Bitcoin to dollar calculator

By Asif Punjwani Recently,I had a chance to interact with a few small business owners. These are regular mom and pop stores,delis and drycleaning stores that cannot accept credit card payments or do not allow a credit card transaction below $10; yet almost all of their products cost less than $10. When asked why they didn't accept credit card payments,the answer was consistent; “There isn't enough margin in our line of business to afford the monthly line rent and commission on credit card transactions.” Small scale businesses have 2 major challenges : 1. Low sale turnover to justify installing credit card machines. 2. Their profit margins don't give them the flexibility to take a 2.5~5% plus transaction cost on a small transaction. Just putting a “Bitcoin Accepted” sticker would add free publicity and curiosity to the currency and the businesses. Many of these business owners were in their late fifties,and not very computer savy. I asked them if they could simply put a “Bitcoin Accepted here” logo and start accepting Bitcoins. Interestingly,some got the concept. They could understand the broader picture which surprised and delighted me. But their next question was - “What do we do with these coins?” As I pondered their question,it dawned on me; why shouldn't I buy their bitcoin? I already buy them from Mtgox. This would save me from the commission too. So I offered to buy their bitcoin and charge 1.5%. I suggested they collect that amount from their customers,which for the customer is less than a rounding error. A $3.24 bagel would have a commission of 5 cents which comes out to $3.29 - a mere 5 cent commission. But when looked thru the prism of bitcoin pricing,the bitcoin customer would pay 0.025BTC instead of 0.02462. So basically just the rounding of the 3rd digit would pay off for the commission I would charge to pay those small business owners in cash. Eventually it’s the customer paying the commission,but since the figures are so small,it’s a non-issue.