[ANN] Introducing Bit-pay Merchant Solutions

[Steve]

If you saw the post about STARE yesterday, you’ll see that we have a pretty serious merchant now accepting bitcoins side-by-side with Visa and Mastercard.  STARE is using the bit-pay merchant tools that we've created.  We believe bitcoin is a technological and social innovation that is rarely seen in human history and want to see bitcoin succeed.  We are excited to be a part of it and hope to contribute to its success.
 
Our goal at bit-pay is to enable online merchants to accept bitcoins just as easily as they accept payments from Paypal, Visa, or Mastercard.  That is a tall order given where the bitcoin technology is today, relative to the others, but we hope to be a major part of the innovation that moves bitcoin forward.
 
Tony at STARE had a lot of input into the design and layout of bit-pay, so it is designed from a merchants perspective.  We hope that helps us achieve our objective of making it easy for merchants.
 
One of the big benefits is that we allow merchants to set their prices, or their shopping cart total, in their local currency (USD, EUR, etc).  This can insulate the merchants from the volatile bitcoin exchange rates.  After the buyer pays with the appropriate amount of bitcoins, the merchant has a choice.  They can either accept the bitcoins, or have us convert this for them and pay them in USD.  There’s a little delay and additional fee for USD payouts, but we think that’s probably ok.
 
So actually, if a merchant sets their prices in US Dollars, and wants to receive US Dollars, the merchant doesn’t have to know anything about bitcoins at all.  It is invisible to them.  They get paid with bit-pay just like they get paid from Paypal, Visa, or Mastercard.  We think this is the real breakthrough that can take bitcoins out of the “bitcoin economy” and bust into the ‘real economy”.
 
We put together a video on our site, check it out and let us know your feedback.  There is also a newsletter you can sign up to that will keep you informed of our progress.
 
https://bit-pay.com
 
If you want to try bit-pay for yourself, head to STARE and make a purchase.  The July issue is $9.95, or about 0.65 BTC.
 
http://www.staremagazine.com/Issue.asp?IssueID=115

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[Cusipzzz]

Good stuff Steve, making bitcoin payments that are transparent in USD for merchants is a huge step!

Well done.

[Bitcoin Swami]

Looks great man 

[bitlotto]

Site is giving "This Connection is Untrusted" warnings in Firefox. May scare some away.

[Bitcoin Swami]

Site is giving "This Connection is Untrusted" warnings in Firefox. May scare some away.

Hm never got that here.  wonder why.

[tonygal]

Site is giving "This Connection is Untrusted" warnings in Firefox. May scare some away.

Bitlotto what version of Firefox are you using?

I'm on Firefox 5.0 with WindowsXP SP3.  Got the verification here just fine.

[Steve]

Site is giving "This Connection is Untrusted" warnings in Firefox. May scare some away.

It's probably that your browser doesn't recognize the certificate authority.  Supposedly that CA is recognized by 99% of all internet users, but maybe not.  We plan on upgrading to a higher level of SSL certificate soon.

[Bitcoin Swami]

If your date and time aren't correct on your computer, it can do wonky things to your browsing.

[bitlotto]

It's probably that your browser doesn't recognize the certificate authority.  Supposedly that CA is recognized by 99% of all internet users, but maybe not.  We plan on upgrading to a higher level of SSL certificate soon.

Correct.

bit-pay.com uses an invalid security certificate.

The certificate is not trusted because the issuer certificate is unknown.

(Error code: sec_error_unknown_issuer)

Was while running Namoroka (Firefox/Mozilla based - TOR browser)

[klamathonsite]

when i get there theres only a login not a register page?
what are we supposed to login with? if we dont register.

[Steve]

when i get there theres only a login not a register page?
what are we supposed to login with? if we dont register.

We've not yet opened merchant registration (guess we should make that more clear on the site).  We're beta testing with a few merchants at the moment.  It will be a couple weeks before we open registration.

[wujh]

This is great. I'm not a IT developer but a financial analyst, but I just know this idea is what bitcoin need to ease the difficulty for the merchants to adopt bitcoin as a mean of exchange value.

I have a small tip for you, if you don't mind. You can talk to mtgox, campbx and other exchanges, and ask for a premium commission rate for you.

P.S
If I were a merchant and sold something with a 20% gross margin, I would like you to convert 80% of the BTC I got into USD and keep 20% of them as bitcoin. So why not offer the choice to your client? If only black or white choice, as a merchant, they will get running-out-of-working-capital problem if keep all the money in the bitcoin they get paid.

 If you offer the partially-exchange offer to the merchants, it will easily get them to keep some of them. later, They will spend more time to know about bitcoin and may try to use bitcoin themselves. This will make it a more widely accepted currency.

[evoorhees]

Wonderful intro video. Pretty and eloquent girl, and well-presented. You hit on the major pain points of merchants and addressed them well. Brilliant job. One nitpicky recommendation - the sound quality in the video isn't great. Not sure if it can be easily remastered?

I REALLY like your ambition and concept here. Will be keeping my eye on it.

[Steve]

If I were a merchant and sold something with a 20% gross margin, I would like you to convert 80% of the BTC I got into USD and keep 20% of them as bitcoin. So why not offer the choice to your client? If only black or white choice, as a merchant, they will get running-out-of-working-capital problem if keep all the money in the bitcoin they get paid.

 If you offer the partially-exchange offer to the merchants, it will easily get them to keep some of them. later, They will spend more time to know about bitcoin and may try to use bitcoin themselves. This will make it a more widely accepted currency.

Yes, I agree...we are initially offering either BTC or USD payout, but merchants will want more flexibility than that.  The hard part is doing it in a way that doesn't thoroughly confuse people.  That's a great point you make about it enabling merchants to dip their toes in the bitcoin pool so to speak.

[done]

Very nice. Best of luck with this. Excited to see how this develops.

[tonygal]

One nitpicky recommendation - the sound quality in the video isn't great. Not sure if it can be easily remastered?

unfortunately we're stuck with the poor audio quality on this one.  Maybe when we make it big we can rent time in a real studio 

[wujh]

One nitpicky recommendation - the sound quality in the video isn't great. Not sure if it can be easily remastered?

unfortunately we're stuck with the poor audio quality on this one.  Maybe when we make it big we can rent time in a real studio  

For a start-up, I think it's already very very cool audio, it's enough for attracting early users, but better one is need for earning average merchants' trust.

[tonygal]

For a start-up, I think it's already very very cool audio, it's enough for attracting early users, but better one is need for earning average merchants' trust.

I can send the mp3 audio file to anyone that thinks they could clean it up?  Are there any good audio editors out there who want a challenge?

[Saledo]

If I were a merchant and sold something with a 20% gross margin, I would like you to convert 80% of the BTC I got into USD and keep 20% of them as bitcoin. So why not offer the choice to your client? If only black or white choice, as a merchant, they will get running-out-of-working-capital problem if keep all the money in the bitcoin they get paid.

 If you offer the partially-exchange offer to the merchants, it will easily get them to keep some of them. later, They will spend more time to know about bitcoin and may try to use bitcoin themselves. This will make it a more widely accepted currency.

Yes, I agree...we are initially offering either BTC or USD payout, but merchants will want more flexibility than that.  The hard part is doing it in a way that doesn't thoroughly confuse people.  That's a great point you make about it enabling merchants to dip their toes in the bitcoin pool so to speak.

You would be surprised, I have been working with e-commerce clients since around 2000, most of them don't even understand interchange rates.  You want big adoption, make it easy to integrate into the major shopping carts.  Make a wordpress plugin that will allow purchases with bitcoin.  There are a ton of people (quite a few adult sites - especially single girl sites/cam girls) that cant or dont understand how to setup a merchant account. Open the door to these sites and you will start to develop an undercurrent that while isnt mainstream will have tons of mainstream users.  No matter your stand on adult entertainment, it has pushed innovation on the web since the beginning.

[Eri]

I get a warning saying the certificate is invalid as well, but i make a habit of not going to sites my browser doesn't like :3 would you consider uploading the video to something like megaupload.com? or www.multiupload.com which then uploads them to many share sites

[phillipsjk]

Part of the problem is that browsers treat self-signed certificates as more insecure than plain HTTP.

What should happen is that the browser pops up a warning saying: "Warning: this certificate is self-signed. You should check the the certificate fingerprint (SHA-1 9e8d c573 7f6e 8fa2 b112 fd30 62fa 1af2 305d cc53) matches the fingerprint you received out-of-band (such as in the mail, posted on the premises, etc)." Even if you don't check the fingerprint, the browser should save the certificate and warn you if it changes in the future.

When you go to a website using just plain old HTTP, the browser should pop up a warning (unless you are using IPsec authentication) saying: "Warning: This website is using an unauthenticated connection. Third parties can monitor, intercept, and manipulate any communications between you and the server."

[mouse]

I get a warning saying the certificate is invalid as well, but i make a habit of not going to sites my browser doesn't like :3 would you consider uploading the video to something like megaupload.com? or www.multiupload.com which then uploads them to many share sites

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDFt5sslE7o&feature=player_embedded

[walidzohair]

is it really a working site or just under construction ?

[Steve]

is it really a working site or just under construction ?

Yes, it is really working, but it's in beta and we're only working with a few merchant's in our beta program, one of which (staremagazine.com) has gone live with accept payments.  So, new merchant registration is not available at the moment.  We expect to be ready to expand the beta program in a couple weeks.  For those that are interested in participating in the beta, send an email to beta@bit-pay.com.

[Steve]

I get a warning saying the certificate is invalid as well, but i make a habit of not going to sites my browser doesn't like :3 would you consider uploading the video to something like megaupload.com? or www.multiupload.com which then uploads them to many share sites

I've upgraded the SSL cert...so this shouldn't be a problem now.

[Trader Steve]

Very nice! You may want to adjust the YouTube video settings so that it doesn't cue up another video after yours plays. When you leave it open like that you never know what will be shown to your prospects next. Am very interested in your service for several of my projects.

[tonygal]

Very nice! You may want to adjust the YouTube video settings so that it doesn't cue up another video after yours plays.

Good idea.  I'm looking all over Youtube's settings and I can't find that.  Do you know if that is that a user setting or a publisher setting?

[bitlotto]

Yup, warnings gone now. Good luck on your venture. I think services like yours were shops can accept payment of Bitcoins but still receive cash are pretty valuable.

[nickwit]

That all looks massively misjudged to me.

1) the design of that site is appalling - it looks like one of those dodgy tabloid-advertised "MAKE $700 AN HOUR, WORKING FROM HOME" sites.

2) "Launching" when you're totally under-construction - there isn't a way to register... just a login box, does not inspire confidence at all.

3) I think that video is terrible - it looks like it's trying to use "sex to sell" for something that absolutely should not need sex to sell it. That girl will be (no doubt) someone's sister, someone's daughter - so no personal insult intended... but the way she's presented, she looks like a budget-level glamour-model.

Take a look at kickstarter.com - take a look at the projects that inspire confidence for people to invest. Ernest nerds work, budget-level glamour-models do not.

4) I think the benefits that you're offering over CCs are pretty dubious as well. Charge-backs are a consumer-protection measure. Bitcoin basically shifts all the risk from the seller to the buyer. As to Identity-theft... sure, but all of a sudden there's cash-theft, for which there is no protection. I have had CC cards and details stolen (and used) on at least 10 occasions - and it's never cost me a penny. If I'd been using bitcoins I would have lost thousands. Bitcoins have benefits. These are not them.




So. Good luck with this - I am a merchant (selling actual, physical, white-economy goods) and I looked long an hard for the service you ostensibly provide, and couldn't find one. We badly need this.

Your presentation of what you have done so far is not doing anyone any favours however. For god's sake, get someone with some web-design/UX suss to redo it.

[k]

Good job so far guys but i have to agree with some of nickwits points:

the site needs some more work - too much white.

the video - I'd make it more conservative, for anything to do with payment solutions/money it should be more professional looking, less glam. This sounds really prudish but even if the presenter wore a nice tailored shirt (i.e. no bare arms) it would make a difference. And definitely try to re-dub the audio.

again good luck. Not trying to knock you, just offering my opinion which hopefully may be of some help.

[tonygal]

Good job so far guys but i have to agree with some of nickwits points:

the site needs some more work - too much white.

the video - I'd make it more conservative, for anything to do with payment solutions/money it should be more professional looking, less glam. This sounds really prudish but even if the presenter wore a nice tailored shirt (i.e. no bare arms) it would make a difference. And definitely try to re-dub the audio.

again good luck. Not trying to knock you, just offering my opinion which hopefully may be of some help.

You guys have good points.  The website and the video will get updated.

At this point our #1 priority is getting the product to work, and it must work properly every time, for the buyer and the merchant.

Have either of you used the bit-pay service yet through STARE?  Do you have any comments or suggestions on the checkout process?

[k]

I haven't tried the service yet. Just looked at the Bit-pay site and the video.
You're right that the priority should be to get the technical aspects working first and then you can work on the marketing/presentation of the service.

[bitlotto]

Have either of you used the bit-pay service yet through STARE?  Do you have any comments or suggestions on the checkout process?

I don't have any BTC at the moment but I went to merchandise and clicked something to add to the shopping cart. At the shopping cart the only choices were checkout and checkout with paypal. Maybe I missed something. Was there supposed to be a checkout with BTC?

[tonygal]

Have either of you used the bit-pay service yet through STARE?  Do you have any comments or suggestions on the checkout process?

I don't have any BTC at the moment but I went to merchandise and clicked something to add to the shopping cart. At the shopping cart the only choices were checkout and checkout with paypal. Maybe I missed something. Was there supposed to be a checkout with BTC?

ah, good point.  it's not setup on the merchandise yet.  It's just on our magazine access.  You can buy any of the 115 monthly issues on this page:

http://www.staremagazine.com/Store/PurchaseIssue.asp

[bitlotto]

ah, good point.  it's not setup on the merchandise yet.  It's just on our magazine access.  You can buy any of the 115 monthly issues on this page:

http://www.staremagazine.com/Store/PurchaseIssue.asp

I got ya. At the very first page where you fill in email, username, and password it would be better to show the price in BTC as well. Or even just BTC since that's what the user clicked on to pay with along with the conversion rate you are using.

[OgNasty]

Just wanted to voice my opinion that ignoring the exchange rate on the largest exchange (MtGox) is absolute bullshit.

[BitTrade]

Just wanted to voice my opinion that ignoring the exchange rate on the largest exchange (MtGox) is absolute bullshit.

Not when the market is artificially inflated.  and -1 for reviving a 2 year old thread just to vent