Unless you want to be an also-ran in the modern global economy, it should come as no surprise that many large companies are accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment.
Even small businesses that never expected to have any dealings with cryptocurrency in their lifetime have found themselves some exciting new options when the market goes up.
As one might expect, these questions have commanded several articles in the mainstream media. The more up-to-date coverage tends to assume that Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme, with regulators snapping at its heels from all sides, but this is hardly entirely fair.
The Bitcoin world has been proving its claim to legitimacy, one article and set of coin prices at a time. My particular interest is the question of whether or not businesses should accept crypto as a form of payment.
As the use case for cryptocurrencies has grown in a noticeable fashion, there have been more and more opportunities for businesses to integrate with the technology.
With each new company that opens its wallet to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it becomes far less likely that the issue will ever be brushed aside by regulators.
Can Employers Pay Wages in Cryptocurrency?
The use case that most people will easily understand is the idea of being paid in cryptocurrency by an employer. For this particular use case, it’s important to remember that there are a lot of lawyers out there.
While employers have every right to pay their employees in Bitcoin, if they do so, they need to make sure that the employee is aware of what they are receiving and what it is worth on the market.
The first and most important question to ask is whether or not the employee is allowed to own Bitcoin in the first place. In most states, employees can’t buy and sell Bitcoin unless they have a special license.
In order to make sure that their employees aren’t breaking the law, most employers will require proof of residence and a utility bill to prove that they are actually in the employee’s town. In the U.K., employers can force employees to submit their wages to a government agency if they have concerns about them owning cryptocurrency.
What’s the appeal of being paid in cryptocurrency?
The issue of Bitcoin’s volatility is a difficult question for many people to answer. It will be interesting to see if cryptocurrencies grow in value enough that people want to start being paid in them for other kinds of work.
As it stands, it seems that workers in the US can’t be paid with Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies without breaking the law. It’s becoming a lot easier for people to use cryptocurrency as a form of payment, but many of them have remained on the sidelines.
While this approach has worked well for people who don’t want to deal with Bitcoin, it will be hard to find employees if they can’t be paid in cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin Is Legal
On the whole, Bitcoin is legal in the majority of jurisdictions. Since it’s a decentralized currency, there isn’t much risk of it being outlawed at any point in time. The problem is that regulators have shown themselves not to be all that interested in Bitcoin.
In the U.S., state laws generally treat digital assets like they do any other currency, while most countries have laws that require companies to report any purchases of Bitcoin or other forms of cryptocurrency.
It’s unclear if regulators are trying to outlaw Bitcoin in the short term, but it’s clear that they want a lot more information about who is buying cryptocurrency. There are various ways you can make money with Bitcoin trading.
One of the easiest methods is by using Bit Index AI, a great tool for traders looking to take advantage of fluctuations in crypto markets
Can employers pay in cryptocurrency?
For now, employers are free to pay their employees in cryptocurrency if they want to. Since regulators tend not to be interested in Bitcoin, this doesn’t represent a big risk for the companies.
As cryptocurrencies continue to grow in popularity and value, it may become necessary for companies and business owners to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment for their goods or services.
At the moment, it seems that most employers are using payroll service providers who just get paid in fiat currency instead of forcing employees to deal with cryptocurrencies directly.
It’s a good thing that they’ve taken this approach because it would be hard to hire employees if they couldn’t pay them in cryptocurrency. Bitcoin, as it stands right now, is a great tool for companies to use as long as they are interested in accepting payment for their goods and services directly.
Once people can be paid in cryptocurrency, there will be more pressure on the companies from employees who don’t want to deal with fiat currency.
Conclusion
Bitcoin may be legal in the U.S., but companies are still free to pay their employees in cryptocurrency if they want to.
There is a lot of discussion about whether or not employers should pay their employees in crypto, but it seems that most of them prefer to use payroll service providers that use fiat currency instead.
This is a good thing for employers because it will make it easier for them to hire workers. Once Bitcoin continues to grow in value, there may come a time when businesses will have no choice but to accept cryptocurrencies as payment themselves.