Purse.io is shutting down

[gentlemand]

That, however, does not have answer to the argument that if purse.io's problem was financial and bitcoin's economy cannot support it, how can bitcoin cash save it?

Who says it has to follow the same business model? He might change it completely. What it does have is brand awareness and that's a big arse job to create from scratch. People know it as place to exchange gift cards for crypto. There's room for other options within that remit, let alone beyond it. 

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[mk4]

purse.io already supported BCH so there wouldn't need to be any real transition there. i don't think roger ver would be dumb enough to remove BTC from the site since it surely provides most of the liquidity. there is no doubt he will unsubtly use it to advertise BCH though. it will probably be the default currency.

he sounds pretty confident that purse.io will keep running.

This exactly. If ever Roger did purchase Purse, I wouldn't be surprised if he did something similar with the type of "marketing" he did with his bitcoin.com website. Something something "bitcoin core for slower transactions" and "bitcoin cash for faster transactions".

[stompix]

IMO, the pressure by governments has squeezed their business model, it is hard to survive nowadays.

The evil gubbermint hasn't done a thing. Stop seeing conspiracies at every step, like it's impossible for a bitcoin business to go bankrupt without interference, if that would have been the case we would all be doing this.

Their problem was a simple one, costs vs dwindling business income and the culprit for this is not the government, it's the...guess who?
Bitcoiners! Bitcoin users that have stopped being users and switched to being holders. And holders don't spend BTC.
No matter how much I dislike it this is the trend now, real-life usage compared to people in for the trading and holding is going down, I hate it, I dislike it, but this is the truth and we have to face it.

I take the view that 'use cases' will be the last thing to be refined. We have to get through the speculative phase, then the store of value bit and then just maybe it'll be a currency once that's achieved. Finally the merchant stuff starts to kick in properly.

I seriously think we're going in reverse right now and I would be happy to see it staying at the store of value step.

[gentlemand]

I would be happy to see it staying at the store of value step.

Staying? I think it's still many years away before it gets anywhere near that. The price might be dead for long stretches but that means the appetite for speculation has died, not that it's become a store of value.

If you suggested to the average person that it would be great idea to park that money they put aside for their life saving operation in BTC while it all gets lined up they'd rightly smack you in the mouth.

[stompix]

I would be happy to see it staying at the store of value step.

Staying? I think it's still many years away before it gets anywhere near that. The price might be dead for long stretches but that means the appetite for speculation has died, not that it's become a store of value.

I know, but I was saying what would make me happy in my care bear utopia, not how it's going to end.
I would love to see options to pay in BTC directly everywhere, directly! , no bitpay no coinpayments no nothing, I would even compromise with half usage half holding but I know how it will end up, probably like gold, traded 1000x times compared to the number of RL purchases and usage limited to pawn shops.

If you suggested to the average person that it would be great idea to park that money they put aside for their life saving operation in BTC while it all gets lined up they'd rightly smack you in the mouth.

Been there, done that, avoided the punch, failed to see the kick, not doing it again. 

[odolvlobo]

This exactly. If ever Roger did purchase Purse, I wouldn't be surprised if he did something similar with the type of "marketing" he did with his bitcoin.com website. Something something "bitcoin core for slower transactions" and "bitcoin cash for faster transactions".

Roger is already a major shareholder in Purse.io.

[odolvlobo]

Well, the situation seems to have changed ... https://support.purse.io/en/articles/3851246-purse-is-saying-goodbye

[STT]

I tried to use them earlier, for once their logo popped up.   Im not sure what went wrong exactly but it wasn't zero hassle that I need it to be, it just hung and span saying it was doing something.  Meanwhile I just wanted to pay so who knows what it was, convenience is one of the most important things for anything consumer orientated.
    I know of a dozen methods to save money and when I tell people they sigh and just say they dont want the hassle, such a pity because the savings possible via various methods are not small in sum total.    This is also part of capitalism imo, people dont value money highest they value their own time as most valuable, so any route has to be easy to use always I'm sure of this.

i don't think roger ver would be dumb enough to remove BTC from the site since it surely provides most of the liquidity. there is no doubt he will unsubtly use it to advertise BCH though. it will probably be the default currency.

Never underestimate the stupidity of your enemy, it can catch you off guard :p    but I agree strong bias is most likely, maybe a danger fee or a delay in clearance for using BTC.

[bbc.reporter]

Well, the situation seems to have changed ... https://support.purse.io/en/articles/3851246-purse-is-saying-goodbye

It appears that gentlemand might be correct. Their business model will change, however, the skeptical me thinks it will be used as a passive political attack tool for bitcoin cash, similar to what Bitpay has been doing.

In any case, this might be the reason Purse wanted to stop.



Amazon is planning to make dramatic cuts to commission rates for its affiliate marketing program, which allows media organizations, e-commerce companies, and small and independent businesses to receive a cut of revenue from a sale if a customer lands on the product page and purchases the item through a provided link.

Source https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2020/4/14/21221326/amazon-affiliate-marketing-links-commerce-commission-cuts

[eaLiTy]

This exactly. If ever Roger did purchase Purse, I wouldn't be surprised if he did something similar with the type of "marketing" he did with his bitcoin.com website. Something something "bitcoin core for slower transactions" and "bitcoin cash for faster transactions".

Now reports are coming out that Roger Ver is in talks with the purse team and i wont be surprised if they continue under a new team as there are several investors who are interested in taking over the company and now they might continue with the site rather than halting their functions.
If Roger Ver takes over the site then he will use it as a tool to promote his fork but i do not think he will remove BTCitcoin.

Here is the details :Roger Ver ‘In Talks’ with Purse.io for Acquisition

[bbc.reporter]

@eaLiTy. I speculate what Roger might do is put a hidden promotion for bitcoin cash similar to Bitpay. Let users choose payment option between BTC and BCH then show their increased high fees for BTC and a 0 fee for BCH.

[buwaytress]

Sad news, I actually only saw the email in my inbox on Wednesday (why did they send it out so late to me I wonder, because I'm not American?) so coming late to this and catching up with things.

So Purse is not dead, but will be changing? And if it's Roger Ver, is Purse going to piss us off the way Bitpay seems to? Problem is, we'll still end up using it, the way I'm forced to use Bitpay because it's the only option for food delivery where I am!

[stompix]

Amazon is planning to make dramatic cuts to commission rates for its affiliate marketing program, which allows media organizations, e-commerce companies, and small and independent businesses to receive a cut of revenue from a sale if a customer lands on the product page and purchases the item through a provided link.

Source https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2020/4/14/21221326/amazon-affiliate-marketing-links-commerce-commission-cuts

Oh, 100TB less crap uploaded to youtube each day and no more hundreds of useless reviews for each item?  
Also the death of blogs and reviews website that just read the specs of the product?
No more pushing crappy products just to earn a few cents on sales?

Clapping for Amazon on this one.

Quoted by CNBC, one person — who runs some Facebook groups dedicated to sharing online deals — says they “cannot afford” the cuts and that the changes will “hurt a lot of people.”

Oh, this one is news for me!
How can you not afford to share deals?  

So Purse is not dead, but will be changing? And if it's Roger Ver, is Purse going to piss us off the way Bitpay seems to? Problem is, we'll still end up using it, the way I'm forced to use Bitpay because it's the only option for food delivery where I am!

The service was going to close because it wasn't profitable for them anymore, probably they were losing money big time.
Roger Ver can do only two things, burn money to keep it running like it is in order to gain promotion for his other ventures or find a way to drastically reduce costs, nothing dramatically will change, if their way of earning is flawed you simply won't be making money out of it.

[squatter]

The service was going to close because it wasn't profitable for them anymore, probably they were losing money big time.
Roger Ver can do only two things, burn money to keep it running like it is in order to gain promotion for his other ventures or find a way to drastically reduce costs, nothing dramatically will change, if their way of earning is flawed you simply won't be making money out of it.

Probably some from Column A and some from Column B.

They have an office in high-rent San Francisco, with 17 employees. They last raised seed money in 2016. They have probably never turned much profit, and have now burned through their venture capital.

If the company were stripped down to the bare bones -- and with the added value Roger Ver will get from promoting BCH or his other ventures -- perhaps an acquisition makes sense. I don't know anyone else besides Roger Ver who has the money and unique incentives to make it worth it. I don't personally see much of a future for Purse.io, but I'm no business guru.

[bbc.reporter]

The service was going to close because it wasn't profitable for them anymore, probably they were losing money big time.
Roger Ver can do only two things, burn money to keep it running like it is in order to gain promotion for his other ventures or find a way to drastically reduce costs, nothing dramatically will change, if their way of earning is flawed you simply won't be making money out of it.

Probably some from Column A and some from Column B.

They have an office in high-rent San Francisco, with 17 employees. They last raised seed money in 2016. They have probably never turned much profit, and have now burned through their venture capital.

If the company were stripped down to the bare bones -- and with the added value Roger Ver will get from promoting BCH or his other ventures -- perhaps an acquisition makes sense. I don't know anyone else besides Roger Ver who has the money and unique incentives to make it worth it. I don't personally see much of a future for Purse.io, but I'm no business guru.

Will purse.io transform into a scam political attack tool under Roger Ver's ownership or he should be cheered because he saved it?

I reckon this question might be on some bitcoiners' heads with no answer hehehe.

[gentlemand]

Will purse.io transform into a scam political attack tool under Roger Ver's ownership or he should be cheered because he saved it?

I reckon this question might be on some bitcoiners' heads with no answer hehehe.

It can be that and still be useful to people. That's probably what he would be counting on. He probably has a giant chart in his bedsit with 'use' and 'propaganda' written on it and he adjusts the ratio depending on how he feels that day.

I didn't realise how extensive the Amazon referrals thing would be. We're going to see lots of services change because of it.

[buwaytress]

The service was going to close because it wasn't profitable for them anymore, probably they were losing money big time.
Roger Ver can do only two things, burn money to keep it running like it is in order to gain promotion for his other ventures or find a way to drastically reduce costs, nothing dramatically will change, if their way of earning is flawed you simply won't be making money out of it.

Reminds me of almost every other tech "unicorn" -- posting huge revenues every year, but not actually making profit, just so they can get on to bigger and bigger rounds of funding, from seed and Series A and whatever, all the way to IPO, looking at every point to sell for max profit. Or to just run everything into the ground while they sit on millions of salaries and bonuses.

He does have money to burn, gotta hand that to him.

[PrimeNumber7]

It seemed such an obvious avenue for fraud that I assumed they had some sort of super robust system to kill it whenever it popped up.

Several years ago, several purse.io customers were arrested after using their service. Most likely they were dealing in larger amounts, and with the same counerparty over time.

They had 17 employees working in San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the world.

A lot of startups and tech companies are located in San Francisco because that is where a lot of talent is.

It looks like they are going to put themselves up for sale instead of simply ceasing operations.

[malevolent]

They had 17 employees working in San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the world.

A lot of startups and tech companies are located in San Francisco because that is where a lot of talent is.

Tech talent, or investors with a lot of money to bet on risky businesses? Their business doesn't scream 'cutting edge rocket science' from a tech perspective*, they could have probably saved a lot of money by having most of their team working remotely from cheaper place(s).

*maybe they managed to develop some ingenious anti-fraud system few could come up with, I don't know, I'm skeptical

[gentlemand]

Tech talent, or investors with a lot of money to bet on risky businesses? Their business doesn't scream 'cutting edge rocket science' from a tech perspective*, they could have probably saved a lot of money by having most of their team working remotely from cheaper place(s).

*maybe they managed to develop some ingenious anti-fraud system few could come up with, I don't know, I'm skeptical

Largely about maintaining an image I'll guess. All of these crypto companies secretly dream of being stumbled across by a Peter Thiel and being scooped up and they think SF is the place to be for it to happen. There's so much noise there you'd likely be better off in Idaho where a potato billionaire gets a boner for that thar tech stuff.