Email from Dwolla Regarding Reversals

[barbarousrelic]

Seems Dwolla has had a "reversal" of policy.  The Facebook requirement is no longer listed:

Can anyone else verify? I may take Dwolla off my shitlist.

[Stephen Gornick]

Can anyone else verify? I may take Dwolla off my shitlist.

I can confirm that today I was shown just these three requirements (and the fourth, to connect to a social network, was not shown).  This was my first time logging into Dwolla this week though.

I already had the 30-day requirement filled and the Hub Page enabled as well so the last step was to verify my SSN.  After clicking on the link for that and entering my SSN (though had to restart the send money process from Mt. Gox after each step) I was then able to send funds today from Dwolla to Mutum Sigillum, LLC and shortly after those funds showed as being credited to my Mt. Gox account.

[moocow1452]

So, are they back on the "tolerable to do business with" list?

[rjk]

So, are they back on the "tolerable to do business with" list?

Nah, still fucking scammers. Verfy my SSN? What is this bullshit?

[barbarousrelic]

Its not on their list, but after you give them your SSN they then spring on you that they need a copy of your drivers license or passport.

[Stephen Gornick]

Its not on their list, but after you give them your SSN they then spring on you that they need a copy of your drivers license or passport.

I didn't have to do that, and have never given them photo id or anything like that.  I did have to call to voice verify after a withdrawal to my bank got held up once.  I've had a Dwolla account since Dec, 2010 though.  And I've never held a balance there more than $1K, which also means I've never transferred more than $1K in a single transaction either -- something that I think might trigger the need for a D/L or passport check.

[BusmasterDMA]

A request for a SSN or even a driver's license doesn't seem nearly as absurd as Facebook access.  Those sound like identification regularly required for conducting certain financial affairs.  Paypal even has my SSN.  No banking service I've used (or for that matter any service of any kind) has ever required social networking access.

[Stephen Gornick]

Kind of unrelated but this is the most current thread regarding Dwolla.

There are now over 100,000 Dwolla users.

 - http://mashable.com/2012/04/19/dwolla-buy-button

Though there may be issues with transferring money into exchanges using Dwolla, going the other direction is pretty fast and painless.  What this means is that as Dwolla's userbase grows there will be more and more merchants and individuals who accept Dwolla for payment.  Thus bitcoins, with a quick conversion step to Dwolla USDs, will be spendable with more and more merchants and individuals as well.  Sure, it would be better if they took Bitcoin directly, but if they are at least taking Dwolla then value stored in Bitcoins can be redeemed for a greater number of real-world goods and services and for online purchases as well.

Without there being a well funded effort to do the design, marketing and promotion like what Dwolla, Square and PayPal do, Bitcoin will have to suffice riding on their coattails.

By patronizing a Dwolla-friendly merchant (when no Bitcoin-friendly alternative is available) we get an opportunity each time to make the case why Bitcoin payments should be an option as well.  When we see a Square Dongle being used or a merchant with an iPad running PayPal Here we get the opportunity to let that merchant know that the same device (mobile phone or tablet) can be used to take Bitcoin transactions as well. 

Not every merchant needs to accept Bitcoin for it to grow.  The bitcoin community will become repeat customers where their coins are valued.  We just need a strategy -- like this, perhaps, to get a foot in the door.  It will grow organically from there as the network effect starts to take hold.

[R-]

Dwolla's age limitation is a bugger.

[barbarousrelic]

Dwolla's age limitation is a bugger.

You mean the 18 years for instant access? This is understandable considering credit contracts can't be enforced against minors.

[R-]

Dwolla's age limitation is a bugger.

You mean the 18 years for instant access? This is understandable considering credit contracts can't be enforced against minors.

It would be a non-issue if you used a debit card however.

[Raize]

Okay, I posted this on Reddit today as well, but I have someone who deals very closely with Dwolla in meatspace that told me "government agents" met with them last week.

I highly suspect based on his description of what went down that they were FBI. This guy is a joker and has given me crap in the past, though, so take it with a grain of salt. When I first heard it I about flipped out on him though. Now, after thinking about it, it kind of makes sense. Why try to even follow transactions in the blockchain when you can just keep track of the people making the biggest withdrawls out of Dwolla to get warrants for wiretaps or searches prior to your gun or drug busts?

Anyway, I'm not really a conspiracy theorist, but for those of us that are money changers exchanging both reserve notes and BTC on a fairly regular basis, this is enough to be unsettling. I don't want to be judged based on what my customers do, and I sure as hell don't want to have to deal with law enforcement on a regular basis.

[Raoul Duke]

Raize, one more reason to ditch those fiat notes altogether and only use Bitcoin.

As long as people making serious business and getting paid in Bitcoin continue to exchange it for fiat the Bitcoin economy will go nowhere. <--- Yeah, I know, easier said than done

[moocow1452]

Stupid government currency buying us food and shit, who needs them?

[Raoul Duke]

Stupid government currency buying us food and shit, who needs them?

All a man needs is hookers and blow!

You can already buy blow, just the hookers missing

[deepceleron]

Here's some more "leveraging the power of social media", if you want to see what Dwolla looked like on the inside. (BTW, if you work for me and post pics of the inside of my business and other employees on your twitter, YOUR FRICKIN FIRED!)

https://twitter.com/#!/JsLampe/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2FRqOmm5zB

or the view out the window:

https://twitter.com/#!/ianzimm/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2FbAtHOvN2

or their employee mug shot wall:

https://twitter.com/#!/armsteadj1/media/slideshow?url=http%3A%2F%2Finstagr.am%2Fp%2FJyKoXzHQyh%2F

[triplehelix]

(BTW, if you work for me and post pics of the inside of my business and other employees on your twitter, YOUR FRICKIN FIRED!)

you would 1) end up with no younger employees (the ones willing to work crazy hours who are in touch with the younger market and are often the tech movers)  who do this on a regular basis, 2) depending on the state your in, possibly find yourself the defendant in a lawsuit or three.

[Dutch Merganser]

(BTW, if you work for me and post pics of the inside of my business and other employees on your twitter, YOUR FRICKIN FIRED!)

you would 1) end up with no younger employees (the ones willing to work crazy hours who are in touch with the younger market and are often the tech movers)  who do this on a regular basis, 2) depending on the state your in, possibly find yourself the defendant in a lawsuit or three.

Such wishful nonsense, and seasoned with plenty of the narcissism too 

[triplehelix]

(BTW, if you work for me and post pics of the inside of my business and other employees on your twitter, YOUR FRICKIN FIRED!)

you would 1) end up with no younger employees (the ones willing to work crazy hours who are in touch with the younger market and are often the tech movers)  who do this on a regular basis, 2) depending on the state your in, possibly find yourself the defendant in a lawsuit or three.

Such wishful nonsense, and seasoned with plenty of the narcissism too 

no narcissism.  i'm old in relation to those i'm talking about, barely care about facebook at all, and twitter could die a fiery death as far as i'm.

you must not be familiar with labor laws in many states.  and yeah, if your business involves making big rocks into little rocks, then you don't need to worry about the youth market, but if your in one of the many fields that either depend on young employees, has a large income from the 16-34's, or one that benefits from them, then alienating that segment with overly restrictive policy isn't exactly a good move.  not sure where the wishful nonsense your speaking of comes into play.

[GernMiester]

1) Connect a social network

Steps like this only hurt Dwolla.  The fraudsters have dummy social network accounts set up.  I guess they may catch a dummy who starts honest then goes rouge.....



ROUGE. Yeah they go rouge... jackass...