Bitcoin Forum

Other => Beginners & Help => Topic started by: meta1203 on January 02, 2013, 10:06:12 PM



Title: Looking to accept USD and transfer to Bitcoin
Post by: meta1203 on January 02, 2013, 10:06:12 PM
Hello everyone!
I have been looking for a way to seamlessly accept USD and Bitcoin, but have all USD values exchanged for Bitcoin before it is given to me. Basically what I am trying to say is: Is there a merchant service out there that accepts USD and Bitcoin, and gives me Bitcoin as the final currency? I have looked, but so far I can only find services that return USD, NOT Bitcoin. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
~meta1203


Title: Re: Looking to accept USD and transfer to Bitcoin
Post by: Stephen Gornick on January 02, 2013, 10:42:51 PM
Hello everyone!
I have been looking for a way to seamlessly accept USD and Bitcoin, but have all USD values exchanged for Bitcoin before it is given to me. Basically what I am trying to say is: Is there a merchant service out there that accepts USD and Bitcoin, and gives me Bitcoin as the final currency? I have looked, but so far I can only find services that return USD, NOT Bitcoin. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
~meta1203

Are you asking about something that allows you to accept credit card payments but then get paid in bitcoins? 

That has been something requested but there are no processors that provide this.  The best you can do is use a bank account in the middle, so the merchant processor delivers the funds by ACH to your bank account, then you pull those to an exchange (using Dwolla, for example).

Or just accept Dwolla itself and then send the funds to an exchange:
 - http://help.dwolla.com/customer/portal/articles/259273-dwolla-for-merchants---full-guide

For physical cash (currency) payments, ZipZap might be the closest maybe:
 - https://cashpayment.com

It uses MoneyGram.  That's what BitInstant built their business around.



Title: Re: Looking to accept USD and transfer to Bitcoin
Post by: mccorvic on January 02, 2013, 10:47:23 PM
You're right, all processors I know of do BTC -> USD and not the other way around.  I hope someone can step up and do this!


Title: Re: Looking to accept USD and transfer to Bitcoin
Post by: Darkneo on January 02, 2013, 11:00:23 PM
Its an interesting concept, the biggest thing I can think of would be the conversion process and what possible regulations there are for accepting USD for bitcoins.


Title: Re: Looking to accept USD and transfer to Bitcoin
Post by: Stephen Gornick on January 03, 2013, 02:40:54 AM
the biggest thing I can think of would be the conversion process and what possible regulations there are for accepting USD for bitcoins.

I can't see any legal reason a payment processor couldn't pay out in bitcoins.  If there is the same AML/KYC followed as when paying out with a bank payment, then there shouldn't be any reason bitcoins couldn't be paid out instead.

More likely what would happen is that the merchants attracted to this might be the ones who have a higher risk of seeing chargebacks.  It may seem that there would be little difference between a merchant processor paying out for the charges via an ACH and then the merchant immediately sweeping those funds to a bitcoin exchange versus the merchant processor directly paying out for the charges in bitcoin.  Probably a difference is that when simply tossing the proceeds over to the the bank account there is less responsibility for the merchant processor (e.g., doesn't need to register as a money transmitter maybe?)

For the same reason, that's probably why there are no methods to receive other digital currency methods like Liberty Reserve either.

One other possibility is using LiqPay as a credit card merchant processor.  VirWoX and BTC-E, for instance, both use it in exchange for hard money. 

And, from another thread:

There are cash payment methods that might be a good middle ground.  UKash vouchers and CashU cards are sold in much of the world.  Thus if you have a CashU account, you can receive funds from other CashU users who have funded their accounts using cash (Ukash, CashU card, etc.) just like PayPal's person-to-person payments works.

You can then use those CashU funds to purchase bitcoins if you want (or withdraw to your bank.)

 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/UKash
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Payment_methods
 - https://bitcoinnordic.com/cashu/index.php

Also LiqPay is another method and they do accept credit card.   LiqPay then apparently can be used with OKPay, and then used for purchase of bitcoins.