Just asked leanpub if they accepted bitcoins, this is what I got...

[gurghet]

Hi gurghet,

Unfortunately we do not accept Bitcoin at the moment, and this is
unlikely to change this calendar year unless PayPal Website Payments
Pro starts accepting Bitcoin.

Regards,
Mike

On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 1:44 PM, Andrea Passaglia <gurghet@me.com> wrote:
Hello, I would like to buy a book but I can’t find any way to pay with bitcoins. Is there any way to do that? If not, are you planning to accept bitcoins?
-------

Now I’m asking why should any merchant in their right mind wait for paypal to accept bitcoin? If there is an application for bitcoin, that is cutting the middle man. I agree, Paypal accepting bitcoins would be huge, but from the point of view of the single merchant, what is the gain? They would still have to pay a fee to Paypal, and for what?? Paypal is not bringing them new clients, bitcoin is! Furthermore, if they accepted bitcoins straight away, they would gain more as they wouldn't be forced to pay a fee to Paypal.

[1715105616]

1715105616

[Minecache]

PayPal is the big daddy of internet monies. If they don't adapt to accept bit coin then I can't see any serious online merchant adapting to it.

[franky1]

ok heres your response

find the book you were looking for. get the FIAT price, and work out the paypal fee's the business will be paying

then work out 1% of the book price and that is how much they would pay if using Bitpay without contract. where it could be even lower than 1% fee's if trade picks up and they got regular bitcoin custom.

im from the UK. so the2 cheapest rates are:
1.9% + 20p* if the book is over £5
or
5% + 5p if the book is under £5


example,. book £10
bitpay fee = 10p
paypal fee = 30p

example,. book £4.99
bitpay fee = 5p
paypal fee = 30p

example,. book £1
bitpay fee = 1p
paypal fee = 10p


then email them telling them of the paypal fee vs the bitcoin fee, just for your purchase

[beetcoin]

ok heres your response

find the book you were looking for. get the FIAT price, and work out the paypal fee's the business will be paying

then work out 1% of the book price and that is how much they would pay if using Bitpay without contract. where it could be even lower than 1% fee's if trade picks up and they got regular bitcoin custom.

im from the UK. so the2 cheapest rates are:
1.9% + 20p* if the book is over £5
or
5% + 5p if the book is under £5


example,. book £10
bitpay fee = 10p
paypal fee = 30p

example,. book £4.99
bitpay fee = 5p
paypal fee = 30p

example,. book £1
bitpay fee = 1p
paypal fee = 10p


then email them telling them of the paypal fee vs the bitcoin fee, just for your purchase

even if it could potentially save them money, i doubt a bar would get enough revenues in bitcoin to make a difference. and a lot of businesses are resistant to change, since they don't want to deal with the hassle of learning a new system.

i don't go to bars often, but how many people actually pay with credit cards vs. cash?

however, bars COULD increase their revenues by getting in touch with bitcoin meetup groups and hosting those get-togethers. and then you could arrange for an ATM to be on-location.

[phillipsjk]

Whatever shopping cart software they use probably does not support Bitcoin. PayPal Website Payments Pro boasts shopping cart integration.

[waldox]

keep bombarding paypal
with bitcoin requests
eventually they will relent and give in to popular pressure

[joshraban76]

It is a shame that so many top merchant companies are ending up not accepting this kind of payment because PayPal is not accepting it at current, if they all wait for PayPal to start to accept it all companies could be waiting a long while before they even are able to accept Bitcoin.

I agree with what was said above, keep bombarding PayPal with emails requesting them to accept bitcoin, it can only in the long term work if they get enough interest from many people to see them accept bitcoin.

[Kazimir]

Holy shit, they're actually waiting for Paypal to integrate Bitcoin?

WTF, the whole idea of using Bitcoin is to get rid of Paypal, along with banks, credit card companies, and other slow, expensive, restricted, monopolistic, insecure crap.

[Meuh6879]

Paypal can't integrate Bitcoin now ... because, they will loose the minimal fee on Credit Card (mastercard/VISA) support.

[jbreher]

Holy shit, they're actually waiting for Paypal to integrate Bitcoin?

WTF, the whole idea of using Bitcoin is to get rid of Paypal, along with banks, credit card companies, and other slow, expensive, restricted, monopolistic, insecure crap.

While I agree with your direction, what the heck would you expect from random business #75939? I don't know who leanpub is, but why would anyone expect them to immediately jump on Bitcoin?

It's hard enough to keep a real business afloat, what with all the million details that need attending to. The idea of accepting Bitcoin likely has never even crossed the mind of your average business owner. They have a payment solution that is 'working' for them.

The average person needs to be exposed to an idea somewhere around seven times before it actually enters their consciousness. This contact from gurghet may be number one of the requisite seven.

[RodeoX]

Translation: "I'm scared. Maybe I will do it if I a bigger boy says it is ok." 

[franky1]

it sometimes is a tough sell to get the small businesses to change their ways, especially if they are paypal integrated as it shows they dont have the tech knowledge to set up a proper credit card gateway/cart. and also shows their business is not large enough to cover the monthly service charges of proper bespoke software.

usually these paypal webservices use it for everything, stock control storing delivery addresses, their whole business revolves around paypal

[jjc326]

it sometimes is a tough sell to get the small businesses to change their ways, especially if they are paypal integrated as it shows they dont have the tech knowledge to set up a proper credit card gateway/cart. and also shows their business is not large enough to cover the monthly service charges of proper bespoke software.

usually these paypal webservices use it for everything, stock control storing delivery addresses, their whole business revolves around paypal

Agreed- this is the problem with all these companies relying so much on Paypal.  They become so dependent on Paypal, they won't do anything that Paypal won't "allow" them to do.  The truly innovative companies will do Paypal but I think a lot of companies are run by idiots  lazy people, or just more conservative folks.

[jbreher]

usually these paypal webservices use it for everything, stock control storing delivery addresses, their whole business revolves around paypal

Fortunately, they have a fully integrated alternative (even more full-featured than PayPal - by a long shot), with integrated Bitcoin payments, in QuickBooks online.

[jbreher]

... but I think a lot of companies are run by idiots  lazy people...

Some, but not many. The idiots and lazy people are quickly driven from the marketplace by more worthy competitors.

[Matze]

Isn't there a rumor that PayPal and eBay will start accepting bit coin

[SgtSpike]

You guys are so naive.  A company that solely uses paypal isn't going to spend the money to hire a web developer to integrate purchasing for Bitcoin to save pennies on a couple of transactions that might happen within the next year when they've only heard about it from one or two people and scam fallout on the news.

There are only a few reasons a company would accept Bitcoin right now:
- It aligns with their philosophy (they like Bitcoin and want to see it succeed)
- It actually can give them significant savings because of the volume of transactions they process (see Dell, Overstock, Newegg, etc)
- It is inexpensive or free for them to integrate (if it can be done with the change of a setting instead of hiring a web developer)

Don't expect some random joe-blow small business to write off paypal just because one dude on the internet asked them to take bitcoin instead.

[SpontaneousDream]

Why the hell would Paypal accept Bitcoin? That would put them out of business!

[jbreher]

Why the hell would Paypal accept Bitcoin? That would put them out of business!

I think you've misread the thread. The idea is not to advocate to PayPal that they accept Bitcoin, it is to advocate to a certain business that they accept Bitcoin rather than PayPal.

But to answer your tangential question - if Bitcoin does what we think it will do over the next several years, than PayPal's only chance for survival would be to accept Bitcoin. For if they are to not adopt Bitcoin, they will surely be put out of business.

[pirsquared]

Holy shit, they're actually waiting for Paypal to integrate Bitcoin?

WTF, the whole idea of using Bitcoin is to get rid of Paypal, along with banks, credit card companies, and other slow, expensive, restricted, monopolistic, insecure crap.

Amen