Canadian Bitcoins Launch

[lightbox]

Hi Everyone,  thought I'd introduce myself first, then the site I just finished setting up.

I've been involved with Bitcoins since the CPU mining days, and double digit difficulty (man, when it jumped to 43, that was rough!)  My company (Lightbox Technologies) has been accepting Bitcoins as payment for web hosting and VOIP for over a year now. (Yes. our website is horrible, its in the process of being redeveloped - it looks like its 9 years old because it is!)

So, being Canadian I was drunk on Friday, roaming around Parliament Hill with 300,000 other people and hanging out with friends, telling them all about these wonderful Bitcoins, when it dawned on me that there was no way to easily convert BTC to CAD... so I figured I'd do something about that!

So introducing....

http://www.canadianbitcoins.com

Its simple and straight forward.  You can BUY and SELL Bitcoins with $CAD at rates pegged to the overall exchange rates. 

This is NOT another trading site. You do not list buys & sells and hope they get filled as the market moves.  You don't need an account, you don't maintain a balance, every transaction is handled when it comes through.

That said, for my protection and yours,  I decided to institute a soft-launch for the first few days/weeks, where the overall volume per 24h has limits. Once those limits are exceeded, the appropriate forms will be temporarily disabled.

So all you fellow Canadians out there (that are still hungover from Friday), FINALLY there is an easy way to get our colourful money in and out of the BTC world.  I'd appreciate any feedback you have on the site (even if you just look at it and don't use it!)  Feel free to post here, or I'll be hanging out in #canadianbitcoins on Freenode

http://www.canadianbitcoins.com

Cheers,
 James

[FreeBitcoins.org]

Hi James,

This is a great idea..we certainly need more services for Canadians

I think it would be better if the site showed how you calculate your rates, especially given that they will certainly change by the time you process the transaction.

Also, don't you think it's pretty risky to guarantee your buy price for 36 hours? I could order 100BTC now at $13 and they could be worth $20 tomorrow..you'd be losing money, no?

[WillMitchell]

Ill jump on

[lightbox]

Hi James,

This is a great idea..we certainly need more services for Canadians

I think it would be better if the site showed how you calculate your rates, especially given that they will certainly change by the time you process the transaction.

Also, don't you think it's pretty risky to guarantee your buy price for 36 hours? I could order 100BTC now at $13 and they could be worth $20 tomorrow..you'd be losing money, no?

Ahh good point, I should be more up-front about how the rates are calculated...

It uses the lowest of 24h/7d/30d moving average in USD (from bitcoincharts.com) converted to $CAD (~1.04), then BUY/SELL are 5% on either side of that.  I'll get that up on the site somewhere for reference too.

Yea, it is risky with 36h window, thats why there's a 5% buffer each side, I might get burned occasionally, but the overall average should work out.  I set it up under the assumption that people would prefer to know exactly what they're getting.. instead of a "the value will be determined at a later date".  The fastest fraud-free way to get real $cash is unfortunately by mail/courier, so I need to build a window in there on the BUYING side.  Note the SELL side only gives a 3 hour window.

[FreeBitcoins.org]

Sounds good man! 

[zarkonite]

Nice work, it's good to have options! thank you!

[SimplePanda]

Any chance you could accept Interac E-Mail Money Transfers in the future? You should be able to accept them instantly from any big 5 bank with minimal scrutiny from the bank itself. In my experience they really don't' care -why- you use EMT's as long as you pay the fees.

[lowlevel]

Great! More options for Canadians is a plus if you ask me.
I use http://www.cavirtex.com myself.

-lowlevel

[SimplePanda]

Great! More options for Canadians is a plus if you ask me.
I use http://www.cavirtex.com myself.

-lowlevel

Currently trying out CAVirtex. I transferred them some CDN via an EMT and am just waiting for deposit confirmation to place a BTC order (acronymageddon).

Hoping it goes well. An easy way to electronically move BTC in and out of Canada would be most helpful.

[lightbox]

Any chance you could accept Interac E-Mail Money Transfers in the future? You should be able to accept them instantly from any big 5 bank with minimal scrutiny from the bank itself. In my experience they really don't' care -why- you use EMT's as long as you pay the fees.

Yes, I'm hoping to, but the problem is that they are susceptible to fraud, same as any other transfer (except real cash).  I've been trying to find out from my bank at what point its impossible for someone to refute a transaction.. sadly i fear the answer is "a very long time"

[sanjuro]

Awesome, I hope this goes well. Definitely need more Bitcoin support in Canada.

[lightbox]

Any chance you could accept Interac E-Mail Money Transfers in the future? You should be able to accept them instantly from any big 5 bank with minimal scrutiny from the bank itself. In my experience they really don't' care -why- you use EMT's as long as you pay the fees.

We now accept Interac Email Transfers to BUY Bitcoins as well as Selling

http://www.canadianbitcoins.com