Why is there no easy USD <--> BTC conversion?

[guszz]

Hey everyone,
I have just started learning a little about bitcoin, and I could be wrong, but it seems to me there is no easy way to convert USD to BTC and vice-versa.

I can create a website that would make this conversion both ways absolutely dead simple. Probably involving PayPal and BTC. Unless I'm mistaken on some facts, I know I can do something like this pretty easily.

Is there any reasons something like this doesn't exist? Are there legal problems, would no one use something like this?

Thanks, and I look forward to learning more 

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[01BTC10]

PayPal is prone to chargeback. Bitcoin payment are irreversible. It is also against PayPal TOS to sell currency.

[bitsource]

Bitcoins and Paypal doesn't mix easily. In any conflict - you will most certainly be on the loosing end. Speaking from personal experience; with chargebacks and scammers you loose the coins - and the money.

[crashoveride54902]

PayPal is prone to chargeback. Bitcoin payment are irreversible. It is also against PayPal TOS to sell currency.

hit the nail on the head...which sucks because i like paypal...but pretty much anything that can have a chargeback is why it's so hard because that's what scammers do so you can thank them

[DannyHamilton]

. . . Probably involving PayPal and BTC . . .

Imagine that I come to your website to acquire some BTC.  I send you $1000 via PayPal.  Then you send me my BTC.

As soon as I receive my BTC, I contact PayPal.  Perhaps I tell them that my account was hacked and I didn't send those bitcoins (perhaps it isn't even my account and I actually did hack someone else's PayPal account).  Perhaps I tell them that you never delivered the requested item.  Either way PayPal credits back the bitcoins to the account they came from, and removes them from you and your website.

How many times could your business survive activity like this before you decide that you are loosing too much money and shut down your site?

This is why you don't find many easy ways to convert PayPal to BTC.  Nobody with BTC wants to risk losing money to people who will use fraud to convince PayPal to reverse the charges (then they are out both their BTC and their PayPal money).  Those who have tried generally encounter exactly the above situation and then shut down their business.

[guszz]

OK, so PayPal has to be avoided completely. There must still be an easier way, though.

Isn't transferring money to and from checking accounts a fairly easy process? Are there any other possible methods?

[Braincraze]

Why cash in, spend it on the Silk Road.

[DeathAndTaxes]

I can create a website that would make this conversion both ways absolutely dead simple. Probably involving PayPal and BTC.

Your site would be amazingly popular ... with scammers and you would be bankrupt within a month.

[DeathAndTaxes]

OK, so PayPal has to be avoided completely. There must still be an easier way, though.

Isn't transferring money to and from checking accounts a fairly easy process? Are there any other possible methods?

coinbase currently offers that.  Not sure how you would make it easier.  Also  currently ACH can be reversed they are harder than PayPal/CC (which a brain dead chimp can use to steal BTC) but they can be reversed.  So it isn't as easy ans plop down a sign and watch the coins roll in.  

[DannyHamilton]

. . . Isn't transferring money to and from checking accounts a fairly easy process? . . .

I've seen a few posts from people here on bitcointalk who claim to have been scammed after using a bank transfer to receive payment that was later reversed.

Here's one from about a month ago:

I sold £200 of bitcoins to - https://localbitcoins.com/accounts/profile/cooperjoe1/ - by instant bank transfer and they paid me with stolen details.  Now my bank account is frozen and now my Christmas money has not been paid in.

[XxionxX]

I think coinbase.com is easy. I don't even have to use my credit card! Direct withdrawal and deposit, low fees, and great security. It is a thousand times better than PayPal imo.

[BTCdude007]

Coinbase seems pretty straightforward but they do skim 1%. What are MtGox fees by comparison?

[RyNinDaCleM]

Coinbase seems pretty straightforward but they do skim 1%. What are MtGox fees by comparison?

.6% to start, with lower fees the more you trade.  The lowest being .25% after a whopping 500,000 volume in 30 days.

[XxionxX]

Cheap, fast, easy. Pick any two.