Bitfinex Pay just launched no more than a week ago

Or use the truly permissionless way with BTC Pay Server :thumbsup

Except the program is going to choose what is best for them.

Holding 7 figure balances on a volatile currency is an accounting nightmare. BTC dropped 15% this week, if a program was preparing for their payout and then now the value has dropped, they now have to acquire more BTC just to meet their payables, having just lost a significant amount of value (and possibly their margin).

Now their business model goes from buying, converting, and monetizing affiliate traffic, to speculating on volatile digital assets... This is going to add a ton of complicated tax liability and possibly put them under the microscope for tax evasion and money laundering.

Ironically it's the smaller and/or international affiliates who demand services like epassporte, paxum, and payoneer. Affiliate programs don't like having to deal with those either.

The expenses and shortcomings of the traditional banking system are not enough of a reason for a large adult company to take on so much additional risk.

Dude, it's dropped 15% in a day :1orglaugh

But how short-sighted do you have to be?

Have you ever looked at any 5 year graph of Bitcoin? Zoom out and wake up dude!

This topic is not about bitcoin as an investment or asset class.

This topic is about high volume, low margin affiliate programs who have a lot of throughput and payable accounts.

If a US-based program pays out 7 figures a week to affiliates, it is impractical for them to keep acquiring BTC on an exchange at that kind of volume, and will invite a tax audit.

Agree about BTC. It is too volatile and their network is not good for high volume small transactions. But there are plenty of alternatives to BTC that don't have the same issues. There are also stable coins like USDT and USDC that are tied to the USD.

You're bringing up the volatility with payments, if you see how Chaturbate has it, beautiful.
You get paid a few days after period ending OR you can submit payout asap at any given time (as long as minimum payout required)
It gives us a little control & no way is it perfect, nor is any other payment option, but this is the best one I've seen any sponsor have

BTC payout automatically after period ends, with option to request payment at any given time (must allow few days processing).

Those of us choosing the BTC payout option must accept the fact we might gain/lose depending on the volatility. I'm not saying EVERYONE should choose it, it's not for everyone

I can only assume Chaturbate has large BTC holdings already, and is taking advantage of affiliate BTC payouts to liquidate, as they are processing transactions in USD and keeping 100% of the balance.

I don't believe so. I think they have similar to ePayments before, they would pay affiliates a USD amount by buying BTC at market rate on the payout date and sending to the affiliate. There are probably other companies that do this.

How do they do the accounting for it? Do they buy the BTC equivalent when you earn it and then pay you out that amount later on, or do they report what they owe you in USD and then just pay out whatever the equivalent is in BTC?

Makes sense. For that use case, it can work good as medium of exchange given that caveat of paying out the USD equivalent.

I believe their BTC payout setup is something like this:

Mar3 payday
Affiliate is owed $100
They submit $100 to a 3rd party service who receives the $100 & buys BTC at any market rate, sends BTC to Affiliate (minus all fees & exchange rate)

Affiliate receives the $100 in BTC minus the fees
CB marks paid, the $100 aff payout

Pretty sure ePayments had the same thing