Bitcoin Forum

https://mtgox.com/press_release_20120306.html (https://mtgox.com/press_release_20120306.html) With Video tutorial.

Bitcoin brethren,

Since our beloved crypto-currency mushroomed in popularity last summer, we’ve seen many trail blazing merchants start accepting bitcoin; however admittedly, we haven’t seen the kind of bitcoin adoption in the online marketplace we expected to see. We feel this is largely because a critical element - a feature rich, quick to launch, checkout solution - was missing for merchants to easily start accepting bitcoin. With this in mind, we at Mt.Gox decided to take a kick at the can to see if we could dream up a solution that takes the head-ache out receiving payments in bitcoin. While we were at it, we also managed to find a way to remove all of the merchant-specific risk too...

We are pleased to announce the amalgamation of our efforts in the form of a definitive bitcoin checkout solution, and we’re finally ready to show it off in all of it’s bare-bones glory.

With Mt.Gox checkout merchants are able to easily integrate bitcoin into their existing e-Commerce platform. We’ll be kicking things off by offering a downloadable Magento plugin within the next 2 weeks, but plan to develop plugins for other popular e-Commerce solutions to bring bitcoin to all corners of the web. As for now, we have put up the documentation for early adopters on Mt.Gox’s bitcoin wiki page under the Merchant API section:

MtGox API: Merchant System (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/MtGox/API/HTTP/v1#Merchant_System)

A little more about Mt.Gox checkout:

• Transactions are ridiculously free
• Customers can pay in BTC from their Bitcoin program (6 confirmations)
• Mt.Gox account holders can pay from their Mt.Gox accounts, allowing for instant checkout (and impulse buys, oh my’s)
• Pay instantly via Mt.Gox Mobile’s QR scanner (great for people who don’t want to pay from their office workstation!)
• Split payment capabilities: Wanna go halfers with your buddy on alpaca socks...now you can!
• Partial payments: If you don’t have enough in your bitcoin program, you can top off the payment with your Mt.Gox BTC balance (or vice versa)
• (Soon) Bitcoin prices are displayed in real-time relative to the merchants listed price in a traditional currency (USD, EUR, etc.)
• (Soon) An instant trade-on-receipt function that cashes out bitcoins in 1 of 16 currencies
• (Soon) Easily embed the “Mt.Gox Checkout” button into your existing checkout page.

We are really, really excited to offer this solution to existing merchants, and know it will be a huge boon to the bitcoin marketplace over the next few months.

There really isn’t a reason to suffer using Paypal any longer; bitcoin is here in a merchant friendly package, so we invite you to see the whole checkout process: thanks to this video Mt.Gox e-Commerce Solution (https://vimeo.com/38020923) from MtGox (https://vimeo.com/user10720904) on Vimeo.

Questions and feedback are welcome at checkout@mtgox.com

Regards,

The Mt.Gox Team

Nice work Mt. Gox. I guess Bitpay got its first real competitor. This is good for Bitcoin.

Edit: Although I must add that I don't like the fact that more and more Bitcoin usage is centralized to one place. Overall I think this is good for Bitcoin, we need more convenient and cheap services to support the Bitcoin economy.

Great work Mark! Undoubtedly a much needed feature for the Bitcoin community. AurumXchange might be using it very soon for some of our services!

Thanks
Roberto

This sounds great.


I wonder what the '6 confirmations' means. Will it take 6 confirmations until my purchase goes through if I use Bitcoin?
If this is the case the video is not a good use-case for buying a map to the nearest Starbucks.
Is this to avoid double spends or is this to promote Mt.Gox accounts?

Another fantastic product from the Tibanne and MtGox team

Go Gox Go!

The number of confirmations should be custom. For some things (an exchange) 6 is reasonable, for access to a cheap download it completely wrecks the service and ought be 0 confirmations. For most things that are being shipped customer should get a message that they are paid after 0 confirmations and the merchant should get the go ahead after 6 or whatever.

But I haven't even used it, maybe the definitive solution already allows this.

This configuration is to be set on the merchant side. Our Magento module (and any module we release after that) will include this setting.

Right now we only allow two values, either confirm payment at 0 confirmations (instantly when the transaction is seen) or at 6 confirmations. Note that when sending from an MtGox account, there is no need for confirmations.

Thanks for your contribution to the community Tux! :)

I don't mean to hate on whoever did up the video (it's great), but you might want to consider dubbing it with a voice that is more easily understood - a native English speaker for instance.

Nice.

That french accent makes want to puke  :-X

Also, Prestashop module please :)

sounded like someone with a French accent.  Mark?  ;)

i'm really impressed that Mark has continued to move forward with mtgox and innovations despite all the pressures, hacks, complaints, and adverse events over the last year. 

i think Mark has nerves of steel and turns out to be just the kind of person we needed to run mtgox.

Very nice. Can't wait to see the first shops start to use it.

I noticed the example in the video is a microtransaction valued around 25 cents. This is a significant distinction from other payment options.

I love the french video, it makes me want to watch it over and over  ;D

^ This! And I can't wait until more realize it.

Did they hire Jean Dujardin for the voice over the video ?

what is the process like on customer's end paying with MTGOX account balance? is it similar to PP's login and confirm?

LMAO
awesome accent

Pretty much, the video shows the details.

This looks awesome, but given the horror stories regarding MtGox customer service, you guys better make sure you have the customer service personnel available on hand.  Right now, I don't believe that you do, or are anywhere close.

Just how many staff members do you have, anyway?

But good luck.  I hope this works nicely for merchants and customers alike.

Nice work!

How will you deal with merchant and buyer disputes? Especially buyers who are hacked on merchant's websites?

I would be very interested in this if my account wasn't currently GOXED...    ;D

Will these transactions also be "ridiculously free", or will they be subject to the current trading fee schedule?  (or something else entirely?)

Better would be to cash out into as many currencies as you want, with adjustable percentages for each.

Awesome.

I would say this is not really the case, because you can pay with your own wallet or some other provider. I.e. it's even better than paypal, because paypal knows from where you money actually comes from.

edit: +1 to the french accent, gives it an awkward twist and entertainment factor  8)

Waahahaha what's going on with the french

He does sound like Pepe Le Pew. French accents make everyone sound sexah.

+1 for the accent :-)

The vid gives the impression that you always have to wait upto 1 hour when you don't pay with MtGox. You should probably clarify that this is depending on the merchants setting and he cuold require 0 confirmations.
(although I do understand that it helps you getting more customers...  ;))

Mark should do a video on Introduction to the Wonderful World of Bitcoin in Jacques Cousteau (famous oceanographer) style  ;D
Definitely glad to see this service finally going public.

Heya.. is the number of confirmations setting only in the Magento module or is it somehow settable in the API directly (or via settings on mtgox.com?)... I couldn't see any docs on how to do it via the API?

thanks!

We will add this IPN in the API so you should this that in the coming few hours (hopefully)

Regards

Cool, thanks for the update to the docs / API!

A couple questions still.. it isn't clear from the docs, in the case of a non-mtgox bitcoin spend, there will first be an IPN call with a status=partial, correct? Then will there be another IPN call eventually with a status=paid? Will there by any others in between as more confirmations are received or just two, one at 0 confirmations and one at 6? Or more if they pay with various addresses and the btc are all at various states of confirmation?

Also, I did a test where I set 0.001 BTC  "by accident" for a 0.0001 BTC order.. I was credited the 0.0001 asked for instead of the full 0.001 that was actually sent. Where did the 0.0009 difference go? I think you should probably just pass on the full amount sent, even if it's more than the amount asked for, right? So the merchant can notice and refund the difference or credit the account or whatever? Or am I missing something? (transaction a37fc3b0-6564-46a6-86b1-310c532c61d3)

Also....

It seems like you don't send an IPN when a transaction is canceled (although you have a status=cancelled documented.. when would that be sent)?

Also, some typos: "secondes" instead of "seconds" when you successfully pay, and "you can even send bitcoins from dozen" instead of "you can even send bitcoins from dozens" when describing paying by bitcoin, and "when bitcoins arrives on it." instead of "when bitcoins arrive on it."

Oh yes, and if somebody clicks "standard bitcoin payment", there's no way to get back to "mt gox. instant checkout" it seems?

And.. it'd be good if you could pass in what you want the merchant name to be on the page displayed to users. Right now it just shows your login name, which may not be best for security, and also means you need to make a new account if you want it to have it say something else!

I will forward this to the Dev team and let them know!

It seems that some of you guys did not love my gorgeous, yet stylish (humor) french accent... So we made a new one for you with a nice North American voice-over ... Enjoy : https://vimeo.com/38342982

I just spoke to the DEVs and what you experienced will be fixed within 24h (The "Accident"). As for the confirmations, there are just two type either 0 or 6, nothing between. And finally the IPN for cancel orders are also coming shortly.

Thanks

Great, thanks for the updates and fixes!

FYI, I'm using the API live now at http://www.bitmadness.com/ !

Another issue, guys!

I got a payment for 0.01 BTC from an outside address, and after 7.5 hours the posts to the IPN are still saying "status=partial", even though the guys payment has 42+ confirmations now:

http://blockchain.info/address/15H4o6YdM4obyNSJY8fhKdRNfswppM4xL4

here's the last post you guys made, about 1.5 hours ago:

id=85792f12-ea6f-46a9-84d3-1bf034ca18cc&payment_id=c1a64f93-0a29-4f52-a834-becb0caea353&status=partial&amount_pending=1000000&amount_valid=0&amount_total=1000000&data=67&aonce=GAR9Z5UPH3C2RRYLDZG5

help!

Much better and now only two French words--voile X 2. The other thing I noticed is that even thought most of the time the singular and plural form of Bitcoin is use correctly, I can easily see how a first time viewer could get confused with so many references of Bitcoin, bitcoin and bitcoins. At one point in the video, she said press pay with bitcoin although the button that is clearly being pushed has written on it the plural term.

Please accept my comment(s) as corrected criticism, for I am not a wordsmith, but am capable of pointing out minor issues.

Overall, very well done, Mt Gox.

~Bruno~

Forwarding it to the DEVs

Don't worry we love your feedback, this will help us to improve!

Cheers

Any chance MtGox can add Venmo as a withdrawal option? Just withdrawal, not deposit (no chargeback concerns). It's a free way  to transfer money in US.

We can check this matter.

Should be ok now. Can you please check?

Cool, looks all good!

I see one important UI mistake: you put the mtgox balance next to the payment button, that should ofcourse be the payment amount. Putting the wallet amount right next to the payment button will only add confusion.

Hey, can I hear the old french accent video? I missed it :(

This is a great product, I will be implementing this into Mokimarket for instant bitcoin transfers.

Well noted and already forwarded to the Team in charge of this.

Thank you! Please let's us know when it is done!

Really? Coz if you went the Alpha version I am sure I can convince Mark to allow me to upload it! More seriously you can find both Videos on either our Vimeo Channel here https://vimeo.com/user10720904 or our YouTube one here http://www.youtube.com/user/MtGox

Heya!

I've got another issue with a btc payment still being marked "partial" after 20+ hours or so.. here's the relevant transaction info for you guys to check into it?


  mtgox_id: 41e0b952-6328-428e-b6c8-f516a71ad675
payment_id: 992259a9-1cf0-477b-bff9-d465b96353fb
    status: partial
    amount: 0
  currency:
    method:
     stamp: 2012-03-19 18:22:46
      data: 703
     aonce: XC8NALDG8YHJBC3XA8ZU

It's for 1 BTC.

Thanks!

Can you add LR as Withdraw method ?

Ok, I am forwarding this to the DEV.

The api link is currently down, when will it be back up?

We just tested the API on our "Super Map Store" beta site and the system work just fine. Can you please give us the message, if any, of the error?

Cheers

Will this system allow our site to accept customers to purchase something valued in bitcoin with any of the mtgox-accepted funding methods as well?

Say im selling a 1BTC starbucks map, can a user go to the checkout, pay 3,6 EUR (or whatever current market value is) with SEPA and when processed, we will receive the 1BTC?

First the client has to fund the account then he can pay.

It is well explained in the youtube video.

As stated in our press release, this system is so far for BTC to BTC, than you will have the choice to convert and withdraw your money manullay. However, soon, we will have an automatic system that will convert your BTC into USD, EUR automatically and trigger a withdraw or not (Your choice).

Another "Part" of our all E-commerce solution will be launched / announced Tuesday, this system is more "user" friendly and will help people to sell product or being paid in BTC without the needs for coding.

I guess I don't see what I have to install on my server to get this up and running.

Like where is this downloadable Magento plugin? I thought I would be able to download some software from your website.

Hi, Magento is not yet ready, we are waiting for our dev to update us on this. As for the API, well you need your dev team to have a look at the API and API documentation to adapt our system to your needs.

Any expectation on the completion of this plugin yet?

Soon, I know this is not the kind of answer you would like to hear, but we are working on it and other payment stuff at the same time that are basically all connected which explain the delay.

Cheers

What is the status on this project? Can it be implemented into my WP site?

Hi

If you are comfortable enough with any kind of API you can work on this right away, if you are not, well we will have something for your, hopefully, pretty soon.

Cheers

Does this magento module work?

Yep, only one feature is missing prior to launch= Email alert, but I am running it flawlessly on a demo store since the past week.

Is anyone using this on their site?

I did a test order on my friend's site for $0.20 17mins ago, and it shows one confirmation so far.
The bitcoins someone sent me 30mins ago is at three confirmations so far.
Is someone supposed to sit at the confirmation page for 30-60 minutes for confirmation
for six?

What exactly are these confirmations and why is this taking so long? I'd assume this would
get a lot of complaints.

Great to see bitpay is getting some competition.
More options is always better for Bitcoin.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Confirmation

Bitcoin POS system's is still not quite where it should be...

the confirmations should be transparent to the customers, their is no reason it can't be. If the TX is fraudulent the POS will find out after a few confirmation and can cancel the order, this should happen under the hood. the user should be notified "thank you for your payment" with 0 Confirmations.

Thanks.
For anyone interested, this is what the final page looks like.
It now has six confirmations, 45mins after the transaction started.
But the screen has not changed yet, and no money in mtgox account.
This is not acceptable.

http://i49.tinypic.com/23mk21z.jpg

eight confirmations now

Please contact the support, there must be a problem somewhere

I don't get this. So the screen above could stay like that for up to 24 hours?
And the person is sitting there wondering what is going on?
And it can take up to one day before the money is into the account?
This can't be right?

Okay, I'm not sure if they fixed it, or if I just had the bad luck of an error last night.
But I did a test order today, and after the bitcoins were sent. It said there was no money there, but some were pending.
So it atleast tells the customer the coins were sent but need to be confirmed. This gives peace of mind atleast.
Payment was sent 20mins ago. No confirmations yet.

I really think its best not to show the user confirmations pending...

the user can get "thanks for payment" with 0 confirmations
and the merchant can get "customer paid for item" after 3-6 confirmations
also the user could get a " payment confirmed " email msg after 3-6 confirmations
but the user must not feel the need to wait 3-6 confirmations this is ridiculous, and unnecessary.

Here is the exact message. What do you think?
http://i47.tinypic.com/16jhmkk.jpg

Well there are now 10 confirmations, and the above screen still showing.
Though it's an improvement, I think it's really stupid to display that screen, when it's going to take several hours, possibly a day
before mtgox approves the money in the account. Some people could be checking confirmations to see when it's going to be finalized
and wonder why it's not changed.

Also, I want to post this, so hopefully it can get some attention from the devlopers.

All orders come in as 'processing' and never switch to let you know it was paid.
If someone closes out of their screen, their order is not canceled it is still processing. This leaves confusion for actually paid orders.

What makes matters worse is that it takes numerous hours to get payment confirmation, possibly 12-24 hours. We could have a dozen new orders, or a dozen new canceled orders (both look the same) before we see money in our mtgox account. We then have to go back and try and figure out which order the payment was from.

What needs to happen is if the payment is canceled or screen is closed out, the order is canceled.
If payment is made it should say pending or processing. Then once funds are confirmed it needs to be switched to confirmed, or somethign along those lines.
It's not efficient for the website owner to have to spend an hour a day sorting through which orders are real and which were canceled.

The 12-24 hours before payment confirmation is also ridiculous. A customer places and order, and instead of it possibly being shipped out the same day,
it's going to take 1-2 days for payment to be confirmed.

i think MTGox missed the crucial selling point in their video which turned people off of it..

using an instant access media store as the bases of the demonstration is not a good selling point as it then emphasises bitcoins woes (the confirms)

either risk processing orders with no confirms or change the video to represent a clothing/gadgets delivery website, or something that would atleast hide away the requirement for customers to sit and wait for confirms just to get what they want. but allow them to get on with their lives and just receive an email that says the order has been confirmed later that day. knowing the product should now be on its 3 day journey through a warehouse, postal service and to their door.

The video doesn't convince me at all. Ok, the french accent (WTF is a mongos account??) is fixed but the checkout page with the "pay with mtGox or with bitcoin" is over-complicating things. MtGox should rather honor all kind of green addresses with 0-conf and treat Mongos' payments as "green" no matter what sending address was used.

Is it a competitor for BitPay? I don't think so as the merchant will not get rid of the Bitcoin related hassle. BitPay promises the merchant does not need to know a thing about Bitcoin in order to use their service. Offering the same most likely is more a marketing/political decision than a technical issue for Mongos though.

Well this is just stupid now, I guess I'm going to switch to bitpay.
I did another test order, about seven hours ago. After about six hours, and like 15 confirmations, the amount was sent back to me.

let us know how bitpay works out for you