Mike,

Trust me, I am following very closely what is going on with Bitcoin.  For almost a year now, I have been telling people that the future of Bitcoin is not as a speculative investment, but rather that it is a new payment protocol.  Think of it like the FTP protocol, but for transferring wealth instead of files.  

As a merchant, Stardock would be taking no currency risk.  It does not matter what Bitcoin is valued at.  Whichever payment service provider they chose (coinbase, bitpay, ext), would give them a quoted Bitcoin (BTC) price for the product in that second.  They tell me (as the customer), we will charge you 0.12 BTC for the GC3 Pre-Order.  I send them 0.12 BTC and the payment service provider deposits cash into Stardock's account that night for less then a 1% fee.  No credit card charge backs, no 3-5% fee, no waiting weeks to settle accounts.  It is simply a new payment protocol, with very little difference to Stardock's bottom line from accepting Visa.  Except that it's actually a cheaper and safer alternative.  Safer because Stardock doesn't take currency risk, and the customer doesn't have to give out sensitive personal information over the internet.

There are companies that are currently working towards systems where, as a user, when I buys something online my account is debited in dollars -> then transferred into BTC -> sent to a merchant -> then the merchant's payment service provider convert's that BTC back into $ -> deposits $ directly into the merchant's account.

In essences, no BTC is ever really seen.  It becomes a network protocol for settling accounts.  Currency swings do not matter.  Drama, hacks & bugs don't really matter, because the payment system users don't ever actually hold BTC (unless they want to.) 

I hope that makes sense.  Obviously not everyone is going to be stoked on it, as it is a very new technology and there are obviously a lot of issues still to be worked out.  But I think the rewards way out weights the risks, especially since the risks are almost 0 for a business accepting Bitcoin through the system mentioned above.

I agree, but the perception is never going to change unless people who understand its potential benefits, and know how to avoid the risks, push for its adoption.

I'm just trying to do my part

Lucky Jack,

If a business (or a person) does not hold any Bitcoin, they are simply using the Bitcoin protocol through a payment service, then the risk they are exposed to is no different than the risk of using paypal or any other credit card payment service.  In fact, the risk is less so to the merchant, because they cannot receive a charge back.  The transaction, once completed, is like cash.  They literally receive cash in their bank account that night.

Thanks Island Dog!  I still think it wouldn't hurt though

The real risk needs to be lower then the real cost.

Real encompasses all things that affect it.

The return of adding Bitcoin is not greater then the cost, hence...

Any other currencies you may have in mind? like, say, hundred of Remington 00 Buck 12 gauge shells?

Credit card processing & transaction fees suck. That's an area Bitcoin does a lot better, because it was designed to be split into small amounts more easily.

Really, most of the issues are superflous. Stardock would want to partner with an exchange or processing service that handles the actual transactions in BTC and deposits USD into Stardock's account. They don't have to handle or own any BTC themselves, similar to how I paid in CAD for GalCiv 3 but they got USD out of the transaction.

The big issue is finding a partner to do that part who is secure and reliable. (Which is, admittedly, a pretty big issue right now.)

I vote for Nuka-cola Caps.

Or ring pulls.