Roderick Thomason   Rod's Electronic Repair
Never heard of bitcoins, I just like to use payza and paypal myself but I'll look into it some more now. Thanks for great post.
Nov 18th 2012 01:30   

Bruce Bates   Cooperative marketing
No marketers (nor anyone in the US in my opinion) should accept bitcoins. Here is the thing, payza, paypal, and similar types of online payment processors work within the confines of legal currency based on a given countries currency. Having money in paypal is as good as having money in the bank. Having money in the bank is as good as having cash in hand. If you live in the USA that means its all legal US tender. The same is true of credit cards or cellular based currencies. They are all backed by the dollar (or whatever legal tender of the country exists).

This is not true of bitcoins. Bitcoins acts as its own currency. As the value of the dollar rises and falls, bitcoins is unaffected. This is a MAJOR difference between online payment processors and other methods of collecting payment.

To some this may seem like a great thing - not being dependent on federal money and all - but the truth is if you live in the USA you need to use common sense. If bitcoins ever become a serious currency its going to threaten a federal currency - as such with any "real" popularity are going to come laws making the currency illegal. When that happens - all the payments you have collected with it, are worthless.

Bitcoins is vastly a currency known to be used by conspiracy theorists and those who are afraid the world economy is going to collapse through some evil government dealings. I chose not to associate myself or my business with such things.
Nov 18th 2012 01:47 1 Likes  

Chuck Bartok   Veteran Entrepreneur now Sharing
Have to agree with Bruce on this one.....
We process 5 to 6 figures month, through Internet transactions and it all comes through a Proved solid system, such as PayPal.
Our customers know the program and feel a sense of security.
Also we love the fact we can talks to PayPal representatives so easily over the phone
Nov 18th 2012 02:51   

Oswald Rodrigues   writermaster.gumroad.com
Bruce & Chuck, there are indications to suggest that as the awareness about Bitcoins gains ground and as mainstream online (and offline) merchants start accepting it, online marketers will eventually adopt it as an alternative in addition to other payment processors like Paypal and Payza. It's just a matter of time. As you may know, the internet is not confined to the US alone - it's worldwide, so Bitcoins will be adopted even in those countries where Paypal doesn't serve.

There's an informative thread about Bitcoins entitled "The Ultimate Bitcoin Thread" on the Wickedfire forum. Just Google it. It's quite interesting and addresses all the issues relating to Bitcoins.
Nov 18th 2012 03:23    Edited in Nov 18th 2012 03:24

Bruce Bates   Cooperative marketing
Oswald,

You said "in addition to other payment processors like Paypal and Payza."

The problem is bitcoins is NOT an online payment processor at all. an online processesor, processes your money and gives you government backed currency. Bitcoins IS a currency.

Imagine I went out and pollished rocks to be shiny and pretty. I convince 100 stores to start accepting my shiny rocks as payment. Over the course of 5 more years I convince 5000 more places to accept my shiny rocks.

Now the stores that accept my shiny rocks can only spend my shiny rocks in other stores that accept them. They can't cash them in at a bank because to the bank they are worthless shiny rocks.

Does this sound silly? This is what bitcoins are.

The problem with accepting bitcoins is that 3/4 of buyers online are from the USA and 3/4 of businesses online are from the USA. I don't care what countries accept bitcoins - if the practice of using bitcoins threatens the US dollar - laws will be made for US citizens that make the currency illegal.

When that happens - it becomes illegal for a US based business to accept bitcoins, it means any bitcoins they have accepted become worthless, it means US based business cannot pay anyone using bit coins, it means US based citizens cannot buy or sell with bitcoins.

When that happens, the currency goes bust. See I can accept the chinese yen as it is a legal tender so the US will always be willing to exchange the currency, that same is true of the franc, or any other currency that is creted by a government. But when no government backs bitcoins - a simple USA law kills the entire concept - and it will happen. As it is its been proposed to the US federal government before to make it illegal - its just not a big enough threat for anyone to care yet.
Nov 18th 2012 10:41    Edited in Nov 18th 2012 10:42

Oswald Rodrigues   writermaster.gumroad.com
Yes, the US government declaring Bitcoins illegal is a possibility but in the current scenario with the US dollar on shaky ground and on the verge of collapse, the US govt. has other things on its mind than worrying about some pesky online currency.

I like your analogy about shiny rocks. But isn't that exactly what the US government has been doing all these years? Instead of shiny rocks, they've been printing shiny dollar bills.

Let's wait and see what happens. Interesting times ahead.
Nov 18th 2012 11:10   

Bruce Bates   Cooperative marketing
Oswald please please please do not take offense to what I am about to say - I don't mean it as a personal attack at all... but the reply you just left - is exactly what I was talking about in the end of my first reply.

"Bitcoins is vastly a currency known to be used by conspiracy theorists and those who are afraid the world economy is going to collapse through some evil government dealings."
Nov 18th 2012 11:42   

Oswald Rodrigues   writermaster.gumroad.com
No offense taken, Bruce. I suggest that you read this article entitled "The European Central Bank report on Bitcoin: you can smell their fear" from the Blogdial blog. It explains very clearly the difference between Bitcoin and fiat currencies. Quite interesting. Google it.

By the way, you must have heard that Wordpress has now started accepting Bitcoins. Others are likely t follow suit.
Nov 21st 2012 09:12    Edited in Nov 21st 2012 09:16