Purchase Bitcoins from your iPhone.

[casascius]

Coming off the back burner.

Situation: We actually got some legit members participating in the program for the purpose of handing out rewards,

What I learned: It seems that i need to be really careful here with stollen or hacked apple gift cards.

What you will soon learn in a way you seemingly deserve:  shit man that sucked, what a total waste of time AND my bitcoins.  I should have listened to those guys warning me.  I am so sad I sent my bitcoins to scammers when they were still $19 and have nothing to show for it.

[armenmerikyan]

Coming off the back burner.

Situation: We actually got some legit members participating in the program for the purpose of handing out rewards,

What I learned: It seems that i need to be really careful here with stollen or hacked apple gift cards.

What you will soon learn in a way you seemingly deserve:  shit man that sucked, what a total waste of time AND my bitcoins.  I should have listened to those guys warning me.  I am so sad I sent my bitcoins to scammers when they were still $19 and have nothing to show for it.

I will not fail.

[Driice]

Same result, people are buying the brownie coins with jail broken phones. this project is going on the back burner.


Thank you all for you feedback and support

I don't use any apple products so what's so bad about someone using a jail broken iPhone? If I had one I would probably JB it for customization.

[Moshi]

Same result, people are buying the brownie coins with jail broken phones. this project is going on the back burner.


Thank you all for you feedback and support

I don't use any apple products so what's so bad about someone using a jail broken iPhone? If I had one I would probably JB it for customization.

I'm pretty certain that there are applications on Cydia which allow for free in-app purchases.

I was going to suggest some funky alternative, but all my ideas degenerated into "do [mundane action] for miniscule amounts of Bitcoins as incentive to participate". Those suck.

[armenmerikyan]

I can verify the purchase with apple before sending out the bitcoins.

[Driice]

I can verify the purchase with apple before sending out the bitcoins.

You should specify in your app that their device can't be jailbroken the or the order will be reversed

[Moshi]

I can verify the purchase with apple before sending out the bitcoins.

That may work well with something small-scale like this little application, but would something like that be feasible in a relatively automated application made for, say, 1,000 times the volume you're dealing with?

[armenmerikyan]

This system is giving me so much insight into my user base and the process makes it very hard to do any scam that is worth the money.

[notig]

There is a 90 day window people can charge back. Scammers in general aren't stupid. They won't charge back right away. Then you will pull the app if they do. So instead it's smarter to wait to charge back until you are milked of bitcoins.

[armenmerikyan]

There is a 90 day window people can charge back. Scammers in general aren't stupid. They won't charge back right away. Then you will pull the app if they do. So instead it's smarter to wait to charge back until you are milked of bitcoins.

where are you getting your info can you please post some references

[armenmerikyan]

What are other options that will allow people to purchase bitcoins using their smart phones ?

I was thinking of couple of things here.
1. implementing push notifications to verify that the user is on an actually smartphone device, like sending a APNS message with a pin that they must use when they want to obtain bitcoins. This process can extend to phone verification and text message verification.  
2. Prior to getting the bitcoins user must upload a picture of themselves and photoid (this may be far fetched)
3. Getting users GPS location from the smartphone device and passing that on as part of the transaction.
4. Getting users device id to ensure that the user is not using the same device for multiple accounts.
5. mining the purchase patterns to identify fraud.
6. blocking certain devices from participating in the program, this would be done using the device id associated with a given device, every time a scammer want to cheat the system they would need a new iPhone device.

Some challenges that i am faced with, Yes it's the usual suspects. At least i have control over my user database. unlike paypal and ebay or localbitcoins.com

1. Stolen or Hacked iTunes gift card (this is the biggest issue i am facing right now)
2. Stolen credit cards (This one won't be a hugh problem for the seller)
3. Stolen iPhone accounts (This one won't be a problem for the seller).

[armenmerikyan]

I can verify the purchase with apple before sending out the bitcoins.

That may work well with something small-scale like this little application, but would something like that be feasible in a relatively automated application made for, say, 1,000 times the volume you're dealing with?

I think it's very possible to combine some cloud services with the capabilities of smart phones. and have a scalable solutions that solves this very basic problem.

[John (John K.)]

I can verify the purchase with apple before sending out the bitcoins.

That may work well with something small-scale like this little application, but would something like that be feasible in a relatively automated application made for, say, 1,000 times the volume you're dealing with?

I think it's very possible to combine some cloud services with the capabilities of smart phones. and have a scalable solutions that solves this very basic problem.

I think he means that you'll need to hire people to compare the purchases with Apple if the volume is huge enough. Is that the only way to prevent people from hacking the app?

I haven't got around to download and play with the app, but it seems to be a good way to turn funds to Bitcoins quickly. Is the markup significant enough to cover the losses? How's the pricing details?

[DeathAndTaxes]

Its over $50 per BTC so I think the markup is "sufficient".

[Moshi]

Its over $50 per BTC so I think the markup is "sufficient".

Last time I checked, it was something closer to $2000.

I could confirm this, but I'm having some issues with logging in, whereas I'm told there is an "unknown error". I sure hope I didn't loose my 14,000 Brownie Coins. Restarting it has either lead to the same issue or an un-closable keyboard prompt with no fields to enter in.

EDIT: Is this possibly because I'm using an iPod Touch rather than an iPhone? If so, why was I able to log in the first time?

[casascius]

Some challenges that i am faced with, Yes it's the usual suspects. At least i have control over my user database. unlike paypal and ebay or localbitcoins.com

1. Stolen or Hacked iTunes gift card (this is the biggest issue i am facing right now)
2. Stolen credit cards (This one won't be a hugh problem for the seller)
3. Stolen iPhone accounts (This one won't be a problem for the seller).

Of course, don't forget any of the following inconvenient things you agreed to when you accepted the license agreement for the developer program.

1. iOS Developer Program License Agreement Attachment 2 section 2.1, where you have agreed not to use the In-App Purchase API to set up a pre-paid account to create balances or credits that can be redeemed or use to purchase things later.

2. iOS Developer Program License Agreement Attachment 2 section 2.2, where you have agreed not to let users use the In-App Purchase API to buy any kind of credits, points, currency, or anything else to be used for gifting, exchange, redemption, transfer, trading, or purchasing anything outside your application.

3. iOS Developer Program License Agreement section 11, where you have agreed to indemnify Apple for any and all claims, losses, liabilities, damages, taxes, expenses and costs, including without limitation, attorneys’ fees and court costs (collectively, "Losses") related to your breach of their agreement.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/03/26/report-apple-forces.html

[armenmerikyan]

Some challenges that i am faced with, Yes it's the usual suspects. At least i have control over my user database. unlike paypal and ebay or localbitcoins.com

1. Stolen or Hacked iTunes gift card (this is the biggest issue i am facing right now)
2. Stolen credit cards (This one won't be a hugh problem for the seller)
3. Stolen iPhone accounts (This one won't be a problem for the seller).

Of course, don't forget any of the following inconvenient things you agreed to when you accepted the license agreement for the developer program.

1. iOS Developer Program License Agreement Attachment 2 section 2.1, where you have agreed not to use the In-App Purchase API to set up a pre-paid account to create balances or credits that can be redeemed or use to purchase things later.

2. iOS Developer Program License Agreement Attachment 2 section 2.2, where you have agreed not to let users use the In-App Purchase API to buy any kind of credits, points, currency, or anything else to be used for gifting, exchange, redemption, transfer, trading, or purchasing anything outside your application.

3. iOS Developer Program License Agreement section 11, where you have agreed to indemnify Apple for any and all claims, losses, liabilities, damages, taxes, expenses and costs, including without limitation, attorneys’ fees and court costs (collectively, "Losses") related to your breach of their agreement.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/03/26/report-apple-forces.html

Dude you are funny, your going to claim that you are a lawyer now. I have built multi million dollar systems for the electric company, entertainment companies and so on. you don't think I can solution this thing. We will see how this turns out.

[armenmerikyan]

Its over $50 per BTC so I think the markup is "sufficient".

Last time I checked, it was something closer to $2000.

I could confirm this, but I'm having some issues with logging in, whereas I'm told there is an "unknown error". I sure hope I didn't loose my 14,000 Brownie Coins. Restarting it has either lead to the same issue or an un-closable keyboard prompt with no fields to enter in.

EDIT: Is this possibly because I'm using an iPod Touch rather than an iPhone? If so, why was I able to log in the first time?

You should try to shutdown the app and start it again, you will not loose your points unless you used an invalid email address.

[armenmerikyan]

Some challenges that i am faced with, Yes it's the usual suspects. At least i have control over my user database. unlike paypal and ebay or localbitcoins.com

1. Stolen or Hacked iTunes gift card (this is the biggest issue i am facing right now)
2. Stolen credit cards (This one won't be a hugh problem for the seller)
3. Stolen iPhone accounts (This one won't be a problem for the seller).

Of course, don't forget any of the following inconvenient things you agreed to when you accepted the license agreement for the developer program.

1. iOS Developer Program License Agreement Attachment 2 section 2.1, where you have agreed not to use the In-App Purchase API to set up a pre-paid account to create balances or credits that can be redeemed or use to purchase things later.

2. iOS Developer Program License Agreement Attachment 2 section 2.2, where you have agreed not to let users use the In-App Purchase API to buy any kind of credits, points, currency, or anything else to be used for gifting, exchange, redemption, transfer, trading, or purchasing anything outside your application.

3. iOS Developer Program License Agreement section 11, where you have agreed to indemnify Apple for any and all claims, losses, liabilities, damages, taxes, expenses and costs, including without limitation, attorneys’ fees and court costs (collectively, "Losses") related to your breach of their agreement.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/03/26/report-apple-forces.html

The link you used is dated "Posted on March 26, 2009 by Rob Beschizza". The world has changed since and technology moves fast. Google is not going to win this argument for you as matter of fact we got your input and it has been well documented on this tread. STOP repeating the same thing over and over again.

[John (John K.)]

Update

I am adjusting the price of bitcoins, some user are complaining about the price.

1.0 BTC is about $25 USD
0.5 BTC is about $12.50 USD
0.1 BTC is about $2.50 USD
0.01 BTC is about $.99 USD

Quite reasonable prices I think. How much is Apple's cut?