@noagendamarket: I completely agree.

Canada's emperor is Sandy McTire. He's my hero.

Hey guys,

Just an update. After talking to the banks in great detail (Yes, they're open. We already had our Thanksgiving up here. We can't wait for turkey. ) I came to the following conclusions:

If I sell reloadable cards or sell US$ cards I have to collect everyone's identification, keep it on file, and submit it to Visa. There are also a pile of other KYC regulations I'd have to comply with once I even touch US$. If I touch US$ I have to comply with US laws by proxy. The USA has a lot more laws regarding this sort of stuff than Canada does.

Now for some good news:

1. I just refilled the card inventory again. I was running low -- again.

2. I am now able to load cards up to $500 instead of $100. I am in the process of getting $250 and $500 cards. The higher priced cards make the fees a lot easier to swallow. I might discontinue the $25 card in the near future for this reason. Thoughts?

3. I am under a pile of paperwork right now to get setup as a high volume reseller. Once this happens my costs will go way down and I'll pass the savings onto the customer. I'll likely just match the retail price.

Cheers!
The Madhatter

Okay, don't tell the truth then.

From my experience; if the merchant number provider doesn't understand what you are selling your application is denied, or you have to put up a large deposit.

Edit: I really do wish you the best. If you can keep your shirt on, and not get steamrolled by fraudsters, you will be running the single most important piece of 'Bitcoin machinery'.

4. What did you really tell your merchant number provider that you are selling?

The cards are priced internally as CAD$ then converted to BTC.

So, to answer your question you are technically paying CAD to get CAD.

Check the FAQ on the site. It'll answer all of your questions.

Cheers!

I hoard them until Bitcoin fails! Bwhahaha! j/k

I sell them on Bitcoin 4 Cash.

Yes, as far as I know.

The only thing I'm not sure is if they work with PayPal or not.

Thank you, Bruce.

Yes, it is very real -- I promise. Scouts' honor!

Okay, I'll add you to my list.

I want to wait until I see if I can get US$ numbers or not first.

Hey all,

Just made some progress over at Bitcoin Directory. Yes, I know the site is as ugly as sin -- it will get a much needed redesign soon. The Internet is, unfortunately, more about quantity than quality in most cases.

Anyway, I am now holding the top spots on the search engines for "Bitcoin Directory" and other related keywords and traffic is climbing. I've decided to monetize the traffic a tad by selling a top banner spot in each category.

You can check out some of the ads I'm running by browsing the site. You can also check out the Bitcoin Directory Advertise page. In true "madhatter fashion" it is to straight to the point with no added "bs".

Cheers!

A friend of mine is a large commercial banking customer. I was able to persuade him to use his leverage and his bank accounts. It's all about who you know.

Sure, I could have used gift cards but the prices for them are way too high. It's really the difference between paying retail and paying wholesale.

Anyway... I digress... lol

Lol!

Card9 is funny. The cards are not backed by Visa or Mastercard so they're useless in my opinion. It's basically a loyalty card program.

I have a meeting at my bank later today to see if I can get US$ Visa numbers.

I agree. I can't send a layperson to it and expect them to grasp the concept.

BitcoinMe.com makes a great attempt at explaining what it is. I've started sending people to it.

Okay, email me your server details and I'll get something installed.

Fragment? Oh, I was talking about the Bitcoin to virtual credit card market.

Okay, we should probably talk via PM and get this stuff rolling.

Okay, great.

The current system is a very very small set of PHP scripts with a MySQL backend. You guys will either have to setup some hosting (I'm currently using a VPS at link2voip, and a privacyshark domain.. lol.. all paid for with BTC) and a domain name or you'll have to trust me to host it for you. Either way the desired effect is virtually the same. (Probably best if you hosted it.. distributed, distributed, distributed... lol)

We should cross-promote the sites too. "For USD Cards click here" or something like that. Perhaps just a pulldown menu with currencies and a "take me there" button.

The site is tied in with mybitcoin and I have the mybitcoin account setup to just bounce the coins to my main wallet here. So each of you will need a mybitcoin account with a similar setup. I can set this up for you and let you login and change the password to lock me out of it.

I spent an entire day coding this system so I'd like to be compensated for my time in building the initial system -- payable in Bitcoins of course. My compensation was supposed to eventually be made from the commissions on the cards. A dream that won't be realized if the market is about to fragment. I also understand that fragmenting this is a very good thing for the community.

After compensation/setup it's basically a free for all. You can redistribute the software to your heart's content. Also I will provide all of the support required to install and setup the software and get each of you up and running independently. You are likely to run into different snags getting setup and I promise to iron them all out.

Do we have an accord?

Hey.. wait a second!!!

What if we cloned this site for Australia and the USA?

We don't need to compete. Personally, I see this as a public service. The more of these systems we have in place, the better.

What do you guys think?

Hahahaha!

I'll call my banks in the morning and see if they can do US$ card numbers for me. No promises.