BitCoin as a payment method for aMember

Discussion in 'Payments processing' started by skippybosco, May 19, 2011.

  1. skippybosco

    skippybosco CGI-Central Partner Staff Member

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    BitCoin has been gaining a lot of momentum as a legitimate alternative currency. Curious if any aMember admins are considering it for use with their stores and if there is any value for a payment plugin to be developed for it?
  2. christine_baker

    christine_baker New Member

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    I just upgraded to Amember 4 from 3 because php 5.3 was disabled at my host. While I did all my business through PayPal and had only one chargeback in 10 years (unauthorized use), they made me remove all payment buttons when they changed their terms to not allow any credit services. I've been unable to accept payments through any of the other payment services because their terms also prohibit any kind of credit services.

    Obviously, that resulted in very few sales as few people want to send a check.

    I just read up on BitCoin and it sounds like a good alternative:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

    Unfortunately it's not listed with the plugins. Any plans on adding BitCoin?
  3. alexander

    alexander Administrator Staff Member

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  4. davidm1

    davidm1 aMember User & Partner

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    Been thinking of accepting it- like the idea of the marketplace setting the price of a currency outside of any central authority.

    David
  5. alex

    alex aMember Pro Customer Staff Member

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    Yes, I like the idea too, not sure how if it is really practical now for legal business or not :)

    Feel free to choose a processor from the list:

    • BIPS Bitcoin Internet Payment System processor with mobile checkout solution
    • BitPay Bitcoin payment processor with mobile checkout solution
    • BitUtils Provides HTML buttons to start accepting bitcoins instantly. No server side setup required.
    • Coinbase Offers payment buttons, checkout pages, shopping cart integration, and daily cash out to USD.
    • MTGOX Bitcoin payment processing
    • OKPAY Bitcoin payment processing for merchants
    • Paysius Allows merchants to easily and securely accept Bitcoin on their website and track payments
    • WalletBit Bitcoin payment processor with mobile checkout solution
    • Fasterco.in Bitcoin payment processing for merchants and day-traders
    and we will implement integration.
  6. davidm1

    davidm1 aMember User & Partner

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    Did a little reading on this and it seems that several bitcoin processors have been hacked- losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.... Which of these providers seem the most secure? Do any of them have something like bank insurance to protect your holdings?

    David
  7. footman

    footman Member

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    This is something I've been thinking of integrating into my site as well. At the moment I use Zombaio as my processor but if I can also offer bitcoins as a separate means of purchase but still have the same integration with my vB4 site, I'd gladly do so. I suppose I can set it all up on the side and manually add members oncwe they pay etc. But a complete professional integration would be outstanding :)
  8. footman

    footman Member

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    Having read a bit on this as well, I noticed on the Bitcoin website that they don't suggest keeping a significant balance in your bitcoin wallet. Because of the very issue you raise, as well as the possible volatile changes in value they suggest converting to regular currency as much as possible.
  9. frybread

    frybread aMember Pro Customer

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    Bitpay.com is the best processor in my opinion. Huge venture capital funding, they process $5 million/month, and have never had a major hacking incident.

    Plus their CEO is happy to work with amember, I emailed him about it.
  10. yatesf

    yatesf New Member

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    Please implement BitPay integration. They have their API documentation located here.

    Has any progress been made on the integration already? Is there an estimated date of when it can be available?
  11. alex

    alex aMember Pro Customer Staff Member

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  12. ponnsabra

    ponnsabra New Member

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    This is FANTASTIC News! When are you anticipating the next release? Is is coming soon enough that I don't need to worry about searching for other options.
  13. yatesf

    yatesf New Member

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    I agree, it's exciting news and I can't wait for the next release as well :)

    I've been using aMember for more than 10 years and it has never failed me when it comes to integrating with a variety of payment options. BitCoin presents a very interesting possibility about future currency. And I love the idea of being one of the pioneers who can process it as an automated transaction!
  14. ponnsabra

    ponnsabra New Member

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    Precisely what we're thinking!
  15. kinitex

    kinitex Member

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    Yes finally!!! Whens expected release date for this?
  16. alexander

    alexander Administrator Staff Member

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    It will be released within next two weeks.
  17. davidm1

    davidm1 aMember User & Partner

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    Ive been playing around with the different exchanges. Very disappointed in the time its taking to send coins to different exchanges. 30 minutes to verify payment? Its difficult to get money in and out and theres also a number of hidden fees...

    David
  18. deafdavid

    deafdavid Member

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  19. davidm1

    davidm1 aMember User & Partner

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    I see bitpay as a new plugin in the 4.2.18 release notes- anyone ready to test it out?

    Thinking of building a site about bitcoins etc... will be amember integrated of course :)

    My overall feeling of bitcoin is mixed. The min time to do a confirmation is 10 minutes, with 6 confirmations it could take 30mins to 2 hours... Thats an eternity on the internet for accepting payments.

    As a payment mechanism- mixed. Like the anonymity, decentralized nature, removal of banks and payment processors. Dislike the fast moving price changes of bitcoins to fiat and that its difficult to get cash in and out of the bitcoin system (you need to figure out how to buy bitcoins before you can use them to buy stuff).

    As a storage of value, looks like the greater fool theory. Buy and hold hoping to sell to a greater fool later on.

    As an exchange mechanism- pretty good. I'm able to do an exchange from US to other currencies pretty efficiently, and can get prices 5-10% over spot in low volume markets (can't scale this though for arbitrage) It will cost you 1.2% in fees to do a US$ to bitcoin and back to foreign currency .Its faster than doing a wire transfer but more expensive for larger dollar amounts and you are taking risk on the chance that fast moving bitcoin prices could reduce the final rate you are able to get it at. I'm normally able to do regular wire transfers at about .5% or less for larger amounts (but i've seen banks front run me on the forex rates...)

    David
  20. kinitex

    kinitex Member

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    I see it in the changelog, but I don't see it in the actual download.

    Was bitpay payment plug-in forgotten?

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