CoinCard - Buying Amazon $ and gift cards with Bitcoin

[mndrix]

There has been heavy CoinCard usage over the last few days (rally, mining pool integration, etc).  I'm trying to keep enough money flowing through my PayPal account to cover demand.  I'd prefer not to increase fees, so thanks for your patience while I work out the kinks.

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[dacoinminster]

Words cannot express how much I love coincard/coinpal. I think you should charge whatever fees the market will bear. Your only risk is that you will attract competitors if your fees get high enough.

I'd still love to be able to send you coins along with a sell price I want, then get paid when the price after your fee hits my target. Yeah, it's more complex, but if you hold more (of other people's) bitcoins and lots of PayPal cash, you can clear more orders without hitting MtGox at all, and avoid paying the transaction fee there. You also avoid the risk of bitcoin price fluctuations since the bitcoins you hold wouldn't be your own.

You are getting big enough that it doesn't make as much sense to clear everything through MtGox. You're just giving money away every time you do that. If you match buyers with sellers directly, you get to pocket all of the spread as well as the MtGox transaction fee, as well as your own fees.

I would love to see a separate coinpal/coincard bid/ask spread and order book. Anyone placing an order could choose between a "right now" price, or setting their own price and waiting for it to clear.

You know you want to.

[jkminkov]

add option to send payment delayed when there're no funds available?

for you there're no risks, also you can return btc* for free if you can't complete the order for a reasonable time

* - you have to add another field - wallet to sent btc back

[mndrix]

bitcoind hung last night preventing some orders.  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.

Also on Friday, I'll increase the fee for PayPal payments by .5 percentage points.  Because PayPal fraud required me to reduce CoinPal purchase limits, the amount of PayPal funds flowing into my account is dramatically lower than it used to be.  Even furiously transferring funds from my bank account to PayPal hasn't met the demand, so a fee change is about the only tool I have left.

I'll keep working on improved anti-fraud measures for CoinPal to try and increase the volume for legitimate buyers.  Then hopefully I can reduce CoinCard fees again.

Thanks for hanging in there while I knock some of the rough edges off these services.

[xf2_org]

bitcoind hung last night preventing some orders.  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.

Note that this is simply the latest version of bitcoin, from bitcoin/bitcoin.git.  No need for patches, or anything but latest-from-git.

You might also check out BlueMatt's nightly builds: http://bitcoin.bluematt.me/bitcoin-nightly/

[gamerkingx]

I used , this service today. Now its waiting for my money served on paypal . Also how long does those blocks take?

I will let you guys know how the transaction went .

///--- Transaction went smooth , and i received my money really fast Thanks for this great site will vouch for it .

[Meni Rosenfeld]

Also on Friday, I'll increase the fee for PayPal payments by .5 percentage points.  Because PayPal fraud required me to reduce CoinPal purchase limits, the amount of PayPal funds flowing into my account is dramatically lower than it used to be.  Even furiously transferring funds from my bank account to PayPal hasn't met the demand, so a fee change is about the only tool I have left.

That's fine. Having a working service trumps having it efficient.

[BitterTea]

Can I use CoinCard as a sort of BTC->USD payment processor? For example, if I were to buy something on eBay, could I enter the seller's Paypal email address instead of mine? Would that cause any issues?

[cdhowie]

Can I use CoinCard as a sort of BTC->USD payment processor? For example, if I were to buy something on eBay, could I enter the seller's Paypal email address instead of mine? Would that cause any issues?

It might work but I'd advise against it.  If you need to dispute the payment later, it won't have come from your account and so you won't be able to.  And if such a dispute succeeded anyway, assuming you could even place it, the money wouldn't be sent back to you; it'd be sent to CoinCard.

Best to send it to your account first.

[BitterTea]

Best to send it to your account first.

Well, that's the issue... I vehemently dislike Paypal. I have an account, but for some reason a year or two ago I started getting this:

This account has been permanently locked with a $0.00 USD balance. All information associated with this account has been blocked from the PayPal system and cannot be registered with another account.

I have no idea why they would do this, and don't care enough to jump through their hoops.

[dacoinminster]

Can I use CoinCard as a sort of BTC->USD payment processor? For example, if I were to buy something on eBay, could I enter the seller's Paypal email address instead of mine? Would that cause any issues?

I've been considering doing something similar with coinpal. Basically make a website that only accepts bitcoins, and tell them to enter my bitcoin address in coinpal if they want to pay with PayPal. Haven't tried it yet, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

[mndrix]

Can I use CoinCard as a sort of BTC->USD payment processor? For example, if I were to buy something on eBay, could I enter the seller's Paypal email address instead of mine? Would that cause any issues?

One more issue, beyond those cdhowie mentioned, is that there's currently no way to associate an order number or message with your CoinCard payment.  So, the receiving party will get money from Hendricks Solutions, LLC but have no idea that it's payment for BitterTea's eBay auction item.

Adding arbitrary messages to the outgoing payments is on my list of features to add eventually.

[mndrix]

I've been considering doing something similar with coinpal. Basically make a website that only accepts bitcoins, and tell them to enter my bitcoin address in coinpal if they want to pay with PayPal. Haven't tried it yet, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

You can also use the CoinPal API to pre-fill the CoinPal order form with the Bitcoin address and BTC amount.  I know of at least two vendors who do this.

The biggest limitation is that the purchase limits apply to your customers and those purchase limits may not be enough to cover the purchase price on your site.

[nster]

Hey, someone I know sent 120BTC, and the time expired before the confirmations were done. Will he receive a refund or will he get his PP payment? He would prefer getting his PP payment if possible

[Meni Rosenfeld]

Hey, someone I know sent 120BTC, and the time expired before the confirmations were done. Will he receive a refund or will he get his PP payment? He would prefer getting his PP payment if possible

The transaction needs to be broadcast before expiration. The confirmations can and almost always will be afterwards. If they don't get the payment contact mndrix per the instructions on his site.

[mndrix]

Hey, someone I know sent 120BTC, and the time expired before the confirmations were done. Will he receive a refund or will he get his PP payment? He would prefer getting his PP payment if possible

Your friend contacted me directly by email (the best way to get a response).  I've responded to him privately.  In general, I'll either refund your Bitcoins or send the PayPal payment, depending on markete rate fluctuations (so people don't game the system).

[mndrix]

I've increased fees for PayPal payments by .25 percentage points (.5 seemed too drastic).  Hopefully this brings supply and demand back into line.  I'll be making some related changes on CoinPal too, with the same goal in mind.

[xf2_org]

Any update on NewEgg gift cards being sold through CoinCard?

Being a techie community, surely buying hardware with bitcoins would be popular.

[Meni Rosenfeld]

Any update on NewEgg gift cards being sold through CoinCard?

Being a techie community, surely buying hardware with bitcoins would be popular.

It would indeed be nice to have NewEgg gift cards. I currently have no way to buy from NewEgg, they won't accept my credit card and they won't accept PayPal if I don't have a confirmed US address. Maybe with a gift card it could work.

This is not nearly as important as making PayPal payments work flawlessly, though.

[VastLite]

I'm getting this error today:

Please correct the errors below and resubmit.
Insufficient funds in our accounts. Try again later

Any plans on topping up the account in the near future?

I really do enjoy the convenience of this service and would appreciate the opportunity to continue its use.