CoinPal beta - Buying bitcoins with PayPal

[mndrix]

PayPal has placed a 5% reserve requirement on my account.  For each PayPal payment I receive, they hold 5% of the payment for 90 days.  This is a standard precaution for sellers of high-risk goods.  I'm a little surprised they didn't institute the requirement immediately after my initial discussions with them.  It reflects no dissatisfaction on PayPal's behalf.  They're just being cautious.  However, it is one more reason I'd love to see Bitcoin succeed

In the long-run, the reserve requirement shouldn't affect anyone but me.  It only translates to a $500 higher reserve than I had calculated for my own personal risk threshold.

[nanotube]

ooo interesting, mndrix.

[sharkonwhisky]

Hi there,

Forgive me ignorance as I'm new to the world of Bitcoin and CoinPal, but I have very recently purchased 12 Bitcoins, and was wondering how long it takes for them to appear in my Bitcoin account? Or have I missed something, it's definitely possible.

Thanks.

[kiba]

Hi there,

Forgive me ignorance as I'm new to the world of Bitcoin and CoinPal, but I have very recently purchased 12 Bitcoins, and was wondering how long it takes for them to appear in my Bitcoin account? Or have I missed something, it's definitely possible.

Thanks.

There is no bitcoin account. Anyway, it takes about 10 minutes for a transaction to be confirmed.

IF there's no bitcoin that appears in your client, you probably didn't complete the download of blocks.

[sharkonwhisky]

Okey dokey. Well I meant that Bitcoin thing on my computer. It turns out I've been selected for a manual review by CoinPal. Thanks for the prompt reply though, this is all new territory for me, all this talk of blocks makes me think of Tetris...definitely need to do a little more research on all this.

[travex]

@mndrix : How come I cant sell more than 82 BTC in your site mate ? it always display "insufficient fund in your account... blah blah"

[Meni Rosenfeld]

@mndrix : How come I cant sell more than 82 BTC in your site mate ? it always display "insufficient fund in your account... blah blah"

He doesn't have enough $$ on his PayPal balance. Check back in a day or so and he'll probably have it.

[travex]

@mndrix : How come I cant sell more than 82 BTC in your site mate ? it always display "insufficient fund in your account... blah blah"

He doesn't have enough $$ on his PayPal balance. Check back in a day or so and he'll probably have it.

Thx mate 

[sharkonwhisky]

Hi,

Is there anywhere particularly good or useful that I can read the basics of what is going on? I just paid for 12 Bitcoins from CoinPal and my Bitcoin address had mysteriously changed again, with my coins being sent to my old address...are they lost to the void now and have I lost my money? Why would the address change if there were no transactions taking place? Or do they do it randomly when generating coins as well? Sorry having some probably quite simple and silly complications here.

Thanks.

[cdhowie]

Is there anywhere particularly good or useful that I can read the basics of what is going on? I just paid for 12 Bitcoins from CoinPal and my Bitcoin address had mysteriously changed again, with my coins being sent to my old address...are they lost to the void now and have I lost my money? Why would the address change if there were no transactions taking place? Or do they do it randomly when generating coins as well? Sorry having some probably quite simple and silly complications here.

The GUI client will periodically present you with a new address, I think after a transaction is received at the one that was displayed before.  None of this matters though, because your client never discards secret keys.  In other words, as long as you have not lost your wallet, you will always be able to use coins that arrive at any address your client has ever created for itself.

[Ricochet]

EDIT:  Already answered by cdhowie while I was typing.  Oh well, posting anyway.

The client likes to make new addresses for you automatically.  I think it's supposed to happen only after you receive coins on a certain address (to encourage you to only use each address once) though I could swear it sometimes makes new ones just for the heck of it, lol.

Rest assured, as long as the address appears in your Address Book, it is valid and you will be able to accept coins on it as many times as you wish.  However, it is probably best to get into the habit of using each address only once, and clearly labeling each one so you know exactly where the coins came from.

[sharkonwhisky]

Hey guys,

Many thanks for the very prompt replies. Yeah I think my address did just change for the hell of it, as the only previous transaction was my free 0.05 Bitcoins, and I've already had 3 different addresses. But my coins have come through now, think I'm new to the system and it takes a little while to get up to speed when you first start using it. Will definitely do some more reading around though.

Cheers. 

[Meni Rosenfeld]

Is there a problem with the site? I've been trying to use it and I keep getting the "invalid bitcoin address" message with several different addresses.

Looks like there is indeed a problem. I have used it successfully twice before, but now I get this message too.

[mndrix]

bitcoind hung last night causing the errors you observed.  It's restarted now and orders are coming through again.  On Friday, I'll try and upgrade my bitcoind to a version with the deadlock patch to prevent this from happening again.

[mndrix]

Based on some calculations of the discount rate of credit card scammers, I've increased the purchase limits for returning customers more rapidly than I was doing before.  I've also added a slight purchase limit increase for customers three days after their first purchase.  This 3-day increase is experimental and I may remove it on short notice.

For OTC users who have linked their GPG key to CoinPal, I've increased the purchase limits further still.  You'll now get more credit for positive ratings and being well-connected in the web of trust.

I've also upgraded bitcoind to a nightly build that includes the deadlock fix.  Hopefully, the service can now operate uninterrupted.

As always, I welcome feedback.

[rurah]

Getting error when putting my Bitcoin address in.

[nebiz]

Same, getting error when putting my receive address in.

[EllisD]

I get the same error, just postin to confirm other 2 posters' claims

[clonedone]

yeah I tried 4 different addresses but it still says its wrong.
hope you can fix it 

[mndrix]

Same, getting error when putting my receive address in.

I've restarted some server components and the site appears to be working fine now.  I'll investigate the failures later this morning.  Thanks for the reports.