Thanks! We're pretty interested in cryptocurrencies at Balanced [1]. Would love to have your support on this project:https://balanced.crowdhoster.com/let-s-push-to-debit-cards/c...
[1] https://twitter.com/steveklabnik/status/423271986073063424
> what kinds of debit cards can be used
This will work with any US-based debit card. Regulation is hard, still working on the international story in general.
> I'm even interested if something like this will make it easier to exchange cryptocurrencies remotely without going through a central exchange.
Can you expand on this a bit? I'm not immediately seeing the connection.
Cryptocurrency exchange is currently against our terms, "Prohibited Transactions" -> "(18) currency exchanges or dealers" and "(49) virtual currency or credits that can be monetized, re-sold or converted to physical or digital goods or services or otherwise exit the virtual world," in https://www.balancedpayments.com/terms/selleragreement . This is due to our upstream providers.
We're interested in working with them to work around such things, but haven't been able to yet: https://github.com/balanced/balanced-api/issues/204
I've been heavily involved in Dogecoin, and I'd love to see BTC/LTC/DOGE payments, but there's a lot of unresolved questions.
As a side note, out of curiosity, what do you see in Dogecoin over Bitcoin or Litecoin?
Yup, this is one of a bunch of problems. For example, "no chargebacks" is great for merchants, but bad for consumers. And while coinbase does support a simple charge, they don't have any way of doing things like holds.
As for Doge: http://words.steveklabnik.com/how-dogecoin-changed-my-perspe...
In the end, I think it makes sense that it should be the merchant's task to handle the refund requests. If the possibility is not built-in to bitcoin, why do you feel that you should make it? And of course, there would be no need for holds.
I actually did read that article in the past, didn't realize that was you. It may be interesting as a phenomenon, but I certainly wouldn't hold Doge in higher regard than Bitcoin, which has a much larger network.
Right, but the merchant is our customer, it's our job to make their lives easier.
And regardless of the details, my point is that you have to think about this case and others, and then make a call: it's not simply drop-in.
> If the possibility is not built-in to bitcoin, why do you feel that you should make it?
Consumers feel safe using their credit cards because of things like chargeback protection. If Bitcoin is really going to become a thing, it will need to have consumer protections built in. Doesn't have to be at the protocol layer, but it does need to exist in some form.
> which has a much larger network.
Depends. Yes, it's much larger now, but Doge is exploding in popularity. It has a higher trading volume than BTC, and has a bigger network (measured in hash rate) than Litecoin.
Don't underestimate the power of Reddit to turn memes into something big. I agree it's not there yet, but it could be.