Bitcoin for Translators - Why Not?

Samuel Murray wrote:


I have no experience in this, but I'm beginning to warm up to the idea. It's a potentially simple way of receiving money -- no more complicated than using PayPal. (Where it gets complicated is that you need to choose which crypto exchange to use, as there are hundreds to choose from.)

You start by choosing a well-known currency such as Ethereum. You create an Ethereum account at a crypto exchange such as Coinbase. You log into this account with a username and password. Then copy your crypto address (a.k.a. public address, receiving address) and paste it in your invoice, in the section where you list your accepted payment methods. You do not invoice in the cryptocurrency itself -- you invoice in a fiat currency like EUR or USD. The client sees the crypto address on your invoice, then copy/pastes it into his own exchange account, specifies the EUR amount, and hits "send". Minutes or hours later the Ethereum appears in your Coinbase account. Then it's a two-step process to withdraw it: first, you convert the cryptocash to EUR (at Coinbase itself), and then you withdraw the EUR from Coinbase to your bank account.

Where it gets annoying is when a client insists in paying you in a different cryptocurrency, then you need to create a separate account at the crypto exchange for that currency and then send the crypto address to the client.

The important thing is that you do not leave the cryptocash in your crypto exchange account -- you withdraw it to your bank account immediately. Otherwise, if the crypto exchange gets hacked, or if you fall for a phishing scam, or if the crypto exchange flags your account as suspicious, you may lose your money. If you want to keep the crypto currency as crypto currency, then you may wish to transfer it from the crypto exchange to a separate wallet for safekeeping... but that is where things get very complicated.

AFAIK, the person who initiates a transaction pays the transaction fee. This means that if you invoice EUR 1000 then you should receive EUR 1000's worth of cryptocash. But you'll pay a transaction fee when you convert the cryptocash to EUR (since you're the one initiating the transaction), and you may pay a transaction fee when you withdraw the EUR to your bank account. It can take seconds or minutes or hours or even days for the cryptocash to be transferred to you.

[Edited at 2025-04-29 11:36 GMT]

Yasutomo Kanazawa wrote:
And I wouldn't know how many accounts I have to open in order to get paid in different cryptocurrencies.

Samuel Murray wrote:


So, I have two bank accounts in two different countries, plus PayPal, plus Payoneer, plus Wise, plus Skrill... and I've also been paid via Western Union... so I'm already used to using multiple vehicles for getting my money. In the end, most of this money ends up being transferred to my main bank account anyway, so for the most part these services are simply intermediaries (the one exception is PayPal, as I also use PayPal for buying stuff).

Inside PayPal I have 4 different balances (for four different currencies), so that's a little bit like having crypto accounts for 4 different currencies at Coinbase... except that I don't need to use a separate email address for each of the 4 currencies in PayPal, but I would have to use 4 different crypto keys for the 4 different currencies at Coinbase. One advantage of Coinbase over PayPal is that with PayPal the client needs to have his own PayPal account in order to make the payment, whereas I can get paid via Coinbase even if the client doesn't have a Coinbase account.

One disadvantage of using intermediary vehicles is that I sometimes forget to check them, and then when I do, I discover payments from clients that had otherwise slipped my mind. (-: Another disadvantage is that I can't see the original transaction details on my main bank account's bank statement. In PayPal, I can see exactly who paid, but when I transfer that money to my bank account, all I see is that it is a "transfer from PayPal", so my bookkeeper has to
be given copies of statements from all of these services in order to see which payment fits which invoice.

Yasutomo Kanazawa wrote:
As to bank transfer, this may be different from your situation, but...