ClearCoin fee structure changing

[Gavin Andresen]

I've been working on making the ClearCoin escrow service's fee structure simpler; here's the new structure, which will "go live" in the next day or two:

ClearCoin costs 0.5% (one half of one percent) of released coins. For example, if you are paying for something worth 100 bitcoins the cost will be 0.5 BTC.

Fees are paid only on released coins; no fees are charged on coins donated to charity or refunded to you.

Coins in escrow will never be taken or held if you have unpaid fees; if you do not pay your ClearCoin fees within 30 days we may prevent you from creating new escrow transactions but will never prevent you from releasing coins from existing escrow accounts. However, given how quickly the value of bitcoins has been increasing recently, it is better for you to pay your ClearCoin fees quickly.

Any month you accumulate more than a trivial amount of fees ClearCoin will email you an invoice with a detailed list and a bitcoin address to which you can send payment.  You can also pay at any time by sending bitcoins to an address on the ClearCoin website.


All of these changes were prompted because I think it was confusing to pay fees directly from the bitcoins being used for the transactions-- if you were paying for something that cost 159.95 BTC, calculating how much to send to pay for the cost AND ClearCoin fees was complicated.  This should also be much easier for anybody creating a lot of ClearCoin transactions via the new ClearCoin API.

As always, feedback, complaints, and suggestions are welcome.

[error]

Why not just accept the fee when the bitcoins are placed in escrow? You can always refund them later if the transaction fails.

[davout]

we may prevent you from creating new escrow transactions

how ?

[Garrett Burgwardt]

Will this affect coins in existing escrow accounts?

[Gavin Andresen]

Why not just accept the fee when the bitcoins are placed in escrow?  You can always refund them later if the transaction fails.

Because that requires that you do some math to figure out how many to send to pay the escrow plus release the right amount.

And because I'm planning on eventually implementing "receiver creates and pays" escrow transactions, so merchants can setup escrow transactions (via the API) for their customers.  Merchants are used to paying fees as just a cost of doing business.

RE: how will I prevent you from creating new escrow transactions if you don't pay?  Click on "Create Escrow" and you'll be taken to a page that politely explains you're not allowed until you pay.  If you use the API, the create_escrow call will fail.

I realize some people may try to cheat by using/creating multiple Google accounts.  That will be a cost of doing business for me.  Perhaps I will reserve the right to publish deadbeat account email addresses on a "hall of shame..."  (I'd implement a Terms of Service Agreement to which you would have to agree before creating a new escrow)

RE: will this affect coins in existing escrow accounts:

No, existing escrow accounts will be unaffected, these new rules will be for new escrow accounts only.

[davout]

Google accounts.

Fair enough

[BitterTea]

And because I'm planning on eventually implementing "receiver creates and pays" escrow transactions, so merchants can setup escrow transactions (via the API) for their customers.  Merchants are used to paying fees as just a cost of doing business.

Will the merchant have control over the destination of unreleased coins (the same options the creator has now)? I think that would be excellent, since they can mitigate the risk of fraud further by forcing the escrow to release to a charity on expiration.