Bitcoin Forum

Economy => Marketplace => Topic started by: jgarzik on August 31, 2010, 02:12:38 AM



Title: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with LR, GDP or Pecunix
Post by: jgarzik on August 31, 2010, 02:12:38 AM
For your average person, who just wishes to buy something with bitcoins, dealing with the markets seems like an unnecessary burden.  Therefore, I put together a site for beta-testing which permits direct bitcoin purchases, at spot price + a markup:

     The Bitcoin Store - https://bitcoinstore.yyz.us/ (https://bitcoinstore.yyz.us/)

It accepts Pecunix, Liberty Reserve-EUR and Liberty Reserve-USD payments, and sends bitcoins to a Bitcoin Address specified via email.  Transaction fees for payments are included in our markup.

This is an experiment.  We'll see.  If fraud or chargebacks become a problem, the site will cease operation.

Comments welcome.



Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with card, LR or Pecunix
Post by: jgarzik on August 31, 2010, 03:51:54 AM

Just added LR Euros (LR-EUR), in case anybody prefers that.



Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with card, LR or Pecunix
Post by: Anonymous on August 31, 2010, 06:35:31 AM
LR doesnt have chargebacks :)

Whats your markup for this service?


Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with card, LR or Pecunix
Post by: jgarzik on August 31, 2010, 06:49:52 AM
LR doesnt have chargebacks :)

True but it does charge transfer fees, which we currently absorb.

Quote
Whats your markup for this service?

At the moment?  There isn't a set number, it's largely a finger-in-the-air experiment for each currency.  Looking at non-bitcoin exchanges, for example, Liberty Reserve-USD seems to be slightly undervalued compared to PayPal-USD, so I try to compensate for that.  Each payment method has its own transfer fees, though I could look into giving people the option of paying that themselves, and reducing the price.



Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with card, LR or Pecunix
Post by: Anonymous on August 31, 2010, 08:43:59 AM
LR doesnt have chargebacks :)

True but it does charge transfer fees, which we currently absorb.

Quote
Whats your markup for this service?

At the moment?  There isn't a set number, it's largely a finger-in-the-air experiment for each currency.  Looking at non-bitcoin exchanges, for example, Liberty Reserve-USD seems to be slightly undervalued compared to PayPal-USD, so I try to compensate for that.  Each payment method has its own transfer fees, though I could look into giving people the option of paying that themselves, and reducing the price.



https://www.alertpay.com/en/Default.aspx (https://www.alertpay.com/en/Default.aspx) here is a payment gateway worth investigating.


Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with card, LR or Pecunix
Post by: jgarzik on August 31, 2010, 09:13:37 AM
https://www.alertpay.com/en/Default.aspx (https://www.alertpay.com/en/Default.aspx) here is a payment gateway worth investigating.


Their terms regarding transaction disputes and resolutions (https://helpdesk.alertpay.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=254) certainly makes for interesting reading...



Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with card, LR or Pecunix
Post by: Anonymous on August 31, 2010, 09:36:34 AM
https://www.alertpay.com/en/Default.aspx (https://www.alertpay.com/en/Default.aspx) here is a payment gateway worth investigating.


Their terms regarding transaction disputes and resolutions (https://helpdesk.alertpay.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=254) certainly makes for interesting reading...



They claim they dont have chargebacks yet in their tos it says they do?wtf?

Im coming to the conclusion that it is almost impossible to avoid this situation.


Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with card, LR or Pecunix
Post by: jgarzik on August 31, 2010, 04:45:32 PM
They claim they dont have chargebacks yet in their tos it says they do?wtf?

Im coming to the conclusion that it is almost impossible to avoid this situation.

Handling chargebacks is required by law in the US, which indeed leads to an unavoidable situation.



Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with card, LR or Pecunix
Post by: jgarzik on August 31, 2010, 09:12:23 PM

Updated and simplified the Google Checkout experience a bit.

I wonder if there is a payment processor that accepts only debit cards?  The chargeback issue is largely one of credit cards, if I understand correctly.



Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with card, LR or Pecunix
Post by: Anonymous on September 01, 2010, 03:04:08 AM
They claim they dont have chargebacks yet in their tos it says they do?wtf?

Im coming to the conclusion that it is almost impossible to avoid this situation.

Handling chargebacks is required by law in the US, which indeed leads to an unavoidable situation.



Yerah but they also fine you $37 extra for the "service".


Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with card, LR or Pecunix
Post by: Anonymous on September 01, 2010, 03:51:33 AM

Updated and simplified the Google Checkout experience a bit.

I wonder if there is a payment processor that accepts only debit cards?  The chargeback issue is largely one of credit cards, if I understand correctly.



This site provides some useful info .


http://www.merchantseek.com/thompson-merchant-services.htm#retail
 (http://www.merchantseek.com/thompson-merchant-services.htm#retail)

Debit card payments need a merchant account usually.They start at about $300 to $400 with a per transaction fee.Im not sure what level of fees or selling volume that would need to make it worthwhile.Perhaps a consortium of  bitcoiners might be interested in investing,or you could try to get a business partner lol.


Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with LR or Pecunix
Post by: jgarzik on September 01, 2010, 06:23:03 AM

Google Checkout support has been removed.  Apparently they don't like digital currency.



Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with LR or Pecunix
Post by: FreeMoney on September 01, 2010, 08:38:42 AM

Google Checkout support has been removed.  Apparently they don't like digital currency.



Damn, that was fast. Eh, did they contact you or did you remove it preemptively after reading terms or something?


Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with LR or Pecunix
Post by: Anonymous on September 01, 2010, 09:00:51 AM

Google Checkout support has been removed.  Apparently they don't like digital currency.



I think they just purchased their own virtual currency.They probably think bitcoin is the competition.


Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with LR or Pecunix
Post by: jgarzik on September 01, 2010, 09:02:58 AM
Damn, that was fast. Eh, did they contact you or did you remove it preemptively after reading terms or something?

BCS had contacted support on an unrelated issue -- Google Base was having trouble "claiming" our store's URL -- and while handling that support issue, Google says they noticed a policy violation, and disabled BCS's Google Checkout account.


Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with LR or Pecunix
Post by: FreeMoney on September 01, 2010, 09:13:39 AM
Hey, sponsored link at the top of google, very nice.


Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with LR or Pecunix
Post by: FreeMoney on September 01, 2010, 09:41:48 AM
Damn, that was fast. Eh, did they contact you or did you remove it preemptively after reading terms or something?

BCS had contacted support on an unrelated issue -- Google Base was having trouble "claiming" our store's URL -- and while handling that support issue, Google says they noticed a policy violation, and disabled BCS's Google Checkout account.

Oh.

If you really wanted to sell via google checkout could you sell the passwords to MyBitcoin accounts that were loaded up or similar?


Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with LR or Pecunix
Post by: Anonymous on September 01, 2010, 10:07:40 AM
Damn, that was fast. Eh, did they contact you or did you remove it preemptively after reading terms or something?

BCS had contacted support on an unrelated issue -- Google Base was having trouble "claiming" our store's URL -- and while handling that support issue, Google says they noticed a policy violation, and disabled BCS's Google Checkout account.

All your Bases belong to us.....



Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with LR or Pecunix
Post by: jgarzik on September 02, 2010, 07:04:54 AM

Rates are now posted via RSS 2.0 at http://bitcoinstore.yyz.us/rates-rss.xml



Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with LR or Pecunix
Post by: jgarzik on September 03, 2010, 12:58:49 AM
Purchases are now limited to 10,000 BTC per day per IP (ie. per person), in an attempt to pro-actively comply with US regulations (http://www.fincen.gov/statutes_regs/guidance/html/fin-2009-r001.html).

We want to help establish bitcoin as a viable digital commodity, a store of value, by making it easy for others to obtain bitcoins.

We do not want to enable law-breakers or money launderers etc.



Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with LR or Pecunix
Post by: Anonymous on September 03, 2010, 03:31:52 AM
Purchases are now limited to 10,000 BTC per day per IP (ie. per person), in an attempt to pro-actively comply with US regulations (http://www.fincen.gov/statutes_regs/guidance/html/fin-2009-r001.html).

We want to help establish bitcoin as a viable digital commodity, a store of value, by making it easy for others to obtain bitcoins.

We do not want to enable law-breakers or money launderers etc.




 :-X


Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with LR or Pecunix
Post by: jgarzik on September 06, 2010, 05:28:15 PM
Thanks to all our customers, for making the launch a success.  We've sold over 20k BTC since opening!


Title: Re: Bitcoin Store - buy bitcoins with LR, GDP or Pecunix
Post by: jgarzik on September 06, 2010, 10:03:57 PM
Bitcoin Store now supports GlobalDigitalPay's three currencies, GDP-USD, GDP-EUR, and GDP-GBP, as payment methods.

GBP is a first for bitcoin, I think.