What's the point of Circle, Bitpay and so on?

[neurotypical]

As far as I know, Bitcoin is supposed to be about ease of use, p2p money, fast, uncompromised, decentralized. What's the point of "payment processors" or whatever those services are called, when to use Bitcoin, all you need is to download a wallet, create any addresses you like, and start receiving payment for your work/pay others for their work? (or donating, or whatever you want to do with your money) without needing to give any personal details, and without the permission of anyone.

What the hell is really "Bitpay" and why is that a market?

[AgentofCoin]

As far as I know, Bitcoin is supposed to be about ease of use, p2p money, fast, uncompromised, decentralized. What's the point of "payment processors" or whatever those services are called, when to use Bitcoin, all you need is to download a wallet, create any addresses you like, and start receiving payment for your work/pay others for their work? (or donating, or whatever you want to do with your money) without needing to give any personal details, and without the permission of anyone.

What the hell is really "Bitpay" and why is that a market?

Those payment processors are basically there to make selling bitcoin (or buying), into your currency, easier for small/large businesses.
It allows businesses the ability to convert their btc faster than waiting for someone to come to their store and say,
"I see you sell rare books, do you also happen to have some btc for sale?". Most businesses still need to pay bills or employees in regulated currencies.

Bitpay for example, is about converting your "pay check" into bitcoin, I think with direct deposit into bitpay banks accts.

[7788bitcoin]

These services/interfaces will help people in buying/selling/using bitcoin... or else you will need to download the bitcoin core and the whole blockchain, and make sure it is sync before making any transactions...

[dothebeats]

Payment processors for bitcoin do exist because there aren't that much merchants willing to receive bitcoin as is for payments on their merchandise.

[thejaytiesto]

These services/interfaces will help people in buying/selling/using bitcoin... or else you will need to download the bitcoin core and the whole blockchain, and make sure it is sync before making any transactions...

Well this is not true. You can download a wallet for your Android/iPhone and start accepting payments in seconds. You can download Ellectrum and start acceptign payment in seconds. Hell you don't even need to download anything these days, you can use a wallet like the one blockchain.info. So I don't see your argument there.
However, I see the "there aren't enough merchants" but what we should be doing is trying to get more merchants. The ultimate goal should be that we don't need Bitpay.

[gentlemand]

They're a necessary step towards forming an eventual closed loop. Any merchant that's in business has to pay taxes, staff, suppliers, advertising. None of them will take BTC. They want their bills paid. If the merchant gives them an enthusiastic lecture about how wonderful crypto is instead then they won't get no more supply.

If I as a regular person wish to get in on Bitcoin, how else am I supposed to do it other than a Circle esque service? Cash via localbitcoins costs a fucking fortune and isn't practical on a recurring basis.  

[Jawguy]

I think that gentlemand explained it best.  If merchants want to take sales in BTC but have to pay their bills in fiat, they need an easy way to do this.  What's more, with the volitility of the bitcoin price, people who aren't interested in speculation want to get their btc back into fiat pretty quickly.

[Moonpig]

As far as I know, Bitcoin is supposed to be about ease of use, p2p money, fast, uncompromised, decentralized. What's the point of "payment processors" or whatever those services are called, when to use Bitcoin, all you need is to download a wallet, create any addresses you like, and start receiving payment for your work/pay others for their work? (or donating, or whatever you want to do with your money) without needing to give any personal details, and without the permission of anyone.

What the hell is really "Bitpay" and why is that a market?

You don't need to use them if you don't want to and ultimately they're not needed but some companies don't want to keep bitcoins and would rather have the cash directly and payment processors like bitpay do that automatically for them. Payment processors will also come in handy if a company scams you and never sends the goods so you can easily get your money back.

[maokoto]

Payment processors for bitcoin do exist because there aren't that much merchants willing to receive bitcoin as is for payments on their merchandise.

Exactly this. Payment processors ultimately exist because Bitcoin adoption is not bit enough yet. Once everyone uses Bitcoin, they will not be much needed.

[SwagGirl]

Payment processors for bitcoin do exist because there aren't that much merchants willing to receive bitcoin as is for payments on their merchandise.

Exactly this. Payment processors ultimately exist because Bitcoin adoption is not bit enough yet. Once everyone uses Bitcoin, they will not be much needed.

Bitpay and Coinbase also lock in the exchange rate and protect against volatility so they have their place.

[Trouble821]

They're a necessary step towards forming an eventual closed loop. Any merchant that's in business has to pay taxes, staff, suppliers, advertising. None of them will take BTC. They want their bills paid. If the merchant gives them an enthusiastic lecture about how wonderful crypto is instead then they won't get no more supply.

If I as a regular person wish to get in on Bitcoin, how else am I supposed to do it other than a Circle esque service? Cash via localbitcoins costs a fucking fortune and isn't practical on a recurring basis.  

Adoption is a slow process, and payment processors are necessary before mainstream adoption takes place. The US taxman was considering letting people pay their taxes in Bitcoin, and eventually we might be able to pay for everything in Bitcoin. Until that time people will need to convert to fiat to pay their bills like gentlemand said.

[Amph]

they are the catalyst for bitcoin adoption, some of them are important because they offer off-chain transaction, which avoid the need to wait for confirmations

sincerely i would prefer to have one of those payment processors to be decentralized, but they are helping bitcoin to grow, so they are fien to me

[Mickeyb]

As far as I know, Bitcoin is supposed to be about ease of use, p2p money, fast, uncompromised, decentralized. What's the point of "payment processors" or whatever those services are called, when to use Bitcoin, all you need is to download a wallet, create any addresses you like, and start receiving payment for your work/pay others for their work? (or donating, or whatever you want to do with your money) without needing to give any personal details, and without the permission of anyone.

What the hell is really "Bitpay" and why is that a market?

I see what you implying to OP so let me try to explain it to you.

We are to small to survive and to grow further without these payment processors, simple as that! These people are necessary for the Bitcoin to grow to the point when we won't need them any more in the future and we will be able to drop them and use Bitcoin as Satoshi has envisioned it.

But I don't think we can make it there without these aids. Do you know how many people would mess with Bitcoin and accept it if it wasn't for Bitpay, not too many, trust me. This gap to the mass adoption is just too big to jump over without payment processors.

[Harry Hood]

Payment processors for bitcoin do exist because there aren't that much merchants willing to receive bitcoin as is for payments on their merchandise.

Exactly this. Payment processors ultimately exist because Bitcoin adoption is not bit enough yet. Once everyone uses Bitcoin, they will not be much needed.

I disagree. First, Bitpay is different from Circle. Bitpay enables payments from fiat, for those that don't have bitcoin. The use of Bitpay should go down  if adoption of bitcoin increases. Circle is a bitcoin bank - same as Coinbase and Xapo. There will always be a need for these firms, more so as adoption increases. They offer a security and convenience that  many people appreciate.  It's much easier to buy bitcoin through Coinbase than any other method.

[gentlemand]

I disagree.

I think the OP's gist is meddling third parties in general. For better or worse, without their efforts this whole thing would still be an obscure curiosity.

[Yerm]

they only act like a payment processing system for merchants, atleast thats what bitpay does. circle is more like a wallet and exchange

[voos]

They're a necessary step towards forming an eventual closed loop. Any merchant that's in business has to pay taxes, staff, suppliers, advertising. None of them will take BTC. They want their bills paid. If the merchant gives them an enthusiastic lecture about how wonderful crypto is instead then they won't get no more supply.

If I as a regular person wish to get in on Bitcoin, how else am I supposed to do it other than a Circle esque service? Cash via localbitcoins costs a fucking fortune and isn't practical on a recurring basis.  

So you think bitcoin is dead for people outside USA and no access to these services then?

[christycalhoun]

A lot of businesses that are new to bitcoins just want to accept payments due to consumer demand. They dont want to bother converting and exchanging themselves. They may not even have any interest in the actual longevity of bitcoin.

[gentlemand]

So you think bitcoin is dead for people outside USA and no access to these services then?

There's loads of services outside the USA, often better ones. I would've thought those with no need to interact with their local currency are in a minority.

And if you're in a serviceless country and using for it buying drugs, digital goods or whatever from elsewhere, very few of those items would be available to you unless there was a fiat interface somewhere along the line.

[|Bitcoin|]

As far as I know. Bitpay is here to allows merchants to accept bitcoin easily. Without bitpay dont expect bitcoin to be supported by so many online meechants today. One good example is gyft.