Bitcoin Black Friday: Why Namecheap is Participating
community.namecheap.com
community.namecheap.com
They have since changed that so payment is instant (the effort required to double spend a $15 domain would be far more expensive than the benefit). The experience is awesome I must say. I just love being able to whip out my phone, scan a QR code on the screen and confirm the purchase and have it instantly go through.
Much, much better than having to pull out my credit card, type in 16 numbers, make sure I use the right zip, then remember what crazy authorized by mastercard password I used. Especially for digital goods, not having to do all the address verification etc.., sure makes the transaction nicer.
I doubt they gain a whole lot from using BTC (though I think there is real potential in developing countries), but hats off to them for supporting it anyways. They were my registrar of choice before and this only strengthened that.
IMHO you are heavily exaggerating how complicated it is to use CC and/or other payment options and how easy it is to use btc.
I select paypal, which already has me logged in to my account (or lastpass automatically logs me in), click "Pay Now". Instantly done.
Same goes for google wallet and similar services. Lastpass even has my CC info which I can use to fill out forms if I don't have an account. Even without lastpass I know my CC number, and I never have to make sure I use the right zip (how complicated is that to remember, seriously?)
It's much easier than having to pull out my phone (which is god knows where), open app, enter PIN (because security...), scan QR code from the screen and pay.
Or log into web wallet like blockchain.info by entering wallet ID, password and 2FA code,copy/paste bitcoin address somewhere and send money to it and if I get one letter/character wrong the money is forever gone because fk chargebacks, right?
(Did I chose one of the more complicated scenarios? Yes, just like OP did in parent comment for CC payments)
It's good that they offer multiple payment options, but comments which highlight best case scenario when using bitcoin and worst case scenario(in terms of how easy it is) when using CCs/PP/etc are really annoying.
>though I think there is real potential in developing countries
I bet you that it's insanely easier to get CC than bitcoin in a lot of "developing countries", and average people from developing countries, which I assume have lower than most income, should really avoid bitcoin due to the price fluctuation. In theory it's great, in practice... not so much.
The advantage is clearest when it is your first transaction, so not when using PayPal or Google Wallet. Because I live abroad (Rwanda) I have more hassle with credit cards than you might, specifically they are always getting flagged for fraud because I'm not where they expect. Yes, this isn't an issue if you live in the states at a permanent address.
> I bet you that it's insanely easier to get CC than bitcoin in a lot of "developing countries", and average people from developing countries, which I assume have lower than most income, should really avoid bitcoin due to the price fluctuation. In theory it's great, in practice... not so much.
Not sure why you are using quotes, but you are wrong on this one, at least in East Africa where I live. Getting a credit card is pretty annoying and expensive in Rwanda. The vast majority of people do not have bank accounts, much less credit.
I wouldn't suggest Bitcoin as a store of value, but I do think there is potential as a form of payment in these markets. IE, buying $15 of bitcoins (which yes, can be had in various ways here) to register the domain and spending it the same day. That is indeed easier than getting a credit card here.
I have lived, well more of a stayed for few months than lived for longer period of time, in various countries in EU and I only had one time paypal block my payment with credit card issued in Bosnia. That was when I installed new OS(W8), different browser(trying out FF) and different country(Italy) - it made complete sense to block the purchase. And that was resolved in about 15 minutes after I contacted their support.
>Not sure why you are using quotes
I was quoting the scenario you named where bitcoin has advantages. I probably shouldn't have used quotes though...
>Getting a credit card is pretty annoying and expensive in Rwanda.
I don't know about Rwanda, but in most countries (even the developing ones) you do have access to CC. I'm pretty sure that everyone who can afford PC and internet access can also afford CC.
Of course there are exceptions, but those exceptions aren't really suitable for bitcoin either because it would be more complicated than just using cash - because you need phone or PC to make (normal) transaction.
>The vast majority of people do not have bank accounts, much less credit.
So how do you buy bitcoins? In person transactions? Isn't it worth it then, for someone who makes online payments frequently, to go through annoying process of getting the CC instead of finding people who are willing to sell bitcoins? Or go to a bank and make a wire transfer or WU transfer (which is, I assume, more expensive for large quantity of transfers than paying for CC)?
Also the protection against double-spending greatly improved with a rapid alert system. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2382292
There are variants of your complaint which are much more dangerous to bitcoin. For example, suppose I hold no bitcoins and wish to either purchase or sell a domain name. Should I effect the transaction in dollars, or should I use something a little less boring, like Google shares, tulip bulbs, Magic the Gathering cards, or bitcoin? Well, most people wishing to buy domain names or sell domain names have access to dollars very quickly, but getting into or out of fractional alpha Black Lotuses depository certificates (FABLDC) takes a roundtrip of a few days and requires you to go either long or short FABLDC depending on whether you're buying or selling the domain name. You might, sensibly, not want to be either long or short FABLDC just to sell domain names, because a) price volatility, b) transaction costs (not just the vig you're charged when going to/from FABLDC by the various FABLDC exchanges but also the overhead of installing FABLDC payment code, explain FABLDC to your accountant, and self-insure for the risk that your FABLDC are stolen from the technology company you trust to manage them for you), and c) why worry about FABLDC in a world where money exists. (In a world where money didn't exist, FABLDC would be, quite literally, one of the most impressive achievements ever.)
n.b. I apologize to techies of my acquaintance who might assume, by construction, that I am comparing bitcoin to fractional Black Lotus depository certificates. Sorry for the implication -- it's mostly an extended rhetorical device. Like you, I also believe that alpha Black Lotuses are worth more than nothing.
[edit: Ah fudge, someone beat me to this metaphor on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5487050 ]
Except for miners, people who want to support the bitcoin ecosystem per se, and privacy buffs who prefer to buy their bitcoin in ways that minimize traceability, it's hard for me to get excited about using bitcoin to make online purchases right now. If you don't hold any bitcoin and just want to use it as a transfer mechanism, you have to have extra motivation to buy bitcoin and then send it (waiting for a few confirmations). This process takes longer than using a credit card, so generally it seems that one must have additional motivation to use bitcoin (at least in the US).
As a mechanism of money transfer, though, I do find it interesting.
I'll go and sit in the corner for my bad Magic puns then...
There is no sunk cost for a cost that hasn't been made yet (buying the domain). If you're referring to the "cost" of buying bitcoin then that isn't a sunk cost either (actually no cost at all since it's an expense for a semi-liquid asset that you still possess). So the parent is right to take opportunity costs into account, especially in case of deflationary currency.
If that were a valid concern, why would anyone ever spend bitcoins when they could spend cash? If the price is guaranteed to rise as you imply, why isn't it already reflected in the market price? In other words, why are there people even selling it?
It is not a fallacy, but it is a speculative risk.
And, it is treating BTC as "an investment" or "a store of value" rather than "a medium of exchange".
So it is a subtle but important change in a person's view of why they would buy and hold BTC. Whether it is the right view, no one knows at this point.
On the other hand it makes a lot of sense for vendors to accept BitCoin for the very same reason. If you are a vendor, why wouldn't you want to accept something that could appreciate in value 10-fold, 20-fold tomorrow? Unless, of course, you instantly convert it into dollars.
This is why BitCoin will eventually be useful as a currency. This produces a network effect. More vendors will accept currency because it is so valuable so the currency will become more and more useful to consumers as time goes on. The value of being in the network is enough of a reason to join the network, until some plateau is reached.
I don't think BitCoin will be particularly useful as a currency until it stabilizes in value. Until then from a consumer's perspective it is probably most used as an investment.
nope. Unstable currency is just not very conductive to business. Speaking from experience with inflation. As any transaction has 2 ends, i suspect that high deflation has the same effect as high inflation. This is why Bitcoin as a currency has major built-in defect, while it seems to be wonderful value storage like Picasso or Ferrari California.
Your decision shouldn't depend on whether your $10 worth of money is denominated in dollars or in bitcoin.† Why not? Because if you have $10 worth of dollars, you can spend it on a domain name, or you can turn it into bitcoin. If you have $10 worth of bitcoin, you can spend it on a domain name or turn it into dollars. (And in an economist's perfect world, you could just as easily sell your domain name for $10 worth of dollars or bitcoin.)
All you have to decide is what relative allocation of dollars, bitcoin, and domain names (and everything else) you want. Then you just exchange one for another to get there. This is the basic idea behind opportunity cost [0]. You have to consider all your alternatives at once, and those alternatives are the same whether your money happens to be in dollars or bitcoin at the moment.
† — Except to the extent that prices differ with the currency of denomination (i.e., there are arbitrage opportunities), or transactions costs hinder your ability to exchange one currency or good for another.
If I buy something with bitcoin, that means I'll have that much more USD to reinvest in bitcoin if I so choose. Besides, if the price goes up x1000 then I'm not going to complain.
This seems like a pretty simple & awesome feature for coinbase to implement.
Agree, strikes me as a good idea.
Where exactly is the "much more USD" coming from?
If he spends BTC instead of USD to buy the domain, he still has his USD he didn't spend on the domain to buy the same amount of Bitcoins right away, if he chooses. His Bitcoin holdings don't have to change just because he paid a merchant that accepts Bitcoin.
The biggest part of the network (imo) is that it is also a payment processing network. You buy something with BTC? You can then repurchase that same amount of BTC with USD.
Or you can hold zero BTC in reserve, and only buy BTC when you need to spend it.
On the merchant side, you can instantly cash out to USD, making it a simple transaction over a payments network, using BTC as a unit of value specifically to transfer.
That makes me feel uneasy about the conversion rate of bitcoins to dollars. What is that really based on? The rate doesn't affect people who use it as a transaction network because they cash in / out on demand. So who really sets the price? If mtgox said tomorrow that a bitcoin is worth 1$ or 10,000$ it seems like they would be right.
I suspect that it would be based on the number of people trying to use Bitcoin as a payments network at any given time.
Probably won't go up 10x overnight. Even doubling in less than 24 hours has maybe happened twice in the history of bitcoin.
If you're concerned about your btc position, you just buy more after you spend it. Your probably exposing yourself to about 10-20% risk max. On $10, that's... $2. $2 is not worth supporting the bitcoin community?
Everyone says "nobody will spend bitcoin because it could go up in value." But I own bitcoin, and I'm willing to spend it, and others are of the same mindset, so this really isn't true.
It's like buying something with Apple shares, sure you could.. but you are paying transaction fees each time which doesn't make financial sense.
Finally I think there is a mental hurdle with the value of ONE bitcoin being worth so much. I know it is silly, but if a bitcoin was worth 10cents and people hand thousands of bitcoins I bet there would be more flow
Edit: This includes whatever you use to view your wallet and send coins with. Your wallet should display in mBTC so you send 1 mBTC instead of .001 BTC and pretty much never actually have to do conversions.
I don't understand this argument. Unless your entire savings is already in bitcoin just keep a small account separate from your investment (if any) that's meant to be spent, and top it off whenever the balance gets low.
I recently saw a suggestion that Coinbase should let you do this automatically, and I think that's an awesome idea. Exactly like how my transit card automatically purchases more credit when the balance drops below a certain threshold.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a limited supply and has a cost of acquisition.
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/bitcoin-friday-2...
While the majority of sites list that IP as swiss. Some list is as Iranian:
http://www.lookip.net/ip/31.7.56.170
If it actually were Iranian, then paying in bitcoins would be an effective way around the sanctions. If only Iran were more tech savy, then they could cater to the bitcoin early adopters and provide VPS, domain services, and the like.
I'll be happy to spend bitcoins after six months of small price variation (which I bet is a year after they run out of new coins) but until then they are staying air gapped on my rasb-py SD card.
Why did I use Bitcoin? Partly as an experiment and partly to avoid questions at work, I registered http://SecureDropDemo.org under a pseudonym. It's a demo of what you see if you leak documents through the SecureDrop whistleblowing platform, usually only accessible over Tor.
To qualify for the promo? They don't enforce a minimum purchase for BTC... I have bought several individual domains from them in BTC.
What is the point of a 100/1 split? Moving the decimals over is completely arbitrary, since you'd just have 6 decimal places at the end instead of 8.
Here's this virtual coin that a low level speculator can't even buy a full instance of. That has to put off a few people.
If you want to use bitcoin, you cannot trust third parties to hold your coins for you.