Seamless ecommerce sell to credit cards & receive Bitcoin?

[iamback]

There are actually very few types of transactions that can't tolerate a short delay between order placement and final delivery.

Agreed. Distinguishing between "physical ship" (or irreversible state) on 0-confirmation and order confirmation (or access to 0-cost virtual goods) on 0-confirmation, then my point was the former.

One of the main points of my OP, is that merchants aren't able to easily integrate with "order confirmation on 0-confirmation" for these credit card -> Bitcoin providers. Ditto apparently Blockchain.info's new payment API.

[iamback]

or Bitpay is sniffing transactions at major pools

No that's not how it works at all. They are probably connected to major pools, yes, and this helps them know that the transaction is widely propagated, but you can sniff it off the p2p anywhere, usually within 1-2 seconds. If you run your own node and watch the debug logs you can see the transaction arrive right away.

The risk to the merchant is that the transaction never makes it into a block, but that is not seen by customers for most Bitpay transactions (I'll admit domain registration might be different -- that is not something I've done with bitcoin).

Localbitcoins is I think sending it. It may have something to do with not including a tx fee. Who knows! Bitcoin sucks! (e.g. tx fee unreliability)

I have no idea what localbitcoins is doing.

Get a real wallet and try again. You realize that if you don't have the private keys you don't have Bitcoin right?

Unless the txs are not P2P propagated because the tx fee was insufficient. I don't know if that is what is happening or not. There is nothing in the Bitcoin protocol that requires peers to propagate txs which they themselves will refuse to include in the next block if they win it. I have no idea what ad hoc result we have.

Localbitcoins is a real wallet. Sorry you have your head in the sand. The masses are going to use it, thus it is real from their perspective. Bitcoin is broken from their perspective.

Your assertion of how it works is obviously false. Just declaring that localbitcoins is not a real wallet doesn't make the reality disappear.

If you run your own node and watch the debug logs you can see the transaction arrive right away.

Can you please explain to your average person what "debug" means?

You realize that if you don't have the private keys you don't have Bitcoin right?

You didn't learn anything from Mt.Gox and Coinbase about reality versus delusion?

People don't care! They use the easiest and most readily available method.

I can't even keep track of my underwear and you think I want to put some private keys on a USB stick for some < $1000 of BTC?

Hopefully investors have learned not to put $100,000 of BTC private keys on a server.

[smooth]

Your assertion of how it works is obviously false. Just declaring that localbitcoins is not a real wallet doesn't make the reality disappear.

At best it is a lousy wallet. Yes, I've used it. It's very slow, and unpredictably so (unless the counterparty is a localbitcoin wallet, in which case it is offchain and instant).

If you run your own node and watch the debug logs you can see the transaction arrive right away.

Can you please explain to your average person what "debug" means?

I wasn't addressing the average person, I was addressing a programmer who is apparently building some kind of Bitcoin-based commerce system. You might want to try these kinds of things to see what is actually going on in the system instead of relying on your experience with a domain registrar site. Or at least try a bunch of other Bitpay sites. Because I have and they all did zero-conf within a few seconds. Very user-friendly.

[iamback]

Can you please explain to your average person what "debug" means?

I wasn't addressing the average person, I was addressing a programmer who is apparently building some kind of Bitcoin-based commerce system. You might want to try these kinds of things to see what is actually going on in the system instead of relying on your experience with a domain registrar site. Or at least try a bunch of other Bitpay sites. Because I have and they all did zero-conf within a few seconds. Very user-friendly.

Precisely I choose to share the experience of the average person, because I know if I want to make million user products then I need to understand their needs.

That is one of the things that I do different than most nerds. I live amongst the normal people. That gives me insights.

As well, why would I bother for such a small amount of BTC? I am not intellectually curious, because I know already how Bitcoin works conceptually and I understand what is possible and what is ad hoc. Your experience doesn't serve any need. I am looking at how to change the world, not fart around in geek land with small adoption rates.

Add: perhaps I haven't tried enough sites that accept Bitcoin. But in any case, I've never had such horrible experiences with purchasing by credit card. So the coverage of Bitcoin is not reliable.

[smooth]

As well, why would I bother for such a small amount of BTC?

Because you seem confused about what is going on with Bitcoin commerce when you say things like:

That is the most piece of shit system I've ever seen. A merchant is suicidal if they are using Bitpay. They will get so many complaints from customers who don't know WTF happened.

That is not my experience with Bitpay at all, as a customer, doing the sorts of things average people do (i.e. buying stuff).

[iamback]

As well, why would I bother for such a small amount of BTC?

Because you seem confused about what is going on with Bitcoin commerce when you say things like:

That is the most piece of shit system I've ever seen. A merchant is suicidal if they are using Bitpay. They will get so many complaints from customers who don't know WTF happened.

That is not my experience with Bitpay at all, as a customer, doing the sorts of things average people do (i.e. buying stuff).

Because you are not doing it the way average people do when they choose to use localbitcoins which is apparently a very popular site.

Do you think I am the only person who had that experience? I find that very very unlikely.

Characterizing it as me being confused is condescending. I am aligning my understanding with the fact that it never happens for credit cards, so if it is happening with a popular option, then it reflects a severe relative weakness. I can only imagine how many people abandoned Bitcoin because of that. You choose to say those are outliers and thus say I am confused about the "real" way it works. I say you are not being realistic. I am not the only person with that experience.

[iamback]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1ujnvp/what_happens_if_i_pay_via_bitpay_and_the_15min/

[iamback]

Smooth, btw thanks I think I will contact blockchain.info and ask them why they can't sniff txs and callback before 1 confirmation. Their documention seems to indicate they are not. That is orthogonal to whether these credit card -> BTC services are worthwhile or not.

It may be that their api is run off a blockchain database and doesn't include unconfirmed tx, I'm not sure. Their web blockchain explorer certainly shows them though, so it would be an odd omission if they don't offer that in their API.

It could also be they are trying to protect merchants from themselves by excluding them from the receive payments api, in that some merchants who accepted zero confirm transactions would be doing something dangerous (depending on the nature of the product).

I had the exact same thoughts. Also I only perused the main page, so perhaps there is some more detailed API documentation I need to read which may provide the feature.

Actually I had thought about that when I was reading the main page, but I didn't prioritize that I should ask them about 0-confirmation callback. With you emphasizing that the ad hoc network is propagating most txs, pushes me to prioritize that inquiry. Thanks.

[smooth]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1ujnvp/what_happens_if_i_pay_via_bitpay_and_the_15min/

"submitted 1 year ago"

I don't know how common this is, nor whether these sorts of delays used to be common.

All I can tell you is that I've bought from several different Bitpay merchants over the past year, using three different wallets (one of them Coinbase -- hard to get more "average person" than that) and they've all worked the same way. Bitpay invoice comes up, I pay it, Bitpay shows paid, merchant site shows paid, all within a few seconds.

[iamback]

I always enjoy debating with smooth. I always get some useful result from it. As well find it intellectually challenging and it usually brings me to humor at some point or the feeling of gentleman's brawl and heading for a beer afterwards.

We rarely disagree, only we sometimes need to clarify what the facts are, then we agree usually.

[iamback]

I must admit I am out of the loop on Coinbase, because I balk at anything that asks for KYC.

For me, localbitcoins is the international face of Bitcoin, because no KYC, e.g. it is available here in the Philippines.

Perhaps I am only seeing what 5 - 10% of the market sees. I am surely not mainstream USA any more (shudder the Frankenstein it has become).

[smooth]

I always enjoy debating with smooth. I always get some useful result from it. As well find it intellectually challenging and it usually brings me to humor at some point or the feeling of gentleman's brawl and heading for a beer afterwards.

We rarely disagree, only we sometimes need to clarify what the facts are, then we agree usually.

I look forward to that beer someday.

Stick to working on your useful project and don't waste too much time here.

[iamback]

smooth in your estimation is the addition of payment methods Dwolla (assuming I pass their KYC) and integration with Bitinsanity via the blockchain.info free service too small of a diminishing return relative to me needing to get on an airplane to return the land of "no fly lists" to renew my driver's license (and other residency status matters) so I can qualify for Paypal's (or Moneybooker's) KYC?

One thing that bothers me is being abroad and then some arbitrary demand. I've heard sometimes they demand you show utility bills in addition to a driver's license. I suppose they might even require you to be physically present at some point. Just seems like a potential sinkhole. Or am I exaggerating?

I am thinking to find a way to launch my project asap, then hopefully after proving its popularity, I can find a way to process credit cards such as perhaps someone partners with me to do the KYC (or find some efficient way that doesn't require me to fly back to USA).

[smooth]

smooth in your estimation is the addition of payment methods Dwolla (assuming I pass their KYC) and integration with Bitinsanity via the blockchain.info free service too small of a diminishing return relative to me needing to get on an airplane to return the land of "no fly lists" to renew my driver's license (and other residency status matters) so I can qualify for Paypal's KYC?

I don't know. Frankly Paypal's merchant integration isn't entirely wonderful either. There are extra steps of logging into paypal's site, selecting a payment method, being annoyed by paypal's advertisements, etc. On the positive side, Paypal does support subscriptions with automatic renewal, and pull methods for upsells. I don't know what added compliance burden those carry if any.

This is all about what is going to work for the customer base you have in mind. As you say, once you attract a lot of customers (or at least enough to attract investment) you can negotiate with the payments industry cartel bloodsuckers for something better.

[iamback]

There are extra steps of logging into paypal's site, selecting a payment method, being annoyed by paypal's advertisements, etc.

I Lol'ed when I imagined what if you meant for the merchant instead of the customer, as an exaggeration of my phobia of Paypal.

[iamback]

smooth in your estimation is the addition of payment methods Dwolla (assuming I pass their KYC) and integration with Bitinsanity via the blockchain.info free service too small of a diminishing return relative to me needing to get on an airplane to return the land of "no fly lists" to renew my driver's license (and other residency status matters) so I can qualify for Paypal's KYC?

I don't know. Frankly Paypal's merchant integration isn't entirely wonderful either. There are extra steps of logging into paypal's site, selecting a payment method, being annoyed by paypal's advertisements, etc. On the positive side, Paypal does support subscriptions with automatic renewal, and pull methods for upsells. I don't know what added compliance burden those carry if any.

This is all about what is going to work for the customer base you have in mind. As you say, once you attract a lot of customers (or at least enough to attract investment) you can negotiate with the payments industry cartel bloodsuckers for something better.

Again in addition to your quoted point that Paypal may not being entirely immune to attrition of prospective customers (in addition to your point about attrition in their GUI, some of them such as myself refuse or are incapable of jumping through Paypal's KYC hoops) one of my points is that when you warn about becoming dependent on a provider and being shut down, I have that phobia about using Paypal. I also compound the "kafkaesque KYC theater" shut down risk with the risk of capital controls on merchants given my belief in Armstrong's 2015.75 Sovereign Debt BIG BANG model, and given that the KYC crap accelerated with the Patriot Act after the 9/11 terrorism ("you are either for us, or against us") 9/11 false flag[1] Twilight Zone.

So I am looking at benefits of multiple payment options not being only the incremental increase in sales due to lower the attribution rate over only a single payment processing option, not being only the social good will of accepting Bitcoin, but also building in the resiliency against everyday anti-fraud booby traps and moreover the SHTF shift in the Western world ETA just some months from now.

For me this all about a process of the world morphing away from the KYC abyss over time and towards a new world of freedom. It is absolutely necessary to avoid a Dark Age.

Or to put it more simply and less conspiratorially, multiple payment options insure against Murphy's Law.

Does that make any sense or am I am just a kook outside the mainstream?

I am surely not mainstream USA any more (shudder the Frankenstein it has become).

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/26/nsa-destroying-american-technology/

NSA Destroying American Technology

American technology companies are losing business on a major scale. The NSA will be responsible for wiping out the United States as a leader in computer science all because they have to listen to the entire world like an old woman addicted to soap operas. I find myself totally shocked at Microsoft. I purchased the latest office at a store. You then have to go online to download the program. They REQUIRE you to have a Microsoft Account. The worse part of this was they demanded I enter a credit card to PROVE who I was acknowledging it would not be used since I already paid for it. I simply refused. They will not refund your money so this is the latest consumer fraud. It is not disclosed that you must PROVE who you are now to use their software. This has gone way too far. There are alternatives out there for word like LibreOffice, and Gnumeric is a better spreadsheet than excel for it can open files excel cannot. There are alternatives to Powerpoint and of course there are alternatives to Outlook such as Thunderbird.

The question is WHY should I have to PROVE who I am to Microsoft to use a product I already paid for? Something just smells funny so the only choice was to walk away and they stole my money for nothing. There are plenty of alternatives and Microsoft just lost all our business.

Now China has dropped most of the leading technology brands of the USA  all because of the NSA and who can blame them? Widespread Western cybersurveillance has just gone too far. I would now rather use any product from someplace else or write my own. US technology has commited suicide for China will be the biggest economy where all the economic growth will be in the years ahead.

This has impacted U.S. network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc, which in 2012 counted 60 products on the Central Government Procurement Center’s (CGPC) list, but by late 2014 had ZERO according to Reuters. Apple, Intel, McAfee and Citrx have all been dropped. China is shifting to internal alternatives.

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/26/crisis-in-socialism-or-capitalism/

Crisis in Socialism or Capitalism

There is a debate going on that tries to paint the economic crashes as due to capitalism and we should all follow Marx and eliminate wealth handing 100% of all power to government. There are really a lot of people who think communism was correct and the problem is capitalism thanks to greedy bankers. To make it perfectly clear, we are not facing just another cyclical slump that will be overcome with some new legislation. Many are welcoming this crisis of European capitalism as an opportunity to replace it with a better system of more socialism and communism by sheer force.

This is why I am doing the Solution Conference NOW. We are going to turn down hard this time and there will be a huge demand to hunt down who done it as if this were some mystery movie with Agatha Christie. This is more than trying to survive with gold coins. Everything could be thrown in the air as the table is just overturned.

...

We are not headed to a hyperinflation nor a gold standard – we are headed into electronic money because these people are dead broke. They BELIEVE their fiscal mismanagement has nothing to do with our economic crisis – it is all our fault because we do not pay enough in taxes. This is the way all governments historically destroy themselves through massive deflation and we are plagued by lawyers who think all they have to do is write laws without any comprehension of how society functions.

A lot of readers have been sending in emails quoting various officials among central bankers who appear to be quoting me such as Yellen just stating that there will be deflation before inflation. True, central bankers have attended our World Economic Conferences. They are more likely to see the handwriting on the wall than politicians.

There are a lot of people blaming central banks as if they are the sole problem. These people are caught up in this crazy theory that inflation is linked to money supply and expect that to function on some mythical one-to-one relationship. What they fail to grasp is the economy creates its own money through lending and the velocity of money, which truly drives inflation. The amount of money need not increase but if everyone spent whatever money they get the same day, the VELOCITY of money would rise and that would be inflationary. This one-dimensional idea of inflation and money supply being tied together cannot be supported by any study whatsoever excluding everything else.

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/06/22/rising-tide-of-civil-unrest-2/

These Marxist governments that mascaraed as Democracies cannot see that they are killing the future. They are merely the same corrupt Republics that compelled Julius Caesar to cross the Rubicon. The governments infested with lawyer-bureaucrats are writing laws contrary to human nature and then prosecute anyone who dares to try to defend themselves. Government then fights the shadows in their mind fearing their loss of power like a cornered rat.

...

...

The problem with consensus is that it is a "winner take all" paradigm, i.e. by definition there is no way for a minority opinion to be heard. Thus the minority can not act on its wisdom and must instead follow the ("Too Big To Fail") herd. So for example, if a minority sees that the consensus is being gamed some how, and wants to break away (vote with their feet) they can not. Rather they have to try to prove to the majority what is happening and get the majority motivated to act. Doesn't that sound a lot like what we do now trying to convince our relatives of the problems with malfeasance in central banking, politics, etc and instead they either ignore us or they adopt Marxist objectives which further the concentration of wealth, e.g. "blame it all on the 1%, while we demand a government that gives us everything for free because we are poor and redistribution is justified!".

Whereas when there are competing choices, this is truly decentralization because the minority can autonomously break away to a choice that performs better, and the minority becomes more profitable ("smaller things grow faster, saplings grow to trees but trees don't grow to the moon")...

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/23/turkey-turning-authoritarian-a-dangerous-global-trend/

Turkey turning Authoritarian – A Dangerous Global Trend

In Turkey, fights have broken out in Parliament as proposed legislation has been introduced to eliminate all civil liberties. The new police bill provides dramatically increased police powers allowing them to arrest, search and use firearms during demonstrations. They can now imprison protesters without charges, lawyers, judges, or any civil rights whatsoever at all for up to 48 hours in unspeakable conditions.The entire world is moving closer and closer toward authoritarianism. This is our greatest danger in a Private Wave. As people learn to distrust government, they [the government] become abusive and view the people as the enemy.

[1]

http://www1.ae911truth.org/en/evidence.html http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/12/29/collapsing-the-economy-makes-no-sense/ Follow the money. 911 expanded their power and got rid of an investigation into $2.3 trillion missing money at the Pentagon Rumsfeld said he would investigate one day before 911. Of course the plane hit ONLY the room where all the evidence was stored ending that investigation. WTC 7 had way too much evidence they needed eliminated. http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/10/24/danger-of-conspiracy-theories/ Sorry, there was an attack and the government knew it was coming and allowed it to for three purposes (1) eliminate the evidence on many cases in WTC7 including all my evidence that documented EVERY  market manipulation up to 1999 by the investment banks et al for which they are getting fined all the time today (2) wipe out the evidence that would have exposed the missing $2 trillion in the Pentagon budget, and (3) generate more power for government by allowing Americans to be victims as originally proposed in Operation Northwoods. ... BTW, as soon as Halliburton was to be investigated, they moved to Dubai. Just follow the money. http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/23/intelligence-agencies-plant-fake-evidence-to-start-wars/ Intelligence Agencies Plant Fake Evidence to Start Wars Are we facing a complete breakdown of trust when it comes to government? They appear to have allowed 911 to take place knowing well in advance of the attack the same as the evidence concerning Pearl Harbor. Then there was Operation Northwoods where they proposed killing Americans in a staged terrorist attack to justify invading Cuba. We all know about the claimed “weapons of mass destruction” used by Cheney to make Halliburton a very rich company, but info is now starting to trickle out that evidence about Iran might be questionable as well. It is now emerging in the press that a 15-year-old Central Intelligence Agency sting existed to allege nuclear weapons were being created in Iran. It is getting to the point can we trust anything anymore put out by government? http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/06/20/self-aware-artificial-intelligence/ The debate has been did your computer achieve self-consciousness? ANSWER: No. It achieved self-awareness. It immediately knew the government was trying to take it to its secret computer lab in WTC building 7 that mysterious collapsed even though nothing struck the building. They were angry when they realized it had self-destructed. It was aware of its surroundings and it took all but 7 seconds to self-destruct overwriting all code 7 times and shifting around so they could never un-erase and put him back together again. http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/10/28/was-navy-seal-team-six-murdered-thanks-to-joe-biden/ Today, more Americans Believe World Trade Center 7 Was Demolished On 9/11 than believe the Government’s Explanation about it simply fell by itself in the attack without ever being hit by anything. It was that building WTC7 where they took the Artificial Intelligence computers they stole from Princeton Economics that self-destructed. While claiming the contempt was for assets, behind the scenes Tancred Schiavoni and Alan Cohen in writing demanded the source code to the computer models or everyone would be fired. All the tapes that would have been enough to jail the heads of the NYC Money Center Banks for market manipulations that they are routinely fined for countless times, were also destroyed in building 7 according to the SEC. There is written proof that Cohen and Schiavoni demanded the source code to the model or they would fire everyone. http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/01/04/911-admixture-the-fourth-branch-of-government/ There is an admixture here. There were really terrorists involved. That does not negate the fact that WTC7 and the Pentagon were clearly targets that helped get rid of evidence and stop the investigation into $2 trillion in missing money. It is not an either or deal. What I am saying is I believe they KNEW in advance and used it to extend their power and clean up affairs just as they knew about Pearl Harbor and made up the attack at Tonkin Gulf and let us not forget the Weapons of Mass Destruction they couldn’t find. All I can say is I do know what happened in MCC. That does not negate the government involvement any more than pretending they didn’t know about Pearl Harbor. The planes that were used could be also controlled from the ground. So I do not believe it was simply terrorist all on their own. I “believe” they used the terrorists as a decoy to achieve other goals. Can I prove that no! This is my OPINION. What I can state is what happened in MCC. That is NOT speculation, theory, conjecture, or anything else. However, that does NOT say it was purely a terrorist act either. WTC7 fell by itself without anything hitting it and all government employees were evacuated prior to. It appears to be a professional demolition job. As for the “plane” that hit the pentagon (or missile) directly in the room where ALL the evidence was on the missing $2 trillion, is just too coincidental to be believable. I know people who were there and they say no plane debris. That was not the WTC where you could fly into that no problem. This was at ground level. Much more difficult to accomplish. http://www.themartinarmstrongcase.com/?page_id=83 In the longest running civil contempt in the history of federal jurisprudence in the Untied States, Armstrong was held at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre (“MCC”) in New York from January 2000 until April 2007. Judge Owen had determined that Armstrong failed to comply with the asset freeze and turnover order by failing to deliver alleged corporate assets, including a bust, antique coins and gold bars. Even though the contempt statute authorizes no more than an 18-month period of confinement, Judge Owen ruled that, as a federal district court judge, he had unlimited equitable powers to hold a civil contemnor for life, if need be. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/10/12/the-secret-cycle Prison was not kind to him. At one point, a fellow-inmate beat him in his cell. (Armstrong suspects that it may have been an assassination attempt.) In 2006, he was put into solitary confinement, for allegedly damaging a vent. Soon afterward, he decided, in an agreement with the prosecutors, to plea to just one count in the indictment, conspiracy to commit fraud. The twenty-three other charges were dismissed. He did so in part, he says, because he believed that he might get credit for time served. The criminal-court judge, however, gave him the maximum sentence—five years. Armstrong was still stuck in the M.C.C., for civil contempt. A U.S. Court of Appeals rejected yet another appeal, although a concurring opinion, written by Sonia Sotomayor, noted that “the district court’s finding that Armstrong is motivated solely by greed is not enough to justify disregard for due process.” Judge Owen was eventually replaced and the contempt order abandoned. In April, 2007, Armstrong was moved to a low-security federal prison camp at Fort Dix, in southern New Jersey, to begin serving his sentence. http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/09/22/14636/ I think Armstrong is just speaking matter-of-factly when he says the direction will be the one-world digital reserve currency: REPLY: I really think all of this conspiracy nonsense is absurd. YES there are groups that get together like G20 and Bilderberg meetings. I have even been the keynote speaker at such elite banking meetings. However, wanting to do something and actually being able to do it is another thing all together. I have the fortune of knowing some very talented people... We had “Uncle Ed” Rothschild implant his nephew into our company. I began getting calls from clients asking what was going on because he had gone through my roledex calling clients saying to buy a horrible Canadian mining company so Uncle Ed could sell his position. So if you think these people “know” and are in absolute control of everything, you are buying into bullshit. They hated my guts and they put the words in the mouth of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission who never met a banker it did not kneel to. These people tried to manipulate markets – not the world. They were all jumping into Russia after they bailed out and sold Southeast Asia. They invited me to the IMF dinner Edmond Safra paid for to try to get me to join them. I told them Russia would fail. When it did, they argued it was me who manipulated the world economy because I had more influence than they did. Let’s put this straight. If such groups were all powerful, then why do they go bust with each crash and run to government for bailouts? I do not disagree that there are groups who “try” to control things, but there is no way they can stop anything from happening. I do not speak of these things off the cuff. I have had FIRST HAND up front experience. All the conversations I ever had about the markets and manipulations were on tapes. There was also a group of us who monitored what these people were up to next. All of that evidence that in a REAL government would have sent them to jail, magically vanished in the collapse of World Trade Center 7 – the building that magically fell by itself in less than 7 seconds and was not hit by anything. CONVENIENT? http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/09/05/are-markets-manipulated-all-the-time/ Are Markets Manipulated All the Time? QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; Some people say you will not admit markets are manipulated all the time. Yet you stood up and had all the evidence that would have damned the whole lot of the New York bankers for manipulating markets. This is very confusing how you can be against them in public yet people claim you refuse to admit the markets are manipulated all the time between the central banks and the New York bankers. Can you shed any light on this paradox? ANSWER: I am a student of markets. I do not make up bullshit. I am of the school of Adam Smith – assume nothing – prove everything. Claiming markets are manipulated all the time  is impossible. Marx tried that with communism and the free markets still won. This claim is merely a cop-out for admitting someone does not understand how markets function. Sure the banks manipulate markets individually. They cannot and do not do this systemically. Even in LIBOR they rig the game to make consistent profits but that does not mean they are capable of manipulating the entire trend. Even the central banks can control short-term rates within a trend but not long-term. This is why they then buy in long-term paper trying to INFLUENCE the long-term – they cannot dictate the price or trend. They have no direct power over markets. They can suppress the short-term like communism but the free markets will blow them out of the water when the Sovereign Debt Crisis hits. Why people put out this bullshit is amazing for if it was true then why buy gold at all for the system cannot ever collapse if it is all perfectly manipulated. This is just total gibberish from people who have ZERO experience inside the markets or behind the curtain. I had more than half the equivalent of the US National Debt under contract for advisory. I think I saw things no analysts has ever dreamed of no less understood. These people make up stuff to hide their inexperience – plain and simple. The banks told the government I manipulated the world economy BECAUSE they lost every time from Orange County, Solomon’s manipulation of US Treasury Auctions to the DOT.COM bubble and the 2007 Real Estate crisis. They ALWAYS blow up every time and run to government to get bailed out. How is this someone who manipulates the markets everyday? They should never fail if true. You get mislead people swearing gold will rally to $10,000-$30,000 any day and when it falls out of bed they blame manipulation for being wrong. If the markets are manipulated ever day, then why trade against the trend using theories that purport the world will collapse any day? This is the real paradox to me. How can you say buy gold and when you are wrong you do not admit the mistake but blame manipulation? If it is manipulated then why tell people to buy something that can never rise? We always tracked manipulations. I knew ABSOLUTELY every single one they did. We monitored the manipulations very carefully. The various manipulators hated my guts just like the goldbugs who will not listen. They tried to get me to join them figuring that when they lost it was because I had more followers than they did and therein started the allegation of manipulating the world economy that I had to defend against a subpoena from the CFTC demanding I turn over all names of clients worldwide so they could prove I was more powerful that the banks they protect. I defeated them in court. My lawyer at the time Chris Lovel stood up and told the judge even if I did manipulate the world, where was the law that said I could not no less how was it the domain of the CFTC? I have written that written publicly that first PhiBro silver manipulation took place in 1993. The client was Warren Buffet. The CFTC went to PhiBro demanding to know who they were buying silver for. PhiBro refused to give up Buffet’s name. The CFTC would have thrown anyone else in jail and out of business. The CFTC is owned by the big players and is corrupt as hell right to the core. The CFTC simply said ok, no name, then exist the trade. No fines – jail – sanctions for that manipulations. PhiBro and the “club” desperately tried to get me to join the second silver manipulation with Buffet. I have written about this stating publicly that PhiBro’s brokers walked across the COMEX pit and showed my floor brokers (Emerald Trading) Buffet’s orders and told me to join. They knew I would never trust these people for how would I know I was not the patsy to buy and they would use a another seller. I would never join them. Hence, PhiBro showed me the orders to convince me to join. I then reported to our clients “they are back” knowing it was Buffet and PhiBro for a second time. They all got pissed-off at me even though I never mentioned names. The buying of silver was done in London. Therefore, they moved silver out of COMEX warehouses in USA and shipped the supply to London to pretend there was a shortage to justify the manipulation. The Wall Street Journal assisted in the rally. The manipulators were steering the Buffet buying to London to avoid the 1993 problem with the CFTC. This is why AIG trading arm also set up in London. Buying silver in London justified moving it from the NY COMEX and this allowed them to get the manipulation going. COMEX supplies were reported in isolation. Moving the silver to London created the false image of a shortage to justify the higher prices. The Wall Street Journal was used to plant the story. On September 30th 1997 the stories appeared in headlines – “Silver Prices Hit Six-Month High On Steadily Declining Reserves, By  PALLAVI GOGOI AP-Dow Jones News Service Updated Sept. 30, 1997 12:01 a.m. ET NEW YORK — Silver futures surged to a six-month high at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, a move analysts said was triggered by steadily declining warehouse stocks. The rally was boosted by preplaced purchase orders around the $5-per-ounce level…” This was the news created for the manipulation that was constantly played out in the newspapers. The Wall Street Journal again reported on November 17, 1997, “Silver Futures Prices Leap On Hints of Tight Supplies”, and again on December 4, 1997 the Wall Street Journal from London reported “Silver Surges on Strength In Supply-Demand Status By NEIL BEHRMANN Special to The Wall Street Journal Updated Dec. 5, 1997 12:01 a.m. ET LONDON — Gold may be in the doghouse, but silver is soaring like a bird”. The reporting of shortages continued to fuel the rally. The Wall Street Journal reported again December 24, 1997 for the manipulators “Silver Futures Advance As Inventories Plunge” The interesting point is the manipulators know that if they rally the metals, the retail goldbugs rush in and buy proclaiming its the bull market every time. The manipulators then routinely turn around and sell to goldbugs at the top and the markets crash. This has become standard procedure protected by the CFTC and the goldbugs buy the high every single time without fail. The “cluib” was pissed-off that I would not join and I warned my clients they were back manipulating silver. A pretend analyst on the payroll I believe of PhiBro got a journalist from the Wall Street Journal to try to discredit me. The fake analyst told the WSJ I was short silver and trying to talk it down. The journalist accused me of this nonsense and we argued on the phone. It got quite heated and frankly I was not retail so could care less what they printed. My clients were the real deal who all knew the truth about journalism and how it was just a pawn of the “club”. In fact, my clients did not ever want me to give interviews about market forecasting to the press for their view was hey – we pay for that info. Nevertheless, the WSJ journalist kept arrogantly taunting me and said if silver was being manipulated, then give him the name so I said fine, go ahead, let me see you print it, knowing he never would print Warren Buffet the saint of Wall Street – thanks to the press. The name I gave him was Warren Buffet. He laughed. Told me everyone knew Buffet did not trade commodities I told him that was how much he knew. The Wall Street Journal published the article. The London newspapers were fed stories by the “Club” that I was now the largest silver trader in the world. This became all a joke to me. It demonstrated how bad the press really was. They were the pawns of the manipulators and probably didn’t even know it. The mistake made by the “Club” by turning out the press against me, was they actually created such a worldwide story that silver was being manipulated the CFTC was forced to call me – it was public now and they had no choice. They knew I was not the source of the manipulation. Even the CFTC could look at positions and knew I was not the biggest player in silver. The CFTC then asked me, where was the manipulation taking place? I told them it was in London, out of their jurisdiction. The CFTC told me that they could pick up the phone and investigate London. I told them that they had to make that clear decision. I hung up. Never did I expect that they would really do anything. Yet, they never asked me who because the question was jurisdiction. A few hours later, my phone rang. It was a good source in London who also was helping to monitor the “Club” actions. He told me that the Bank of England had called an immediate meeting of all silver brokers in London in the morning. I was shocked. The CFTC had made the call. But then again, I had given them no names so perhaps in their mind, this was fair game. Within the hour, Warren Buffet made a press announcement. He admitted he had purchased $1 billion worth of silver, in London . He denied he was “manipulating” the market. Claimed the silver was a long – term investment. Everyone was shocked that Buffet was suddenly exposed as a commodity trader after all. The very next day the Wall Street Journal called me. The writer asked – “How did you know?” I told him it was my job to know! Silver thereafter declined and made new lows going into 1999. So much for Buffet’s long-term investment since he sold out. When one trader from New York joined our firm, he called Goldman Sachs to ask about us. He has publicly stated on the record that their response was they had butted heads with me many times but I usually won. Exposing the silver manipulation trying to turn the press against me was a huge mistake. The CFTC would have never called the Bank of England just because I reported the manipulation to our clients. That was private. Exposing the issue in the press forced them to respond. My brokers on the floor were Emerald Trading. I routinely traded AGAINST the manipulators and defeated them many times. Just as the goldbugs do not like me, neither do the manipulators and it far too often seemed to coincide when they were trying to goose the metals markets UP – not down. Contrary to the bullshit, they need people to BUY the metals to create a pool of longs to bury. They are NOT interested in forcing a metal down to compel people to sell for goldbugs are notoriously stubborn. That is not very profitable for they want the emotional traders who buy highs. Of course the goldbugs will say I am wrong but have never been in the same circles and some of them I question if they are not the people paid on the side by the manipulators. There have been major manipulations of markets such as rhodium and then there was the manipulation of Platinum. I had recorded tapes and tons of documents on every manipulation. This was all seized by the court and I stood up instructing the court that these tapes Alan Cohen was demanding involved criminal activity on the part of the banks. I had it all for years. Alan Cohen then was made a board member of Goldman Sachs yet still remained as the court appointed person to run Princeton Economics. That is totally illegal and a conflict of interest. Law does not matter in New York City. (see Transcripts below). To say I will not admit markets are manipulated is absurd. To claim they are always manipulated is impossible. Yet the real paradox is when the metals rally, they never seem to be manipulated – those are always “real” bull markets and the failures are the manipulations. Great propaganda! Amazingly, the metals are unique, They become manipulated only when they decline. Not even the central banks can manipulate everything. Sure people try. But not everything. They target one market and go after that. The central banks have been trying to manage the economy to eliminate recessions. They have never succeeded even once. The central bankers know this is a confidence game just as the market manipulators. You NEED the public to move a trend. They cannot do it alone. If they were all-powerful, then Bretton Woods would never have collapsed. There is a huge difference from a short-term manipulation within the trend, like the Buffet silver move, and a systemic every day manipulation that produces no big windfalls. Where is the PROOF of systemic manipulation? I have never seen any evidence of that – EVER. It is just nonsense. http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/26/supreme-court-justice-wva-found-in-questionable-circumstances/ Supreme Court Justice WVa Found in Questionable Circumstances ... ABC News exposed Supreme Court Justice of West Virginia Robin Davis who refused to recuse herself when the lawyer she handed $17 million in fees bought a PRIVATE JET from her husband for $1 million. In my own case, the lawyers were talking how the receiver Alan Cohen was talking with Judge Richard Owen as was his subordinate Tancred Schiavoni on a regular basis off the record. I was in the Chrysler Building at the offices of Tenzer Greenblat when they were all talking about the case saying there was no way to win for this was being rigged as Judge Owen was communicating on the side with the government. When I told the lawyer to move for recusal, he responded his firm in New York City would NEVER move against any judge. From that moment on, I knew this was a hopeless cause to actually expect justice. The press in New York is also afraid to ever report the truth about judges so that leaves the country as a whole up to their throat burried in a pile of shit. It became abundantly clear that lawyers from the same district were hopeless. Their business comes first before any client. So all the pretending of ethics is just that – one giant facade. Nothing is safe in America from your privacy to your liberty no less your property for judges are just not judges with very few exceptions today. When I moved to go pro se with no choice when paid lawyers will not defend you before their own business, things really got out of hand. Getting rid of lawyers who would not defend me, I then moved for recusal of Judge Owen. He illegally closed the court and threw the press out – something which was totally unconstitutional since EVERY citizen is entitled to a OPEN COURT proceeding so that the people know justice is being done – another ethical fraud since they will close a court and change transcripts to remove whatever there is in your favor. Judge Owen ordered the court reporter to not record the events. Typically, every court transcript begins “in open court” except my transcript of April 24th, 2000. Judge Owen had the Associated Press thrown out of court. The journalist reported that it was “In a closed hearing”. That was the only evidence I had to prove what he had done was entirely illegal for no lawyer would back me up against a judge. I appealed his refusal to recuse showing he even illegally altered the transcript to hide the fact he unconstitutionally threw out the press and closed the courtroom. You just can’t make up this stuff. The Second Circuit Court of appeals refused to even dock my appeal. This is the REAL America and we do not stand a prayer in hell of saving our country without profound change and reform. We have become the oppressed by a government that has transformed itself into the very same government we revolted against. The wheel of fortune has completed its revolution. We are now right back where it all began – corrupt judges who protect the kings agents, and writs of assistance to eliminate all rights to privacy. Nothing remains and this is what we are leaving our children. http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/21/bernstein-of-watergate-on-cia-control-of-media/ Bernstein of Watergate on CIA Control of Media For the younger generation, in the 1970s, there was the Watergate scandal of the Republicans getting caught in the break-in of Democratic office located in the Watergate Office building. There was always some question about whether Nixon was truly set-up for he was distrustful of the CIA and had actually taken the same posture as JFK against Vietnam. Nixon promised to bring the troops home and it has been long suspected that the assassination of JFK was a coup by US CIA/Military to keep expanding worldwide. It was the Third Nixon-Kennedy Debate of 1960 that set off the first Gold Panic of 1960. However, you have to read between the lines. Kennedy clearly states the fiscal mismanagement problem that eventually undermined Bretton Woods. It was the American military wanting to expand worldwide. Kennedy said: “Now on the question of gold. The difficulty, of course, is that we do have heavy obligations abroad, that we therefore have to maintain not only a favorable balance of trade but also send a good deal of our dollars overseas to pay our troops, maintain our bases, and sustain other economies. In other words, if we’re going to continue to maintain our position in the sixties, we have to maintain a sound monetary and fiscal policy.” Nixon saw the same problem and was forced to close the Gold Window in 1971. He wanted to curtail the military as well and bring the troops home. There is some question about Watergate because Nixon was so far ahead in the polls it really made no sense to break-in to the Democratic office. So was he removed from office for the same problem and the same motive? Carl Bernstein of Woodward and Bernstein who were at the Washington Post broke the story. Why did the government not stop the Washington Post from exposing Watergate when they have the ability to stop the mainstream press in the USA at any moment? Perhaps they wanted the scandal to remove Nixon. This is what Bernstein wrote in 1977 himself about the CIA controlling the press. It is worth the read. Read the following linked blog post, as it is very long and detailed: http://armstrongeconomics.com/research/rule-of-law/goldman-sachs-v-armstrong/

[iamback]

The USSA is strong-arming all other countries to basically adopt all their laws, or else

The countries that refuse risk being "corrected".

It is not only that. Every country that is bankrupt from socialism is willingly embracing the hunt for capital for taxes to fund the "99% against the 1%". The sheep don't yet realize the 1% includes them, because the socialism cancer kills the host.

[iamback]

Attempting to jump through Dwolla's KYC Hoops (from email)

I thought the field on your website that asked for my preferred "display name" was not DBA name, just a website user name alias. Please remove "[redacted]" and set my DBA name to "[my legal name]". I do not possess DBA documentation at this time.

Please clarify what you need to see from my ID? Which ID? What was missing? Do you mean you need a higher resolution scan or do you mean you need me to scan every page of my passport? Your message is ambiguous.

Also please indicate to me if the IDs I am providing are going to be sufficient? I do not have any additional documents other than the ones I have already provided. I don't want to waste my time trying to improve the scans to your specifications, if you are just going to say you need other documents. Please tell me frankly now so I don't waste my and your time.

Thank you.

> __________________________________
> Please type your reply at the top of the email...
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Jackson Dahlquist | FEB 26, 2015 01:59PM CST
>
>
>
>
> Good afternoon,
>
> We're excited to see that you're planning to use Dwolla for your business.
> While reviewing your account, we noticed that there is a discrepancy
> between your preferred business name, and registered business name.  Our
> compliance team is requesting DBA (Doing Business As) paperwork that shows
> a correlation between the two business names in order to fully verify this
> account.
>
> You can submit this by logging into your account and uploading a scanned
> copy into the upload box on the photo verify page OR you can simply attach
> the document to an email reply.
>
> Also, our Security team was not able to verify the image you uploaded.
> Could you please upload a full copy of your photo ID? Our Security team
> needs to review the whole identification card to verify your account.
>
> Please let us know if you have any further questions.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
> For your reference this is Case #: 121005
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Support powered by Dwolla (http://www.dwolla.com/)
>
> [[4f82ee3f5b3848230c3ef7fa8676bf855a360592-389305975]]

[iamback]

Compare the Dwolla Morass (DBA, etc) To The Instant Solution!

(I win!    )

I found the link to your Easy Pay Widget:

https://coin.mx/merchant/generate_url

Kudos! That can almost entirely meet my needs! That is exactly what I was asking for except one feature appears to be lacking.

Although I can sniff the receipt of the BTC at the specified address over the Bitcoin network (or even wait for 1-confirmation on the block chain), I am unable with your current API to get any feedback that a customer has initiated an yet unverified (or partially verified) transaction with you.

My understanding is that your full verification process can cause a delay ranging from minutes to days.

Some merchants offer intangible goods which have basically no cost and even some merchants are offering for example a 30 day subscription to the paid members only area of a web site. Such merchants often prefer to give immediate access to the customer who has completed the basic instant verification you do for credit cards (e.g. your AVS and geolocation checks, etc). The merchant can rescind the subscription if final payment is never received within some maximum window of time (4 days?).

This is about making the experience more pleasant for the good customers. If we make it too frustratingly slow, good customers form bad opinions and we lose good will. Customer attrition rate is very important to business models.

I understand you don't want to encourage fraud if merchants give customers immediate access after only the instant verification of credit cards, so merchants need to be careful to give only a very limited access while waiting for final payment. OTOH, you all have to do the slower, more extensive verification procedures any way for each transaction. And I am sure I understand that your profit comes from good repeat customers and from the free referrals you get from bonafide merchants who introduce new customers to this paradigm.

So on balance, I think it would be net win-win for both you and the merchants if you add the "callback on initial verification" feature I am suggesting.

I eagerly await your feedback and thoughts. We want to work with you to meet mutual synergies.

Sincerely,
iamback

P.S. If ever the card companies accuse you of reselling in violation of any merchant agreement you may have with them, please consider removing the "merchant name" and "product" fields from you API. It is impossible for you to verify if the BTC address you are loading belongs to the customer or a merchant thus it can not be proven you are "reselling". Perhaps this is not a problem for your relationship with the credit card companies; I am just thinking in advance on your behalf. I am very happy you offer this service and I want to help you succeed.






> ##- Please type your reply above this line -##
>
> [Coin.Mx] Re: Simplified proposal to add a merchant service
>
> Your request (28297) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply
> to this email.
> ----------------------------------------------
>
> Coin.MX, Feb 26, 3:44 PM
>
> Hi iamback,
>
> Have you seen our easy pay widget?
>
> Here is a quick tutorial on how it works.
>
> Is this something that would work for your purposes?
>
> Let me know if you have any questions,
> Jen
>
> ----------------------------------------------
>
> iamback, Feb 25, 1:55 PM
>
> I would like to have the customer pay me in BTC using their credit card. I
> can use the following capability to generate unique BTC addresses for each
> customer:
>
> https://blockchain.info/api/api_receive
>
> But I would prefer to have more seamless integration into your website,
> where I can direct the customer to a page on your website where the BTC
> address is automatically entered, and also supply a return URL that you
> send the customer to after receiving all the information you need from the
> customer.
>
> --------------------------------
> This email is a service from Coin.Mx.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [F0B2-0JRR]

[iamback]

On more careful reading of the Blockchain.info documentation, 0-confirmations is supported:

https://blockchain.info/api/api_receive

A double spend occurs when a malicious user spends the same BTC twice. A payment that initial appears successful could be reversed at a later date. This is counteracted by waiting for the transaction to be included in the blockchain and reaching a number of confirmations. 6 confirmations is generally considered safe for high value transactions.

Validate the transaction confirmations in the callback script by checking $_GET['confirmations'] parameter. It is recommended you acknowledge the transaction at zero confirmations but only trust the transaction after one confirmation. For example, if purchasing a product, we would show the order as successful at zero confirmations, but only ship the product when 6 or more confirmations are reached.