CoinPal beta - Buying bitcoins with PayPal

[nelisky]

The suggestion was for the seller to mail a password to the buyer who would then communicate it to the seller to receive the bitcoins. That was fairly clear, don't see how you missed that.

seller is already using email to send a piece of information to the buyer to continue to the transaction.
(not a password but a link, that the buyer must visit to compete the buy process)

the problem with attackers is that they control both paypal and email, making the anti fraud protection difficult.
any other checks you can think of? (can not automate phone calls, phone calls would rise the costs for exchange up even higher than they're now)
let us assume that the attacker has compromised the buyer identity in all possible ways (control of pc, email, paypal - all usernames & passwords). that really sucks.

send them a letter containing a password to their confirmed paypal address. For the cost of a stamp

So I believe he means that rudimentary form of communication of old, back from when fog prevented efficient communication using smoke signals, or background noise degraded the quality of whistle based conversations... I think they call it "snail mail", probably because it leaves a trail of goo or something

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[nelisky]

good point here. i do not see a similarity with smoke signals and other archaic methods. this is a legit requirement for new customers
to finish a registration including snail mail.

And once again my attempt at sarcasm goes completely unnoticed... I really suck at this!

[markm]

This forum account was not created for anonymity, nor was the corresponding freenode IRC nick, "knotwork".

WHOIS knotwork.com and WHOIS knotwork.net are also not intended to be anonymity tools.

Until I develop a means for hosting to pay for itself neither of these domains are actually hosted. I registered them through, and keep them at, networksolutions mainly because it seemed to be the direct descendant of the original NIC and I figured if it actually is CIA NSA etc crony then at least maybe it inherits classic U.S. freedom of speech traditions as well as the military backing of the U.S. Marine Corp.

The PayPal address I use for making money purposes is at a subdomain of knotwork.com thus does not actually work for email, but PayPal, happily, does still allow it to work for PayPal transactions.

I might have some e-gold rotting (storage fees) in an e-gold account if it hasn't already rotted to nothing but PayPal balances might rot faster due to inflation so this thread came to my attention in the process of wondering whether I might be better off moving my seldom used PayPal balance(s) over to BitCoin. So figured I might as well at least start toward such a potential future by introducing myself.

-MarkM-

[dacoinminster]

. . . Hopefully this information won't push up the value of bitcoins too quickly, since I haven't finished buying the ones I want yet . . .

Bitcoin values have shot up since I posted these ideas. I wonder if speculators are betting that ease of buying bitcoins through coinpal is going to result in lots more people trying to buy them. What have I DONE??

I'm taking credit for the jump, whether or not I had anything to do with it

[mndrix]

I finished some more changes, so CoinPal is open to the public again.  I'll try to keep it stocked and open for the next couple days.  Please let me know if you encounter any problems.

If you see the "out of stock" message, try back after 1500 UTC, which is usually when I replenish the server's bitcoins.

[nanotube]

mndrix: a suggestion for you
you should also offer to buy bitcoin in exchange for paypal.
no risk for you, plus way to refill your bitcoin stock.

there has been some talk on #bitcoin-otc about demand for ability to sell bitcoins at a fixed price without having to deal with forex trading on the markets.

[mndrix]

mndrix: a suggestion for you
you should also offer to buy bitcoin in exchange for paypal.
no risk for you, plus way to refill your bitcoin stock.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I'm definitely interested in implementing a service along those lines. It'd be a perfect complement to CoinPal.

Incidentally, all this anti-fraud effort on CoinPal has reminded me how important Bitcoin is.  I can't imagine how many thousands of hours of productive effort is currently wasted on fraud prevention for credit card and PayPal payments.

[mndrix]

The server ran out of coins on Sunday, but I've restocked now.  I'll try to keep it stocked all week.  I'm away from the computer on Sundays and since anti-fraud changes are still in early testing, I'm hesitant to carry large inventories when I'm away. Hopefully this restriction will only last a couple more weeks.

[mndrix]

I just fixed a bug on CoinPal which caused some customers to see an error about a "malformed email address" during PayPal checkout. If you got this message, you might have better luck now.

[wizzard0]

Hi, i'm just placed my first order on your website, and also have a suggestion on the API:

Could you please make a field with description (like, Order ID), and hit (from your server) a shop URL with the customer's chosen details (I understand not everyone is willing to share their email) and that ID, to make automated purchases possible?

Oh, wait, I could (and should) issue new BC address for every transaction. That would fix it.
But I'll post it anyway, in case somebody has the same idea...

[mndrix]

Oh, wait, I could (and should) issue new BC address for every transaction.

This is one of my favorite Bitcoin tricks.  I'll update the API page to mention it since others may have the same use case.  Thanks for the suggestion and the purchase.

[mndrix]

Once again I kept Bitcoin inventory low on Sunday when I was away.  The server has plenty more Bitcoins now.  If you were unable to place an order this weekend, you can place one now.

[bitjet]

Once again I kept Bitcoin inventory low on Sunday when I was away.  The server has plenty more Bitcoins now.  If you were unable to place an order this weekend, you can place one now.

I ordered 40 btc 4 hours ago and nothing so far.....

[gusti]

Once again I kept Bitcoin inventory low on Sunday when I was away.  The server has plenty more Bitcoins now.  If you were unable to place an order this weekend, you can place one now.

I ordered 40 btc 4 hours ago and nothing so far.....

You can check if transaction was done, putting your receiving address here :
http://blockexplorer.com

[mndrix]

I ordered 40 btc 4 hours ago and nothing so far.....

Responded with details by PM

[mndrix]

I just spent 20 minutes on the phone with PayPal's anti-fraud department.  They were fully aware what Bitcoin is and essentially, they're fine with CoinPal operating as long as I keep fraud levels low.  They're OK with me increasing the purchase limits if I ever feel comfortable doing so.  Overall, the tone of the conversation was very positive.  They offered suggestions for reporting fraud to them and for lowering my PayPal fees.

They requested that I not explicitly show the PayPal fees during the order process.  To comply, I'll change that during the next couple days.

[S3052]

By the way, I have made very good experiences with Paypal lately as well. Their customer service was immaculate.

[Grinder]

mndrix: a suggestion for you
you should also offer to buy bitcoin in exchange for paypal.
no risk for you, plus way to refill your bitcoin stock.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I'm definitely interested in implementing a service along those lines. It'd be a perfect complement to CoinPal.

I sure hope you do it. I've been trying to figure out how I can withdraw money to my country if I sold them through mtgox. After registering an account there and at Liberty Reserve and then realizing I would need at least one more middle man, I gave up. I would sell them noticeably lower than market price to you if I could get the money directly to my PP account. Because you run this as a business it would also be a lot easier to trust you, so I would have no problems sending the Bitcoins before receiving the money.

[MDKing]

Just used your service for my first purchase of bitcoins. Despite having my order manually reviewed and having to go through some additional steps the entire order was resolved in around 10 to 15 minutes and went very smoothly. Great service will certainly use your service again in the future. Wish you continued success!

[mndrix]

mndrix: a suggestion for you
you should also offer to buy bitcoin in exchange for paypal.
no risk for you, plus way to refill your bitcoin stock.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I'm definitely interested in implementing a service along those lines. It'd be a perfect complement to CoinPal.

I sure hope you do it.

I started coding this a few days ago, but the current surge in Bitcoin interest has kept me really busy with CoinPal orders.  I'll continue working on the project this week, as time permits.