Payroll services are definitely money transmitters.
What legally makes a payment processor different from a money transmitter? 
Topic: A service I'd like to use if it existed (Read 1585 times)
I second the request for this service. Would be awesome!
Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas do not allow wage garnishment but do allow for bank accounts to be attached in order to pay off civil judgements. Especially since 2008 the number of unbanked people in those states has increased, requiring affected individuals to use expensive check cashing services.
If both a direct deposit -> BTC service and a Bitcoin Paycard existed at the same time there would be a significant market for both services.
If both a direct deposit -> BTC service and a Bitcoin Paycard existed at the same time there would be a significant market for both services.
If you could somehow work out a deal with ADP so that any employee of a business that they service could receive their paycheck in bitcoins it might be worth getting those licenses.
It's probably too early for that though.
It's probably too early for that though.
Payroll services are definitely money transmitters.
You will find companies like ADP Payroll licensed in nearly every state as one.
You will find companies like ADP Payroll licensed in nearly every state as one.
Technically this is not a tough problem to solve. however this falls squarely in the crosshairs of being a "currency exchange" if you can guarantee the recipient of the bitcoins is the same person paying the cash. If you cannot guarantee that, then its definitely considered a "money transmitter" and thus licensing will be required in every state where you want to have customers.
That sucks. Another case of laws keeping us from having nice things.I guess I'll just have to do things manually until someone launches BitPayroll.com.
BitPay receives bitcoins and pays out dollars. This means they have to route all their incoming bitcoins through an external exchange. If they also start selling bitcoins for dollars then they only need to exchange the difference between the dollar inflows and the bitcoin inflows, which means lower costs for everyone.
Technically this is not a tough problem to solve. however this falls squarely in the crosshairs of being a "currency exchange" if you can guarantee the recipient of the bitcoins is the same person paying the cash. If you cannot guarantee that, then its definitely considered a "money transmitter" and thus licensing will be required in every state where you want to have customers.
This function is better handled by the bitcoin exchanges. In the US, that's limited now to Bitfloor and CampBX. But others will be starting up.
This sounds like something you'd have to talk about with BitInstant.
Any number of services could offer this, but I actually think payment processors like BitPay would be a better fit due to their business models.BitPay receives bitcoins and pays out dollars. This means they have to route all their incoming bitcoins through an external exchange. If they also start selling bitcoins for dollars then they only need to exchange the difference between the dollar inflows and the bitcoin inflows, which means lower costs for everyone.
One bitcoin-funded debit cards become available my need to hold dollars in a bank account will be virtually eliminated. If I wanted to I could could convert up to 100% of my traditional income into bitcoins but presently this would require a fair amount of manual intervention.
What I would like to see is a service that assigns me a routing number and account number which I can then give to my employer for direct deposit deposit purposes. Then I'd like for any dollars that are sent to that account converted to bitcoins at a reasonable exchange rate and sent to me.
This can't be difficult technically - are there any laws or regulations that would make it impractical? If not, it would make sense for the payment processing companies especially to consider offering such a service. If a payment processor can get some of the dollars it needs to pay merchants directly from other customers instead of from an exchange it would be result in lower costs for everyone involved.
What I would like to see is a service that assigns me a routing number and account number which I can then give to my employer for direct deposit deposit purposes. Then I'd like for any dollars that are sent to that account converted to bitcoins at a reasonable exchange rate and sent to me.
This can't be difficult technically - are there any laws or regulations that would make it impractical? If not, it would make sense for the payment processing companies especially to consider offering such a service. If a payment processor can get some of the dollars it needs to pay merchants directly from other customers instead of from an exchange it would be result in lower costs for everyone involved.
This sounds like something you'd have to talk about with BitInstant.
Or how about you open a bank account, find out when your employeer makes the payments and 3-4 days after that do an online bank transfer to bitinstant. Problem solved.
Or ask bitinstant if they will do direct deposits. Then you can get the bitcoin debit card they are going to issue.
If the debit card has a bank account number you can tell whoever who pays your income to tranfer it to it. And in one way or the other it will have a regular bank account number, it will depend on bitinstant if it is available or not.
Sure, but there's only one back account that all the customers use behind the scenes that won't work. For a service like this to happen the service offering this would need a seperate bank account for each of their customers. Technically that shouldn't be hard - my consumer account with USAA lets me create new checking accounts online literally with seconds so surely a business customer can get similar functionality from their bank too. The only thing that would make this service unviable would be some arbitrary regulation getting in the way.
If the debit card has a bank account number you can tell whoever who pays your income to tranfer it to it. And in one way or the other it will have a regular bank account number, it will depend on bitinstant if it is available or not.
It's as easy as that, nobody will care if that number is a regular Giro or not - they won't even know.
Of course you would have to arrange to pay all your expenses with it.
It's as easy as that, nobody will care if that number is a regular Giro or not - they won't even know.
Of course you would have to arrange to pay all your expenses with it.
Or how about you open a bank account, find out when your employeer makes the payments and 3-4 days after that do an online bank transfer to bitinstant. Problem solved.
Thank you for taking the constructive reply. If you'd also take the time to read the post you're replying to your reply would be even more helpful. What would you gain from such an arrangement? Bitcoin would simply be a intermediary, added burden, etc.
What I need is more businesses accepting btc directly.
Obviously not every participant in a market has the same needs so not everyone will use the same set of services so I don't understand the purpose of your comment. What I need is more businesses accepting btc directly.
One bitcoin-funded debit cards become available my need to hold dollars in a bank account will be virtually eliminated. If I wanted to I could could convert up to 100% of my traditional income into bitcoins but presently this would require a fair amount of manual intervention.
What I would like to see is a service that assigns me a routing number and account number which I can then give to my employer for direct deposit deposit purposes. Then I'd like for any dollars that are sent to that account converted to bitcoins at a reasonable exchange rate and sent to me.
This can't be difficult technically - are there any laws or regulations that would make it impractical? If not, it would make sense for the payment processing companies especially to consider offering such a service. If a payment processor can get some of the dollars it needs to pay merchants directly from other customers instead of from an exchange it would be result in lower costs for everyone involved.
What would you gain from such an arrangement? Bitcoin would simply be a intermediary, added burden, etc. What I would like to see is a service that assigns me a routing number and account number which I can then give to my employer for direct deposit deposit purposes. Then I'd like for any dollars that are sent to that account converted to bitcoins at a reasonable exchange rate and sent to me.
This can't be difficult technically - are there any laws or regulations that would make it impractical? If not, it would make sense for the payment processing companies especially to consider offering such a service. If a payment processor can get some of the dollars it needs to pay merchants directly from other customers instead of from an exchange it would be result in lower costs for everyone involved.
What I need is more businesses accepting btc directly.
One bitcoin-funded debit cards become available my need to hold dollars in a bank account will be virtually eliminated. If I wanted to I could could convert up to 100% of my traditional income into bitcoins but presently this would require a fair amount of manual intervention.
What I would like to see is a service that assigns me a routing number and account number which I can then give to my employer for direct deposit deposit purposes. Then I'd like for any dollars that are sent to that account converted to bitcoins at a reasonable exchange rate and sent to me.
This can't be difficult technically - are there any laws or regulations that would make it impractical? If not, it would make sense for the payment processing companies especially to consider offering such a service. If a payment processor can get some of the dollars it needs to pay merchants directly from other customers instead of from an exchange it would be result in lower costs for everyone involved.
What I would like to see is a service that assigns me a routing number and account number which I can then give to my employer for direct deposit deposit purposes. Then I'd like for any dollars that are sent to that account converted to bitcoins at a reasonable exchange rate and sent to me.
This can't be difficult technically - are there any laws or regulations that would make it impractical? If not, it would make sense for the payment processing companies especially to consider offering such a service. If a payment processor can get some of the dollars it needs to pay merchants directly from other customers instead of from an exchange it would be result in lower costs for everyone involved.
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