting bitcoin, even those that do accept still convert those coins to stable coins due to uncertainties that volatility creates. Since their business is not priced in bitcoin bu dollar, volatility creates some form of variance which makes account reconciliation a bit complicated.

^^ Perhaps the OP meant someone wanting to accept Bitcoin in business for a long-term restocking, hoping to increase their procurement quantity as Bitcoin's value increases over the long term. This applies to secondary needs businesses like electronics stores or other non-perishable goods stores.

I understand how frustrating your experience with your fiat bank is, but all of that is not just related to volatility. Instead we should associate your experience with; 1. Convenience 2. Freedom 3. Control Your freedom to control your finances conveniently was denied you. About the volatility, it is real and also can move in favour or against businesses. But in most time, it is against. Remember that bitcoin was at $126k and where is it now. You know how much the difference is for a business person?

Surprisingly I didn’t know why OP actually dragged volatility into this discussion, I was actually reading the story and was actually waiting for the places where OP will simply say that his money was reduced or at least when relating it with volatility that money wasn’t worth it’s purchasing power again compared to when he invested that money because of the inflation cross and that’s when will most likely be discussing about bitcoin’s volatility as this is what relates. This is clearly a case of custodial service where you don’t have freedom or control over your own asset and it’s similar to someone who invest into bitcoin and still leaves it on custodial services they can also do the same as banks. As for volatility, let’s be realistic to each other there is certainly volatility associated with bitcoin, the price of yesterday wasn’t that of today, just that with proper holding of your coin for a very long term you can beat this volatility well better than even leaving your money on fiat which is eating up by inflation

I was actually excited when I read the title. I prepared my mind to read something so new. So I expected some good arguments against bitcoin volatility and business. You know that Michael Saylor's kind of vibes of negative and positive volatility. The idea that if you cannot endure the pain, you don't deserve the gain. I was expecting a certain comparison to inflation as fiat type of volatility. But in the end, the title was just a click bait while the body was entirely something different but a life frustrating situation.

I don't buy the "bitcoin too volatile so it's not good payment method" excuse too. In my opinion, volatility in the range of cents when we're about to pay something is worth the freedom that we get. No more unnecessary account freezing for ridiculous mistake that shouldn't be problem to begin with? count me in. Anybody thinking going through all these stress is better than having small volatility is delusional.