Topic: My company can no longer take BTC. - page 2. (Read 2601 times)

I think the big problem regarding sales is my company's small market is simply not using BTC yet.

I recently learned of these tools that I'll research and hopefully implement instead of Coinbase (which I'll be dropping completely) and seem to be a bit better developed than a homebrew solution:

https://github.com/coinkite/coinkite-real-time-invoice
https://github.com/gary-rowe/MultiBitMerchant

Are there any glaring security issues with these technologies?

I rented a VPS so bitcoind would be running somewhere with nothing else running (e.g., no apache so no website).

If bitcoind could include "watch-only" addresses, then there wouldn't be the danger of private keys being hackable. But you're right. Since the private keys must be in the wallet in order to watch for transactions, the best advice is not to use it for this purpose. In my case, I imported the private keys into the wallet.dat offline and then encrypted it with a high entropy (128 bit) password. Then I uploaded the encrypted wallet.dat to the VPS. I only wanted it for watching. While I think it was relatively secure (and I never had enough mbits to make it a decent target), your advice is best: don't do it. It was more of a test in my case.


I agree. That's why I gave up what I was doing and decided never to try anything again the rest of my life. Wish me luck!

DONT RUN A BITCOIND OR ANY WALLET ON A WEB SERVER!!! seriously!!
no wonder so many people are screaming bitcoin hacks.. you lot make it simple for them
NEVER EVER EVER have private keys on a website

and if you cant even make $2.50 a week profit.. (before even thinking of bitcoin) then you have bigger issues than bitcoin

I sympathize with the OP. It's not the first story I've heard of small/internet businesses accepting bitcoin but getting few, if any, orders.

Accepting bitcoins shouldn't depend on third parties (e.g., coinbase). However, running your own bitcoind isn't as easy as it's made out to be. I rented a VPS for a few months to try it out. It cost me around $10 a month (and in the end it didn't have enough RAM to work effectively).

I doubt many business are making even $10 extra profit a month by accepting bitcoin.

A lightweight application a business could run just to listen for transactions on the Bitcoin network would help IMO.

I want to thank the OP for being a pioneer and trying to accept bitcoin, and thanks for the report that it wasn't worth it. This is useful information.

I'm not sure what did you expect. If success would equal to accepting bitcoin, then everyone would do it already.

It depends on your product and marketing too. Bitcoin is still small, expecting any sales for an average shop is only wishful thinking, there's a high chance that your business do not appeal to the demographic of bitcoiners.

I'm not sure how others do, but I avoid spending if the exchange rate is depressed anyways.

ignoring the other posts of cry babies complaining of volatility and lack of spending. ill concentrate on the OP's question

the solution is to NEVER have a bitcoinD on the web server. multiple security issues for this.

all you need is a database of public keys.

simply generate keys from an offline computer and put just the public keys into a database onine for the website to then display to customers. and you simply keep updating the database as the addresses get used.

you then use the offline computer to manage the bitcoins far far far away from the website. this is called "cold store".

then all you need is a API for price evaluation.

... simples

lastly
ADVERTISE, ADVERTISE, ADVERTISE.
no one will spend bitcoins if you dont advertise your business accepts them. EG everyone knows overstock and dell accepts bitcoin, thus they are doing $millions in bitcoin transactions

Need incentive for consumer to pay using bitcoin.

If your company only serve local consumer, it is cheaper and more convenient for them just to do a bank to bank transfer or use credit card.

Well, I think we are still a ways of from people making lots of orders.

It seems pretty simple to me. I want to spend dollars because I am paid in dollars. My bank account is in dollars so I go to stores that accept dollars. Pretty simple.

Now if people will want to spend bitcoins on regular things, they need to be paid in bitcoins. Very very few people are paid in bitcoins and the few that could be often cash out because of volitility.

If Bitcoin becomes really good as a way to transfer money then some people will have bitcoins on hand and be willing to spend them. So the best way for us to make bitcoins real is by spending and sending them.

To me the most logical cases follow 2 scenarios.

1. Bitcoin becomes really good at international payments. A person will receive bitcoins from overseas and because Bitcions are sitting in a person's wallet and instead of cashing them out for cash, a person just spends them online and saves a bit in fees and and exchange rates.

2. The undocumented, illegal, and unbanked start getting paid in Bitcoin and then spending it.

Illegal - Part of bitcoins original growth came from illegal sells on the Silk Road. Some of this similar activity might further Bitcoin.  Maybe Open Bizzar? But there are other options.

Undicumented - The illegal and undocumented aliens in countries all over the world might adopt Bitcoin to send money home to family instead of stockpiling large piles of cash to smuggle. And/or they start shopping online like the rest of us but start paying in Bitcoin instead because they don't need a name, address and #ID.  To do this they need easy access points in and out of bitcoin like the prepaid Visa bought at conveinance store -> Circle option or Bitcoin ATMs that protect there anonymity and privacy.

Unbanked - There is also a huge option for the legal and working but unbanked in the third world. Most people in the world still don't have bank accounts. Bitcoin still had a chance to become their means of digital value store and transfer.

I'm not sure if all of these or just some of them will be the tipping point but when they happen stores will be doing sales in Bitcoin and offer employees options to get paid in bitcoins which will then drive more sales in other businesses.  This makes Bitcoin more legitimate.

But it's not very useful going from just fiat -> Bitcoin -> to purchase of something I could have bought with fiat  in the first place.  Just doesn't make sense. Why? Because I lose money in fees.

Bitcoin being accepted in stores and widely used us it's killer app, but it can't happen first because it just doesn't make sense.  Some of these other things I mentioned do serve and individuals interest and can help feel bitcoins wide growth, adaption and use.

These informations are obviously necessary. Bitcoin hasn't been invented to scam people and also not to evade taxes.

I have been waiting for 6 months to get just 2 orders. What can I say other than... Hang in there...

That's his problem, not Coinbase asking questions.

We are suffering merchant adoptacalypse but their shop missed out.

Unlucky. Shit happens even while shit happens.

Joe

They want your company name and address, and your merchant tax ID. Unless you're running a scam, that should not be a problem. That information should be on your web site. In some US states, and in the EU, it's a criminal offense to accept online payments without disclosing the actual name and address from which the business is conducted.

Nobody hosts anything serious on GoDaddy.

http://imgur.com/GSwxxQz

I invested a lot of time setting up my company's website to work with Coinbase's API. Three months have passed; not a single order has been paid for with BTC. And now Coinbase is demanding way too much information - this is the last straw.

I need a Bitcoind client that can be installed on a Godaddy server. Until then, my company can't take BTC.