Bad reputation

[robertcarlyle]

Was PayPal ever a good option in the early days of exchanges in order to buy bitcoin? If someone wanted to buy a ton of bitcoin in early 2010, would PayPal have been the way to go to buy more than 1000 usd worth of bitcoin? Why did PayPal get a bad reputation then?

[Dunamisx]

Its not about PayPal now, its about security and privacy, as at then, people chose to use PayPal because of several reasons which they never have the perfect option as alternative to buying bitcoin than PayPal, anyway, now they have know and understand that its only a gateway payment system and not an exchange, they can easily use an exchange in buying bitcoin now.

[bittraffic]

Was PayPal ever a good option in the early days of exchanges in order to buy bitcoin? If someone wanted to buy a ton of bitcoin in early 2010, would PayPal have been the way to go to buy more than 1000 usd worth of bitcoin? Why did PayPal get a bad reputation then?

Paypal got a bad reputation since they can revert transactions and I think at some point they favored the buyers/shoppers in the past. But yes you can buy BTC to users using paypal which paypal don't have the knowledge to the nature of the transaction.

There are still as far as I know users here buying and selling from user to user in the forum using paypal. Its a private transaction.

[Hazink]

Was PayPal ever a good option in the early days of exchanges in order to buy bitcoin? If someone wanted to buy a ton of bitcoin in early 2010, would PayPal have been the way to go to buy more than 1000 usd worth of bitcoin? Why did PayPal get a bad reputation then?

2010, you said? PayPal was not even an option, and they have not yet enabled the buying and withdrawing of crypto on their platform. I am correct; it was 10 years later they started around 2020.

And if it's on the line of paying someone for their bitcoin using PayPal, it's still not the best option since PayPal has a refund policy; the buyer can request a refund within 30 days, which they will definitely refund him or her if there is enough convincing, and the seller will be on the losing side. The refund policy is to protect customers against fraud, but fraudulent actors have also taken advantage of that.

[OmegaStarScream]

For as long as I remember, PayPal has been something that people recommende due to its reversible nature as mentioned above.

Virwox was one of the few exchanges that accepted PayPal back in the very early days, but charged high fees (I believe 20%, if not more).

[finaleshot2016]

Was PayPal ever a good option in the early days of exchanges in order to buy bitcoin? If someone wanted to buy a ton of bitcoin in early 2010, would PayPal have been the way to go to buy more than 1000 usd worth of bitcoin? Why did PayPal get a bad reputation then?

No one uses a tool that you aren't the main holder of it. I think buying in bitcoin is the lower option for you to buy bitcoin in the past because afaik, there are other good ways to buy bitcoin not paypal. I mean why would you use a platform that isn't a decentralized platform not centralized like paypal, if we're talking about buy bitcoin. Tbh it's really risky on paypal, and no app back then that really promotes security, privacy and assurance for crypto users, especially this one that has irreversible issue. Too risky.

[Mia Chloe]

Was PayPal ever a good option in the early days of exchanges in order to buy bitcoin? If someone wanted to buy a ton of bitcoin in early 2010, would PayPal have been the way to go to buy more than 1000 usd worth of bitcoin? Why did PayPal get a bad reputation then?

The major problem you would have to consider in a possible case scenario like this is privacy. To start with, you can't buy some coins on PayPal without carrying out KYC verification and that is one thing that old bitcoin enthusiasts avoid the most. Buying such a huge amount back then has a lot of risks on the buyer.

Virwox was one of the few exchanges that accepted PayPal back in the very early days, but charged high fees (I believe 20%, if not more).

That's crazy high besides that did they require KYC back then too because this is the first time I'm actually hearing about them.

[The Cryptovator]

PayPal policy stands against the Bitcoin standard. Because Bitcoin is irreversible, whereas PayPal is reversible. Even if you transfer Bitcoin through PayPal to another PayPal, they still could reverse it if they want. It's because it's just an internal transaction and off-chain, not an on-chain transaction. PayPal is accepted worldwide; that's why people choose that. But those who are familiar with Bitcoin, they always prefer to use Bitcoin. However, in addition, I don't prefer to store your Bitcoin in any custodial wallet, even if it's PayPal.

[planingkoala]

@robertcarlyle: Interesting question. I wasn’t around in 2010, but looking back, I get why PayPal might’ve felt like a shortcut – familiar, fast, done. But yeah, the reversibility kills it. Imagine sending BTC and then getting PayPal’d in reverse? Brutal. I wonder though: did anyone really go through with huge buys like that via PayPal back then – or was it more of a “try and see what explodes” phase?

[_act_]

@robertcarlyle: Interesting question. I wasn’t around in 2010, but looking back, I get why PayPal might’ve felt like a shortcut – familiar, fast, done. But yeah, the reversibility kills it. Imagine sending BTC and then getting PayPal’d in reverse? Brutal. I wonder though: did anyone really go through with huge buys like that via PayPal back then – or was it more of a “try and see what explodes” phase?

I was told that some people used PayPal for bitcoin transaction in the past. Even when I know about bitcoin, I have seen people that include PayPal as part of their pay options on P2P exchanges while the exchanges warned people of possible reversal of PayPal transactions. Maybe people are not using it because of that and the exchanges removed it. It was good how they removed it because easy transaction reversal is not something good.

[passwordnow]

Virwox was one of the few exchanges that accepted PayPal back in the very early days, but charged high fees (I believe 20%, if not more).

I remember this and had a time that I was able to use it and it's a good one during the early days. The design was not that good at all but it's one of the best platforms for those folks that were looking to use their PayPal funds for Bitcoin. I think that 10%-20% of fee wasn't a problem before when someone who's just excited to have Bitcoin at that time.

Was PayPal ever a good option in the early days of exchanges in order to buy bitcoin? If someone wanted to buy a ton of bitcoin in early 2010, would PayPal have been the way to go to buy more than 1000 usd worth of bitcoin? Why did PayPal get a bad reputation then?

If there were no choice before, it was a good way not until exchanges and P2P deals have come the way.

[robertcarlyle]

So, what precautions should someone have taken in early 2010 as to avoid having reverse issues?

[franky1]

So, what precautions should someone have taken in early 2010 as to avoid having reverse issues?

early 2010
you know already there was no real exchanging of coin for funds until near-on mid 2010
most people were still doing faucet giveaways.

no one was spending $1k to buy/invest in bitcoin in 2009-2010, especially not via paypal for anything let alone bitcoin
everyone knows paypal is more for the garage sale trinkets(ebay) purchase amounts

your obsession with trying to get as much info about experiences of 2009-2010 to fill-in a certain story where you want to pretend you were an early investor of $1k bitcoin at 2009-early 2010 prices is going to be a waste of time no one would believe you and they will want proof in the form of you signing an address of a hoard of coins you 'supposedly' have

i know your game is to try to get info to sound convincing by telling a story of how you 'supposedly' obtained coin. but that story wont be sufficient to be your "proof"

generally by mid 2010 people were buying $10-$50, at a stretch $100 of bitcoin(from my own research)..

so please stop trying to play-out this silly $1000 of bitcoin scenario of 2009-early2010 prices. we all know you are just trying to gather info to pretend its then your (con-artist) experience

[robertcarlyle]

So, what youre saying is that even if it were possible it just wouldnt have been a good idea either way to spend 1000 usd worth of bitcoin like april maybe may of 2010 via paypal on any exchange then?

[franky1]

So, what youre saying is that even if it were possible it just wouldnt have been a good idea either way to spend 1000 usd worth of bitcoin like april maybe may of 2010 via paypal on any exchange then?

people just didnt view it as a investment coin 2010. it was viewed as a currency to play with coin to batle-test it as a payment system, or to use to buy their weekend drug habit of small dosages. so people were only spending $10-$50

your obsession of your fixed story of "$1k bitcoin early adopter 2009-2010" is a nonsense story to keep trying to find experiences of

[robertcarlyle]

But then why did many people have a negative experience with paypal in the early days then?

[betswift]

^ Interesting question, but, in general what an understanding of this fact would give you today?

[KiaKia]

Its not about PayPal now, its about security and privacy, as at then, people chose to use PayPal because of several reasons which they never have the perfect option as alternative to buying bitcoin than PayPal, anyway, now they have know and understand that its only a gateway payment system and not an exchange, they can easily use an exchange in buying bitcoin now.

It's true that many people don't know how to buy Bitcoin back then and the only option was using PayPal but you saying that now they know is not true, yes the majority knows the difference now but people still use any services to buy Bitcoin, it is not everyone that cares about privacy, some will even tell you that they want to be monitored.

If tomorrow the banks start giving their customers bitcoin services many people will still patronise the banks, the numbers of people that still want to be monitored and controlled by the banks is very high, they like it this way.

I on the other side still believe that they intentionally do this, so that when something goes wrong they can have someone to blame, someone from United States once told me that if they keep their Bitcoin and they lost the key they won't be able to get it back but if exchange lost the Bitcoin they can repay some day.

[Cryptohygenic]

Was PayPal ever a good option in the early days of exchanges in order to buy bitcoin? If someone wanted to buy a ton of bitcoin in early 2010, would PayPal have been the way to go to buy more than 1000 usd worth of bitcoin? Why did PayPal get a bad reputation then?

Using Paypal to buy bitcoin back then was part of the available processes but was a full dose of bad reputation in the sense that objection can be raise by the dealers not to had received successful transaction and the platform not having a consolidated third party like the exchange platforms p2p could revert the asset with a deaf reaction of not verifying before taking decision like the appeal panels in the p2p exchange does.

[Jet Cash]

I've never liked PayPal since they tried to scam me and keep the proceeds of a domain name sale. It was PayPal and not the buyer that tried to take the money. Fortunately it had removed the money before they got to it. They were also inventing excuses to freeze accounts and put the money straight into their profit account. They lost a court case in the US, and were ordered to pay something like $500 million in compensation to users ( I may have remembered the amount incorrectly). They managed to suppress the reports of this, and I have tried many times to find them without any luck. I wish I had taken a copy., as I can't even remember the jurisdiction. It was as a result of this that they moved the company out of America, and into a less litigious environment.