[2018-05-25] CheapAir Ditches BitPay For Open-Source Bitcoin Payments

[limek]

Travel and accommodation website CheapAir.com has appeared to choose self-hosted payment processor BTCPay for its Bitcoin payments, shunning industry stalwart BitPay.

CheapAir ‘Doing Testing’ With BTCPay

According to comments on social media, BTCPay, which offers open-source merchant software, could officially become the new processor for Cheapair after it dropped Coinbase earlier this month.

Read more: http://bitcoinist.com/cheapair-ditches-bitpay-open-source-btcpay/

[gentlemand]

Hmm. I thought Coinbase was changing its merchant services not abandoning them completely. Is that confirmed completely?

As ever it's banking that's the tricky bit and I've no idea how BTCPay does that. Presumably they tack on Bitpay afterwards?

Bitpay have proven to be arseholes. I really hope they don't remain the only game in town for payment processing. That would suck hugely.

[kjlimo]

Hmm. I thought Coinbase was changing its merchant services not abandoning them completely. Is that confirmed completely?

As ever it's banking that's the tricky bit and I've no idea how BTCPay does that. Presumably they tack on Bitpay afterwards?

Bitpay have proven to be arseholes. I really hope they don't remain the only game in town for payment processing. That would suck hugely.

I have the same questions... furthermore when bitcoin lightning network goes live, is anyone converting to Fiat for that?

It's not clear what the "easy button" is anymore... and the two existing solutions are making things complicated, or eliminating the way that they used the work...

Very frustrating!

[gentlemand]

I have the same questions... furthermore when bitcoin lightning network goes live, is anyone converting to Fiat for that?

It'll still have to be a payment processor. No one waltzes into those types of banking relationships or volumes without a lot of setting up and schmoozing. Their ground work is what you're paying them for.

[buwaytress]

Not sure why am too lazy to open the link to clarify but is CheapAir ditching Bitpay or ditching Coinbase? Gotta admit I hadn't known about BTCpay til this post, seems they've been around at least from last November but the website seems to still say the API is compatible with BitPay service?

I have the same questions... furthermore when bitcoin lightning network goes live, is anyone converting to Fiat for that?

It'll still have to be a payment processor. No one waltzes into those types of banking relationships or volumes without a lot of setting up and schmoozing. Their ground work is what you're paying them for.

Exactly. To be honest, every type of processor will have a very limited lifespan from what I can see. Look at the history of deals with payment processors, especially those linked to debit cards. They go well until the bank/system behind it changes their mind about the relationship.

People will just have to eventually stop thinking in terms of fiat, though that day is well into the future.

[gentlemand]

Not sure why am too lazy to open the link to clarify but is CheapAir ditching Bitpay or ditching Coinbase? Gotta admit I hadn't known about BTCpay til this post, seems they've been around at least from last November but the website seems to still say the API is compatible with BitPay service?

Ditching Coinbase, or being ditched by Coinbase, and not being totally convinced by Bitpay due to their wallet restrictions. But it didn't answer whether they're combining BTCPay with Bitpay behind that.

[DooMAD]

As ever it's banking that's the tricky bit and I've no idea how BTCPay does that. Presumably they tack on Bitpay afterwards?

That's my understanding.  One of the few limitations of BTCPay is that it doesn't allow you to convert to fiat right way, as tends to be common with centralised payment processors.  But the trade off is you have the advantages of hosting your own server.  So you don't have to rely on a centralised service that could shut you down.  You're also respecting the privacy of your customers by not handing their data over to third parties.  Plus, the priority for most companies, it usually saves on fees and is generally more cost effective over the long term.  If you run a company that isn't in any particular hurry to convert to fiat, it's pretty much a no-brainer.

[odolvlobo]

I bought tickets at CheapAir using Bitcoin last week.

[Karartma1]

I bought tickets at CheapAir using Bitcoin last week.

I think it's super cool.
The only thing I am concerned with is the fact that using bitcoin for such a transaction I can have my identity associated to that flight since you can't fly "anonymously".

On a different note from the site's FAQ

What is Dogecoin?

Dogecoin is a super-cool digital currency (decentralized, peer-to-peer) that enables instant payments over the Internet. If you’re already using Dogecoin, this is a simple alternative to paying with a credit card on CheapAir.com. If you aren’t aware of Dogecoin, maybe you should be – it’s that awesome! If you’ve got some dogecoin to spend, we’ll be happy to process your tickets this way, Shibe friends!

[Carlton Banks]

Gotta admit I hadn't known about BTCpay til this post, seems they've been around at least from last November but the website seems to still say the API is compatible with BitPay service?

Ok, so I'll attempt to clarify

BTCpay is designed as a drop-in replacement for Bitpay, that way merchants can ditch Bitpay with minimal difficulty (hence the API compatibility).

But BTCpay isn't a payments processor, just a DIY software interface. The idea is that the merchant gets an account at a BTC exchange, then uses that account to sell BTC from their customers on whatever exchange they like (automated like Bitpay, the customer sends BTC direct to the merchant's exchange account when paying for goods). This has the advantage of getting around Bitpay's cash-out limits, protecting customer privacy and minimising risks (no reason why more than 1 exchange couldn't be used).


BTCpay will likely integrate Lightning payments fairly quickly too, at least 1 BTCpay developer is a frequent contributor to one of the Lightning implementations. How soon Lightning happens with Bitpay is anyone's guess, they have apparently been trying to make life more difficult for their customer base of late. It wouldn't surprise me if Cheapair's action here is a direct consequence of Bitpay's bizarre behaviour (Cheapair made their name accepting Bitcoin, so presumably alot of their customer base depended on being able to use Bitpay, which is no longer easy).