# Do you support bitcoins for payments?



## netnub (May 31, 2013)

How many providers accept bitcoins as payments and why?


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## EarthVPN (May 31, 2013)

We are planning to add support for bitcoin payments, however we could not find a reliable bitcoin merchant gateway yet that supports withdrawing to offshore countries.


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## nunim (May 31, 2013)

Assuming the btc protocol doesn't have another gaping exploit, if the first world countries kill all their exchanges it will lose a lot of its inflated value... Cause what good is digits you can't readily turn into actual money...


Next week on fox news: bit coin is for terrorists...


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## Chronic (May 31, 2013)

nunim said:


> Assuming the btc protocol doesn't have *another *gaping exploit,


Do elaborate, please.


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## nunim (May 31, 2013)

Chronic said:


> Do elaborate, please


https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Incidents#CVE-2010-5139
http://www.vice.com/read/this-is-how-bitcoin-could-die <-- Another recommend read


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## netnub (May 31, 2013)

nunim said:


> https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Incidents#CVE-2010-5139
> 
> http://www.vice.com/read/this-is-how-bitcoin-could-die <-- Another recommend read


Interesting read. I know a big exploit in it right now which could crash BTC to $1/1btc, but I haven't showed anyone it, I don't plan on it.


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## MCH-Phil (May 31, 2013)

No and there are many GREAT reasons not to.  Not only the issues posted already in this thread.  But what happens if the market just crashes?  It has in the past and will therefore happen in the future also.  Not to mention the issue with 51% hash rate would cause.

If I was going to accept bitcoins I should just be giving my services away for free.


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## KuJoe (May 31, 2013)

We allow clients to pay with Bit coins but we do not accept them. USD only.


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## Chronic (Jun 1, 2013)

MCH-Phil said:


> Not to mention the issue with 51% hash rate would cause.





> The incentive may help encourage nodes to stay honest. If a greedy attacker is able to assemble more CPU power than all the honest nodes, he would have to choose between using it to defraud people by stealing back his payments, or using it to generate new coins. He ought to find it more profitable to play by the rules, such rules that favour him with more new coins than everyone else combined, than to undermine the system and the validity of his own wealth.


http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf (section 6, last paragraph)


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## MCH-Phil (Jun 1, 2013)

Chronic said:


> http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf (section 6, last paragraph)



And?  Not everyone plays by the rules....  Just because they hope it doesn't happen, won't stop it from happening.  And when it happens the market will fall.  Just like it has every other month when someone hacks an exchange.   I am very familiar with bitcoins and have been following their progression since the beginning.


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## SPINIKR-RO (Jun 1, 2013)

We accept them and love it. BitPay is fantastic, no issues yet.


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## Abdussamad (Jun 15, 2013)

KuJoe said:


> We allow clients to pay with Bit coins but we do not accept them. USD only.


Huh what????


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## KuJoe (Jun 15, 2013)

Abdussamad said:


> Huh what????


Clients can pay with bitcoins, but all bitcoins are converted to USD and then given to us. We only accept USD.


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## concerto49 (Jun 15, 2013)

Considered it, but with all the issues recently with exchanges etc, have put a pause on it for now. Will keep watch and see how it goes.


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## SPINIKR-RO (Jun 15, 2013)

BitPay is a little different than say LR.

There is active markets that determine the price of 1 coin. On checkout they know the price and their buffer they have set. In this scenario a exact value can be determined.

LR was pretty much a wold wild west


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## Abdussamad (Jun 15, 2013)

KuJoe said:


> Clients can pay with bitcoins, but all bitcoins are converted to USD and then given to us. We only accept USD.


That's how everybody does it. No real world business is going to hold bitcoins when they have expenses that need to be met in fiat.


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## KuJoe (Jun 15, 2013)

Abdussamad said:


> That's how everybody does it. No real world business is going to hold bitcoins when they have expenses that need to be met in fiat.


Then why did you ask if you already know that?


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## Abdussamad (Jun 16, 2013)

KuJoe said:


> Then why did you ask if you already know that?


Because I didn't understand what you meant by "we allow our customers to pay via bitcoin but we do not accept that". I think it would have been clearer if you just said that you accept bitcoin but price your products in USD.


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## Abdussamad (Jun 16, 2013)

Don't get me wrong. I am glad that more and more providers are accepting bitcoin. I have a few coins myself and I might use them to buy a VPS in future so the more choices I have the better  .

I am curious though. Do you get many orders paying with bitcoin?


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## KuJoe (Jun 16, 2013)

I think we've had less than 10 successful orders with bitcoins. We find that the vast majority of orders that select bitcoin as the payment method get marked as fraud by Maxmind. Then again, just because they select a payment method on order doesn't mean much since we have a lot of people select Paypal and then pay with Google Wallet and vise-versa.

I've considered offering specials just for bitcoin users because the fees are so much lower than any other payment processor. I wish WHMCS had an easy way to offer discounts based on payment methods but I might just have to make special plans for it.


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## drmike (Jun 16, 2013)

SPINIKR-RO said:


> BitPay


 

BitPay, isn't that being funded by former PayPal rich man Peter Thiel?


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## Abdussamad (Jun 16, 2013)

KuJoe said:


> I think we've had less than 10 successful orders with bitcoins. We find that the vast majority of orders that select bitcoin as the payment method get marked as fraud by Maxmind. Then again, just because they select a payment method on order doesn't mean much since we have a lot of people select Paypal and then pay with Google Wallet and vise-versa.
> 
> I've considered offering specials just for bitcoin users because the fees are so much lower than any other payment processor. I wish WHMCS had an easy way to offer discounts based on payment methods but I might just have to make special plans for it.


Ok good info   There is a thread about this very same topic on WHT and the providers there have had no orders paying with bitcoin yet. Anyway bitcoin is still in its infancy. In time it will become easier for consumers to buy bitcoins and then there will be more orders.


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## SPINIKR-RO (Jun 16, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> BitPay, isn't that being funded by former PayPal rich man Peter Thiel?


I dunno, I think I recall them getting some funding and from what I understand they have been hiring.

The service pretty much just works, no maintenance or accounting, just gets converted and swept into the bank


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## fusa (Jun 17, 2013)

We also use bitcoins with BitPay as payment gateway. Easy to setup, easy to work with and low fees.

But you still need to verify users after signup to avoid abuse. We even have company's that pay us with bitcoins, I don't know how they do this (legally).


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## fusa (Jun 17, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> BitPay, isn't that being funded by former PayPal rich man Peter Thiel?


No need to worry, refunds/claims are not possible with BitCoins


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## FHN-Eric (Jun 17, 2013)

Same here, we use bitpay for bitcoin payments. Now we just need a way to accept litecoin.


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## XFS_Duke (Jun 17, 2013)

We were thinking about it... Have a BitPay account setup, just not sure if the market is there yet to put it up... I guess it wouldn't hurt...


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## Chronic (Jun 19, 2013)

Anyone interested in accepting Bitcoin payments should look into Coinbase. I don't have personal experiences with them, but I heard from multiple sources that the service is great.

Hopefully more providers will realise it is worth accepting Bitcoin payments due to the lack of chargebacks and low fees - I'd love to pay for my VPS with them.


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## EarthVPN (Jun 19, 2013)

Is there a bitcoin merchant gateway for transferring bitcoin funds to offshore bank accounts or to a paypal account ?


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## Chronic (Jun 19, 2013)

EarthVPN said:


> Is there a bitcoin merchant gateway for transferring bitcoin funds to offshore bank accounts or to a paypal account ?


I think BitPay allows that.



> *In which countries is BitPay available?*
> 
> BitPay is available in every country, and you can set your prices in over 30 different currencies.


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## EarthVPN (Jun 19, 2013)

Chronic said:


> I think BitPay allows that.


Unfortunately their last response on 28 may was:



> We can't deposit into ***** banks right now. We are always working on supporting more countries, but it's a lot of work and it takes a lot of time. In the meantime, you can always use bitcoins without USD.


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## SPINIKR-RO (Jun 19, 2013)

The logistics of accepting banks from every country is alot, most will not facilitate ach type sweeps.


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## Abdussamad (Jun 20, 2013)

SPINIKR-RO said:


> The logistics of accepting banks from every country is alot, most will not facilitate ach type sweeps.


ACH is US only. International bank transfers are via the SWIFT system. You can send a SWIFT wire transfer to any country on the planet so the money transfer is not the problem. I bet they have difficulty complying with government regulations in the US.


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## kaniini (Jun 20, 2013)

We successfully accept bitcoins.

Fraud (at least in the sense of 'being chargebacked') is not possible with Bitcoin, so I am not sure Maxmind-screening them is really necessary.


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## kaniini (Jun 20, 2013)

fusa said:


> We also use bitcoins with BitPay as payment gateway. Easy to setup, easy to work with and low fees.
> 
> But you still need to verify users after signup to avoid abuse. We even have company's that pay us with bitcoins, I don't know how they do this (legally).


Honestly I think there is not much incentive to abuse services bought with Bitcoin.  As there is no way to regain the bitcoins after the service is terminated, most people want to get their money's worth from it.

At least, I haven't seen any elevated abuse complaints with it.


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## fusa (Jun 20, 2013)

kaniini said:


> At least, I haven't seen any elevated abuse complaints with it.


Some users want a cheap server for spamming and then they use bitcoins with a fake identity.


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