Why haven't Uber and Airbnb enabled bitcoin payments yet? Bitcoin would eliminate processing and conversion fees for all their international transactions. But the market of bitcoin-paying customers isn't big enough yet. It took fifteen years to centralise the Web, it will take fifteen to twenty years to re-decentralise it. The risks and difficulty of adopting bitcoin as a payment option means they won't be doing it anytime soon, but they may do it as a marketing gimmick.
Transcript
QUESTION: Just to follow up on the Uber and Airbnb example. Would it be in the interests of the shareholders of Uber and Airbnb to enable Bitcoin payments? Because then they don't have to pay 3% to Stripe or Braintree or the credit card processor.
ANDREAS: So that's the thing that puzzles me about both Uber and Airbnb. And especially Airbnb, because they do so many transactions internationally, they have to pay so many fees, wire fees, foreign exchange fees, and so Bitcoin would eliminate a lot of that.
Honestly, it's not a big enough market yet. There aren't enough people with the ability to have Bitcoin or to earn Bitcoin or to convert into Bitcoin to make it worthwhile for any of these companies. I'm looking at this from a much longer perspective. It took 15 years to centralize the web. And it will take another 15 to 20 to re-decentralize it. We have the potential to do that. In the meantime, I don't expect them to start accepting Bitcoin anytime soon. For them, the risks and the difficulty they would face in adopting something like that probably outweigh any of the benefits. They might do it as a marketing gimmick, honestly. But it might start raising the question of what exactly we're paying 20% for.