Bitcoin Forum

Hi all,

I have a quick question: I want to grow the bitcoin economy by selling some goods in a webshop. Unfortunately:

1) I'm a noob
2) Confirming I am a noob: I have a hosting account on godaddy

I want to start the store from scratch.. What are my best moves? Godaddy has one-click-install for: ZenCart, osCommerce, PinnacleCart and shopsite.

Assume I cannot run bitcoind at home (which is why I chose a hosting provider in the first place). I'm not worried about using eWallets if necessary, I would regularly empty it and never keep too mutch on it.


Should I start from another hosting provider or is there ANY way I can run a bitcoin based eCommerce site with the current setup?

Any ideas are greatly appreciated!! I am aware there are many merchant solutions but I don't have the energy to install / subscribe / try them all.. I hope someone in a similar situation can simply give a working setup (not necessarily the best one)

I don't know much about ecommerce CMS but i've seen this http://www.nostate.com/3971/bitcoin-for-wp-e-commerce-shopping-cart-for-wordpress/ for WordPress that it's easy to install and use.

Thanks!! Would you say wordpress + eCommerce shopping cart is a viable solution to a fully dedicated eCommerce solution such as ZenCart?

If yes then this is a great solution! Isn't the whole wordpress part unnecessary bloat? Just wondering..

ZenCart? Look https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Zen_Cart_Bitcoin_Payment_Module

all of these require bitcoind running on the server, which you can't do with godaddy (or any) shared hosting, you need a dedicated server or vps.  You could run bitcoind remotely, like from your house broadband or something, but that's probably not a great idea.

Have a look at https://bit-pay.com (https://bit-pay.com).  We have a basic shopping cart feature that doesn't require any programming or hosting of bitcoin.  We also have a payment API that makes it easy to integrate with shopping carts (and ZenCart is one of the ones on our list to do).

That seems like a good solution. I applied for an account and already got accepted. I will work on the shop and as soon as there is ZenCart integration I will make it available to the masses!

You may want to try https://bitcoinnotify.com

It does not require installing anything on your server.

Accepting Bitcoins is as simple as handling HTTP request (the payment notification).

What's important, Bitcoins go directly to your wallet, which you can keep safely offline. This is in contrast to other solutions like MyBitcoin, BitWillet or BitPay.

BitcoinNotify never receives, stores, or sends any coins - and it is still able to notify you about payments to your Bitcoin addresses.

SMS, e-mail and Jabber notifications are also supported.

I am sure that is a brilliant solution but the "simplicity" of handling an HTTP request is above me. I would not know where and how to start implementing this in ZenCart... While I am sure most people are able to do that I am looking for something not requiring to code (e.g. Existing payment modules which can be plugged in).

I know, maybe I am expecting too much but the simple fact that bit-pay is well integrated in existing eCommerce solutions is what I was looking for. Thanks for the suggestion though, I guess many will follow the advice

Thank you! I really like this idea, I believe this will expand bitcoin adoption.
I hope to use your service one day.