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Kraken Co-Founder Explains ‘Why Merchants Should Immediately Accept Bitcoin’

source-logo  cryptoglobe.com 20 October 2022 08:44, UTC

On Thursday (October 20), Jesse Powell, Co-Founder and CEO of crypto exchange Kraken, talked about the #1 reason why merchants should start accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment as soon as possible.

Earlier today, Powell took to Twitter to explain how an online merchant he was buying 200 items from lost out on the order because when Powell tried to use his card, the transaction got declined:

#1 reason merchants should immediately accept #bitcoin is to start clearing xmas whale orders they'd normally reject because of chargeback risk.

No, I'm not going to manually recreate my $30,000 cart of 200 items so you can see if the card goes through the second time. I'm out. pic.twitter.com/DehcrmgAay

— Jesse Powell (@jespow) October 20, 2022

He then explained how merchants could handle refunds for orders paid for using Bitcoin:

Send back fiat-equivalent amount of BTC at the time refund is approved. Merchant should immediately convert or hedge upon receipt of payment. Half-step could be for merchants to accept fiat-reserve coins (as long as it remains difficult to chargeback those transactions).

— Jesse Powell (@jespow) October 20, 2022

It probably depends on the merchant and timing of the refund request. I guess most will not want to take the volatility risk and give the user a free option forever. As a customer, I would take USD-equiv payment of BTC back. Risk trade I make for a superior payment method.

— Jesse Powell (@jespow) October 20, 2022

According to a press release issued by Kraken on 21 September 2022, Dave Ripley, who has been the COO for the past six years, will become the CEO once Kraken has completed its COO search.

Powell said:

Dave’s proven leadership and experience give me great confidence that he’s the ideal successor and the best person to lead Kraken through its next era of growth. I look forward to spending more of my time on the company’s products, user experience and broader industry advocacy.

Ripley stated:

United by our crypto-first culture, we will empower people to transact and connect in new ways. My vision, along with the rest of the leadership team, is in lockstep with Jesse’s – to accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrency.

On the same day, during an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Emily Chang, Powell said that he was stepping up rather than stepping down to take “a higher level role at the chairman level” and “have ultimate oversight over the whole company”, leaving Ripley to “do all the hard work” for him.

He also mentioned that he hoped making this change would allow him to become more deeply involved with their products/services and “user experiences”.

When asked about JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon calling cryptocurrencies “decentralized Ponzi schemes” while testifying on 20 September 2022 before the Democrat-led House Financial Services Committee. Powell made Chang laugh by saying that that crypto is “better than the centralized Ponzi scheme, which is the stock market and national currencies.”

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