TextCoin.co.uk - Purchase BTC with SMS

[zerokwel]

because the charges ain't 2 bad that's why we are using it. If it went up I would prob give it a miss. as it is profit for the op atm without being 2 high

EDIT AND ITS WORKING AGAIN

[WARlrus]

I've topped the service up with more coins, however the downtime today was due to the server bitcoind instance shutting down for some bizarre reason. I'll try and monitor the problem, as it seems to be recurring every couple of hours, but as I've mentioned I'm away on holiday at the moment!

I will be looking in to starting this service internationally, however since it will have to be done on a per-country basis it will be quite hard, hence the costs may be higher. Any requests for countries?

[Serith]

I've topped the service up with more coins, however the downtime today was due to the server bitcoind instance shutting down for some bizarre reason. I'll try and monitor the problem, as it seems to be recurring every couple of hours, but as I've mentioned I'm away on holiday at the moment!

I will be looking in to starting this service internationally, however since it will have to be done on a per-country basis it will be quite hard, hence the costs may be higher. Any requests for countries?

Your best bet is US, because two most common options to transfer money and buy Bitcoins is International Money Transfer (Wire Transfer) and Dwolla, both takes days to complete.

[cypherdoc]

if this SMS service is for real BITCOIN HAS MADE IT!

this is the system used by M Pesa in Kenya and has been tremendously successful in this poor 3rd world country.  read up on it.

its been thought that the phone carriers would resist Bitcoin b/c of the lack of profit.  how do you think this is being addressed?

this also allows Bitcoin to be used w/o an internet connection which will bring it to the masses.

also doesn't a bank have to stand behind the carrier in some way?

[Nagle]

Ever wanted a quick and easy way of purchasing BitCoins using nothing more than your phone? Now you can!
...
Give it a go - you'll be amazed at how quick and simple it is!

Yeah, if you're willing to pay a 90% markup. Their price is $24.46/BTC. Nobody will use this unless they desperately need some Bitcoin-only service.  Silk Road, maybe.

[cypherdoc]

Ever wanted a quick and easy way of purchasing BitCoins using nothing more than your phone? Now you can!
...
Give it a go - you'll be amazed at how quick and simple it is!

Yeah, if you're willing to pay a 90% markup. Their price is $24.46/BTC. Nobody will use this unless they desperately need some Bitcoin-only service.  Silk Road, maybe.

why so pessimistic?  give him time.  the price WILL come down.

[Ben Walsh (beamer)]

I thought the mark up was a little high, but investigating the implementation, the SMS payment processor "behind the scenes" is taking 25% of every payment, and that is a low amount, there are plenty that demand 40% of every payment.

This means that after they have taken their cut, comparing to britcoin.co.uk right now (£8.35 / 1 BTC), the OP is making a slight loss on the £5 / 0.45 BTC package ( ( 5 x 0.75 ) / 0.45 = 8.33) and making ( ( 1.50 x 0.75 ) / 0.1 = 11.25 which gives 11.25 / 8.35 = 1.34... = +34% ) on the £1.50 / 0.1 BTC and £3 / 0.2 BTC packages.

That doesn't account for others costs of provision, website costs, development costs, maintenance costs ...

For the simplicity, swiftness, accessibility and potential anonymity, I don't think that markup is unreasonably high.
As it scales up I would expect the markup to fall and new competition from other providers of the same service.

Ever wanted a quick and easy way of purchasing BitCoins using nothing more than your phone? Now you can!
...
Give it a go - you'll be amazed at how quick and simple it is!

Yeah, if you're willing to pay a 90% markup. Their price is $24.46/BTC. Nobody will use this unless they desperately need some Bitcoin-only service.  Silk Road, maybe.

[zerokwel]

Ever wanted a quick and easy way of purchasing BitCoins using nothing more than your phone? Now you can!
...
Give it a go - you'll be amazed at how quick and simple it is!

Yeah, if you're willing to pay a 90% markup. Their price is $24.46/BTC. Nobody will use this unless they desperately need some Bitcoin-only service.  Silk Road, maybe.

why so pessimistic?  give him time.  the price WILL come down.

hmm for me it's 100% profit I personally pay out 0 and get .45 btc its fantastic

[actudoran]

I've topped the service up with more coins, however the downtime today was due to the server bitcoind instance shutting down for some bizarre reason. I'll try and monitor the problem, as it seems to be recurring every couple of hours, but as I've mentioned I'm away on holiday at the moment!

I will be looking in to starting this service internationally, however since it will have to be done on a per-country basis it will be quite hard, hence the costs may be higher. Any requests for countries?

Hi there !

I was just thinking of whether we could start it up where I live as there seems to be a huge number of people eating up all the good graphic cards from the market in here too ... I live in Bucharest and am on the good side of Orange ...

Cheers,
Alex

[Ryland R. Taylor-Almanza]

I've topped the service up with more coins, however the downtime today was due to the server bitcoind instance shutting down for some bizarre reason. I'll try and monitor the problem, as it seems to be recurring every couple of hours, but as I've mentioned I'm away on holiday at the moment!

I will be looking in to starting this service internationally, however since it will have to be done on a per-country basis it will be quite hard, hence the costs may be higher. Any requests for countries?

Your best bet is US, because two most common options to transfer money and buy Bitcoins is International Money Transfer (Wire Transfer) and Dwolla, both takes days to complete.

Yes, please get it going in the US!

[molecular]

I've topped the service up with more coins, however the downtime today was due to the server bitcoind instance shutting down for some bizarre reason. I'll try and monitor the problem, as it seems to be recurring every couple of hours, but as I've mentioned I'm away on holiday at the moment!

I've learned the hard way: no major releases before going on holiday! :-)

Other than that: this is awesome, I wanted to do this in germany, but got turned down by the outrages fees the phone companies charge .

Best of luck implementing this internationally! I'm looking forward to pointing my new potential bitcoiners to your service.

[molecular]

its been thought that the phone carriers would resist Bitcoin b/c of the lack of profit.  how do you think this is being addressed?

It's already addressed by the humongous fees they charge for billing sms. The phone companies win here.

[molecular]

this also allows Bitcoin to be used w/o an internet connection which will bring it to the masses.

It does not. It doesn't enable bitcoin payment via text. It enables you to buy bitcoins paying via sms fee billed to your phone bill. You still need an internet connection and bitcoin client.

[molecular]

For the simplicity, swiftness, accessibility and potential anonymity, I don't think that markup is unreasonably high.
As it scales up I would expect the markup to fall and new competition from other providers of the same service.

I'm not so sure the markup will fall, since it'd have to be a competing phone provider, since the phone companies take the majority here.

[Ben Walsh (beamer)]

I would hope OP would be negotiating a reduction in the 25% cut the phone companies are "stealing" as they expand in both size and country coverage - one of the main ways to maintain future competitive advantage and keep customer loyalty.

For the simplicity, swiftness, accessibility and potential anonymity, I don't think that markup is unreasonably high.
As it scales up I would expect the markup to fall and new competition from other providers of the same service.

I'm not so sure the markup will fall, since it'd have to be a competing phone provider, since the phone companies take the majority here.

[cypherdoc]

I've topped the service up with more coins, however the downtime today was due to the server bitcoind instance shutting down for some bizarre reason. I'll try and monitor the problem, as it seems to be recurring every couple of hours, but as I've mentioned I'm away on holiday at the moment!

I've learned the hard way: no major releases before going on holiday! :-)

Other than that: this is awesome, I wanted to do this in germany, but got turned down by the outrages fees the phone companies charge .

Best of luck implementing this internationally! I'm looking forward to pointing my new potential bitcoiners to your service.

if you just break even, do it!  the phone companies may eat you alive now but as you grow in subscribers you will gain leverage over them and be able to squeeze huge profits over the long term.

[cypherdoc]

its been thought that the phone carriers would resist Bitcoin b/c of the lack of profit.  how do you think this is being addressed?

It's already addressed by the humongous fees they charge for billing sms. The phone companies win here.

this is great.  in Kenya, there was a huge legal fight btwn the phone carriers and the banks b/c the banks didn't want to lose control of the usurious system they were controlling.  finally the gov't sided with the phone carriers b/c the adoption rate was so quick and the people demanded a better system which SMS is. 

if you go ahead with your service you will be able to piggyback onto the phone carriers to make money.  there's plenty of profits to be made when you get rid of the banks.

[cypherdoc]

this also allows Bitcoin to be used w/o an internet connection which will bring it to the masses.

It does not. It doesn't enable bitcoin payment via text. It enables you to buy bitcoins paying via sms fee billed to your phone bill. You still need an internet connection and bitcoin client.

hmmm.  if the phone carriers allow you to buy btc's via text, the logical next step for them to make even more profit would be to allow payment via SMS.  this will happen.

i suppose also that if you're a Kenyan on one side of the country, i could pay the carrier to text btc to my wife on the other side of Kenya.

[cypherdoc]

Ever wanted a quick and easy way of purchasing BitCoins using nothing more than your phone? Now you can!
...
Give it a go - you'll be amazed at how quick and simple it is!

Yeah, if you're willing to pay a 90% markup. Their price is $24.46/BTC. Nobody will use this unless they desperately need some Bitcoin-only service.  Silk Road, maybe.

why so pessimistic?  give him time.  the price WILL come down.

hmm for me it's 100% profit I personally pay out 0 and get .45 btc its fantastic

what are you talking about?

[spruce]

hmm for me it's 100% profit I personally pay out 0 and get .45 btc its fantastic

what are you talking about?

Parents pay the phone bill?