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Bitcoin for Translators - Why Not?
Thread poster: OG Pete
Finneas Mussen
Finneas Mussen
Russian Federation
Local time: 15:49
English to Russian
Bitcoin is awesome! Oct 26, 2014

Bitcoin has nothing to do with any of ponzi schemes.

I'm personally think that Bitcoin is a killer app for translators & actually can say that I'm previously worked as a translator. When it comes for accepting money from third-world country - its almost impossible for anyone to do it without any technical background about monetary system.

Bitcoin lets every translator participate in a global economy & has 0% fee for worldwide transfers.

All the volatility i
... See more
Bitcoin has nothing to do with any of ponzi schemes.

I'm personally think that Bitcoin is a killer app for translators & actually can say that I'm previously worked as a translator. When it comes for accepting money from third-world country - its almost impossible for anyone to do it without any technical background about monetary system.

Bitcoin lets every translator participate in a global economy & has 0% fee for worldwide transfers.

All the volatility is not a problem at all - volatility isn't a big cost to pay, because you pay for convenience - Bitcoin really the easiest tool to receive payment ever!
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walkabout
walkabout  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 11:49
English to Spanish
+ ...
Bitcoin Oct 31, 2014

I accept it as a form of payment. I think it is brilliant.

 
Paweł Hamerski
Paweł Hamerski
Poland
Local time: 11:49
English to Polish
+ ...
fantastic humbug and ideal tool for speculators Nov 1, 2014

I would say

 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 11:49
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Very hard to believe Nov 2, 2014

Fanees Mussen wrote:
All the volatility is not a problem at all - volatility isn't a big cost to pay, because you pay for convenience...

Are you sure you defend the idea that it is alright to be paid via a payment method that has a volatility that often reaches 15%? To say the least, this stance is hard to believe. It sounds like saying that it is alright to be paid in shares of small cap companies. Or maybe it is easy to defend this position about Bitcoin when the share of payments one receives via Bitcoin is nearly zero percent.


 
Martin Fernandez Cufre
Martin Fernandez Cufre  Identity Verified
Argentina
Local time: 11:49
English to Spanish
+ ...
So? May 19, 2015

So where does this bitcoin matter stand now? Without going into infinite tech details, would you say it is viable now for receiving small-medium payments? For example amounts between USD 500-1000. I am from Argentina but residing now temporarily in Mexico. The tech question would be if it is possible (and not technologically demanding for customers) to concretely receive a payment from a customer that has the hard currency and get it in hard currency? Approx how much % is the load you would say?... See more
So where does this bitcoin matter stand now? Without going into infinite tech details, would you say it is viable now for receiving small-medium payments? For example amounts between USD 500-1000. I am from Argentina but residing now temporarily in Mexico. The tech question would be if it is possible (and not technologically demanding for customers) to concretely receive a payment from a customer that has the hard currency and get it in hard currency? Approx how much % is the load you would say?
Thanks!
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DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
Bubble-bubble May 19, 2015

Actually, as an embodiment of almost 50-years old idea of private electronic/crypto b-money emission based on speculation of the 'infinite' chain of participants with some ever-growing 'infinite' values of 'proof of work' (say what?!), which requires more and more miners (hash-calulators)--ad infinitum.
Therefore, it does work as Ponzi in the terms where later participants paid to earlier participants; as "options" and "futures" counterpart. Considering *who* and *why* usually stays behind
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Actually, as an embodiment of almost 50-years old idea of private electronic/crypto b-money emission based on speculation of the 'infinite' chain of participants with some ever-growing 'infinite' values of 'proof of work' (say what?!), which requires more and more miners (hash-calulators)--ad infinitum.
Therefore, it does work as Ponzi in the terms where later participants paid to earlier participants; as "options" and "futures" counterpart. Considering *who* and *why* usually stays behind the scene, I would rather not be interested.

The reality is there's nothing 'infinite' upon the Earth, so I'm glad that some countries refrain from or plan to banish such non-controlled surrogate 'money'.

IMO.
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OG Pete
OG Pete  Identity Verified
United States
Russian to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Yes, Yes and Yes May 19, 2015

Martin Fernandez Cufre wrote:

So where does this bitcoin matter stand now? Without going into infinite tech details, would you say it is viable now for receiving small-medium payments? For example amounts between USD 500-1000. I am from Argentina but residing now temporarily in Mexico. The tech question would be if it is possible (and not technologically demanding for customers) to concretely receive a payment from a customer that has the hard currency and get it in hard currency? Approx how much % is the load you would say?
Thanks!


Martin - yes it's technically possible. As far as hard currency goes, you would have to sell your bitcoin for hard currency to a willing buyer - and to a local buyer if you wanted cash in your pocket.

You could try https://localbitcoins.com/ and let us know how it goes. I used https://www.coinbase.com/ to cash out, but am not sure if they're US-only.

To answer your question - technically, the % is zero and it's instant. However, there will more than likely be a difference between the exchange rate when your customer sends it to you and when you cash out. You may profit or take a loss on that.

[Edited at 2015-05-19 15:42 GMT]

[Edited at 2015-05-19 15:54 GMT]


 
Mohammadkarim Tahmasbi
Mohammadkarim Tahmasbi  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 11:49
Member (2014)
Persian (Farsi) to English
+ ...
Sure!!! Apr 30, 2016

I encourage the outsourcers to pay via BitCoin by offering a 5% discount. I'm thinking of increasing it to 10%.

BitCoin is AWESOME!


 
Philippe Locquet
Philippe Locquet  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 10:49
English to French
+ ...
reviving this Apr 7, 2021

Hi all,

How is this going for you all?
Are you actively using Bitcoin or other crypto for translation jobs?

With some cryptos being very high, a per word rate may look like a zero a comma and a plethora of zeros. How do you display your rate to clients then?

Just curious.

My bests


 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 11:49
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
We can use the electricity better - it is burning the planet up Apr 7, 2021

Forget how big a football field is, or whatever other strange units people use to measure large sizes.

Simply keeping the system running is using as much electricity as whole countries, some of them affluent European countries that really use a lot.

While we are cheese paring about saving paper and turning lights off, not wasting food, recycling and trying every possible and impossible way to reduce CO2 emissions... Just having bitcoins available has an enormous enviro
... See more
Forget how big a football field is, or whatever other strange units people use to measure large sizes.

Simply keeping the system running is using as much electricity as whole countries, some of them affluent European countries that really use a lot.

While we are cheese paring about saving paper and turning lights off, not wasting food, recycling and trying every possible and impossible way to reduce CO2 emissions... Just having bitcoins available has an enormous environmental impact.

Do the benefits outweigh the cost? I would not know where to begin, but offers of bitcoins in my spam filter er deleted without a second thought. Purely as a matter of principle, I prefer to stay with the familiar banks!
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Kaspars Melkis
Kevin Fulton
Rachel Waddington
 
Philippe Locquet
Philippe Locquet  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 10:49
English to French
+ ...
Silicon Apr 7, 2021

Christine Andersen wrote:

Simply keeping the system running is using as much electricity as whole countries, some of them affluent European countries that really use a lot.

Do the benefits outweigh the cost? I would not know where to begin, but offers of bitcoins in my spam filter er deleted without a second thought. Purely as a matter of principle, I prefer to stay with the familiar banks!


That's true, and it is also driving silicon prices up, which affect computer users like us translators. Effects are hardest on GPUs but it's probably having an impact on the rest too.

There are many scams around too. So, caution is important I suppose.

However, many countries where local currency is very low and other issues drive people towards crypto. Since some translators use it, I'm curious to see how this is working for translators now in 2021.

My bests


 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 11:49
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
There must be more climate-friendly ways to do it Apr 8, 2021

Philippe Locquet wrote:

Christine Andersen wrote:

Simply keeping the system running is using as much electricity as whole countries, some of them affluent European countries that really use a lot.
...


That's true, and it is also driving silicon prices up, which affect computer users like us translators. Effects are hardest on GPUs but it's probably having an impact on the rest too.

There are many scams around too. So, caution is important I suppose.

However, many countries where local currency is very low and other issues drive people towards crypto. Since some translators use it, I'm curious to see how this is working for translators now in 2021.

My bests


In principle there is nothing wrong with the idea. The Internet probably has a similar impact, and we all depend on it. We accept wind turbines and solar farms all over the place...

However, the Internet carries everything from banking and translating in the Cloud, tittle-tattle on the Social Media, and everything in between.
Surely a secure system can be set up that uses less energy?


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 11:49
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Philippe Apr 8, 2021

Philippe Locquet wrote:
With some cryptos being very high, a per word rate may look like a zero a comma and a plethora of zeros. How do you display your rate to clients then?


I think what you should do, if you want to accept bitcoin, is to state your rate in your usual currency (e.g. USD or EUR) and say that you accept bitcoin as a method of payment. Then, to check if the client paid you enough, you simply check what you've received against the day's currency exchange rate.

So, you'd charge e.g. EUR 500 for a job, and then the client would send you bitcoin worth EUR 500 (but you'd have to figure out who pays for transaction costs, etc.). You then convert the bitcoin to your own currency when you withdraw it from your wallet. In this sense, it works almost exactly like e.g. PayPal: if a client pays you EUR 500 via PayPal, and your local currency is e.g. USD, then you can either convert it to USD when you withdraw it or you can keep the EUR 500 in your PayPal account and be subject to EUR/USD currency exchange fluctuations.

There are some disadvantages to bitcoin, though. Firstly, it can take a while for the transaction to be approved (2-3 days, even). Secondly, the exchange rate does fluctuate more wildly than some traditional currencies. And thirdly (and most importantly), the transaction fees can be very high. In one case, I had EUR 20 worth of bitcoin left in a wallet and was able to transfer only EUR 5 of it -- the remaining EUR 15 was taken up by the transaction fee. The fees differ based on a number of factors, though (it could be much lower than this example).

To transfer bitcoin from one wallet to another wallet costs money. If you transfer bitcoin between wallets that are both hosted by the same wallet provider, then you may get discounts on the transaction fees because these wallet providers transfer fake bitcoins to and fro, and only convert them to real bitcoin when the bitcoin needs to leave the provider (e.g. to a wallet that is hosted somewhere else). Converting money to bitcoin costs money, sending bitcoin from one wallet to another costs money, and converting bitcoin back to a traditional currency costs money.

I'm not sure how tax authorities deal with bitcoin, but I would have assumed that it works just like any other currency. If you invoice a client EUR 500, and they pay in bitcoin, then you simply declare EUR 500 turnover on your tax returns for that invoice, regardless of whether the money is currently in EUR or in bitcoin. If you kept the money in bitcoin, and the bitcoin is now worth substantially less, due to currency exchange fluctuations, then you can deduct the loss as a business expense. If the bitcoin is now worth substantially more, then the extra value is simply extra income, and you declare it as such. At least, that's how I would have thought it would work.


Philippe Locquet
 
Adieu
Adieu  Identity Verified
Ukrainian to English
+ ...
No point now Apr 8, 2021

1) tax authorities have started catching on
2) the surreal 4,100,000% growth in the last 10 years (41k times) does not seem to be something repeatable... I don't see it jumping to $1 Billion USD or more per BTC, do you?


 
OG Pete
OG Pete  Identity Verified
United States
Russian to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
@Philippe Apr 9, 2021

Philippe Locquet wrote:
How is this going for you all?
Are you actively using Bitcoin or other crypto for translation jobs?

With some cryptos being very high, a per word rate may look like a zero a comma and a plethora of zeros. How do you display your rate to clients then?


Hey Philippe, all I can say is it's going great.
Bitcoin prices can be quoted in satoshi. At today's prices, USD 0.25 per word would be SAT 430.

Best regards from a fellow neural machine translation pro


Philippe Locquet
 
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Bitcoin for Translators - Why Not?







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