Bitcoin Forum

bitcoin tab for payment has now mysteriously vanished on WordPress, the web's most popular blogging system!



http://media.coindesk.com/2015/02/Bitcoin-payments-wp.jpg

source:
http://www.coindesk.com/wordpress-removes-bitcoin-payment-option/

Outch , not a cool move from them to be honest ...  >:(
And me who wanted to start WordPress blog soon

~ Madness

I was recently thinking about using them to host a simple website. This is the second time a company has stopped accepting Bitcoin right before I'm about to buy their shit and I don't have a credit card, Bitcoin is the only way I can pay. Oh well, hopefully it's just a temporary thing.

Adoption is increasing they said, Cryptocurrency is revolutionary they said.

Everyone is hodling their precious coins, locking them in cold/paper wallets instead of spending them.

Quite likely they have simply have had so little business from it that they have decided it just isn't worth having.  Every extra "option" (be it payment or otherwise) is something that makes your website just that little more confusing to the masses so if it isn't bringing in any real extra profit then it would be sensible to remove it in order to keep your UI as simple as possible (why do you think credit cards have basically just been reduced to the two options over the years).

Yeah let's hope it's temporary thing .
By the way , what is this second copany that stopped using Bitcoin ? Wordpress is the first I heard off to be honest.

~ Madness

Wikipedia was one. They removed Bitcoin as a donation option. I'm not sure if its back now or not.

The company I was thinking of was a small dedicated server company in Belgium that I wanted to rent a server off, they removed Bitcoin as an option after the first month of service, right as I was planning to upgrade the server to a more expensive one and use it for a production env.

Wikipedia is still accepting Bitcoin donation, but we can't see this option in main donation page. To use Bitcoin, you need to click into the tiny link "Other ways to give" at the bottom of the page to this link: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Ways_to_Give

In the past, we always heard some companies accepted Bitcoin as payment option, but now, what we hear is they are removing Bitcoin!  :'(

And again with Wikipedia it is simply not surprising - too many options don't look good and as probably only a very fraction of a percent of their donations would have come from Bitcoin there is no reason to have it cluttering up their main donation page.

The reason is that people over-hyped Bitcoin and haven't realised it is not very useful for payments at all (apart from transferring large sums of money between countries which is the one major area it actually hasn't even been commercially used for despite being most suitable for).

I recall back in 2012 (or maybe even late 2011) seeing Amir trying to say that it could be used for "micro-payments" with Gavin having to say "ahh - no" to that in the same interview (and of course it is totally useless for that purpose).

Also non-reversible payments might be a great thing for vendors but 99% of consumers are going to stick with reversible credit card payments (and don't see the costs anyway as they are generally hidden by the vendor).

It should also be noted that in China the credit card companies charge the vendors only 1% generally (much lower than in the US) so Bitcoin is *never* going to work as a payment system here (and they basically have pretty much irreversible payments via Alipay anyway).

sad move, i thought they are true believers  :-\

credit card and paypal just suck! of course not alot of people pay with bitcoin BECAUSE there are LESS THAN 1 mio in the whole world who have some BTC !

Have they given a reason why? Is it possible they just removed it temporarily?


I don't understand how having the option to pay in bitcoin will do them any harm. Sometimes when I pay for things I see plenty of methods to choose from which I've never heard of but usually just go for the PayPal option (uggh). I would love to pay with bitcoin but PP is the easiest thing currently but now people wont even have the option to pay in btc and will likely lose them business from bitcoiners.

This sucks, a lot of people are withdrawing from bitcoin.

It is simple psychology - if you have 100 options for a meal then the average person is going to take a longer longer to decide then if you have say 2 options.

Each second of indecision is likely to be a "lost sale" (i.e. moved on to another website).

I wonder what made them do this. Maybe pressure from other payment companies.

I doubt it means a lost sale. They don't have 100 options, but only about 4-5 . And if you see the option, that you would like to pay through , then thats one more extra sale.

Merchants want to keep checkout page simple and focused as much as possible. Studies has shown that lots of sales was lost in checkout page. Unfortunately in this case Bitcoin tab is an unnecessary thing which can confuse customers. Amount of sales they get via Bitcoin is so few and not worth to keep.

Solution ? Everyone need to spend their coins so merchants can have a reason to keep this payment option. You can do both spending and hodling. Since buying BTC with credit card is pretty easy in US, you can buy on the Coinbase or Circle to compensate the amount of coins you're going to spend on something.

I don't like what you explained but, unfortunately, you are tremendously right.
No care for customers, just for their money.
And the day they'll start accepting BTC again on the platform they'll probably reply that they tried it first.

So sad

Bitcoin and Crypto in general is still a very experimental unproven currency and payment option.  I don't blame Wordpress if they just were testing the waters, to see if it were a viable payment method.  I'm sure sales were lacking, so they decided to pull the plug.

If and when Bitcoin reaches that point where it makes sense to add Bitcoin as a proper payment option, I'm sure you'll see it in their blog or it'll just reappear at checkout once again.

For now, we just have to wait patiently, and let Bitcoin grow.  'Tis still a little sprout.

https://hiladybug.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/107750_sprout.jpg

Yeah. I don't understand this psychology either. Personally I like lots of options and the most popular ones were listed at the top with bitcoin at the bottom as they usually are on other sites too. Having the option there will have likely piqued peoples interest as to what bitcoin actually is so it's disappointing on that level too.

Well I guess most of you are just too young to have actually read anything about all the studies into "options" that were done well before you were born.

Basically 3 options anyone can cope with, 5 options only those with above average intelligence can cope with and 7+ options will be too much for all but highly intelligent people to easily handle.

So when you design UI you use the 3 or 5 options "golden rule" (and avoid anything with more options unless it is for "experts only"). If you are thinking that the "file" menu in your browser has many more options then take a look again - is it divided into "menu sections"?

(and those "who doubt this" should bother to do some reading before doing their typing and take a closer look at how things they are presented with are typically divided up into groups of three or five items)

It has a lot to do with the fact that online shoppers (even for business) aren't 100% intent on buying... They are clicking around, and
whether they will actually buy NOW, or tomorrow, or next week, or never...is very subjective and based on gut level reactions.
People buy based on emotions most of the time.  More options means more time to think about it and usually less impulse to buy.



 

I was going to say most people must be stupid then but it looks like they actually are. I think you've got to be pretty dense to get put off by having more options available to you, but not all 'studies' are conclusive or scientific fact.

The studies are *conclusive* so indeed I am talking about "scientific fact" (not my opinion - these sorts of studies have been done many times and always produced roughly the same results).

That is very bad!
We want more people to accept bitcoins not to stop them :(

I was told earlier that I could buy a wordpress blog and I was collecting money for it but now this news has come like a shocker. I dint expect this as bitcoins is doing well.  :'(

Really in fact if all websites stop using bitcoins, the demand will go down and so will the price. I don't know why I am getting scared about the future of bitcoins.

I've just created an order with bitcoin.

It didn't remove bitcoin.

Ps: probably the news site tried to buy only the 2 weeks free upgrade package. (which requires credit card).

https://i.imgur.com/I9pIne8.png

That really sucks - have they issued any statement on why btc is no longer accepted?

There is no official report about this. Bitpay continue to has wordpress as pattern. And yes there is always good option to have more payment options. Is not confusing at all if you have create a clean gui. With the same opinion we must drop all the payments and keep only one like paypal or credit card to not "confusing people''
We are not all americans citizens that confusing with everything
Bitcoin is a great payment option with fast clean transactions better and safer than any paypal debit card system.

Actually the studies about UI complexity were not limited to US citizens (on average they aren't dumber than most other people despite what many people might think).


I am not sure why you'd say "better" or "safer" in fact - debit cards are actually generally the best method of payment you can use today (although I wouldn't recommend using PayPal as that just adds fees).

for "safer" than debit card ask the ppl that lost about 190 annual billion dollar in that payments

http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2011/03/24/solving-the-190-billion-annual-fraud-scam-more-on-jumio/

You cant expect to be safer with old payment system in a new tech era. And paypal, debit card, apple pay etc is from the last century and from not a tech era. The future of payments is in blockchain and to digital crypto.

Sure you aren't confusing debit cards with credit cards (there is a big difference)?


The current payment systems offer chargebacks which although *hated* by vendors are *loved* by customers (and so are not going to disappear).

I find it odd that Bitcoin supporters think it so great that they can end up sending funds that can never be returned to them as though that is actually of some major benefit to them (I simply don't think most people are ever going to see this benefit).

I really cant understand how a legendary member of that forum is so stuck in the past and in old payment systems. this is really confusing :P
You can really continue using your old loved payment system. Is like my grandmother continue to use only paper money for all her trading.

I am not "stuck in the past" at all (if I was then why I would I have spent over 200 days of my time on this forum?).

All I am trying to point out is some "realities" that I think are often being overlooked in the enthusiasm for what I do think is an incredibly major new technology (but whose purpose at this stage is IMO not well suited to normal payments at all).

The problem is people are too busy hoarding btc than spending it. The removal of the payment option was probably from the lack of use, as more people use bitcoin I'm sure there will be a lot more sites/services accepting it.

And you should ask "why is that?".

The reason is that currently BTC is a great "store of value" and also a great method for "remittance" but it isn't really a better "way of spending" at this stage at all.

So is this false or not? The article seems to mentioned they removed a blog post about bitcoin or something.


Regardless of whatever nationality the studies are done it still proves that people are morons.

Agree, but if 'distraction' was the reason, it would make much more sense to 'hide' bitcoin payment option, instead of removing it completely (unless they had absolutely no BTC sales). This way someone who is keen on paying in BTC would still have this option, and the rest won't be distracted.

Mozilla had such problem with their Bitcoin donation button, it's presence simply reduced the overall donation amount. Sounds strange at first but makes sense after reading analysis + explanation here:

https://fundraising.mozilla.org/bitcoin-donations-to-mozilla-17-days-in/

BS. It's very well tested and proven.

But not currently that "useful" as a payment option (not so easy for people to obtain BTC for a start and then if they spend them they have the problem of irreversible transactions).

The technology works (no-one is doubting that) but at this stage it doesn't really have any advantage to the average person from using a debit card (and in fact is probably much harder to use and more likely that they will lose money to scammers).

How so?  I want Bitcoin to succeed as much as the next person, but it's not quite on the same playing field as fiat or the credit card companies as a payment methods.

Bitcoin is nowhere near as fast as fiat or credit/debit cards for microtransactions, and for larger payments...well you have the wait for those confirmation times.  I know credit/debit cards fully process in a few days, and there's always for chargebacks etc.  That said, Bitcoin just isn't that fast as them when it comes to point of sale.

We need to encourage use of Bitcoin not just trade or hoard. All of us should use Bitcoin everywhere we can instead of fiat and that would most possibly speed up bitcoin race to becoming mainstream payment processor. If wordpress had lot of bitcoin income they would not remove that option.

No.  What you should do is convince others to buy Bitcoin.
If each one of us just convinced two people (friends/family/unattended children) to buy Bitcoin, the price would skyrocket because math.

Lamby encouraging people to buy Bitcoin?!!?    :o

Now I've seen it all here in Bitcointalk...

Shouldn't matter much that the price is down, perhaps they are just updating some stuff? Cant see anything conclusive from coindesk article as usual.

I think, it is more of a problem with BitPay than with Bitcoin. We might see Bitcoin in near future on wordpress again...

Why would that matter? They'll use a payment processor so they're covered. I don't think this is the case and is likely an error like someone pointed out above.

not enough users to continue having it clutter their site.
it is thought the more options at checkout the less likely the user is to complete the purchase.

simple checkouts have much higher click through rates

They might be removed a blog post about bitcoin but it's a false/wrong/lie news.
You can check it by yourself.

If you click "Try now" button then you'll see only 1 option and it's credit card. Because of 14 days trial upgrade.
But if you click "Buy now" button then you'll see Bitcoin Tab.

Probably Coindesk is just clicked the try now button and they're terrified Or they're lying on purpose.

Where's buy now button ??  ???

I don't see that. Just text 'upgrade now' below 'start free trial'

http://s13.postimg.org/fvi8s5l3b/Screenshot_7.png

Wordpress still has bitcoin integrated . I still use it.

Well there was an update to it looks like it will come back
Was worried there for a while as one of the first major bitcoin accepting services seeing it go full circle would concern me

"    We’re still big believers in Bitcoin, but we’re doing some major refactoring and streamlining of our checkout process right now and Bitcoin is lower in priority since it’s relatively low volume compared to our more traditional transaction options.

    We will definitely keep in mind adding Bitcoin support back in the future."
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wordpress-still-big-believer-bitcoin/

Yeah..Its I can still see BTC integration with wordpress..It is not false news..but he didnt check out all the possible ways.. Half Knowledge is dangerous.! :p

Did not know wordpress accepted bitcoin, but when I checked for upgrades only payment methods were credit/debitcard or paypal :(
might be location based?

Login to your blog's dashboard and click the store link.
url will look like this: "yourusername.wordpress.com/wp-admin/paid-upgrades.php"

The first thing that came to my mind when they decided to drop bitcoin option is because of the low volume of payment made in that currency. Since bitpay handles all the payment processing to convert back to fiat, I don't think that exposed them (wordpress) to any risk in terms of security. I just hope they will consider making it available once again. 

wow this topic has gone wild since last night i posted it. :D

i've read some interesting stuff by CIYAM and the following arguments by other users which made me look into it a little more.

i felt like sharing my findings with anyone interested in this matter.

Overchoice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overchoice)
Having more choices, on the surface, appears to be a positive development; however it hides an underlying problem: faced with too many choices, consumers have trouble making optimal choices, and thus as a result can be indecisive, unhappy, and even refrain from making the choice (purchase) at all

if anyone is interested in scientific facts, you can find a nice article on "How extensive number of options lower satisfaction with one's choice and may also lead into not choosing at all" in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2011
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002210311100028X

you can see a statement from wordpress on coindesk:



Matt Mullenweg • a day ago

Where did you try to contact us for comment? Didn't see anything yet.

We're still big believers in Bitcoin, but we're doing some major refactoring and streamlining of our checkout process right now and Bitcoin is lower in priority since it's relatively low volume compared to our more traditional transaction options.

We will definitely keep in mind adding Bitcoin support back in the future.


http://www.coindesk.com/wordpress-removes-bitcoin-payment-option/

Actualyl though that is right but there were just two options and 3rd was bitcoin and removing it will cost them alot :-\

It's not something to be scared on, chill!
They might have their issues or as people are saying scientific reasons to get customer more satisfaction!
Bitcoin has been through lot already in young age and is still growing , something as small won't get it down!
But than again that's my thinking

does not mean they are going to live up to their word probably leave it awhile until everyone forgets and never re add it

Clueless people tend to go with fads, they probably thought "wow Bitcoin is going up might as well accept it" and added it on their website as a payment. Went it went down they backpeddled. These people have no long term notion or even know the implications of the technology. They'll be back.

wrong move by them :o

Huh, interesting to see companies going the reverse way and dropping support. But I think that this may happen occasionally, given the vast number of companies who are actually getting into the cryptocurrency-game these days!

They sure do.  And cling to those fads long after everyone else has moved on.
Because admitting that it was just a fad is simply too painful.

Ppl would buy Bitcoin only if they can use it and when Bitcoin goes mainstream price will skyrocket and you will have easy job to convince few people to buy some and rise allready skyrocketed price bit more. By then best we can do is to encourage use of bitcoin (trying to convince merchants and bussnisses to accept bitcoin and educating close ppl about and actualy use bitcoin).

For bigger purchases, sure, but for smaller ones it's not that important.
Plus you have to remember that in many countries where credit cards are relatively new payment method reversing card payment is not that easy, may take many months and most customers don't know about it!
Bank transfers are also usually non-reversible but are very popular method of payment in many places in the world.

What method of suicide are you going to use after you realize you missed the boat twice? I've heard jumping off very tall buildings is pretty effective. You could join the wordpress guys.

It's same. Not working.

You're pretty right on that!
When bitcoin rises , we will  see wordpress accepting bitcoins again :D :D

Good to know.

So much ado about what is essentially a code refactoring... :)

http://ma.tt/2015/02/on-wordpress-com-and-bitcoin/

I expect they'll add it back at some point. But I can fully understand it not being a priority target for that system at present.

When they add it again it will be a small bullish sign  ;)

Follow-up article on coindesk:

WordPress CEO: We Haven't Given Up on Bitcoin

http://www.coindesk.com/wordpress-ceo-we-havent-given-up-on-bitcoin/

Thanks for the news

How a small news can give us hype's , good to hear it that they really didn't gave up on bitcoins

That's a good news and I hope they start accepting it soon. Bitcoin is still a growing crypto currency and more websites should start accepting it.

It seems we are getting conflicting information.

I find it puzzling.

What if WordPress just doesn't want to support terrorists?

You'd need to ask HSBC, they're pro at laundering money to terrorist organizations.

Speaking of the devil...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-02/hsbc-judge-approves-1-9b-drug-money-laundering-accord

The moral of the story is if you have enough billions of dollars, the system will usually the turn the other cheek.

Well after reading the article , I can say that the guy got a point to be honest .
Anyway glad that he didn't give up on Bitcoin yet , let's hope we will see soon .

~ Madness

Yeah, but HSBC does a bunch of other stuff, too.  Bitcoin?  Well, there's this...

Not only HSBC but Bank of America as well:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/09/los-zetas-laundered-money-bank-america_n_1658943.html

Oh yeah, almost forgot, there's also...

http://s12.postimg.org/gigyv9w7h/ross1.jpg

HSBC also launders billions for mexican drug cartels:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/avinash-tharoor/banks-cartel-money-laundering_b_4619464.html

I take it you've been reading about the latest HSBC scandal? Aiding and abetting tax evasion for the rich elite?
Centralized banking systems have proven time and time again they can't be trusted.

Isn't that a good thing?
I thought you libertards money rebels hated taxes?

That's freaking bad , now i want billion dollars too :(

I'm not a libertarian so no I don't think it's a good thing.

I don't mind paying some taxes as long as their fair and proportionate.

While we're on the topic of banks, not only do they launder money, but they rig the Gold price as well!!!!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/24/us-usa-banks-probe-idUSKBN0LS07P20150224

It seems they huddle amongst eachother like a frat or old boys club...


...and just pick a price out of thin air to set the gold price and other precious metals.  And we all thought just the stock market is rigged! (Flash Boys, read that book if you can)


Can't trust these fucking banks man... :-\

And here we are squabbling over measly Wordpress removing a Bitcoin payment option.

It's my understanding that the rich elite pay a dispraportionately large share of taxes.
Why should they pay a larger percentage of their rightfully earned billions than you from your job flipping burgers?  Big Banks just helps Big Biz even the playing field :)

Not only Big Biz, but apparently Drug Cartels too!   ;D

http://antimoneylaundering.us/JJ44wrvtDuhcorf6kFAk6NXo26ntmQkw/userfiles/Cartel%20de%20Sinaloa.jpg

http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/20100724/los-zetas-weapons-cache.jpg

http://www.elblogdepropaganda.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Los-Zetas-interrogate-and-behead-a-member-of-the-Gulf-Cartel.png

It's the complete opposite. The rich pay little or no tax thanks to all the loopholes, I guarantee I pay a larger proportion of my wages flipping burgers than some hedgefund manager with offshore accounts.

Banks help drug cartels?  Good for Big Banks, this war on drugs is totally bullshit.  Maybe Big Pharma will get the message.

Yes, we need to increase the size & budget 4 IRS, to make such blatant injustice a thing of the past.  Your complaint is duly noted.

They will come back  :)

He does have a point but bitcoin has been declining since last year so why now ???

No doubt about that... something which I agree as well. Probably when bitcoin has gone mainstream with more customers going to use btc, they will have no choice but to make available the payment option. Else, I see them losing the business to their competitors.

If you want to pay for WordPress with Bitcoin, it's still pretty straightforward:

1. Buy BTC with USD.
2. Sell BTC for USD.
3. Pay WordPress.

Easy peasy :)

How does you 3 steps imply about

If you want to pay for WordPress with Bitcoin

I guess he was joking.

Damn! am not really good with jokes and don't prefer them in serious conversations.
Well! anyways , it do sounds little funny when now i look at it :D

Well, if you mean that steps 1 & 2 could be omitted, sure.  But when you buy things with Bitcoin, a few steps could also be omitted.
Can you spot which ones?

1. Buy BTC with USD, pay exchange fee/possibly get ripped off/robbed at gunpoint @LocalBitcoins.
2. Pay BTC to the payment processor
3. Payment processor sells BTC for USD, sends USD to the merchant.

Am getting the joke here , but this kind of adds up to the truth
Add stabbed to the first point as a probability too