A new Humble Bundle and bitcoins not accepted -- make your voice heard

[someguy123]

I've emailed them just now, hopefully as they see the growing support for bitcoin in their inbox, they might take a second look at accepting it.

[1714029070]

1714029070

[Comodore]

Email sucessfully sent. Hope this would work.

[merve10495]

How can they have that stupid 'Buy with Google' but not 'Bitcoins'.
Sending an e-mail now.

[paraipan]

Setting up a "buy with bitcoin" button is trivial with bit-pay, even if you don't have a shopping cart. The revenues can be split in coins and fiat, and always sent the next day to a bank account or bitcoin address by bit-pay's tos. I appreciate the work these guys do but they are being picky, just like wikipedia, accepting bitcoin.

[minorman]

Let's keep the pressure on.
And while you are at it, please consider to also send an email to dealextreme.com
See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=96393.0

We need more merchants talking bitcoin - and if they prefer to convert to fiat via bit-pay or paysius, that is ok - as long as the "bitcoin accepted here" logo is right there next to paypal.

[Dusty]

Let's keep the pressure on.

+1

And while you are at it, please consider to also send an email to dealextreme.com

Done.

[lenny_]

E-mail sent as well 

[SuperP]

The Humble Bundle has worked closely with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  I wouldn't be surprised if the EFF's stance on bitcoin has something to do with their decision.  Their reasons for not accepting are here: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/06/eff-and-bitcoin.  The only thing that has changed is #2.  They can now use a service like bit-pay to accept dollars instead of bitcoin.  We have to point this out to them, but I'm afraid it might not be enough.

What we need to do is everyone publicly pledge the amount of bitcoin that we'll pay (the Bitcoin 100 program is set up for this).  And then reach out to the artists and charities and show them how much they are not getting by the Humble Bundle refusing to accept bitcoin.

(Just left a comment on the Bitcoin 100 Thread : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74400.new#new)

[genjix]

I messaged them a year ago and they said they weren't interested.

[sebnow]

I also emailed them today, and I got this really disappointing reply:

I received the same, and replied stating that I will no longer be supporting Humble Bundle until Bitcoin is supported as a payment option. There are quality alternatives to HB popping up that accept Bitcoin. It might also help to contact the individual artists and game devs.

What's truly aggravating is that Mt. Gox had participated with $4,096 worth late last year.

Offtopic: Could you provide examples of such alternatives? I've only heard of Indie Gala, but it doesn't accept Bitcoin, and I haven't seen any great games in the last two.

Edit: I noticed Game Dev Bundle being mentioned in the Reddit thread.

[ChrisKoss]

Hey Chris,

Thanks for emailing us! The EFF has a great statement on BitCoin that closely follows our feelings toward BitCoin, which is available here: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/06/eff-and-bitcoin

“We don’t fully understand the complex legal issues involved with creating a new currency system. Bitcoin raises untested legal concerns related to securities law, the Stamp Payments Act, tax evasion, consumer protection and money laundering, among others. And that’s just in the U.S. While EFF is often the defender of people ensnared in legal issues arising from new technologies, we try very hard to keep EFF from becoming the actual subject of those fights or issues. Since there is no caselaw on this topic, and the legal implications are still very unclear, we worry that our acceptance of Bitcoins may move us into the possible subject role.”

We like BitCoin and would love to accept it, but after contacting the EFF and a lawyer specializing in this sort of thing, we are not comfortable with the plethora of untested issues and legal traps, which would be a major distraction for us. We have been in contact with a number of bitcoin startups, and will be monitoring the landscape carefully.

Thank you for your support,

****
Support Ninja
Humble Bundle

[Comodore]

Hey Chris,

Thanks for emailing us! The EFF has a great statement on BitCoin that closely follows our feelings toward BitCoin, which is available here: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/06/eff-and-bitcoin

“We don’t fully understand the complex legal issues involved with creating a new currency system. Bitcoin raises untested legal concerns related to securities law, the Stamp Payments Act, tax evasion, consumer protection and money laundering, among others. And that’s just in the U.S. While EFF is often the defender of people ensnared in legal issues arising from new technologies, we try very hard to keep EFF from becoming the actual subject of those fights or issues. Since there is no caselaw on this topic, and the legal implications are still very unclear, we worry that our acceptance of Bitcoins may move us into the possible subject role.”

We like BitCoin and would love to accept it, but after contacting the EFF and a lawyer specializing in this sort of thing, we are not comfortable with the plethora of untested issues and legal traps, which would be a major distraction for us. We have been in contact with a number of bitcoin startups, and will be monitoring the landscape carefully.

Thank you for your support,

****
Support Ninja
Humble Bundle

I received equivalent e-mail. So what can we do now?

[Meni Rosenfeld]

I received equivalent e-mail. So what can we do now?

We can leave them alone. Coordinating a massive spam attack was a bad idea even before they explained their reason to avoid Bitcoin (however little sense it makes).

The Humble bundle will change their mind with time, until then there are other organizations needing our help learning about Bitcoin and starting to accept payments.

[paraipan]

I received equivalent e-mail. So what can we do now?

We can leave them alone. Coordinating a massive spam attack was a bad idea even before they explained their reason to avoid Bitcoin (however little sense it makes).

The Humble bundle will change their mind with time, until then there are other organizations needing our help learning about Bitcoin and starting to accept payments.

^ definitely this, I'm writing emails about bitcoin to any blog owner or small organization I encounter when reading my morning press

[philips]

Ah, interesting. Before finding this thread I thought about chatting with them (there is a small chat window on their page) about bitcoin donations and Bitpay.
Soon enough some guy Drew responded and gave me the very same (word by word) answer as you guys received in emails.

Drew: Hey there, We like BitCoin and would love to accept it, but after contacting the EFF and a lawyer specializing in this sort of thing, we are not comfortable with the plethora of untested issues and legal traps, which would be a major distraction for us. We have been in contact with a number of bitcoin startups, and will be monitoring the landscape carefully.

It seems they are very well aware about bitcoins since they have a preset answer at hand even when chatting:

Ah, crap..another bitcoin freak...copy>paste, done.

[Grix]

There's one issue with their stance though, and that it that the EFF article they link to are over a year old, from around the time of the bubble last year. How much time will have to pass before they are comfortable with bitcoin's legal status? With this pace it'll be years until that time..

[miscreanity]

How much time will have to pass before they are comfortable with bitcoin's legal status?

An idea whose time has come cannot be denied. It'll happen when it happens, though I don't think it'll be too long.

[Dusty]

The day finally arrived

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=200564.msg0

[philips]

So, our evil plans for global domination are working, goooood.

[sid7039]

It's very sad - Humble Bundle is experiencing issues with Bitcoin payments and have temporarily removed this option from their site.

Also they don't have ETA on when Bitcoin will be available again as a payment option so it looks little worse than just technical issues

People, please write to them to start accepting BTC again as I have.

Regards!