Topic: Blizzard Entertainment & Bitcoins - page 5. (Read 11669 times)
Fine. Spend your time calling their CS reps in Indonesia, hoping that someone will pass on your brilliant idea. Attend Blizzcon wearing your "Who is John Galt?" shirt and fedora. Just please update us on your progress as you do these things.
Now let's compare that to buying a prepaid timecard in a physical supermarket. Pretend you're the CFO going to pitch the adoption of a timecard system.
Everyone knows what a timecard is. No one knows what a bitcoin is. See the difference?
Timecard? Never heard of that.
Now let's compare that to buying a prepaid timecard in a physical supermarket. Pretend you're the CFO going to pitch the adoption of a timecard system.
Everyone knows what a timecard is. No one knows what a bitcoin is. See the difference?
Please pretend you're the Blizzard CFO and you're about to pitch to the board of directors and shareholders on how the company should accept this new internet currency. What would the Blizzard explanation be for people who want to use bitcoins?
How would I pitch it? As a marketing instrument.
"There's a marketing opportunity that will reliably reach 100.000 geeks who are committed to using this new internet currency. They basically buy anything that can be bought with it. It will cost us a meager $10.000 to setup bitcoin payment and take us a week or two to do it. So this is low-cost, high potential reward. I think we should do it."
I would _not_ explain to the board how bitcoins work or how they could be acquired.
In order to successfully convince a merchant to accept bitcoin, it is not necessary to assume customers would go through the hassle of acquiring bitcoins specifically to buy something from that merchant (this excludes silkroad obviously). That is - quite frankly - highly unlikely as long as other payment options that are already used by the customer are offered.
I noticed that both Wuala and SmartFTP have pretty much an identical text on their Bitcoin page... are they part of the same company?
http://www.wuala.com/en/bitcoin vs. http://smartftp.com/bitcoin/
http://www.wuala.com/en/bitcoin vs. http://smartftp.com/bitcoin/
doesn't look like it. smartftp site http://smartftp.com/about/ makes no mention of any connection to Wuala or LaCie.
Now let's compare that to buying a prepaid timecard in a physical supermarket. Pretend you're the CFO going to pitch the adoption of a timecard system.
Everyone knows what a timecard is. No one knows what a bitcoin is. See the difference?
Two things have to be in place, a system where it goes based off of whatever market price they would be using on their end to exchange Bitcoin to cash or vice versa, maybe a deal worked out with Gox, Tradehill, who knows.
see:
https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=25665.msg319196#msg319196
https://bit-pay.com/
Quote
One of the big benefits is that we allow merchants to set their prices, or their shopping cart total, in their local currency (USD, EUR, etc). This can insulate the merchants from the volatile bitcoin exchange rates. After the buyer pays with the appropriate amount of bitcoins, the merchant has a choice. They can either accept the bitcoins, or have us convert this for them and pay them in USD. There’s a little delay and additional fee for USD payouts, but we think that’s probably ok.
granted it's still at an early stage and needs a lot of work but it shows the technical problems can be solved. I'm sure there will be many other such solutions
@Jalum
why would they have to explain to people how to get and use bitcoins? do they do they same for credit cards or other payment methods?
they can just offer it as another payment method? people who already have bitcoins could pay in bitcoins. people who see bitcoin as a payment option and are interested could find out for themselves how to get them.
some big companies already accept payment in bitcoin. e.g. Wuala (part of LaCie)
http://www.wuala.com/en/bitcoin
from the merchant side, there are solutions already that automatically price the product/service in bitcoins at the going rate of USD and convert the bitcoins to USD so the seller has no fx risk of holding bitcoins if they don't want to. Essentially from the sellers point of view they price in USD and receive USD but the customer can pay in bitcoin. Why wouldn't a company want to allow their customers to pay in bitcoin if they want to?
I noticed that both Wuala and SmartFTP have pretty much an identical text on their Bitcoin page... are they part of the same company?why would they have to explain to people how to get and use bitcoins? do they do they same for credit cards or other payment methods?
they can just offer it as another payment method? people who already have bitcoins could pay in bitcoins. people who see bitcoin as a payment option and are interested could find out for themselves how to get them.
some big companies already accept payment in bitcoin. e.g. Wuala (part of LaCie)
http://www.wuala.com/en/bitcoin
from the merchant side, there are solutions already that automatically price the product/service in bitcoins at the going rate of USD and convert the bitcoins to USD so the seller has no fx risk of holding bitcoins if they don't want to. Essentially from the sellers point of view they price in USD and receive USD but the customer can pay in bitcoin. Why wouldn't a company want to allow their customers to pay in bitcoin if they want to?
http://www.wuala.com/en/bitcoin vs. http://smartftp.com/bitcoin/
Jesus, so much hate for a simple idea that still makes sense.
The whole issue is going to be the crazy market prices and the next is of course security.
Two things have to be in place, a system where it goes based off of whatever market price they would be using on their end to exchange Bitcoin to cash or vice versa, maybe a deal worked out with Gox, Tradehill, who knows. This also would benefit whatever exchange they work with, as with a name like Activision Blizzard, the security thing, as far as at least transactions just with them, will be secure.
Activision folks, if you let them know you have money for them, they are the bitches in the video game industry that will suck a mean dick to get it. They pump survey's out just to see if people will do Call of Duty on a World of Warcraft like payment system. They will charge big time for such a premium service as offering Bitcoin as payment, but rest assured if enough people want it, they will do it.
The whole issue is going to be the crazy market prices and the next is of course security.
Two things have to be in place, a system where it goes based off of whatever market price they would be using on their end to exchange Bitcoin to cash or vice versa, maybe a deal worked out with Gox, Tradehill, who knows. This also would benefit whatever exchange they work with, as with a name like Activision Blizzard, the security thing, as far as at least transactions just with them, will be secure.
Activision folks, if you let them know you have money for them, they are the bitches in the video game industry that will suck a mean dick to get it. They pump survey's out just to see if people will do Call of Duty on a World of Warcraft like payment system. They will charge big time for such a premium service as offering Bitcoin as payment, but rest assured if enough people want it, they will do it.
Blizzard is a publicly traded company, you're better off soliciting a smaller, private company. The volatility in BTC is just too great right now. Blizzard =/= World of Warcraft. And even if it did, such a minor fraction of that playerbase would know about Bitcoin at this point making it completely pointless. I won't even go into the shareholders....
OP, I'm not trying to discourage you, just being real. Try and start with a little smaller fish.
OP, I'm not trying to discourage you, just being real. Try and start with a little smaller fish.
I agree with this post. I don't have any thought in my mind that says they will accept bitcoins anytime soon. More or less just make sure they know that it's here.
Most likely doesn't mean anything, but I was emailing one of the customer service reps back and forth. Last message I received after a bit less than an hour was CSR overseer/manager letting me know that "Rest assured, these emails will be read."
Hopefully that's not an automated message. I'm assuming since he's already read them, he means read by someone else/higher?
Blizzard is a publicly traded company, you're better off soliciting a smaller, private company. The volatility in BTC is just too great right now. Blizzard =/= World of Warcraft. And even if it did, such a minor fraction of that playerbase would know about Bitcoin at this point making it completely pointless. I won't even go into the shareholders....
OP, I'm not trying to discourage you, just being real. Try and start with a little smaller fish.
OP, I'm not trying to discourage you, just being real. Try and start with a little smaller fish.
Why should they accept bitcoins? Aside from you just wanting them to, that is. Who is unable to pay them in a currency they accept but who would pay them in pretend internet coins? Do even five of those people exist?
You're right in your first post, this is a complete waste of your time. But that's not an uncommon theme with bitcoiners.
Actually given how kids are shut out of a lot of net commerce due to not being able to get a credit card and such, but may just have a decent graphics card for games and time and knowledge to figure things out, I bet the number that would do this is far more then you would suspect. It also is smart marketing to get kids used to bitcoins and the idea they have value.
@Jalum
why would they have to explain to people how to get and use bitcoins? do they do they same for credit cards or other payment methods?
they can just offer it as another payment method? people who already have bitcoins could pay in bitcoins. people who see bitcoin as a payment option and are interested could find out for themselves how to get them.
some big companies already accept payment in bitcoin. e.g. Wuala (part of LaCie)
http://www.wuala.com/en/bitcoin
from the merchant side, there are solutions already that automatically price the product/service in bitcoins at the going rate of USD and convert the bitcoins to USD so the seller has no fx risk of holding bitcoins if they don't want to. Essentially from the sellers point of view they price in USD and receive USD but the customer can pay in bitcoin. Why wouldn't a company want to allow their customers to pay in bitcoin if they want to?
why would they have to explain to people how to get and use bitcoins? do they do they same for credit cards or other payment methods?
they can just offer it as another payment method? people who already have bitcoins could pay in bitcoins. people who see bitcoin as a payment option and are interested could find out for themselves how to get them.
some big companies already accept payment in bitcoin. e.g. Wuala (part of LaCie)
http://www.wuala.com/en/bitcoin
from the merchant side, there are solutions already that automatically price the product/service in bitcoins at the going rate of USD and convert the bitcoins to USD so the seller has no fx risk of holding bitcoins if they don't want to. Essentially from the sellers point of view they price in USD and receive USD but the customer can pay in bitcoin. Why wouldn't a company want to allow their customers to pay in bitcoin if they want to?
Best bet would probably be to attend blizconn with lots of propaganda and get some buzz going about bitcoin while there. It would also give you a chance to mingle with some people that probably could get things done. In the meanwhile, best route seem to be to convert bc to amazon gc then buy a timecard, if your short term goal is to be able to pay for wow time with bc.
Maybe they will accept Lindens too or even facebook credits. If they did............. And If... If they....
Why should they accept bitcoins? Aside from you just wanting them to, that is. Who is unable to pay them in a currency they accept but who would pay them in pretend internet coins? Do even five of those people exist?
Transaction fees.
They accept prepaid cards, where the merchants have a share of (i don't actually know, so i'm just making a number up) maybe 10%.
They accept credit cards, where the CC company gets a share of 2-4%.
They accept bank transfers, where the bank receives a fixed fee of probably around 10 EUR-cents (for a 10 EUR payment that would be a 1% fee).
If they accepted bitcoins, the fee would be like, uhm, what's the default transaction fee in the client at the moment?
For a company that receives millions of very small payments, transaction fees easily sum up to millions, they have a strong motivation to lower those fees.
You are a titan of industry.
That's the one thing you got right. I'll say again, this is blizzard. You should probably give them some credit for the things they are able to do.
Please pretend you're the Blizzard CFO and you're about to pitch to the board of directors and shareholders on how the company should accept this new internet currency. What would the Blizzard explanation be for people who want to use bitcoins?
1. Make an account at Dwolla.
2. Transfer money into that account using a bank account.
3. Wait 5-7 days.
4. Once money is in Dwolla, create account at magic the gathering online exchange.
5. Deposit money into mtgox. Oh, is it a weekend? Wait until Monday.
6. Run bitcoin client, get 48 character long wallet address. Whatever you do, do not lose this text file.
7. Bid on $15 worth of bitcoins on mtgox, the price of which fluctuates every moment. So you might need half a bitcoin or 3 bitcoins.
8. Once your bid is accepted, you now own (0.5-3.0) bitcoin. Transfer those to your wallet (we recommend using CTRL+C then CTRL+V unless you're very good at typing long strings of characters).
9. Ok, now time to send us the bitcoin(s). If it's the weekend, please wait until Monday.
10. Launch the bitcoin client and make sure your text file wallet contains the bitcoin(s) you purchased from mtgox.
11. Check the mtgox exchange and determine exactly how many bitcoins are required to cover your $15 monthly. Remember that bitcoins are divisible to eight points beyond the decimal, so the correct amount to equal $15 might be 0.98776531 bitcoins.
12. Send it to this address xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Again be very very careful to type this in correctly.
13. Once you have confirmed that you sent it, log into your Battle.net account and navigate to the bitcoin payment option.
14. Enter in all your information, along with the blockchain reference link from Bitcoin Explorer that shows you sent the correct amount from your bitcoin wallet to ours.
15. Click redeem and your account will be queued for verification.
16. Bitcoin transaction verification can take minutes to days, depending on the processing power currently allocated to the bitcoin P2P network.
17. Once verified, you will receive an email confirming that the transaction has been verified.
18. You can now log in. Have fun in Azeroth!
I then imagine the board of directors all rise from their seats and a slow clap spread around the room, but it then quickly gains in intensity and speed. Men and women in business suits lift their arms and scream at the ceiling in exultation.
You are a titan of industry.
1. Make an account at Dwolla.
2. Transfer money into that account using a bank account.
3. Wait 5-7 days.
4. Once money is in Dwolla, create account at magic the gathering online exchange.
5. Deposit money into mtgox. Oh, is it a weekend? Wait until Monday.
6. Run bitcoin client, get 48 character long wallet address. Whatever you do, do not lose this text file.
7. Bid on $15 worth of bitcoins on mtgox, the price of which fluctuates every moment. So you might need half a bitcoin or 3 bitcoins.
8. Once your bid is accepted, you now own (0.5-3.0) bitcoin. Transfer those to your wallet (we recommend using CTRL+C then CTRL+V unless you're very good at typing long strings of characters).
9. Ok, now time to send us the bitcoin(s). If it's the weekend, please wait until Monday.
10. Launch the bitcoin client and make sure your text file wallet contains the bitcoin(s) you purchased from mtgox.
11. Check the mtgox exchange and determine exactly how many bitcoins are required to cover your $15 monthly. Remember that bitcoins are divisible to eight points beyond the decimal, so the correct amount to equal $15 might be 0.98776531 bitcoins.
12. Send it to this address xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Again be very very careful to type this in correctly.
13. Once you have confirmed that you sent it, log into your Battle.net account and navigate to the bitcoin payment option.
14. Enter in all your information, along with the blockchain reference link from Bitcoin Explorer that shows you sent the correct amount from your bitcoin wallet to ours.
15. Click redeem and your account will be queued for verification.
16. Bitcoin transaction verification can take minutes to days, depending on the processing power currently allocated to the bitcoin P2P network.
17. Once verified, you will receive an email confirming that the transaction has been verified.
18. You can now log in. Have fun in Azeroth!
I then imagine the board of directors all rise from their seats and a slow clap spread around the room, but it then quickly gains in intensity and speed. Men and women in business suits lift their arms and scream at the ceiling in exultation.
You are a titan of industry.
Why should they accept bitcoins? Aside from you just wanting them to, that is. Who is unable to pay them in a currency they accept but who would pay them in pretend internet coins? Do even five of those people exist?
You're right in your first post, this is a complete waste of your time. But that's not an uncommon theme with bitcoiners.
In that case, why would anyone in the world accept bitcoins as a payment method
?Time-cards are a hassle. If you don't have a credit card, it's pretty much your only option.
Stability means nothing when you're basing the price off of gametime cost/btc. Value of btc goes does -> price (in terms of BTC) goes up.
Did you seriously ask about withdrawal limits, MeSarah? We're talking about Blizzard, not some third-rate nobody. I'm sure if blizzard decided to accept bitcoins, any exchange that was dealing with them would not be stupid enough to tell them they can only cash out $1000 per day because blizzard would be bringing them a massive amount of revenue.
People used to laugh at the thought of human flight, look how that turned out.
EDIT: Even if they do not decide to go through with it, at least bitcoins will be on their radar in the future.
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