Bitcoin Forum

http://imgur.com/oh50A.jpg

Is it rally time?

Yes.

yes^2

Next part of the conversation:
"Sumar Jit :I Am really sorry I have not yet been informed but it is told that it will be implemented very soon."

Forgot to screenie.

great!

useful information!

the value of bitcoin will explode! ;D

I think it is more likely that Mr Jit there didn't know what you were talking about, and just gave you a standard "finish the discussion with client happy" answer.

+1

I would still be cautious shorting during business hours in case the make an announcement.

Others should have this same conversation.  If they get asked enough they will eventually be given an official position to read.

Definitely.  I'm sure this is just a canned response.  I'll believe it when I see it.

+1

lol ;D

this can't be real..  :o

I'm very skeptical as well. Amazon accepting Bitcoin would be huge, so huge it would steamroll the whole Bitcoin economy. Amazon must know that, if they know about Bitcoin. It's too soon.

Now:
Anyway, you can try by yourself ;)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us/general-questions.html?ie=UTF8&skip=true

It would be great news! Until then, it seems you can already buy on amazon with this: http://spendbitcoins.com/

Has anyone tried that?

 ;D

Yep, just did yesterday. Works perfectly, I got my code in 10 minutes (though dont count on that, Jeremy was posting here while I made the order). No markup for the bitcoins over mtgox prices, no fees,  I was impressed.

As for amazon accepting bitcoins; no offense, but I doubt that Indian support guy had a clue. Next time someone wants to try, ask if they plan to support solidcoin or something, and dont be surprised to get the same response ;).

I asked. They guy i talked to did not know but would forward my request.

Maybe somebody at Amazon is thinking this:

1.  Buy bitcoins
2.  Announce that Amazon will soon accept bitcoins
3.  ???
4.  Profit

Coinabul, edit the first post with a challenge to people to "see for yourselves" and a link so people can chat it up too ;)

Mass inquiries is just as good as mass promotion I would think.    Dear lord if there is any indication that Amazon would legitimately start accepting Bitcoins, it's time to sell the car!   And wait three days for that cash to make it to an exchange  :D

My conversation. I guess EhVedadoOAnonimato (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=58896.msg694565#msg694565) was right.

Still if 100 people had the same conversation as I had, they will at least look into this I guess.

It's not too soon for bitcoin, but Amazon may or may not be cautiously considering such a move.  Bitcoin is ready for such events, but the inclusion by Amazon or any other major player is going to introduce some major price movements again; because it won't just be one.  If Amazon does it, there are many others who will do it also in short order.

And then we'll all be millionaire equivalents.

IMHO it is too soon for Bitcoin.  It is unlikely Amazon shareholders would be happy with "currency risk" associated w/ Bitcoin so any integration would likely be a bitpay like internal system. 

The problem is the market doesn't have sufficient depth to handle even a tiny fraction of Amazon volume.  If Amazon needs to liquidate 10K BTC per day the market couldn't handle it. 

Someday it could.  Someday we will reach a point where 10K buy or sell doesn't even move the bid/ask but we aren't there yet. 

Dollars to doughnuts that Amazon already has a crack staff that would be able to think of a way to ensure that Bitcoin's "flaws" would not effect their internal system that they create to accept and track Bitcoin.   Bitcoin's next stages of evolution may no longer take place on forums, on the Stackexchange, in mom's basement's worldwide, but behind a corporate entity that has the knowledge on what Bitcoin needs to be put into a real world situation.

I also wouldn't be surprised if some forum members and other notable Bitcoin developers start getting offers from said entities to give themselves a boost.    "Bit Pay, now sponsored by PayPal"  ;)

But for Amazon to reach the point where they need to liquidate 10K BTC per day the economy would have to grow significantly from what it is right now in the first place meaning that they *would* probably be able to liquidate 10K BTC per day because there would be that much demand to purchase BTC.

I sometimes wish Satoshi had set the limit to something like 21K instead of 21M -  that way 'bitcoinaire' might one day have simultaneously referred to someone holding an entire bitcoin or more and as being of great wealth.
I'm not *quite* bullish enough to hope that this century, under a 21M limit,  'bitcoinaire' could be a 'millionaire equivalent' in todays dollars ;)

I chatted as well, and got this...

<snip>
You are now connected to Edmond from Amazon.com.
Me:Bitcoin as a payment method?
I was wondering if Amazon had any plans to accept bitcoin as a payment method, and if so, when I can expect it?
Edmond:Hello , my name is Edmond. I'm sorry about this. I'll be glad to check that out for you.
Me:Why would you be sorry? What did you do?
Edmond:As I checked as much as I want to give you more information about the Bitcoin as payment. However, as of now there is no further notice feom our management about this but if there will be already a notice form this I'll send you already an email that we can now accept Bitcoin as a payment on Amazon.
Me:okay, thanks.
</snip>

So I'm also of the opinion that there isn't really any official position on bitcoin from Amazon, and near term adoption as a payment method is unlikely.

I don't think so either, but let's keep all these inquiries going :)

Agreed, people had to buy acquire the 10k btc per day in the first place. Volume shouldn't really be a problem.  

+1


+1

It is a good idea.

In my younger days I worked in a tech support call center both as a tech and later as a manager.  (shudder - those were the dark times).

Any good call center runs daily & weekly reports using searching of call notes to spot trends.  Companies want to find out about a big issue or trend before it becomes a big issue or trend.   Can't hurt to have Bitcoin popping up on the "most active new issue" report.  Maybe someone in Amazon does a 5 minute search and is at least aware of it.

Who is sumarjit?

Need coffee! Read it wrong.

Well that isn't completely true.  There is significant held "wealth" which is held because there is no way to liquidate that without causing dislocations in the market.  Amazon (given they sell essentially everything) would provide a "way out".  

Also even if 10K BTC bought = 10K BTC sold the market doesn't have enough depth to handle that kind of volume.  There is lag between the buy -> amazon -> sell cycle and that is going to cause increased intra-day volatility.  

I am just pointing out even IF Bitcoin is on Amazon "to do" list they will be looking for more market depth.  They likely would even test the market by buying 10K coins and selling 10K coins and seeing how the market absorbs that.  A company as smart as Amazon likely go even further and hire an outside analyst to perform market depth research over an extended period of time before exposing themselves to that volatility.

TL/DR greater market depth and liquidity increases the chance of adoption for a major player.  The good news is market depth and liquidity will continue to grow building upon itself as long as Bitcoin maintains momentum.

Wouldn't matter in the least.  Amazon.com could sell bitcoins directly, sponsor a separate trading site, or sponsor any of the current market sites and it would instantly become the biggest player over MtGox.  And Amazon wouldn't need to move 10K per day, because it's more likely that the value of bitcoins increases to the point that a thousand per day represents values in the millions of US dollars.  All the metrics are arbitrary except to one another.

If Walmart.com starts taking bitcoin, and selling in in person at their "money services" counter, they would be bigger than Amazon in this respect in very short order; and the value would shoot for the moon.

See OP

https://i.imgur.com/htP5r.jpg

My guy keeps leaving.  Brb

I am very satisfied with Athul's response :)

https://i.imgur.com/8Dvmr.jpg

Bingo

With paypal or credit card? That would be a laugh!

It wouldn't just be Amazon though, if they got onboard everybody would. You'd have banks begging to work with the exchanges, of which better ones would have sprung up overnight. That right there would solve the majority of the problems.

Going to ask them as well, the more people ask, the bigger chance we have of getting noticed.

True, but it would happen.  At least for a while.  Credit cards are not going to just fade away anytime soon.

I wont stop you from nagging amazon, but I think your time would be better spent nagging to smaller online businesses for whom it would also make more sense. Its not like Amazon is going to increase it sales by accepting bitcoins

I think you missed my point. Chargebacks.

Wouldn't apply in this case.  I'm certain that if Amazon.com sold bitcoins to a Visa customer, Amazon.com would either be able to prove that they sold it to the correct person, or simply didn't engage in the transaction.  Said another way, Amazon.com has the ability to verify that their customers are who they say that they are at the time that they order anything.

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/8813/amazonhs.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/718/amazonhs.png/)

They are probably trained to tell anyone who asks about anything that they might be added soon, and then forward the idea on whether or not it may actually be added.

I like the offer of emailing the people who have Bitcoin interest.  I believe that is something they would take note of, as they will want to have a targeted mass marketing email to promote if it were to happen, and the best audience is of course the people who were requesting it.  If you have an Amazon account, ask that they 'note' on your account or whatever it is payment feature request and you would like to be notified when it happens.

That doesnt change the fact that Paypal or Visa would either have to change their policies on currency trading or officially take the stance that bitcoin is not a currency, but a commodity. The implications of that would be significant, as everyone could start accepting credit cards for bitcoins by proving their transaction and identity (using orders that include visa card number signed with their private or something like that).

This is very cool, and the show was much more 'to the point' than I ever expected. But if all the inquiries being done on amazon are linked to this forum and the amazon person in charge of investigating bitcoins starts at the obvious points, i.e. this forum, how does that look? I seriously hope that many people are doing that as a result of watching the show, but if not...

Anyway, if nothing else, there'll be a huge surge of indian people interested in bitcoins, all of them call center employees :)

That's a fair point.

Yes eventually but Amazon would be taking the first mover risk.  Look I am not a Bitcoin bear I just think given current liquidity thinking Amazon would adopt it today is naive.  They aren't interested in exposing themselves or their customers to volatility.  

IMHO the market depth isn't there and Amazon even IF interested won't move until it is.  This is the same reason a major hedge fund won't get involved in Bitcoin.  The market depth doesn't support operations at the level they would be interested in.

Still it isn't doom & gloom.  Market depth is growing and is more than sufficient for players with smaller volume (but higher than current merchants/players).  In time it will be large enough that Amazon can liquidate a day's "take" without causing more than a ripple.

Yeah, the "what if?" game is fun though. 

german amazon call center also do not know about bitcoin payment...

http://

@BitcoinPorn I think mass conversations with their support would work... But Amazon is too big, I think focusing on a target such as thinkgeek would be better. :)

ThinkGeek is a good target.  I needed some C13 to C14 cables and when I bought from monoprice (only place I buy cables) dropped them an email about Bitcoin.

If Bitcoin could land some "medium sized" enterprises in next 12 months I would consider that a big win.

Sure the Amazons, Neweggs, and Steams are sexy but some medium sized enterprises are a more realistic target.

ThinkGeek
Monoprice
Kongregate (flash game site which accept payments)
A large adult services provider
Mini-ITX (a specialty computer parts provider - useful tie in w/ FPGAs)
FrozenCPU (watercooling specialty computer parts provider)
etc

No, but it could make some easy money by investing in BTC.

1) Acquire many BTC (100,000 or more) cheaply (under 10 USD/BTC).
2) Announce that they will be accepting bitcoin.
3) Wait.
4) Sell.


They could easily get 5x their initial investment and it would (IMO) be low risk.

Like others have pointed out, there's really no urgent need for Amazon to sell BTC that they might earn from their products.  At least not initially.  In fact, it would probably be really dumb for them to do so.

My guess is that if Amazon does in fact start accepting bitcoin, that they'll not only accept it, but also provide an exchange, a wallet, and even merchant services that lets others accept it.

Then, how long will it be before they have most of the 8M BTC currently in existence? Not counting the other entities that'll be jockeying for position to get on the Bitcoin band-wagon at the same time.

Can you imagine a high level boardroom meeting where the execs are trying to get their heads wrapped around this Bitcoin acceptance thing?

http://www.public-speaking-pro.biz/images/george_picLG.jpg

"Damnit Jim, Sumarjit promised a customer another payment method."

"Well shoot, what did he promise this time?"

"Bitcoin?"

"What in god's name is that? Oh I don't care, I'm going to go bathe in a tub full of money now."

Where are you from in India? I know India very well.

Darjeeling.

I know Bombay. But I have some friends there!

I feel like I did my part~

It would be difficult for them to get anywhere near the 8 million without pushing the price into the stratosphere.  Sales in bitcoin will be very light to begin with and Amazon has enough cash that they can float it without selling for a while.  If they also opened an exchange, they could even begin paying suppliers (or even employees) in bitcoin.  As for the board room, it's hard to imagine that Bezos would have any difficulty at all grasping the concepts of bitcoin and he certainly is the type of personality that would give seemingly crazy ideas a shot (and really, is bitcoin all that crazy?  it just kind of makes perfect sense to me).

Well, it doesn't look like ThinkGeek is supporting bitcoin anytime soon...

• Kevin D: Hello! How can I help you today?
• Nefanon: Hi Kevin, I was looking at your payment options and I was curious: Does ThinkGeek plan to offer bitcoin payments in the future?
• Kevin D: We have no plans to offer any other forms of payment at this time.
• Nefanon: Aw, that's disappointing, a lot of geeks are getting into bitcoins and I'd love to share ThinkGeek with the bitcoin community as a supported retailer. Has ThinkGeek heard of bitcoins?
• Kevin D: They have been introduced to us before and at this time there are no plans of using them.
• Nefanon: Ok, cool! Well, I just wanted to make a formal request for ThinkGeek to accept them. It's an awesome technology that I think will only grow and become more popular.
• Kevin D: I will forward that feedback for you.

He was very slow to respond though, I wonder if he was busy or asking around.

lol awesome!  which leads me to say should we have  " Tuesday Bitcoin Talk w/ Live chat help" days ?  If we all hit up every major internet "live help" with the question this might just work!

Hi :-)  someone say e-mail ?

Chat support typically handles multiple conversations at the same time. They may have been dealing with a difficult customer.

Yeah I heard they kept asking about this thing called Bitcoin. :)

lolol

Good point. Maybe the respective authors could add some no referrer service to their links in case amazon checks the referrer id on their support form.

http://www.no-referer.de/

inquiry sent.
thanks for the useful link btw, I couldn't find this when I needed it last time. 

Just sent this to them... Great idea D&T!

Great letter!

I like that letter.   I think ThinkGeek is a decent enough target, though I don't like helping Memory Dealers competition ;) , I definitely would try and swing for the fences making sure the message is understood that though Bitcoin has a market that fluctuates, as long as they use an instant service of some kind to exchange Bitcoin for cash on their end immediately, they will never have to care about the Bitcoin market at all, and get all the other benefits.

Regarding Think Geek - what if we did a massive email campaign?  Each of us emails them our own written email (not a canned email like some petitions go), requesting that they accept Bitcoin, and also making a promise to spend at least $X equivalent of Bitcoins on their products if they do start accepting it?

+ 100


Memory Dealers is great, but we don't need monopoly protection.  There is plenty of difference in their product lines anyway.  Cash-out immediately really is they best way to sell bitcoin to medium and large sized businesses, at least in the short term.

Good idea... perhaps start a bounty thread?

Multi-sig transactions will be great for bounties…imagine getting 5 people to participate in organizing a bounty for ThinkGeek to accept bitcoins for purchases.  After 6 months of accepting bitcoin for purchases, the bounty is awarded to ThinkGeek.  The 5 people would each hold a private key and funds would be sent to an address that requires 3 of the 5 signatures to spend (in case one person dies or loses a key…or if there is some debate about whether the bounty was satisfied).

+100

Will Bit-Pay be leveraging multi-sig in any interesting ways, or are you just focusing on getting merchants signed up for now?

Thank you guys for the kind words,  but I don't want or need any kind of special help.
The more electronics businesses that accept Bitcoin,  the better.

I personally know memoryx.net (http://memoryx.net)'s owner is interested in Bitcoins.
MemoryX is a much bigger company than MemoryDealers, and they carry a product line that the general public will be much more interested in.
If they have something that you actually want to buy,  feel free to contact them and let them know that you would like to buy it with Bitcoin.

Why a bounty thread?  Who gets the bounty, and what for?

Just put up a thread with your idea and start collecting purchase pledges... I guess not exactly a bounty, but we will give them a bounty of sales ;).

Ah, got it.  Ok, I'll do that.  Can't hurt, right?  :)

Also, I talked to Amazon support as well, just for fun.


Me:Will you accept Bitcoins as a form of payment in the near future?

Archana:Hello, Justin.
This is Archana from Amazon.

Me:Hello

Archana:We don't accept Bitcoins as a payment method on our website at this point.

Me:I heard a rumor that Amazon was considering adding it as a payment option in the future. Is it something that is at least being considered?

Archana:We'll work on it, Justin.
Is there anything else I can do for you?

Me:Amazon would have my full support if they decided to go that route. That was all, thank you.

Archana:Thanks for your feedback. I'll be sure to pass it along to the right people.

I think we at least got the message through to a dozen customer service people. That's a start, maybe :P

here goes another...

https://i.imgur.com/j0T1t.png

I don't know what you guys have been doing, but some guy named Jeff just called me. Here's the transcript:

You are now connected to Bruno from BitcoinTalk.org.

Me: Hello. May I help you?

Jeff: Yes. This is Jeff B. at Amazon.com. What do you know about the recent questions we've been receiving regarding Bitcoin?

Me: Not sure what you mean, Jeff. Let me look into this. BRB! (went to take a whiz)

Jeff: K

Me: Back. It looks likes there are several people inquiring about Amazon.com accepting Bitcoin after viewing the Baker's Wife on TV last night.

Jeff: Damn! I missed it! I love Demi Moore!

Me: Me, too. Is there anything else I can help you with today?

Jeff: No. Except, tell all your friends that we have a limited edition coffee table for sale by a user named Rassah.

Me: Consider it done. Bye, Jeff.

Jeff: (I think I was just put off.)

Me: (That should put him off for awhile.)

Someone should make up a coin name, start a chat, then see if you get the same canned response.

I hope you would, it shows they care about their customers. If enough people will ask about something, they might consider it though.

I think this will just cause them to waste time looking for it.  Great way to introduce them to our little community :(.

Its in their best interest to accept bitcoins. If they accept directly and another site I have to go about it in a roundabout way (ie Gift Cards) then I would definitely be picking amazon over the competition. My next purchase will be a second 6950 so this is $250 or so in sales they can take or lose.

I'm going ask them to tag my account and tell me when they do accept bitcoin  :D

everyone hear should do the same. ;)

I asked as well while dealing with a separate issue and I got (what looks to be the norm) "we will pass it along to the marketing dept".

I don't see BTC support coming any sooner then Paypal. But it doesn't hurt to be optimistic and it definitively doesn't hurt to ask for it.

You should have told him people only buy Rassah's coffee table with Bitcoin!

lol

+1 definitely  :D

I also contacted Etsy.com, here's their email response:

Good call... :)

C. Ratte from Amazon.de had no clue about bitcoin but googled it.
She asked somebody but didn't get an answer.
I asked to be added to a notification list like was discussed above but she told me to check their website and that they generally don't do such notifications.

Me:Question about payment methods.
Ganeshan:Hello, my name is Ganeshan.
I'll be happy to help you.
Me:Greetings, I wanted to know more about your payment methods
Ganeshan:We accept credit cards, debit cards, payment from U.S. checking accounts, Amazon.com Gift Cards, Amazon Payments Stored Balance, and Amazon.com Store Card. You can also purchase gift card codes at Western Union locations in the U.S.
Me:I heard on TV that you are accepting bitcoin. Is this true?
Ganeshan:Here are the credit cards we accept:
American Express
- Diner's Club (U.S. billing addresses only)
- Discover
- MasterCard
- Visa, Visa Electron, and Visa Check Cards
- Eurocard
- JCB
- NYCE
Just a moment.
Thank you for waiting.
We don't accept bitcoin as a payment method on our website at this point.
Me:That's disappointing. Do you know if you will be anytime soon?
Ganeshan:I'm sorry, we don't have more information about that. But I will pass your message on to the appropriate department in our company.
Please let me know if you still have any other questions. I'm hear to help you.
Me:Thank you. I really look forward to using your site with bitcoin soon. I think it is the best new technology out there.
Thanks for the help. Good bye!
Ganeshan:Thanks for contacting Amazon.com. We hope to see you again soon.
Good bye.!

Keep it going people!

I sent an email to these guys to see if they will accept Bitcoins: http://www.irs.gov/

I will let you know.

I dare someone to send a private key loaded with Bitcoins with instructions on how to redeem it to the IRS as their yearly tax payment.

They wouldn't even need to do that, just accept them, yea prices will go up fast for a while, but the increased market for them(buying and selling goods) would drastically increase the price thereafter.  Likely before they had a chance to cash out, thus they would have more value by the time they cashed out, so lets say a 20 dollar item, they'd make over 40 dollars, easy on that.

Just an idea to possibly remind them.

*Walks away, very, very slowly, buys a plane ticket to some very, very, far away place.

After acquiring 100K BTC, when the price doubles or triples, spend the profit on computer upgrades and the like. Spend down to the original 100K of which they keep on the books. Only spend again when there's a increase in BTC. Hell with converting it to fiat. Worse case scenario down the road, Bitcoin crashes and they lose the 100K BTC but have 200K+ of products and services. But that won't happen, for if just one major entity started amassing coins via acceptance, others will follow suit, then Wam Bam Thank You Mam--Bitcoin is mainstream!

~Bruno~

If you people are really into talking to Amazon support, don't forget to remember them that bitcoin can be a strong competitor to Paypal, which belongs to e-bay, a direct competitor of Amazon. ;)

+1

+50000

Send an email to ThinkGeek specifically at: payment [atspamprotection] thinkgeek.com
I want to buy some tactical bacon with Bitcoin!

-Jon

"Send" or "sent"? As in, did you send it, or are you telling us we should send it?

I sent one already, I'm suggesting other people should do the same :)

That would be awesome.  Casascius..?

Everyone who uses Bitcoins should really try to send a few emails to companies they like
asking them when they will start using them.

When it comes to small-medium sized companies or websites 5 emails during a year
can really make a difference. Most of them actually got nothing to lose only to gain from it.

Sent email to:
http://www.pledgemusic.com/

Suggested bitcoin as a feature improvement.

Told them that I would rather give Bitcoins to the artists than to a payment service (I mean money.)
and that they would have zero risc of chargebacks.

"Hi there
Thanks for the suggestion, we will ask our transactions team about this.
Team Pledge"

Sent email to:

Voddler.com

Still no reply.

http://www.firefallthegame.com/community/threads/will-you-be-selling-in-game-goods-for-bitcoins.16430

You never know who might start using it...

This guy just pulled out of E3 because he doesn't like the ESA supporting SOPA. He claims that Occupy Wall Street and things like that are really meaningful to him. This might actually be a good opportunity for bitcoin if we can communicate to them the philosophical reasons to accept and support the technology.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/01/why-one-game-developer-is-skipping-e3-to-start-an-anti-sopa-crusade.ars

You might want to bet on this one8 (http://betsofbitco.in/item?id=238). So far bitcoin users don't look too convinced Amazon would embrace bitcoin any soon :)

Don't look too convinced? Amazon accepting Bitcoin by March is about as likely as Hollywood deciding to embrace piracy...

Not because it's not in their own interests, but only because Amazon is an American corporation, and thus a creation of the state.  The ire of government is likely the only thing that Amazon fears.

True indeed.

Bitcoin is not at all a competitor to paypal because it doesn't offer chargebacks. Paypal is all about buyer safety, same with credit cards. Bitcoin is maybe a competitor to Western Union/MoneyGram/Ukash/PSC

Most people who use paypal, or credit cards for that matter, don't need the consumer protection services.  Bitcoin is, most certainly, a real threat to both these business models.

They might not always need to use it but it's still there should something go wrong and that's the reason they are the #1 online payment methods in the world. If it was so unimportant these companies would ditch buyer protection but of course they never will that would be suicide for them.

Paypal is growing (unfortunately) they just put out press releases on how huge their international traffic is getting. http://www.internetretailing.net/2012/01/paypals-international-business-overtakes-its-home-market-for-the-first-time/

That said bitcoins are perfect for countries like India/Pak where paypal is banned. If you want to promote bitcoin concentrate on those countries merchants there would love a decentralized money system their corrupt governments can't get at that has no rules

Paypal and CC's have consumer credit protection clauses because they are required by law.  They have done so well primarily because there really hasn't been much choice in the matter.  Not that CC's are simply going to go away, but bitcoin really is a threat to much of the business that the presently do receive.

Anyone else contact Amazon, ThinkGeek, Etsy, or anywhere?

The more the merrier!

Me: I saw on The Good Wife that Amazon accepts bitcoins, but I can't find your bitcoin address anywhere.
Roger: I'm sorry, I haven't heard about that. I will check with my supervisor.
Me: Great, thanks.
Roger: Hi, apparently the tv show made a mistake. They were meant to say "You can spend bitcoins on Amazon through spendbitcoins.com."
Me: Ah, but that page looks a bit difficult to navigate.
Roger: Let me check with my supervisor.
Me: Okay.
Roger: My supervisor says it's not as hard as it looks, but that they are bringing out a new design & browser extension in mid-February which will make it even easier than using a credit card on Amazon. Is there anything else I can help you with?
Me: Nope not at the moment, thanks for your time!
Roger: Have a great day

Oh, the irony.  That's killer.   :D

Is the rumor of a new site design and browser extension true?

Haha. The above conversation was completely made up. And yes, the new site design and browser extension are coming very soon. With the browser extension you'll just go straight to Amazon et al and not need to go back and forth to spendbitcoins.com. :)

Haha, and I fell for it too!  Glad to hear you're continuing to work on improving the site/service though.

oh i so much hope amazon will not get angry over people/plugins messing with their payment process. I was thinking about a plugin adding bitcoin as a payment option to all these pages but it was too obvious to me that this might get me into legal trouble.

crossing fingers for you ;)

My guess is that folk living in countries that have have more corruption than ours will love Bitcoin since their currencies are often devalued due to local scandal. It would be no surprise to me if companies like Amazon start using Bitcoin to circumvent local mob control and drive more revenue because Bitcoiners will have more spending power.

It may not be too soon. Amazon can always roll out a trial for limited purchases like certain 'digital goods' only. They could also limit bitcoin to certain countries with restricted payment options during any such trial. Also, I cannot imagine that Amazon is just ignoring the millions of USD/EUR/GBP/etc that could be saved in VISA/MC/AMEX/PayPal merchant processing fees!

Agreed!

They would be stupid, not to make a limited trial with Bitcoins sometime.

This is a great idea for a thread. The importance of Amazon accepting bitcoins just can't be overstated.

Here is how my conversation went*:

You are now connected to Alan from Amazon.co.uk.
Me:
Hi, do you accept bitcoins and if not will you consider accepting them?
Alan:
Hi David,
Bitcoin? I'm sorry but I've never heard of that.
Is that like a temporary visa card or does it relate to virtual coins like on facebook?
Me:
it's an e-currency, at the moment one is worth roughly £3.40 but that fluctuates by supply and demand
there are no transaction costs
which should make it reasonably attractive to you I should have thoguht
Alan:
Ah, currently we do not accept e-currencies like this. What is your domestic currency?
Me:
sterling
bitcoin is very different to any other e-currency for a variety of reasons
you can find a bunch of info on it using google
Alan:
Thanks for that, any charges you incur placing an order on our website using a sterling account would relate to your bank, we have no control over that.
Me:
I am talking from your perspective
in that when you accept credit cards and so on at the moment
you have to pay a fee
where as you wouldn't if you used bitcoin
there is no company behind bitcoin, it's all open source
Alan:
thanks for the suggestion, I didn't relaise you were just chatting from our point of view just there.
I can pass on your suggestion to our business team for review.
Me:
I would be pleased if you could, yes
Alan:
I have just looked up bitcoin as we have spoken.
Me:
a good site for learning more about bitcoins with a video they could look at is http://www.weusecoins.com/
Alan:
If the payments are irreversible as far as I can see.
Interesting.
The official bitcoin site als says the process is experimental
http://bitcoin.org/
Either way I'll pass on your feedback, if it proves secure and convenient for customers it will be considered in due course.
Can I help with anything else?
Me:
the client is experimental, but the network itself is running and other merchants are using it
nothing else other than bitcoin - although would you be able to get whatever committee it is that you are passing it on to to respond to me after they have looked at it?
Alan:
The internal teams generally don't do that. If it was something we would take up it would be announced publicly.
Me:
ok, fair does
have a good weekend!
Alan:
you too.


*I'm aware the thing about transaction costs is not strictly correct, but I was out to sell it!

I applaud your effort! =)

Expected this to be done late last month, but I'm assured we are getting very close. :)

http://spendbitcoins.com/tool.jpg

That is very awesome.  :)

Having worked support, I must deflate you a bit. All your phone call did was add your information and "Call Reason -> Other" to a database in Hyderabad, India, that will never be looked at again.

These are sad times. See, about 20 years ago, I was able to call ATI and actually talked to one of their engineers at length about my problems with their card and they were able to identify the bug with their card (ATI Graphics Ultra Pro - I found a link (http://books.google.com/books?id=DVEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=Graphics+Ultra+Pro+%28VRAM%29+ATI&source=bl&ots=r2jT1t-z-d&sig=sbVwhj5zJeI7j8k_PAJPaC8Y24g&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1p9lT6fVCsKoiQL5_JmiDw&ved=0CFkQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=Graphics%20Ultra%20Pro%20%28VRAM%29%20ATI&f=false)). I had his extension number. When I did support myself for another unnamed PC component manufacturer, I was one phone call away from engineers, and was able find, identify, and resolve compatibility problems, and turn them over to QA and deployment. Nowadays, support is an outsourced cost center who's only goal is placating the customer by reading a script and hanging up on them as fast as possible. Of course, computer users on the whole are a lot dumber now, too.

The client is the currency currently. There really are no alternatives to the official client.
The bitcoin.org page clearly says "Bitcoin is an experimental new digital currency [...]". Don't oversell it dude.

This is awesome.  Anyway to get people to spend bitcoins is a good thing.

I beg to differ. There's a lot of alternatives like the Electrum  and Armory present in the Alternative Client subforum.

I for one am pro-electrum. We're using it in a new product of ours.

Regular bitcoin client just isn't scalable, especially on mobile platforms.

Imagine 2,000,000 people downloading the blockchain but not serving it also. It would kill it.

Yes, but it also brings down the costs for everyone who doesn't require tech support ;) I'd rather have cheaper product + Google search than more expensive product + good customer support.

Neither Electrum nor Armory implement the full Bitcoin protocol. Ie. they don't keep a local copy of the block chain, and help other peers maintain a block chain (which is needed for the Bitcoin network to function). Armory is intended to become a full client (that doesn't depend on the Satoshi client), but isn't yet. Electrum is only intended to be a light weight client, ie. it doesn't support the network in any way, it just uses it. Without the Satoshi client there would be no usable Bitcoin currency at the moment.

This is grate  ;D another reason to invest in bitcoin !! ::)
 

old thread is old

And our damned tool still hasn't come out! I saw an amazing update of it today though. I think it will be ready for at least Amazon US very very soon. Not sure what very very soon means in developer world though. :)

+1 you got that right

I've been checking bitcoin.amazon.com every day since I had that lovely conversation.

(Oh well :()