[ANN][NOTE]DNotes - Celebrating DNotes 3rd Birthday - Forum Now Open

[TeeGee]

I just got in touch with a friend who is one of the top web developers and designers you can find, he expressed clear interest and stated that he works quite closely with a state run bank in NZ (Kiwibank) and said it is clear to him that banks know the existing operating model has a finite lifespan thanks to digital currency. We plan on catching up soon for a coffee to discuss further.

This particular individual is the lead director of design at one of NZ's top 2 design firms (who had a bidding war over him) after he one of his university projects was selected to be shown at the Anti Design Festival in London. He also won his first international award for web design at age 16.

He stopped updating his personal portfolio in 2011, and it mostly includes his design projects from university. But it is clear the guy is a design genius, specialising in brand design, typography and web development. He said he would flick me some links to his more recent web development work later on when he finishes work.

Here are some links that show his design skill in uni projects, there are also some massive clients in there including the NZ national air carrier (Air New Zealand) and Cathay Pacific for in-flight entertainment systems - and Kiwibank (a NZ state run bank) for their website and mobile apps.

http://blog.joshbarr.com/category/portfolio/page/2/
http://blog.joshbarr.com/category/portfolio/

Here is a youtube video of his animation skills from a university project in 2008...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkbnqjOAFOM

Kiwibank mobile app he made to help house hunters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXkvsmEzBmk

I'll post his latest web work later on once he sends me some links. I was planning on getting him to do some work for my CRISP for Students advertising / information pages that I'd fund myself .

[TeeGee]

Hi everyone, apologize for my absence, down in the Sunshine State till 2/11 on a job,not much time for the forums. Love the way things are shaping up, everyone is contributing and things moving forward nicely. TTYL

PS: Absolutely love the "Opinion" Spray!

Yes, the guy is quite clever, the Opinion spray - Kills facts fast is one example. Sorry your post now appears before my post showing my friends skills, I just deleted it and reposted it because for some reason, links weren't working on my post after I made an edit to it... but oh well.

I think design is going to play a massive role in a potential investors initial opinion of DNotes, so I think it pays to get it perfect. I don't think the DNotescoin.com page would have much in the way of requirements other than links to the vault, pools, about, bio's, exchanges and other general information - perhaps a blog and news space that we can easily update ourselves (I'm HTML and C# (intermediate level) capable...but not much else). I presume a template would be required, and have one or two people committed to updating it - that should allow DNote's main development team to focus on in-development projects and not be distracted by keeping websites up to date.

A blog section could allow top quality posts from this forum, to be passed around, edited, then put on the websites blog / news page to give them a place to stick for permanent readability. Good quality technical posts about the functions of money can be written there, and we can link forum users to them easily. I think this would save DYNA in particular a lot of time, because he frequently has to write similar messages often so that the DNotes core message is on each forum page - lest his visionary message get lost in the previous pages of forum history.

[Dyna]

I just got in touch with a friend who is one of the top web developers and designers you can find, he expressed clear interest and stated that he works quite closely with a state run bank in NZ (Kiwibank) and said it is clear to him that banks know the existing operating model has a finite lifespan thanks to digital currency. We plan on catching up soon for a coffee to discuss further.

This particular individual is the lead director of design at one of NZ's top 2 design firms (who had a bidding war over him) after he one of his university projects was selected to be shown at the Anti Design Festival in London. He also won his first international award for web design at age 16.

He stopped updating his personal portfolio in 2011, and it mostly includes his design projects from university. But it is clear the guy is a design genius, specialising in brand design, typography and web development. He said he would flick me some links to his more recent web development work later on when he finishes work.

Here are some links that show his design skill in uni projects, there are also some massive clients in there including the NZ national air carrier (Air New Zealand) and Cathay Pacific for in-flight entertainment systems - and Kiwibank (a NZ state run bank) for their website and mobile apps.

http://blog.joshbarr.com/category/portfolio/page/2/
http://blog.joshbarr.com/category/portfolio/

Here is a youtube video of his animation skills from a university project in 2008...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkbnqjOAFOM

Kiwibank mobile app he made to help house hunters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXkvsmEzBmk

I'll post his latest web work later on once he sends me some links. I was planning on getting him to do some work for my CRISP for Students advertising / information pages that I'd fund myself .

Did a quick walk through. Your friend's portfolio is awesome.

[DNotes]

I just got in touch with a friend who is one of the top web developers and designers you can find, he expressed clear interest and stated that he works quite closely with a state run bank in NZ (Kiwibank) and said it is clear to him that banks know the existing operating model has a finite lifespan thanks to digital currency. We plan on catching up soon for a coffee to discuss further.

This particular individual is the lead director of design at one of NZ's top 2 design firms (who had a bidding war over him) after he one of his university projects was selected to be shown at the Anti Design Festival in London. He also won his first international award for web design at age 16.

He stopped updating his personal portfolio in 2011, and it mostly includes his design projects from university. But it is clear the guy is a design genius, specialising in brand design, typography and web development. He said he would flick me some links to his more recent web development work later on when he finishes work.

Here are some links that show his design skill in uni projects, there are also some massive clients in there including the NZ national air carrier (Air New Zealand) and Cathay Pacific for in-flight entertainment systems - and Kiwibank (a NZ state run bank) for their website and mobile apps.

http://blog.joshbarr.com/category/portfolio/page/2/
http://blog.joshbarr.com/category/portfolio/

Here is a youtube video of his animation skills from a university project in 2008...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkbnqjOAFOM

Kiwibank mobile app he made to help house hunters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXkvsmEzBmk

I'll post his latest web work later on once he sends me some links. I was planning on getting him to do some work for my CRISP for Students advertising / information pages that I'd fund myself .

Did a quick walk through. Your friend's portfolio is awesome.

I agree, that would be wonderful if he is willing to help with the DNotes website design.

[DNotes]

Hi everyone, apologize for my absence, down in the Sunshine State till 2/11 on a job,not much time for the forums. Love the way things are shaping up, everyone is contributing and things moving forward nicely. TTYL

PS: Absolutely love the "Opinion" Spray!

Yes, the guy is quite clever, the Opinion spray - Kills facts fast is one example. Sorry your post now appears before my post showing my friends skills, I just deleted it and reposted it because for some reason, links weren't working on my post after I made an edit to it... but oh well.

I think design is going to play a massive role in a potential investors initial opinion of DNotes, so I think it pays to get it perfect. I don't think the DNotescoin.com page would have much in the way of requirements other than links to the vault, pools, about, bio's, exchanges and other general information - perhaps a blog and news space that we can easily update ourselves (I'm HTML and C# (intermediate level) capable...but not much else). I presume a template would be required, and have one or two people committed to updating it - that should allow DNote's main development team to focus on in-development projects and not be distracted by keeping websites up to date.

A blog section could allow top quality posts from this forum, to be passed around, edited, then put on the websites blog / news page to give them a place to stick for permanent readability. Good quality technical posts about the functions of money can be written there, and we can link forum users to them easily. I think this would save DYNA in particular a lot of time, because he frequently has to write similar messages often so that the DNotes core message is on each forum page - lest his visionary message get lost in the previous pages of forum history.

Thank you TeeGee, those are great ideas. You're right, if we had capable writers to spend the time to keep a blog updated and well written news would be very helpful.

[DNotes]

Hi everyone, apologize for my absence, down in the Sunshine State till 2/11 on a job,not much time for the forums. Love the way things are shaping up, everyone is contributing and things moving forward nicely. TTYL

PS: Absolutely love the "Opinion" Spray!

I was thinking "Where's RJF been" as I was shoveling out my driveway . Hope your enjoying the weather!

[Dyna]

Hi everyone, apologize for my absence, down in the Sunshine State till 2/11 on a job,not much time for the forums. Love the way things are shaping up, everyone is contributing and things moving forward nicely. TTYL

PS: Absolutely love the "Opinion" Spray!

Hi RJF. Great to hear from you. Work must come first. However, there may to be a logistic issue I need to bring to your attention. I can get creative and work around it, assuming that I have sufficient materials to work from based on your blog posts. I will be working on the first draft of CR.I.S.P. for Retirement press release in a few days. Ideally, a lot of the materials will be pulled from the OP/landing page with a smooth tie-in. There should also be a quote from RJF as Director of …. After the first draft is completed, it is then sent to our PR team for editing. Typically it takes a week and a few revisions before the final copy is approved for release, with at least 24 hours notice before the hard date. Since we are scheduled for launch on the week of Feb.16, 2015, the press release should be finalized by that Monday allowing for a minimum of 24 hours before it is released for distribution.

If you have any new concepts you plan to incorporate please let me know as soon as possible. Otherwise, enjoy the sunshine.

[Chase]

Here's something I would like to hear some comments on. I initially posted this in the Digibyte forum since they were discussing the issue but, I would like to see what everyone here thinks:

"I'm hearing a lot of noise about Bitcoin's "flaw" regarding non reversible transactions. This is both a good and bad feature in the protocol depending on what the transaction is for. Perhaps, a solution would be to change the code so the transaction IS reversible for some period of time or, until the receiving party physically accepts it. Thoughts?"

Seems this is one of the holdups for mass adoption although most of that noise is coming from the established money/credit providers. Do you agree?

This is my take and I will try to make it brief. The irreversible feature of Bitcoin is an important security component and a great selling point to merchants. Legitimate merchants stand by their products and services they sell. Buyers have full recourse to a refund of their payments, if they so demand, within some reasonable scope of limitations, either directly or through the court of laws. I do not see this as an added risk exposure to the consumers, but a significant protection for merchants.

Reversible payments will drastically increase merchants’ risk exposure and a huge deterrent to mass merchant adoption. Anonymity, with the exception of certain merchants, is also a deterrent to mass adoption.

Unfortunately, I am having a very busy day and do not have the time to elaborate this further. I will conclude that in the absence of the irreversible feature and a required true anonymity for DNotes my optimism for the success of DNotes would be severely degraded. That is how strongly I feel about these two functions of Bitcoin as a digital currency technology.

I was trying to find an article I had read awhile ago about chargebacks, but haven't found it yet.  It gave the details on things like most reversed transactions are from online purchases, a lot of them are consumer fraud (receiving the merchandise, but saying you didn't), etc.  I'm of the opinion that this ("bitcoin's flaw") is just the credit card companies using this fact as their trump card.  Things will evolve and work themselves out and their argument will become mute.  Some of this can be dealt with on the shipping side ie. shipping insurance to guarantee receipt and in good condition where the customer must acknowledge upon receipt.  Best sellers ratings for reputable online businesses.  Apps that will recognize the addresses of the businesses on your safe list and issue you a warning if necessary, etc.  Who knows, this could weed out bad businesses and bad customers.

I did find this article on how much chargebacks cost merchants:

"The Unknown Costs of a Chargeback"  -   http://www.chargeback.com/blog/the-unknown-costs-of-a-chargeback

Someone was listening to me . LOL



"Bonafide Raises $850k to Build Reputation System for Bitcoin"

A startup called Bonafide has raised $850,000 to build a reputation system for the bitcoin industry.

The funding round, which comes from Quest Venture Partners, Crypto Currency Partners and the AngelList Bitcoin Syndicate, among others, is a step towards creating a scoring system for addresses on bitcoin’s network.

Notably, Bonfide.io was included in Silicon Valley’s 500 Startups incubation program last year.

Brian Moyer, the firm's co-founder, said that 500 Startups venture partner Sean Percival saw early on the potential for Bonafide to create more credibility in bitcoin commerce, whether between consumers and merchants, or in person-to-person payments.

Moyer said:

“What we’ve found is that people need to identify with something, whether it’s a person or an entity in the bitcoin ecosystem. People need to be able to see what’s out there.”

Managing reputation

Following a spate of collapsed companies and notable frauds in the space, reputation in bitcoin is now seen as increasingly important in helping the technology to go more mainstream and overcome fears over the digital currency's pseudonymous nature.

While bitcoin addresses can in some cases be tracked and identified with certain persons or firms, generally it is hard to find out who owns a particular address.

So, for merchants and consumers in the bitcoin space, not having solid information about the person or entity they are dealing with can be a problem – an issue Bonafide aims to solve.

Moyer said:

“Bitcoin is desperately in need of having that place for people to be able to demonstrate their validity in the space."

Bonafide does not have a login on its website. Instead, it culls information from social networks and the bitcoin network in order to provide entities, which could be people or organizations, a reputation score.

http://www.coindesk.com/bonafide-raises-850k-build-reputation-system-bitcoin/

[Dyna]

Here's something I would like to hear some comments on. I initially posted this in the Digibyte forum since they were discussing the issue but, I would like to see what everyone here thinks:

"I'm hearing a lot of noise about Bitcoin's "flaw" regarding non reversible transactions. This is both a good and bad feature in the protocol depending on what the transaction is for. Perhaps, a solution would be to change the code so the transaction IS reversible for some period of time or, until the receiving party physically accepts it. Thoughts?"

Seems this is one of the holdups for mass adoption although most of that noise is coming from the established money/credit providers. Do you agree?

This is my take and I will try to make it brief. The irreversible feature of Bitcoin is an important security component and a great selling point to merchants. Legitimate merchants stand by their products and services they sell. Buyers have full recourse to a refund of their payments, if they so demand, within some reasonable scope of limitations, either directly or through the court of laws. I do not see this as an added risk exposure to the consumers, but a significant protection for merchants.

Reversible payments will drastically increase merchants’ risk exposure and a huge deterrent to mass merchant adoption. Anonymity, with the exception of certain merchants, is also a deterrent to mass adoption.

Unfortunately, I am having a very busy day and do not have the time to elaborate this further. I will conclude that in the absence of the irreversible feature and a required true anonymity for DNotes my optimism for the success of DNotes would be severely degraded. That is how strongly I feel about these two functions of Bitcoin as a digital currency technology.

I was trying to find an article I had read awhile ago about chargebacks, but haven't found it yet.  It gave the details on things like most reversed transactions are from online purchases, a lot of them are consumer fraud (receiving the merchandise, but saying you didn't), etc.  I'm of the opinion that this ("bitcoin's flaw") is just the credit card companies using this fact as their trump card.  Things will evolve and work themselves out and their argument will become mute.  Some of this can be dealt with on the shipping side ie. shipping insurance to guarantee receipt and in good condition where the customer must acknowledge upon receipt. Best sellers ratings for reputable online businesses.  Apps that will recognize the addresses of the businesses on your safe list and issue you a warning if necessary, etc.  Who knows, this could weed out bad businesses and bad customers.

I did find this article on how much chargebacks cost merchants:

"The Unknown Costs of a Chargeback"  -   http://www.chargeback.com/blog/the-unknown-costs-of-a-chargeback

Someone was listening to me . LOL



"Bonafide Raises $850k to Build Reputation System for Bitcoin"

A startup called Bonafide has raised $850,000 to build a reputation system for the bitcoin industry.

The funding round, which comes from Quest Venture Partners, Crypto Currency Partners and the AngelList Bitcoin Syndicate, among others, is a step towards creating a scoring system for addresses on bitcoin’s network.

Notably, Bonfide.io was included in Silicon Valley’s 500 Startups incubation program last year.

Brian Moyer, the firm's co-founder, said that 500 Startups venture partner Sean Percival saw early on the potential for Bonafide to create more credibility in bitcoin commerce, whether between consumers and merchants, or in person-to-person payments.

Moyer said:

“What we’ve found is that people need to identify with something, whether it’s a person or an entity in the bitcoin ecosystem. People need to be able to see what’s out there.”

Managing reputation

Following a spate of collapsed companies and notable frauds in the space, reputation in bitcoin is now seen as increasingly important in helping the technology to go more mainstream and overcome fears over the digital currency's pseudonymous nature.

While bitcoin addresses can in some cases be tracked and identified with certain persons or firms, generally it is hard to find out who owns a particular address.

So, for merchants and consumers in the bitcoin space, not having solid information about the person or entity they are dealing with can be a problem – an issue Bonafide aims to solve.

Moyer said:

“Bitcoin is desperately in need of having that place for people to be able to demonstrate their validity in the space."

Bonafide does not have a login on its website. Instead, it culls information from social networks and the bitcoin network in order to provide entities, which could be people or organizations, a reputation score.

http://www.coindesk.com/bonafide-raises-850k-build-reputation-system-bitcoin/

LOL. How many DNotes did have to pay those guys to listen to you? I bet a lot to be thinking like us, as we have been since day one. They got the right idea but it will take a lot more than 850K for a partial reputation rebuild.

If you started off with a cold cup of tea, it best to empty it first. Otherwise, it will take a lot more hot tea just to warm it up for you. It is best to start with an empty clean cup as DNotes did. We are building from ground up, block by block. Trust and integrity are just among a couple of those building blocks. In brief, it will take a lot more than that. There is no single solution for an industry as complex as ours. It will take a total package of many little tasks and a great deal of dedications and commitments that are consistently positive and productive, sustainable over a long period of time, under the right leadership.

[Chase]

Here's something I would like to hear some comments on. I initially posted this in the Digibyte forum since they were discussing the issue but, I would like to see what everyone here thinks:

"I'm hearing a lot of noise about Bitcoin's "flaw" regarding non reversible transactions. This is both a good and bad feature in the protocol depending on what the transaction is for. Perhaps, a solution would be to change the code so the transaction IS reversible for some period of time or, until the receiving party physically accepts it. Thoughts?"

Seems this is one of the holdups for mass adoption although most of that noise is coming from the established money/credit providers. Do you agree?

This is my take and I will try to make it brief. The irreversible feature of Bitcoin is an important security component and a great selling point to merchants. Legitimate merchants stand by their products and services they sell. Buyers have full recourse to a refund of their payments, if they so demand, within some reasonable scope of limitations, either directly or through the court of laws. I do not see this as an added risk exposure to the consumers, but a significant protection for merchants.

Reversible payments will drastically increase merchants’ risk exposure and a huge deterrent to mass merchant adoption. Anonymity, with the exception of certain merchants, is also a deterrent to mass adoption.

Unfortunately, I am having a very busy day and do not have the time to elaborate this further. I will conclude that in the absence of the irreversible feature and a required true anonymity for DNotes my optimism for the success of DNotes would be severely degraded. That is how strongly I feel about these two functions of Bitcoin as a digital currency technology.

I was trying to find an article I had read awhile ago about chargebacks, but haven't found it yet.  It gave the details on things like most reversed transactions are from online purchases, a lot of them are consumer fraud (receiving the merchandise, but saying you didn't), etc.  I'm of the opinion that this ("bitcoin's flaw") is just the credit card companies using this fact as their trump card.  Things will evolve and work themselves out and their argument will become mute.  Some of this can be dealt with on the shipping side ie. shipping insurance to guarantee receipt and in good condition where the customer must acknowledge upon receipt. Best sellers ratings for reputable online businesses.  Apps that will recognize the addresses of the businesses on your safe list and issue you a warning if necessary, etc.  Who knows, this could weed out bad businesses and bad customers.

I did find this article on how much chargebacks cost merchants:

"The Unknown Costs of a Chargeback"  -   http://www.chargeback.com/blog/the-unknown-costs-of-a-chargeback

Someone was listening to me . LOL



"Bonafide Raises $850k to Build Reputation System for Bitcoin"

A startup called Bonafide has raised $850,000 to build a reputation system for the bitcoin industry.

The funding round, which comes from Quest Venture Partners, Crypto Currency Partners and the AngelList Bitcoin Syndicate, among others, is a step towards creating a scoring system for addresses on bitcoin’s network.

Notably, Bonfide.io was included in Silicon Valley’s 500 Startups incubation program last year.

Brian Moyer, the firm's co-founder, said that 500 Startups venture partner Sean Percival saw early on the potential for Bonafide to create more credibility in bitcoin commerce, whether between consumers and merchants, or in person-to-person payments.

Moyer said:

“What we’ve found is that people need to identify with something, whether it’s a person or an entity in the bitcoin ecosystem. People need to be able to see what’s out there.”

Managing reputation

Following a spate of collapsed companies and notable frauds in the space, reputation in bitcoin is now seen as increasingly important in helping the technology to go more mainstream and overcome fears over the digital currency's pseudonymous nature.

While bitcoin addresses can in some cases be tracked and identified with certain persons or firms, generally it is hard to find out who owns a particular address.

So, for merchants and consumers in the bitcoin space, not having solid information about the person or entity they are dealing with can be a problem – an issue Bonafide aims to solve.

Moyer said:

“Bitcoin is desperately in need of having that place for people to be able to demonstrate their validity in the space."

Bonafide does not have a login on its website. Instead, it culls information from social networks and the bitcoin network in order to provide entities, which could be people or organizations, a reputation score.

http://www.coindesk.com/bonafide-raises-850k-build-reputation-system-bitcoin/

LOL. How many DNotes did have to pay those guys to listen to you? I bet a lot to be thinking like us, as we have been since day one. They got the right idea but it will take a lot more than 850K for a partial reputation rebuild.

If you started off with a cold cup of tea, it best to empty it first. Otherwise, it will take a lot more hot tea just to warm it up for you. It is best to start with an empty clean cup as DNotes did. We are building from ground up, block by block. Trust and integrity are just among a couple of those building blocks. In brief, it will take a lot more than that. There is no single solution for an industry as complex as ours. It will take a total package of many little tasks and a great deal of dedications and commitments that are consistently positive and productive, sustainable over a long period of time, under the right leadership.

For those that are trying to operate as a currency right now that did not have a master plan from day one, they will have to apply patches as they go along and hope that they stick.

What I liked about this article wasn't that it was about bitcoin, but the fact that it is starting to address some of the concerns voiced ie. Bill gates comment that if you enter the wrong address, your bitcoin is gone. With the address identified with the merchant (like I told these guys to do  ), some of these fears are being eliminated.
 

[Dyna]

This is a fairly long article but worth reading. Here is my take away:

1. The irreversible feature of Bitcoin should remain for many good reasons as amplified in this article.

2. It explained why most exchanges do not accept credit card or promote it, as in the case of Coinbase.

3. There are many good reasons why Credit and Debit Card companies should worry about their outdated payment network, credit card fraud, chargebacks, and the extremely high interest they are charging consumers and small business owners.

*************************************

How Credit Card Fraud Sank One Bitcoin Exchange

Danny Bradbury (@dannybradbury) | Published on January 13, 2015 at 13:19 GMT
COINDESK:

One of the biggest problems for bitcoin exchanges and their customers is often making the exchange quick and easy. Exchanges like Canadian firm Virtex made the decision a long time ago not to accept credit cards. Their biggest concern? Fraud, in the form of chargebacks.

In a credit card chargeback, a credit-card paying customer asks the issuing bank (the bank that gave them the card) to reverse a transaction made with a merchant. This can happen for a variety of legitimate reasons. A merchant may not have delivered the promised goods or service, or it may have been faulty. In some cases, a card may have been stolen and used without the owner’s consent.

Sometimes, however, the owner of the card perpetrates their own fraud, by trying to reverse a legitimate financial transaction. It’s effectively a pre-blockchain version of double spending. This can happen a lot on the Internet, where companies are dealing with large numbers of unknown customers half a world away.

Chargeback target
This happened to Joey Rich, who found himself at the wrong end of a steep learning curve in 2010.
Having purchased some coins, he began selling them at a profit. He lost his initial investment of $9,000, though, after his bitcoin exchange, BuyBitcoins.com, suffered a series of chargebacks from stolen credit cards.

He explained that a combination of lost credit card revenues and chargeback fees led to a loss of his funds.

Rich said: “For chargebacks, credit card companies charge fees of $25 to $35 in addition to the reversal of the original payment as a deterrent. So I also got hit with a huge number of those $35 fees, which is especially painful on orders of $5 to $10. As my my bank account went into the red, I started getting hit with overdraft fees as well, so it was quite a fiasco.”

Aside from the lost revenues, one of the nasty side effects of chargebacks is that credit card processors keep score. Too many chargebacks raises flags against your account. Eventually, his account was terminated, and Rich was added to a blacklist. “I didn't really know anything about credit card processing back then, and didn't understand how reversible those payments are,” he admitted.

To make matters worse, he explained that the credit card processor hadn’t deposited the original $9,000 into his account in the first place, due to an administrative error. That didn’t stop them withdrawing $7,000 in chargeback transactions and fees, though, putting him in deficit and incurring even more charges in the form of overdraft fees.

It took him a year to sort it out and limp away with some money. In the interim, he had closed the exchange down while he figured out a way to handle credit cards more effectively. In 2012, Rich reopened the site, this time with identity verification features, including options for users to upload a scan of their driver's license, to log in with their Facebook account, and to be geolocated using HTML5 in the browser (which he claimed is far better than geolocation by IP address).

Successful completion of all these tasks contributed to a trust score, which would help to decide whether a user’s order was processed or not. At this point, Rich was using a different credit card processor.
He said: “Those identity verification requirements helped me to do much better, and I reached about $45,000 in sales in the month of May 2013. However, about $4,500 of those were charged back, resulting in the termination of that account.”

The chargeback minefield

Clearly, credit card processing for merchants is harder than it looks. The rewards are ease and convenience, though, and depending on the customer demographic, are simply too tempting for some exchanges to resist.

Read more:
http://www.coindesk.com/how-fraud-sunk-bitcoin-exchange/

[DNotes]

Here's something I would like to hear some comments on. I initially posted this in the Digibyte forum since they were discussing the issue but, I would like to see what everyone here thinks:

"I'm hearing a lot of noise about Bitcoin's "flaw" regarding non reversible transactions. This is both a good and bad feature in the protocol depending on what the transaction is for. Perhaps, a solution would be to change the code so the transaction IS reversible for some period of time or, until the receiving party physically accepts it. Thoughts?"

Seems this is one of the holdups for mass adoption although most of that noise is coming from the established money/credit providers. Do you agree?

This is my take and I will try to make it brief. The irreversible feature of Bitcoin is an important security component and a great selling point to merchants. Legitimate merchants stand by their products and services they sell. Buyers have full recourse to a refund of their payments, if they so demand, within some reasonable scope of limitations, either directly or through the court of laws. I do not see this as an added risk exposure to the consumers, but a significant protection for merchants.

Reversible payments will drastically increase merchants’ risk exposure and a huge deterrent to mass merchant adoption. Anonymity, with the exception of certain merchants, is also a deterrent to mass adoption.

Unfortunately, I am having a very busy day and do not have the time to elaborate this further. I will conclude that in the absence of the irreversible feature and a required true anonymity for DNotes my optimism for the success of DNotes would be severely degraded. That is how strongly I feel about these two functions of Bitcoin as a digital currency technology.

I was trying to find an article I had read awhile ago about chargebacks, but haven't found it yet.  It gave the details on things like most reversed transactions are from online purchases, a lot of them are consumer fraud (receiving the merchandise, but saying you didn't), etc.  I'm of the opinion that this ("bitcoin's flaw") is just the credit card companies using this fact as their trump card.  Things will evolve and work themselves out and their argument will become mute.  Some of this can be dealt with on the shipping side ie. shipping insurance to guarantee receipt and in good condition where the customer must acknowledge upon receipt. Best sellers ratings for reputable online businesses.  Apps that will recognize the addresses of the businesses on your safe list and issue you a warning if necessary, etc.  Who knows, this could weed out bad businesses and bad customers.

I did find this article on how much chargebacks cost merchants:

"The Unknown Costs of a Chargeback"  -   http://www.chargeback.com/blog/the-unknown-costs-of-a-chargeback

Someone was listening to me . LOL



"Bonafide Raises $850k to Build Reputation System for Bitcoin"

A startup called Bonafide has raised $850,000 to build a reputation system for the bitcoin industry.

The funding round, which comes from Quest Venture Partners, Crypto Currency Partners and the AngelList Bitcoin Syndicate, among others, is a step towards creating a scoring system for addresses on bitcoin’s network.

Notably, Bonfide.io was included in Silicon Valley’s 500 Startups incubation program last year.

Brian Moyer, the firm's co-founder, said that 500 Startups venture partner Sean Percival saw early on the potential for Bonafide to create more credibility in bitcoin commerce, whether between consumers and merchants, or in person-to-person payments.

Moyer said:

“What we’ve found is that people need to identify with something, whether it’s a person or an entity in the bitcoin ecosystem. People need to be able to see what’s out there.”

Managing reputation

Following a spate of collapsed companies and notable frauds in the space, reputation in bitcoin is now seen as increasingly important in helping the technology to go more mainstream and overcome fears over the digital currency's pseudonymous nature.

While bitcoin addresses can in some cases be tracked and identified with certain persons or firms, generally it is hard to find out who owns a particular address.

So, for merchants and consumers in the bitcoin space, not having solid information about the person or entity they are dealing with can be a problem – an issue Bonafide aims to solve.

Moyer said:

“Bitcoin is desperately in need of having that place for people to be able to demonstrate their validity in the space."

Bonafide does not have a login on its website. Instead, it culls information from social networks and the bitcoin network in order to provide entities, which could be people or organizations, a reputation score.

http://www.coindesk.com/bonafide-raises-850k-build-reputation-system-bitcoin/

LOL. How many DNotes did have to pay those guys to listen to you? I bet a lot to be thinking like us, as we have been since day one. They got the right idea but it will take a lot more than 850K for a partial reputation rebuild.

If you started off with a cold cup of tea, it best to empty it first. Otherwise, it will take a lot more hot tea just to warm it up for you. It is best to start with an empty clean cup as DNotes did. We are building from ground up, block by block. Trust and integrity are just among a couple of those building blocks. In brief, it will take a lot more than that. There is no single solution for an industry as complex as ours. It will take a total package of many little tasks and a great deal of dedications and commitments that are consistently positive and productive, sustainable over a long period of time, under the right leadership.

For those that are trying to operate as a currency right now that did not have a master plan from day one, they will have to apply patches as they go along and hope that they stick.

What I liked about this article wasn't that it was about bitcoin, but the fact that it is starting to address some of the concerns voiced ie. Bill gates comment that if you enter the wrong address, your bitcoin is gone. With the address identified with the merchant (like I told these guys to do   ), some of these fears are being eliminated.
 

Many of the problems that are being pushed as a scare tactic are often pretty easy to overcome given time and dedication. I don't think there will be any issues that can't be overcome.

[DNotes]

This is a fairly long article but worth reading. Here is my take away:

1. The irreversible feature of Bitcoin should remain for many good reasons as amplified in this article.

2. It explained why most exchanges do not accept credit card or promote it, as in the case of Coinbase.

3. There are many good reasons why Credit and Debit Card companies should worry about their outdated payment network, credit card fraud, chargebacks, and the extremely high interest they are charging consumers and small business owners.

*************************************

How Credit Card Fraud Sank One Bitcoin Exchange

Danny Bradbury (@dannybradbury) | Published on January 13, 2015 at 13:19 GMT
COINDESK:

One of the biggest problems for bitcoin exchanges and their customers is often making the exchange quick and easy. Exchanges like Canadian firm Virtex made the decision a long time ago not to accept credit cards. Their biggest concern? Fraud, in the form of chargebacks.

In a credit card chargeback, a credit-card paying customer asks the issuing bank (the bank that gave them the card) to reverse a transaction made with a merchant. This can happen for a variety of legitimate reasons. A merchant may not have delivered the promised goods or service, or it may have been faulty. In some cases, a card may have been stolen and used without the owner’s consent.

Sometimes, however, the owner of the card perpetrates their own fraud, by trying to reverse a legitimate financial transaction. It’s effectively a pre-blockchain version of double spending. This can happen a lot on the Internet, where companies are dealing with large numbers of unknown customers half a world away.

Chargeback target
This happened to Joey Rich, who found himself at the wrong end of a steep learning curve in 2010.
Having purchased some coins, he began selling them at a profit. He lost his initial investment of $9,000, though, after his bitcoin exchange, BuyBitcoins.com, suffered a series of chargebacks from stolen credit cards.

He explained that a combination of lost credit card revenues and chargeback fees led to a loss of his funds.

Rich said: “For chargebacks, credit card companies charge fees of $25 to $35 in addition to the reversal of the original payment as a deterrent. So I also got hit with a huge number of those $35 fees, which is especially painful on orders of $5 to $10. As my my bank account went into the red, I started getting hit with overdraft fees as well, so it was quite a fiasco.”

Aside from the lost revenues, one of the nasty side effects of chargebacks is that credit card processors keep score. Too many chargebacks raises flags against your account. Eventually, his account was terminated, and Rich was added to a blacklist. “I didn't really know anything about credit card processing back then, and didn't understand how reversible those payments are,” he admitted.

To make matters worse, he explained that the credit card processor hadn’t deposited the original $9,000 into his account in the first place, due to an administrative error. That didn’t stop them withdrawing $7,000 in chargeback transactions and fees, though, putting him in deficit and incurring even more charges in the form of overdraft fees.

It took him a year to sort it out and limp away with some money. In the interim, he had closed the exchange down while he figured out a way to handle credit cards more effectively. In 2012, Rich reopened the site, this time with identity verification features, including options for users to upload a scan of their driver's license, to log in with their Facebook account, and to be geolocated using HTML5 in the browser (which he claimed is far better than geolocation by IP address).

Successful completion of all these tasks contributed to a trust score, which would help to decide whether a user’s order was processed or not. At this point, Rich was using a different credit card processor.
He said: “Those identity verification requirements helped me to do much better, and I reached about $45,000 in sales in the month of May 2013. However, about $4,500 of those were charged back, resulting in the termination of that account.”

The chargeback minefield

Clearly, credit card processing for merchants is harder than it looks. The rewards are ease and convenience, though, and depending on the customer demographic, are simply too tempting for some exchanges to resist.

Read more:
http://www.coindesk.com/how-fraud-sunk-bitcoin-exchange/

This is a powerful story, and similar scenarios are happening every day to honest merchants with legitimate and trustworthy intentions. I know from experience with digital products, it is as if someone is waiting at every corner to knock you down, and there isn't much you can do about it.

[TeeGee]

"DNotes - The Merchant's Currency"
"The Digital Notes Payment Network - For Honest Payment"

[Dyna]

"DNotes - The Merchant's Currency"
"The Digital Notes Payment Network - For Honest Payment"

        Age
Digital ^Notes Global Payment Network.

Perhaps a good graphic designer can come up with a great design using the above concept. We are ahead of reality but not a bad idea to start thinking about it.

[OCTOPARTY]

"3. There are many good reasons why Credit and Debit Card companies should worry about their outdated payment network, credit card fraud, chargebacks, and the extremely high interest they are charging consumers and small business owners."

Agreed.

[OCTOPARTY]

Does DNotes have the vector logo file or files available for designers to use?

[DNotes]

Does DNotes have the vector logo file or files available for designers to use?

Heya OCTOPARTY, yep, I'll put up a link shortly.

[OCTOPARTY]

Does DNotes have the vector logo file or files available for designers to use?

Heya OCTOPARTY, yep, I'll put up a link shortly.

thanks! and this is frameLAlife btw. that account is suspended for spamming. so this is my temp.

[DNotes]

Does DNotes have the vector logo file or files available for designers to use?

Heya OCTOPARTY, yep, I'll put up a link shortly.

thanks! and this is frameLAlife btw. that account is suspended for spamming. so this is my temp.

Ahh gotcha! Here is the one for the logo.

http://dnotescoin.com/DNotes.psd