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Namecheap now officially accepts Bitcoin

namecheap.com

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Re: Namecheap now officially accepts Bitcoin

#161

Post by chc »

eduardordm wrote: post #141
chc wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see your concern being very realistic. I very much doubt doing business with a foreign company that accepts Bitcoins is illegal in any country as long as you yourself are not involved in Bitcoin trade. I mean, obviously you can be as cautious as you want, but it seems unreasonable to assume that NameCheap is forcing any liability onto its customers.

My only concern is the company credit card getting blocked by my bank, last time it took days to solve this. I pasted the law and even a case to some other replies, I wouldn't just throw that if it wasn't true.

The laws your links were about appear to address doing business in foreign currencies, with dollars being used in those particular cases. NameCheap already did business in dollars, so why do you think adding Bitcoins presents an additional problem? As long as they're not forcing you to use Bitcoins or dollars for payment, I have a hard time imagining any country getting its knickers in a twist.

Like I said, obviously you should do what you think is best for your business. I just don't think it's fair to imply that NameCheap are forcing liability on people without hard evidence.

Re: Namecheap now officially accepts Bitcoin

#162

Post by tonywebster »

gibybo wrote: post #60

Well, I just tried to transfer one of my domains to Namecheap using Bitcoin, but their implementation leaves a lot to be desired. I filled in my domain, got to the checkout page, and it gave me three options: Pay from 'Funds', 'Credit Card', or 'Paypal'. Turns out in order to pay with Bitcoin, you have to first add 'Funds' to your account. So I click the link to do that, it asks me how much I want to add (I don't kno…

"They have to wait 45+ days for paypal/credit cards to clear"

This is not a thing. There's no concept of 'clearing' when it comes to credit cards; they are authorized for a specific dollar amount or they aren't. If a merchant authorizes $10 for a domain name, it's guaranteed that those funds are theirs (and they're given an authorization code confirming it). They more than likely get the funds in their bank account the very next business day.

The only way the money can be taken back from the merchant is if the consumer does a chargeback with their bank, so the only concern there is fraud.

Re: Namecheap now officially accepts Bitcoin

#163

Post by danielhughes »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #124
gibybo wrote: post #60

Well, I just tried to transfer one of my domains to Namecheap using Bitcoin, but their implementation leaves a lot to be desired. I filled in my domain, got to the checkout page, and it gave me three options: Pay from 'Funds', 'Credit Card', or 'Paypal'. Turns out in order to pay with Bitcoin, you have to first add 'Funds' to your account. So I click the link to do that, it asks me how much I want to add (I don't kno…

NameCheap actually doesn't have the capacity to revoke domains as they're an eNom reseller. Enom's policy is that once you buy a domain, it's yours. With domains sales being such a low margin business I can understand their level of caution.

I had no idea they were a reseller. It's all the more interesting when you look at eNom's reseller pricing page http://www.enom.com/resellers/benefits-pricingplans.aspx. I hope NameCheap is getting better bulk rates than what is listed.

Re: Namecheap now officially accepts Bitcoin

#164

Post by wmf »

runeks wrote: post #131
makomk wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of places that accept Bitcoins use BitPay and get paid in US dollars. BitPay charge a 3% fee for this service. (You can accept Bitcoins and exchange them yourself but then you take on the exchange-rate risk, which is quite substantial given how much the Bitcoin exchange rate varies.)

Please provide a source for this claim. BitPay's site says an incoming bitcoin transfer to bank deposit costs 1.70% for USD on their "Pricing" page: https://bitpay.com/bitcoin-direct-deposit And this will only decrease as competition increases.

BitPay charges a fee to accept BTC and another fee to convert to USD; these add up to 2.69%. If the customer pays Coinbase 1% to convert USD to BTC then total fees are nearly 4%.

Re: Namecheap now officially accepts Bitcoin

#165

Post by wmf »

disintermediate wrote: post #85
dmix wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I don't think any average person is really keeping large amounts of money in bitcoin. It has mostly a transactional since the use cases are so niche.

>use cases are so niche This is a first-world misperception. There is half a world excluded from traditional payment methods.

Is Bitcoin a realistic option for those people?

Re: Namecheap now officially accepts Bitcoin

#166

Post by wmf »

rrrrtttt wrote: post #78

Let's say I think that in one year's time Bitcoin will be gone. And let's say I want to put my money where my mouth is and want to short Bitcoin. Presumably there's a lot of people who think that Bitcoin is going to appreciate and thus should be happy to give me a low-interest loan. And yet there is no way to get a Bitcoin-denominated loan. Does this mean that people don't really believe Bitcoin will be with us in on…

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=65.0

You can short BTC on Bitcoinica... oh wait.

Re: Namecheap now officially accepts Bitcoin

#167

Post by disintermediate »

wmf wrote: post #165
disintermediate wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>use cases are so niche This is a first-world misperception. There is half a world excluded from traditional payment methods.

Is Bitcoin a realistic option for those people?

Not yet. Five years I'd guess.

Re: Namecheap now officially accepts Bitcoin

#168

Post by dublinben »

garethadams wrote: post #110
damian2000 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need an anonymized WHOIS service. Namecheap offers free anonymized WHOIS by default on their domains ... its called "WhoisGuard Protection". Its a must have these days.

Yes, I want to be anonymous so I'll sign legal control of my domain over to a third party service (per their terms and conditions - http://www.whoisguard.com/registrant-agreement.asp ): • who you have to "provide […] truthful, complete, current, accurate and reliable contact details" to, • who "has the right to disclose your identity and your other Personal Information" and • who "may resolve any and all third party…

If you're looking to actually protect your anonymity when registering a domain, you ought to do so with your own privacy protecting corporation. Delaware corporations (any many offshore corporations) can be legally registered anonymously, which will keep your information off the whois information, without relying on a shaky 3rd party agreement.

Re: Namecheap now officially accepts Bitcoin

#169

Post by dublinben »

wmf wrote: post #165
disintermediate wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>use cases are so niche This is a first-world misperception. There is half a world excluded from traditional payment methods.

Is Bitcoin a realistic option for those people?

Maybe for low-fee international money orders. Certainly not for everyday transactions away from the internet.

Re: Namecheap now officially accepts Bitcoin

#170

Post by xur17 »

illuminate wrote: post #150
eduardordm wrote: post #13

Because bitcoins are illegal in my country, I'll keep my personal domains on namecheap but will certainly move my company domains out of there until I figure out if there's a chance I have problems with this. I like bitcoins just like everyone, but there are laws you need to abide by and bitcoins are illegal in many countries.

These companies advertised on the frontpage of HN as "taking Bitcoins" aren't taking Bitcoins directly, y'know.

Why does it matter that they are using a third party system to accept payments?
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