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Stripe: Bitcoin

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Re: Stripe: Bitcoin

#151

Post by enneff »

loceng wrote: post #147
patrickaljord wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the crutch now is not that it's hard to acquire bitcoins (thanks to coinbase and friends) or pay with bitcoin (thanks to stripe and friends), no, the only crutch is why should I buy bitcoins with my dollars when I can just pay with my dollars directly? It can be useful for people who either don't have access to credit cards but have access to bitcoins, people who already have a lot of bitcoins and curious tec…

The problem with Bitcoin though is it isn't a currency. If it was a currency, if $1 USD was paid for a Bitcoin, that USD would be destroyed, not pocketed. The only people promoting Bitcoin are those who have something massive to gain, e.g. they own a lot of Bitcoin or they have vested interest in the ecosystem. Stripe facilitating this would allow them to start gathering Bitcoin, at a rate of .5% per transaction, and…

I don't understand your comment. When you buy or sell currency, the original currency is not destroyed. Or am I wrong?

Re: Stripe: Bitcoin

#152

Post by celticninja »

loceng wrote: post #147
patrickaljord wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the crutch now is not that it's hard to acquire bitcoins (thanks to coinbase and friends) or pay with bitcoin (thanks to stripe and friends), no, the only crutch is why should I buy bitcoins with my dollars when I can just pay with my dollars directly? It can be useful for people who either don't have access to credit cards but have access to bitcoins, people who already have a lot of bitcoins and curious tec…

The problem with Bitcoin though is it isn't a currency. If it was a currency, if $1 USD was paid for a Bitcoin, that USD would be destroyed, not pocketed. The only people promoting Bitcoin are those who have something massive to gain, e.g. they own a lot of Bitcoin or they have vested interest in the ecosystem. Stripe facilitating this would allow them to start gathering Bitcoin, at a rate of .5% per transaction, and…

how would that $1 be destroyed?

Re: Stripe: Bitcoin

#153

Post by RussianCow »

loceng wrote: post #147
patrickaljord wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the crutch now is not that it's hard to acquire bitcoins (thanks to coinbase and friends) or pay with bitcoin (thanks to stripe and friends), no, the only crutch is why should I buy bitcoins with my dollars when I can just pay with my dollars directly? It can be useful for people who either don't have access to credit cards but have access to bitcoins, people who already have a lot of bitcoins and curious tec…

The problem with Bitcoin though is it isn't a currency. If it was a currency, if $1 USD was paid for a Bitcoin, that USD would be destroyed, not pocketed. The only people promoting Bitcoin are those who have something massive to gain, e.g. they own a lot of Bitcoin or they have vested interest in the ecosystem. Stripe facilitating this would allow them to start gathering Bitcoin, at a rate of .5% per transaction, and…

> The problem with Bitcoin though is it isn't a currency.

You mean it isn't a fiat currency. All that means is that Bitcoin's value isn't backed by a government, but is instead derived purely from the ability for someone to spend it.

> If it was a currency, if $1 USD was paid for a Bitcoin, that USD would be destroyed, not pocketed.

What? Since when? If you spend USD to buy EUR, the person on the other side of the transaction is giving you EUR and pocketing the USD. No value is destroyed.

Re: Stripe: Bitcoin

#155

Post by haakon »

thucydides wrote: post #141

Who wants to use this most? Porn companies. Their chargeback rates are obscenely high. And Bitcoins can't be "clawed back," as grubles put it. ed: "wants to" instead of "will"

Except Stripe doesn't service pornography businesses. (Source: https://stripe.com/us/prohibited-businesses)

Re: Stripe: Bitcoin

#156

Post by kchoudhu »

collision wrote: post #28
tlrobinson wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but of course the exchange rate matters as well. It's trivial for Bitcoin payment processors hide an extra "fee" in the exchange rate by giving you a worse exchange rate than you'd get at Bitcoin exchanges and pocketing the difference. (I have no idea if Stripe does that or not)

We're not marking up the exchange rate. 0.5% is the only fee.

Inherent to Stripe processing BTC is the fact that you are now a foreign exchange broker. Here's a small sample of why you're going to have to do a lot better than "we only charge 0.5%" to convince me that adding FX risk into my payment processing stack is a good idea:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-11-12/banks-manip...

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-02-09/banks-will-...

And that's just from the last three months, in an arena that is already heavily regulated by the SEC.

Re: Stripe: Bitcoin

#157

Post by loceng »

enneff wrote: post #151
loceng wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with Bitcoin though is it isn't a currency. If it was a currency, if $1 USD was paid for a Bitcoin, that USD would be destroyed, not pocketed. The only people promoting Bitcoin are those who have something massive to gain, e.g. they own a lot of Bitcoin or they have vested interest in the ecosystem. Stripe facilitating this would allow them to start gathering Bitcoin, at a rate of .5% per transaction, and…

I don't understand your comment. When you buy or sell currency, the original currency is not destroyed. Or am I wrong?

If the USD government prints more money then the overall value of the currency goes down.

Re: Stripe: Bitcoin

#158

Post by andrewfong »

joncalhoun wrote: post #132
malgorithms wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with this is that, from the buyer's perspective, the price is almost always the same when using a credit card or alternative. And with a credit card, the buyer gets rewards back, typically 1% or so. So, sadly, using a credit card continues to have more protections, costs less, and has deferred payment. I don't think this is a good thing, just saying. I hold some bitcoins, but I never buy anything with the…

What you said is 100% correct, which is why companies accepting bitcoin need to give the entire ~2-3% discount to customers. Very few credit cards will match 2-3% rewards, and from the sellers perspective bitcoin is better than credit cards payments. To name a few benefits: - There are no chargebacks - Funds are available immediately (though transferring from BTC to USD may take a day) - You can accept payment from a…

Is it legal to pass the discount onto customers? The only businesses I've seen giving a discount for paying in cash are (some) gas stations.

Re: Stripe: Bitcoin

#159

Post by NeutronBoy »

veryluckyxyz wrote: post #87
cca wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Christian from Stripe here.) We credit USD to our user's account when we see a transaction that we believe will become confirmed. The time-delay between when the customer pushes the transaction and when we notify our users is typically less than 15 seconds and almost always less than 60 seconds.

> We credit USD to our user's account when we see a transaction that we believe will become confirmed. Can you please elaborate?

Really the key question is: if a transaction that you believe will become confirmed, turns out to be invalid, who wears that? Stripe, or me? Will Stripe eat that, or will I get hit with the difference?

Re: Stripe: Bitcoin

#160

Post by loceng »

celticninja wrote: post #152
loceng wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with Bitcoin though is it isn't a currency. If it was a currency, if $1 USD was paid for a Bitcoin, that USD would be destroyed, not pocketed. The only people promoting Bitcoin are those who have something massive to gain, e.g. they own a lot of Bitcoin or they have vested interest in the ecosystem. Stripe facilitating this would allow them to start gathering Bitcoin, at a rate of .5% per transaction, and…

how would that $1 be destroyed?

A better or more accurate example I realize would be pointing out that if the US government prints money then the overall value per unit of the of the currency goes down. Bitcoin is mined which is akin to printing money. I'm not sure I am using the correct terminology, though trying to better articulate. Currency gets destroyed buy governments. They say take $1 million of cash and burn it/remove it from circulation.
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