Bitcoin Forum

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/10/business/will-bitcoin-replace-paypal/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

"(CNN) -- When Bitcoin's architect first unleashed the idea of creating a decentralized virtual currency on the internet, the tech-savvy elite sat up and listened.

That was in 2008. Just a year later, operating under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, the unknown developer took the concept live. By year-end, over 1.6 million bitcoins had been mined.

Since then, the meteoric rise of the digital currency has continued to capture the world's attention as financial institutions now examine its viability.

At a time when many have lost faith in the global financial system, Bitcoin is being hailed as the future of e-commerce.

"It's lower cost, lower risk and a more accessible form of payment from anything else we have today, especially for shopping online," says Tony Gallippi, founder of BitPay, a Bitcoin payment processing service.

"Credit cards were designed in the 1950s and were never designed for the Internet. It leads to issues like identity theft and payment fraud."

Gallippi -- who recently testified before a U.S. Senate committee on the growth of Bitcoin -- explains that the virtual peer-to-peer currency was created to be "borderless by design," thus opening the door to the international marketplace for smaller merchants.

The anonymity of the currency is also a plus for Bitcoin users as no verified personal data is required for making online transactions. This has led many to speculate that Bitcoin will be mainly used for illegal online transactions.

"For small businesses that have unique items, it really opens up their business to a truly worldwide customer base ... It's going to become the default payment system for the internet by the end of this decade," adds Gallippi.

While Bitcoin's electronic nature makes it appealing for e-commerce, Gallippi acknowledges that there are still some kinks in the system that need to be ironed out.

"Tax implications and potential regulation are some obstacles we face ... the other issue is that perhaps [Bitcoin] is not quite ready for mainstream consumers just yet.

"I think we've got quite a bit more work to do on the engineering side ... But I would expect Bitcoin will soon become the preferred method of payment for connecting businesses over the Internet," predicts Gallippi.
"It's going to become the default payment system for the internet by the end of this decade.
Tony Gallippi, founder of BitPay

The implications for e-commerce from the Bitcoin experiment continue to intrigue economists and financial analysts as some believe the crypto-currency could revolutionize the global marketplace.

Bitcoin to replace traditional banking?

"For more conventional businesses, I think the advantages are really in international commerce," says Tom Elliott, director for the Emerging Markets Communications Strategies service at Strategic Analysts.

"You have significantly reduced transaction costs compared to converting one international currency to another international currency -- it's typically cheaper."

Meanwhile, Jon Rushman, an economist and professor at Warwick Business School says: "The brilliance behind the technical design of Bitcoin is the fact that the mechanism for payment is a distributed network. No one owns it. It doesn't run in a data center owned by PayPal or Mastercard or Visa."

The added bonus? No middlemen taking a cut from the transaction, he says.

Rushman explains the currency's recent surge is largely responsible for grabbing the financial world's attention.
With bitcoin now reaching prices equivalent to an ounce of gold, more investors are turning toward the digital currency for a return on investment.

In January 2013, one Bitcoin was worth around $13, surging in November to a staggering all-time high of $1,242 -- almost the same price as an ounce of gold. But since then, its value has dropped again to around $925, according to Mt.Gox exchange rates.

And, according to Rushman, Bitcoin's erratic fluctuation is exactly what deters some businesses from adopting the currency: "You wouldn't want to reprice every article in your shop everyday, which is why we like standard exchange rates."

"[If] you're a retailer and you carry £100 ($164) in your till overnight, normally you're not really worried about the fact that it's going to still be £100 in the morning.
"Traders don't want volatility in the currency that they are taking in.
Jeremy Cook, Chief Economist at World First

"It could indeed become the system of payment [online], but it has to get over this hurdle of volatility. You have to bridge that gap between what we trust today and the type of thing we might trust tomorrow."

But while some tout Bitcoin as the future of online shopping, others are describing it as the latest monetary fad.

Jeremy Cook, chief economist at UK-based foreign exchange firm, World First, says Bitcoin is a mere internet affectation."

Bitcoin is so much better than PayPal imo. You can do transactions with anyone without worrying about chargebacks or fraudulent transactions conducted with hacked accounts. Plus you don't have to worry about banks locking your account or e-wallets holding your funds hostage until you provide identification which satisfies them. And no currency exchange fees...

Go Bitcoin!

We all know that bitcoin is still in infancy but its popularity really does continue to grow.

The bitcoin system is vastly superior to paypal.

Their main concern is volatility. This means we have to wait for some giants to make a move. If more people and companies join the party BTC will boom and then stabilize.

I really hope so... I hate paypal so much ever since they robbed me of an ipad. Assholes.

Hmmm.... It seems that Payapal bosses are out there on a PR-enhancement exercise. Check this (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57615080-93/paypal-president-david-marcus-bitcoin-is-good-nfc-is-bad).

BTW... how did you lost that ipad?

I sold my ipad to a guy who asked for a chargeback after a month and paypal just snatched the money from the account. Supposidly they said that the credit card was a stolen credit card and they never fought for my case and never got my money back. :(

No, Bitcoin will not replace Paypal. However, Ripple will.

I'd originally thought that Bitcoin would become a useful alternative to Paypal and remittance services. But it's not happening. Bitcoin prices are too volatile and the exchanges are too flaky.

May be in a year or so, the prices will stabilize. And exchanges such as BTC-E and Mt Gox will also become more reliable. And for remittances, Bitcoin is already popular in some of the smaller nations such as Kenya.

I would love to see PayPal replaced by Bitcoins,
but Bitcoin need to sort a few things out before it can replace PayPal
on auction and trading sites

I believe Bitcoin's price volatility is discouraging people to spend Bitcoins
and shop owners aren't very keen on pricing items in Bitcoins
cos they might have to change bitcoin prices every day

Transaction fee is a small problem when the items being traded is cheap
(I believe bitcoin devs are working on this??)

Since there is no chargeback, Bitcoin escrow service seems quite necessary
and there is no elegant solution to this...
(PayPal can't solve this one either)

remember when you were a toddler and you began to walk.. you began thinking the world is at your feet and you can do anything..

.. and then you fell down and began cryng thinking your whole world has ended.
this is bitcoin 2013

now rush forward a few years your now a teenager looking back at family videos (chat/forum history) and laughing at the silly things you said as a toddler. you start forming relationships with inexpereinced and flaky counterparts which parents(authorities) wouldnt approve of. and then you would breaking up. With each break up you think again, your world has ended and no one wants you. this is bitcoin 2014

now rush forward a few years, you are now with someone dependable, smart, experienced and you start to settle down, realising that you have many years of happiness ahead of you.

this is what we have to look forward too.

bitcoin is still young, so grow up and stop crying kids

Nuh huh.

Many people will say yes here, afterall this site IS a bitcoin forum ---___--- I say no.

I hear people saying ripple/quark will become the new bitcoin, but tell me, what makes ripple (or quark) better than bitcoin?

Remember, bitcoin is used by over a million people already and is becoming more and more accepted by merchants, and even though it's still small, out of all cryptos it has by far the most support. To overtake bitcoin you'd need very, very significant improvements, so far I have seen none.

Litecoin is just a joke so don't even get started on that.

ripple is not a stand alone peer-2-peer client. it involves logging into their website.

if an authority takes down ripple website.. no one can use it.

so ripple, although it allows connections to other users easier, its all done within one server. and in the past year i and many others have found our balances zero'd because those ripple guys mess around with the user database.

yes i and many others kept our secret key that gives us special acess, but that does not retrieve a deleted database balance. ripple will not succeed against bitcoin.

it will possibly work ontop of bitcoin as a service. much like how bitinstant use to accept MTGOX codes and convert them into BTC-E codes. but that is it. a service. much like visa is a service onto of the banking system.

bitcoin offers more then what ripple can offer. it offers more then paypal can offer. bitcoin is more like a banking system, with extra features.

Same here, i sold a samsung galaxy and the guy after a month decided to claim a chargeback, paypal always take the side of the buyer, which is fine in theory, protecting the buyer, but what about sellers who are scammed by unscrupulous buyers, paypals logic is flawed.

The sooner they are replaced by bitcoin the better!.

The current transaction fees for Bitcoin (0.0001 BTC or 0.1 USD) is much less than Paypal, I believe. So even for small amounts, BTC is good as a medium of payment.

The fee is supped to be a sub cent amount. but with bitcoin gaining value and at times losing value its hard for the devs to know exactly when to adjust the fee in the client. Thats why it was made adjustable awhile ago as a stop gap measure untill the client could be updated in such a way as to let the value float on its own. id prefer to see a more front and center setting for it myself regardless though.

ripple a coin for the NWO

Hmm... the fee was reduced only a few months ago. The developers have proved on many occasions that they are not as greedy as Paypal or the bankers. I have a feeling that another fee-cut is coming soon.

If people had any sense BTC/cryptos should destroy Paypal.


https://i.imgur.com/mvFZXrX.jpg

If Bitcoin price became stable and an e-commerce giant like Amazon added it as a payment option then 100% yes.
Once a giant online retailer ads it thousands more will follow

This is exactly what needs to happen. If a big retailer does start accepting it it'll most likely push the value through the roof and more and more retailers will indeed follow.

+1 to this.
And this is going to happen all at once from some company who feels that they need to get in front of this. E.g Western Union wanting to shake off their dusty image and grab the 21st century, or PayPal trying to 'embrace and extend'.
My Dad used to work for Pitney Bowes selling postage machines and mailing equipment. They eventually saw the future and now they provide the software to buying and printing postage for the eBay/paypal ecosystem. The same type of thing has to happen with bitcoin.
And we get there by just doing what we're doing: using it, trading it, advocating for it.

And with bitcoin there will be the buyers who scream that they have been scammed by the sellers.
Nothing will change.

Just use a reputable escrow. People will always be scammed and there will always be scammers; its just about minimising risk.

So can't this be done with the current system already? Use an escrow and you're also safe!
Bitcoin improvements in this area 0. It's just shifting the risk.

The advantage of bitcoin is fee and getting rid of the middle man.
But that will bring some disadvantages as well :).
Nothing is perfect.

You're suggesting using an escrow with paypal payments?

Already happening , a long time ago:
https://www.escrow.com/support/faqs/faq-questions/how-does-paypal-work-with-escrowcom.aspx?prevTopic=Payment

Yeah, except you'll need to keep the coins in escrow for up to 180 days or something to avoid paypal chargebacks and creditcard reversals etc, so unless you're willing to do that it's impractical.

Cool sounds like a plan to me.  I don't despise Paypal but I'm a way bigger fan of Bitcoin simple as that.

3.25% to 6.3% fee. Max US$ 5,000 transaction size and both parties must be in U.S.