[ANN] Pay for DDOS Protection with Bitcoin! BlackLotus

[BitPay Business Solutions]

BitPay is excited to announce our newest merchant, Black Lotus, which offers DDOS protection services.

http://blacklotus.net

Normally I would not make a thread to announce a new merchant like this, but with all of the DDOS attacks coming to bitcoin businesses, all bitcoin webmasters should know that there's a protection service that can accept our money.

http://www.blacklotus.net/payments

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[Stephen Gornick]

BitPay is excited to announce our newest merchant, Black Lotus, which offers DDOS protection services.

Wow, awesome!

This is evidence of the "supply chain" starting to fill out.

All merchants themselves have bills to pay and when those merchants that accept Bitcoin payments can in-turn pay their own bills using bitcoins then they can hold onto them instead of always cashing the bitcoin revenues out to fiat.  

I think of this each time I have to cash out some of my bitcoins to pay a recurring monthly bill.  I lose a little in exchange fees when I cash out and because I am paying the bill with a credit card I know that the merchant is taking a hit on the merchant fees as well.   When that merchant has more options for paying its bills using bitcoins it will be more likely to start accepting bitcoins for payment as well.  

Each additional merchant in the supply chain that accepts bitcoins adds a link that extends the length of the virtuous cycle.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

BitPay is excited to announce our newest merchant, Black Lotus, which offers DDOS protection services.

http://blacklotus.net

Normally I would not make a thread to announce a new merchant like this, but with all of the DDOS attacks coming to bitcoin businesses, all bitcoin webmasters should know that there's a protection service that can accept our money.

http://www.blacklotus.net/payments

Is this the announcement we were expecting yesterday? If it is, then welcome to the Wright-BFL club. 

This is great news, Tony (or is it Steve?).

~Bruno K~

[Jan]

I have been expecting DDOS businesses to join for some time. Bitcoin companies (unfortunately) have a lot of business for them.

[cedivad]

BlackLotus?
Seriusly?
Amazing!!!
Now we only miss rackspace and ovh, we are done!

Bit pay is doing an amazing job!

[Comodore]

Oh, this is amazing how inovations come in short time all at once

[Gabi]

Wow, this is great!

[Steve]

Is this the announcement we were expecting yesterday? If it is, then welcome to the Wright-BFL club. 

This is great news, Tony (or is it Steve?).

It's Tony, he does all the PR posting.  I gave him a good beat down over that pre-announcement thing.    BlackLotus is not what he was referring to, but it's also not anything on the scale of the WordPress news.

[jimbobway]

Is this the announcement we were expecting yesterday? If it is, then welcome to the Wright-BFL club. 

This is great news, Tony (or is it Steve?).

It's Tony, he does all the PR posting.  I gave him a good beat down over that pre-announcement thing.    BlackLotus is not what he was referring to, but it's also not anything on the scale of the WordPress news.

Announcing a beat down on a preannouncement may deserve a beat down.  Steve should beat down Tonys announcement on the beat down of steves preannouncement of the actual announcement.

[BitPay Business Solutions]

Announcing a beat down on a preannouncement may deserve a beat down.  Steve should beat down Tonys announcement on the beat down of steves preannouncement of the actual announcement.

Nice.  or I can go to Whiskey Dicks, watch some football, drink some beer, and spend some bitcoins.

[WikileaksDude]

Lets the games begin!

Bitcoin soon to be accepted WW!

[Akka]

I like this:

redit card and PayPal transactions are subjected to extended verification to combat fraud:
Credit card
PayPal

 

The following payment methods are processed immediately upon receipt and are not subject to extended verification:
Wire transfer
Check or money order
Bitcoin
Liberty Reserve
WebMoney (WMZ)

The only Options that are as comfortable as Bitcoin Payment require additional verification, so Bitcoin is the best way to pay there.

[BCB]

Tony,  That's great news.

Are you aware of this.

http://www.000webhost.com/directory/reviews/blacklotus.net

If it's true it makes sense they want to accept non reversible bitcoin.

I love the fact that you are expanding your business (an congrats on the WP deal!)

But i hope it is for the right reasons.

[FreeMoney]

Tony,  That's great news.

Are you aware of this.

http://www.000webhost.com/directory/reviews/blacklotus.net

If it's true it makes sense they want to accept non reversible bitcoin.

I love the fact that you are expanding your business (an congrats on the WP deal!)

But i hope it is for the right reasons.

Well damn.

[Comodore]

http://www.web-hosting-top.com/review/blacklotus.net

Also very bad reputation
http://www.webhostingstuff.com/comments/BlackLotusCommunications-32205.html
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/blacklotus.net

Rather go far far away. This site smell like a shit.

[cedivad]

I must be confusing this company with another one if they really have negative reviews!

[damnek]

Wasn't MTGox getting protection from BlackLotus last year? Maybe they can say something about their experience with them.

[Desolator]

I wonder if this is the same BlackLotus from DDO on Orien.  If so, yeah, scumbag to the 10th degree.

[repentance]

I think of this each time I have to cash out some of my bitcoins to pay a recurring monthly bill.  I lose a little in exchange fees when I cash out and because I am paying the bill with a credit card I know that the merchant is taking a hit on the merchant fees as well.  

I'm always kind of curious about why people use credit cards to pay their monthly bills if they object to the way the processing system is set up.  Is there no simple way of paying your bills by direct deposit in the US because that's how people here pay things like their rent, their electricity bills, their car registration and insurance, their phone bills, etc.  The money in the merchant's account within a couple of days (often overnight and it can be the same day if customers are with the same bank).

I only use my Mastercard when the merchant doesn't accept direct deposit or where they'll only ship immediately for credit card transactions.

The following payment methods are processed immediately upon receipt and are not subject to extended verification:
Wire transfer
Check or money order
Bitcoin
Liberty Reserve
WebMoney (WMZ)[/.quote]

Why would you not apply extended verification to cheques and money orders when the first bounce on a regular basis and the second are counterfeited/stolen often enough to be cautious about supplying goods and services until you've been able to cash them?

[Steve]

I'm always kind of curious about why people use credit cards to pay their monthly bills if they object to the way the processing system is set up.  Is there no simple way of paying your bills by direct deposit in the US because that's how people here pay things like their rent, their electricity bills, their car registration and insurance, their phone bills, etc.  The money in the merchant's account within a couple of days (often overnight and it can be the same day if customers are with the same bank).

I think most people pay their monthly bills using electronic bill pay from their bank's website.

[Stephen Gornick]

I'm always kind of curious about why people use credit cards to pay their monthly bills if they object to the way the processing system is set up.  Is there no simple way of paying your bills by direct deposit in the US

Some merchants want the customer to sign up for EFT / bank transfer.  But that is a pull-based system.  So when using that the customer gives the merchant permission to pull funds from the customer's bank account.  Of course, this is convenient but it hands all the control over to the merchant.   This is a problem particularly with subscription-based services or utilities whose business model depends on making it difficult for the customer to stop service (take your pick -- cell phone service, cable, gym membership, etc.).  

There's ones that require a credit card number where they have automation and issue a charge against the card each month.  But at least with that I can put a stop to further charges by draining the available funds from the card (to prevent a successful authorization attempt) or if needed, canceling the card.

[IRCCo Jeff]

Good evening, my name is Jeff and I represent Black Lotus. I finally made it out of Newbie purgatory and intend to be a regular on these forums.

I wonder if this is the same BlackLotus from DDO on Orien.  If so, yeah, scumbag to the 10th degree.

I do not know what DDO or Orien is, so I can safely say we have no part in that rant.

Wasn't MTGox getting protection from BlackLotus last year? Maybe they can say something about their experience with them.

Yes, they were. They're with Prolexic now, and probably paying about 10 - 15 times as much as a result 

I would like to address the matter of these "reviews." None of the sites mentioned in this thread are genuine review sites. Anyone who wants to libel a competitor can easily swamp those sites with fabricated reviews without any type of validation or even disclosing their identity. If you do your research, I think you'll find that our reputation is beyond reproach in this industry.

In any case, we're glad to be here and happy to begin accepting Bitcoin. BitPay is doing great work in helping bridge the gap between traditional and alternative currencies, allowing us to venture into this new territory without having to stress over out-exchange.

[Gabi]

Welcome!

[hazek]

Welcome!

Yeah welcome from me too and just a quick question that I just thought of thinking about all this fantastic news lately of many businesses signing up with bitpay, Jeff, have you given any thought yet to managing your own Bitcoin wallet? I'm asking because, although I think what bitpay does it terrific, eventually I'd hope to see companies hold onto some of the bitcoins they get instead of instantly converting them. Any thoughts on this?

[Steve]

Welcome!

Yeah welcome from me too and just a quick question that I just thought of thinking about all this fantastic news lately of many businesses signing up with bitpay, Jeff, have you given any thought yet to managing your own Bitcoin wallet? I'm asking because, although I think what bitpay does it terrific, eventually I'd hope to see companies hold onto some of the bitcoins they get instead of instantly converting them. Any thoughts on this?

Many merchants start out converting everything to USD (or other local currency), but then after some period of time start increasing the percentage they keep in BTC.  Merchants will probably need to convert some of their receivables into local currency for quite a while (until more of their supply chain accepts BTC), but this is a very good sign.  We also caution them about wallet security, etc (it's still far too easy to make a mistake and have bitcoins lost or stolen...for that reason, I think it's too early for the average person to keep any significant savings in BTC).

[justusranvier]

Many merchants start out converting everything to USD (or other local currency), but then after some period of time start increasing the percentage they keep in BTC.

Does your fee prorate based on the percentage received in BTC vs local currency?

[BCB]

Theymos. Didn't the bitcointalk server get hit by a DDOS attack a while back? 

BlackLotus  maybe you could offer some protection as a service to the community if it happens again.

[IRCCo Jeff]

Theymos. Didn't the bitcointalk server get hit by a DDOS attack a while back? 

BlackLotus  maybe you could offer some protection as a service to the community if it happens again.

I would be happy to do so if the appropriate person wishes to reach out to me.

Regarding keeping our own Bitcoin, the problem we run into is that banks and investors will not regard BTC as "real money," meaning revenue we earn by BTC that is not "repatriated" does not count as revenue, and impacts our perceived performance. In our current stage of growth this is a very real issue for us.

[Stephen Gornick]

Many merchants start out converting everything to USD (or other local currency), but then after some period of time start increasing the percentage they keep in BTC.

Does your fee prorate based on the percentage received in BTC vs local currency?

I think the following, from another thread, answers your question:

Merchants can now split their proceeds into two currencies. For example, a merchant can elect to receive 20% bitcoins and 80% Canadian Dollars. The processing fees are only applied to the prorated amount that is to be converted.

[FreeMoney]

Theymos. Didn't the bitcointalk server get hit by a DDOS attack a while back? 

BlackLotus  maybe you could offer some protection as a service to the community if it happens again.

I would be happy to do so if the appropriate person wishes to reach out to me.

Regarding keeping our own Bitcoin, the problem we run into is that banks and investors will not regard BTC as "real money," meaning revenue we earn by BTC that is not "repatriated" does not count as revenue, and impacts our perceived performance. In our current stage of growth this is a very real issue for us.

Are you looking for investors now?

[IRCCo Jeff]

Theymos. Didn't the bitcointalk server get hit by a DDOS attack a while back? 

BlackLotus  maybe you could offer some protection as a service to the community if it happens again.

I would be happy to do so if the appropriate person wishes to reach out to me.

Regarding keeping our own Bitcoin, the problem we run into is that banks and investors will not regard BTC as "real money," meaning revenue we earn by BTC that is not "repatriated" does not count as revenue, and impacts our perceived performance. In our current stage of growth this is a very real issue for us.

Are you looking for investors now?

Please contact me in private and we'll discuss.