BIPS, Payment Service Provider (PSP) for Merchants

[overunity]

At BIPS we offer to accept and pay out in all currencies that are supported by our bank as well as holding foreign currency accounts for as many major currency accounts as possible.
GBP is next on our list to add, but this is still going to be an international transfer as only SEPA offer next to instant bank transfers across borders, and that is only workable in EUR.

As both Britain and Denmark are not using the Euro as the main currency within our banking systems, conversions are almost always inevitable. However you can send GBP to us and we will load your account with bitcoin according to our conversion rate (fiat to bitcoin) less the actual bank fee.

Unfortunately many banks around the world still charge very high fees on international transfers, even if they are conducted in the local currency.
We are lucky to have a banking system with rather low banking fees and the max fee paid is equivalent to $7.5 USD with the lowest being $2.25 USD.

This is actually one of the reasons bitcoin is such a great way to pay. Once you have bitcoin, sending payments across borders becomes free or almost free.
However converting from fiat to bitcoin and vice versa will never be free unless banks across the globe decide to ditch the fees - and we know that will never happen.

Sure as a payment solution provider, we could open bank accounts all across the globe and it's quite possible we will have many local bank options in the future. That will not be free either though. Daily transfers to local clients accounts, possibly, but maintaining a bank account in a foreign country is certainly not free. Having said that, we will strive to make transfers as cheap as possible no matter where you are located in the world and are adding more options as fast as we possibly can.

As for atm machines at this point - Bitcoin usage and demand is still scattered over large areas and setting up such machines would carry a huge bill, which one way or another has to be paid. We will be back to regular bank atm fees for buying bitcoins this way and even that will take a long time before will be a reality.

Physical presence requires money - there is no way around it.


The probable best solution for your customers for now, would be to encourage them to buy bitcoin in bulk in order to spread bank transfer flat fees over a larger amount. And then use bitcoins to pay for services.
And even better for the long term, would be for them themselves to accept bitcoins as payments for goods and services and then spend the bitcoin with another supplier of goods accepting bitcoin.
Keep the circulation in bitcoin instead of converting back and forth to fiat. As much as possible!

Thank you for  the explanation .
I think we agree that until people can simply transfer currency into bitcoin easily(maybe never) we are at a dead end as people just will opt to pay cash ,why should they bother ? ,I cannot at the moment give them a good reason .
For now bitcoin's  use is as online cash for digital goods I'am struggling to envisage the future for bitcoin in the current physical services economy .
May be it will gather momentum as a store of value and protection mechanism against the possible failure or re-evaluation of fiat currency but it seems to have very limited use in the real economy due to it's restrictions

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[2G2BT]

BIC: http://www.theswiftcodes.com/united-kingdom

Thank you very handy link .

I still couldn't fill the form in even with all them codes .

My bank used to be Lloyds TSB .
It is now TSB and I cannot see any codes for them .
There are codes for about 6 different LTSB  so I would not know which one to use .

Thank you for the info though I will contact my bank again to see if I can get any joy

I just went to TSBs homepage and used their ask a question feature - entered Swift code and got this respeonse:

We no longer issue SWIFT codes; to make a payment to your account from overseas you will require your BIC code and IBAN number.

You can find your BIC (Branch Identifier Code) and your International Bank Account Number (IBAN) on the top of your paper statements.

And yes at the moment bitcoin is still in a building phase - in which we are all a part of - the best incentive at this point for most, is that they avoid high costs in credit card fees as more and more are placing the extra cost on the customers as well as more and more restrictions on what cards you can use.
Hope that helps!

[assortmentofsorts]

Update: BIPS node.js library updated to v0.7.0. Added rates API along with convenience methods: https://github.com/shripadk/bips

[System]

BIPS to Offer 40,000+ Merchants Using Bigcommerce the Option to Accept Payments in Bitcoin
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=314966.0

[System]

70,000+ Merchants Using Shopify Can Now Accept Payments in Bitcoin
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=319395.0

[System]

Founder & CEO of BIPS, Kris Henriksen Talks About Bitcoin Payments In Europe
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=320542.0

[Kris]

[ninjaboon]

new staff POS app looks cool.

[Kris]

Thanks, we worked hard on it.

[PaulC2K]

Is there anyone who has used their API with php who would be able to explain to me how to take their example and actually get something to present itself on a page.

I've tried the example:

Code:

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($ch, array(
CURLOPT_URL => 'https://bips.me/api/v1/sendto',
CURLOPT_USERPWD => 'apikey',
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => 'amount=1&to=1AGRQLxMmYEbBCGHaTEanSLXZnfzsGVTDF',
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH => CURLAUTH_BASIC));
curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

while using my 'sendto' API key, and i just get an empty page.

I basically need to be able to build something similar to their first screenshot example, the embedded invoice, for a shopping cart type setup. I can cope with the contents of the users order, and calculating a total, however unless i can figure out how to present the user with a payment system for that order im not going anywhere.

Can someone assist me with just the information which would turn the above into a payment processing screen for the 1btc to '1AGRQLxMmYEbBCGHaTEanSLXZnfzsGVTDF', no additional info, just display the screen asking me to send funds to the address to complete the purchase. I should be able to figure out how to send the actual info i need myself, but its all pointless if i cant understand why the example doesnt work as its provided, something else must be needed surely?

[Kris]

Hi, you will have to grep the output from curl_exec in a JSON decoded object like below:

Code:

$output = json_decode(curl_exec($ch));

This will give you a stdClass object.

Code:

{
"status": "success",
"txid": "the transaction id"
}

Access this object in PHP:

Code:

print $output->status;
print $output->txid;

[Sztef89]

Please help:

https://bips.me/merchant/test

POST parametres:
ipn: http://www.example.com
secret: secretpassword

Response:

SECRET NOT DEFINED

[Kris]

Hi, have you clicked Save Changes after writing in your Secret?

[PaulC2K]

Hi, you will have to grep the output from curl_exec in a JSON decoded object like below:

Code:

$output = json_decode(curl_exec($ch));

This will give you a stdClass object.

Code:

{
"status": "success",
"txid": "the transaction id"
}

Access this object in PHP:

Code:

print $output->status;
print $output->txid;

Hmm, thats a tiny bit of progress in terms of getting information. All i get from $output is stdClass Object ( [status] => Insufficient funds )

There are no funds, but then i wasnt aware i was asking it to tell me about the funds, i'd assumed i was trying to send 1btc to the address.

What im looking for is this:
https://ie.bips.me/includes/embedded.png
The contents of the iframe which will process the payment using the settings defined within the example code. What am i missing?

I assumed the invoice example is used to issue someone an agreed invoice, or is this what your calling the standard payment processing system? Im basically looking for something to process the payment from a shopping cart, as shown in the above image, so the total cost of the transaction and the information for it would be based on the users decisions. From what i can tell, the 'invoice' area isnt for this, and i'd assumed the invoice example tied to the issuing of invoices.

[Sztef89]

Hi, have you clicked Save Changes after writing in your Secret?

Nope thank you, its ok now

[Kris]

#PaulC2K that is BIPS Invoice, you will utilize the Invoice API for creating those.

See more here, https://bips.me/connect/BitcoinInternetPaymentSystemAPI.pdf

[PaulC2K]

#PaulC2K that is BIPS Invoice, you will utilize the Invoice API for creating those.

See more here, https://bips.me/connect/BitcoinInternetPaymentSystemAPI.pdf

Hi Kris,

Thanks for clarifying that, i'd made the assumption based on what i'd seen within the invoice section of the site and it felt to me like this would be a merchant side invoicing solution, maybe it is, but the invoice API doesnt follow that same approach. i think when i tried just using the example info with my API it told me there wasnt an invoice, or it was an invalid invoice or something, so that just seemed to confirm it was something where you'd issue an invoice and the API would then process it.

I'll see what i can make of the pdf and a bit of time trying stuff, im in a bit of a hurry because having just set up the basics with Bitpay im rather unimpressed, not entirely sure BIPS is better on those aspects, but im unimpressed enough to try it.

Paul

[PaulC2K]

Kris, i've just quickly thrown something together and im actually getting something now , however it doesnt appear to be quite the same as the image advertised. I set the iframe to 640x260 as implied on the API page, but ended up having to adjust that to 640x420 to get everything in, with around 110px of nothing at the top, and there doesnt appear to be any 'valid' timer.
Is this something which needs to be implemented within a cURL options? There doesnt seem to be much covered in the pdf.

[Kris]

It will fit in 640x260 with room to spare, but I think you are not showing the iframe version, the iframe version will only show when you append /iframe to the end of the Invoice URL received back from the Invoice API.

You will have to enable the timer in your BIPS merchant account. Simply select the check box called "Convert bitcoins and transfer to my bank account", this will enable the timer, so customers are required to pay within 15 minutes for BIPS to guarantee the rate for a merchant.

[PaulC2K]

It will fit in 640x260 with room to spare, but I think you are not showing the iframe version, the iframe version will only show when you append /iframe to the end of the Invoice URL received back from the Invoice API.

You will have to enable the timer in your BIPS merchant account. Simply select the check box called "Convert bitcoins and transfer to my bank account", this will enable the timer, so customers are required to pay within 15 minutes for BIPS to guarantee the rate for a merchant.

I've got the timer enabled, not quite how i'd have wanted it to be honest, i'm calculating the btc price based on its current value, so if i want $500 in BTC then i'd ask for 1.23btc, but in 10min it could be 2.34btc, and i asked for $500 in btc.
That said, if i accept the payment in USD, do you require a bank account on record, or can i hold currency then when im ready place a BTC buy order and transfer the BTC to another wallet? Bitpay dont give me that option, which is one of the main reasons im seeking an alternative. I've looked in the buy/sell area and im not entirely sure if ewallet means btc wallet, but being able to convert to fiat then back to BTC when im ready, is what im looking for.


The iframe issue, are you saying i need to use CURLOPT_URL => 'https://bips.me/api/v1/invoice/iframe', in order to enable it, as there doesnt appear to be any difference when i use that, theres still a 110px space at the top.

Essentially, what i have is this:

Code:

<iframe src ="http://domain.com/invoice.php" width="640" height="420" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Code:

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($ch, array(
CURLOPT_URL => 'https://bips.me/api/v1/invoice/iframe',
CURLOPT_USERPWD => 'apikey',
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => 'price=100&currency=USD',
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH => CURLAUTH_BASIC));
header('Location: ' . curl_exec($ch));
curl_close($ch);

Infact, just viewing the invoice.php file, that takes me to your site and theres a great big empty space at the top. Looking at the code, theres 3x <br> in there, but i guess thats because im not doing what your suggesting, i just cant understand how else i'd do it from what you've said.