[ANN] Bit-Pay Mobile Checkout - this changes everything!

[nmat]

Really smart feature. You're making real life payments with bitcoins almost as easy as online payments.

Is there any specific protocol for QR-Codes? I noticed you used address=...?amount=... Are there any other QR Code specifications common to all mobile wallets? This reminds me of this thread.

PS: in the screenshot from Step 3 you actually couldn't make the payment, could you? It says 0 available BTCs
PSS: this chick looks even hotter than the other one

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[BitPay Business Solutions]

Really smart feature. You're making real life payments with bitcoins almost as easy as online payments.

Only the merchant has to type in the total.  For the buyer, tt's even easier.  Open wallet, Scan, Send.  No typing!

I tried a bunch of wallets, and they all worked fine.  In the video we do make actual payments using Mt Gox Mobile.  That seems to be the best wallet right now.  But for the screencap on the website I needed something brand-neutral.  and through a bit of testing, I had emptied the wallet :/

[payb.tc]

A functional currency is also something you can hold to preserve most of your purchasing power for hours, days, weeks and months. This is not true for Bitcoin, counting since June.

but it certainly is true of bitcoin counting since March. so i guess it depends on exactly when you count from, huh?

by the way bit-pay guys/girls, this is awesome work! i'm using Andreas' Android wallet and happy with it so far.

[Nagle]

OK, let's do some due diligence.

bit-pay.com
"Domain control only" SSL cert.
No business address found on site.
Traceroute leads to a Rackspace location.

Bit-Pay, LLC
Dun and Bradstreet has a report.
Location: BIT-PAY LLC
411 E AMELIA ST, ORLANDO, FL

Checking address:
Property type:   Residential Duplex (2 units)
Last sale:    $635,000  on May 10th, 2005
Bedrooms:   4
Bathrooms:   3
Year built:   1925

Also at this address:
SOOPERMODELS LLC, 411 E AMELIA ST, ORLANDO, Florida
http://www.soopermodels.com/
operates "Stare Magazine"
http://www.staremagazine.com/
Listed under bit-pay "Featured Merchants" on
https://bit-pay.com/featuredMerchants.html

Also at this address
AEROTECH

Checking Florida corporate registration:

Florida Limited Liability Company
BIT-PAY LLC
Filing Information
Document Number   L11000063599
FEI/EIN Number   NONE
Date Filed   05/31/2011
State   FL
Status   ACTIVE

Principal Address
411 E AMELIA ST
ORLANDO FL 32803

Mailing Address
411 E AMELIA ST
ORLANDO FL 32803

Registered Agent Name & Address
BUSINESS FILINGS INCORPORATED
1203 GOVERNORS SQUARE BLVD STE 101
TALLAHASSEE FL 32301-2960 US

Manager/Member Detail Name & Address:

Title MGRM
GALLIPPI, ANTHONY
411 E AMELIA ST
ORLANDO FL 32803

Title MGRM
PAIR, STEPHEN
3135 FOXHALL OVERLOOK
ROSWELL GA 30075

Annual Reports
No Annual Reports Filed

Image of filing: http://www.sunbiz.org/COR/2011/0613/00142789.Tif
Email address in filing: tonygallippi@gmail.com

Checking Anthony Gallippi:
http://www.manta.com/g/mm8px9r/anthony-gallippi

Aerotech Southeast
411 E Amelia Street
Orlando, FL 32803-5315
Phone: (407) 426-7797
"Aerotech Southeast in Orlando, FL is a private company which is listed under motion picture producers and studios. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of Less than $500,000 and employs a staff of 1 to 4."


OK, that's a quick start. We now know that "bit-pay" is operating out of an house, who's behind it, and some other things they're doing. So if they "lose" any funds, it's clear where to send lawyers and cops.

[BitPay Business Solutions]

OK, let's do some due diligence.

bit-pay.com
"Domain control only" SSL cert.
No business address found on site.
Traceroute leads to a Rackspace location.

Bit-Pay, LLC
Dun and Bradstreet has a report.
Location: BIT-PAY LLC
411 E AMELIA ST, ORLANDO, FL

Checking address:
Property type:   Residential Duplex (2 units)
Last sale:    $635,000  on May 10th, 2005
Bedrooms:   4
Bathrooms:   3
Year built:   1925

Wanna buy my house?  It's a historic preservation home.  almost 90 years old.   I don't know what you are getting at?

[phillipsjk]

Wanna buy my house?  It's a historic preservation home.  almost 90 years old.   I don't know what you are getting at?

Some us get anxious when we can't communicate with a business we are dealing with out-of-band via "snail-mail", or as Nagle suggested, in person.

My personal standard is only a PO box (since the only electronic payment I am comfortable with is bitcoin).

[BitPay Business Solutions]

Wanna buy my house?  It's a historic preservation home.  almost 90 years old.   I don't know what you are getting at?

Some us get anxious when we can't communicate with a business we are dealing with out-of-band via "snail-mail", or as Nagle suggested, in person.

My personal standard is only a PO box (since the only electronic payment I am comfortable with is bitcoin).

Well if you are desperate for information you are welcome to come ring my doorbell.  Our press girl has a phone number published on the site.  Our top merchants have our personal numbers.  If it's an emergency our merchants can always reach us.  

We are firm believers in bitcoin.  I've operated a web business for 10 years, called STARE Magazine, and when I learned about bitcoin, I asked the simple question "ok great, how do I accept this on my website?".  And for 2 weeks I got nothing.  And then, Steve and I teamed up and formed Bit-Pay.  Because if I had a need, thousands of other people had a need too.  And here we are.

[jav]

This is pretty cool! You guys are churning out products at an amazing rate - impressive! :-)

Do many of your merchants choose to get paid in USD? I have lately been thinking, that - while Bitcoin is still young and the exchange rate is volatile - it might be a good idea to not only protect the merchant from exchange rate volatility, but also the customer. So a customer would keep USD on their phone and only exchange those to Bitcoins at the last minute.

Of course this first seems a little paradoxical, to go from USD to Bitcoin back to USD. But one could think of Bitcoin as the common interface here, allowing variable partners on both sides.

A disadvantage is, that it would introduce the fees for an additional exchange step. On the other hand, the customer would have to exchange from USD to Bitcoin at some point anyway, so as long as the fee is on a percentage basis, it doesn't really make a difference whether they do it once in advance or always "just-in-time" for smaller amounts. And it might be possible to still be cheaper than credit cards even with all that factored in.

Obviously the exchanges are in the best position to offer this feature. If they have a mobile app, it should not be too difficult to offer a special payment screen, where the right amount of Bitcoins are bought on the market and then immediately transferred.

With a solution like this, customers would more or less have the impression of simply paying USD with their phone and as far as they are concerned, Bitcoin is just some technology that makes it happen in the background.

[Technomage]

I see promising projects in the Bitcoin world every week. I have to admit that this one is on another level, it could be a game-changer for the entire Bitcoin economy. This makes life so easy for both the merchant and the customers.

Please continue your good work, I am looking forward to the demo video

[Elwar]

OK, that's a quick start. We now know that "bit-pay" is operating out of an house, who's behind it, and some other things they're doing. So if they "lose" any funds, it's clear where to send lawyers and cops.

They do not hold your earnings, you receive those into your wallet every day. So worst case scenario is they steal one transaction and the company packs up and moves to Singapore. All for your 5 BTC.

I think the potential of 1-3% of all bit-pay transactions for years to come is decent motivation not to jump ship with your transaction of selling a bag of Cheetos.

[Mr.Bitcoin]

This is great, I love it.

I would like to see (not necessarily from your team, bit-pay merchant solutions) an app that embeds local stores that accept bitcoin onto a google maps type interface.

Does such an app (or even website) exist? I don't mean just a list of local stores, I am super lazy and a consumer whore. I need a map!

[mikethebodacious]

Awesome job mate, this will definitely help the Bitcoin economy out.  Thanks for all the hard work!

[Lucidize]

I have had a few problems getting it to start, but it could be because I am low on space. I sent a feedback request rather than posting it on the app review.  I am sure this will be a great app after reading all the posts here.

I think it's a good idea for everyone to download this if you have a smartphone, even if you do not think you will use it. I don't think I will use it but surely the more downloads this gets, the more popular the app will be and the more exposure bitcoin and bitpay receive. Winners all round =)

[Elwar]

I would like to see (not necessarily from your team, bit-pay merchant solutions) an app that embeds local stores that accept bitcoin onto a google maps type interface.

Does such an app (or even website) exist? I don't mean just a list of local stores, I am super lazy and a consumer whore. I need a map!

Was thinking the same thing. I figured I would create one if it did not exist but made sure to go ahead and check first to see if there was one.

I found this:

http://www.bitcoinmap.com/

[Mr.Bitcoin]

Friggin sweet.

Thanks for the find. This goes to show the exact purpose of such a website/app. I had no idea there was a merchant in my area that accepts bitcoins (chapel hill, NC).

totes going to bitvinyl later to pick up a beastie boys record.

[Jixtreme]

This is seriously awesome.

Now I need to find Bitcoin businesses in the MSP area! C'mon, Minnesota, get with it!

-Jix

[Vod]

Has anyone told you that you kind of look like Nicolas Cage?   

Congratulations, a great product to be sure!

[Nagle]

OK, that's a quick start. We now know that "bit-pay" is operating out of an house, who's behind it, and some other things they're doing. So if they "lose" any funds, it's clear where to send lawyers and cops.

They do not hold your earnings, you receive those into your wallet every day. So worst case scenario is they steal one transaction and the company packs up and moves to Singapore. All for your 5 BTC.

Bitcoin's anonymous "financial institutions" have a terrible track record. New ones need to be checked out thoroughly. Who's behind them? Do they have a history of success doing anything else? What do they commit to contractually?  How are disputes resolved? 

I expect to see contractual statements like "all payments made after NNN will be transmitted to ACH by NNN". Reliably getting cash out of Bitcoin's "financial institutions" has been hard. About once a week, someone is complaining that one of the exchanges was supposed to send them money but hasn't. Then we hear someone from the exchange claiming that their bank has dumped them, or their money transfer service is down, or some other "cat ate my homework" excuse for not paying on time.

[Elwar]

OK, that's a quick start. We now know that "bit-pay" is operating out of an house, who's behind it, and some other things they're doing. So if they "lose" any funds, it's clear where to send lawyers and cops.

They do not hold your earnings, you receive those into your wallet every day. So worst case scenario is they steal one transaction and the company packs up and moves to Singapore. All for your 5 BTC.

I expect to see contractual statements like "all payments made after NNN will be transmitted to ACH by NNN". 

They have all of those covered on their website.

https://bit-pay.com/legal.html

[Nagle]

OK, that's a quick start. We now know that "bit-pay" is operating out of an house, who's behind it, and some other things they're doing. So if they "lose" any funds, it's clear where to send lawyers and cops.

They do not hold your earnings, you receive those into your wallet every day. So worst case scenario is they steal one transaction and the company packs up and moves to Singapore. All for your 5 BTC.

I expect to see contractual statements like "all payments made after NNN will be transmitted to ACH by NNN".  

They have all of those covered on their website.

https://bit-pay.com/legal.html

No, they do not.  They have an "acceptable use policy", plagiarized from PayPal's acceptable use policy, and a "privacy policy", plagiarized from PayPal's privacy policy. They do not have any terms which contractually bind "bit-pay" with regard to financial transactions.

This is important. Potential merchants need to know about transaction reversals, chargebacks, payout limitations, delays in payment, separation of customer funds from company funds, and dispute resolution procedures. All of those areas have created major problems for users of other Bitcoin-related services.

This is two guys with no financial experience operating out of a house in Florida. The odds are that they will screw up. Merchants need legal protection for when they do.