Topic: "Pay With Bits Wants To Be The *M-Pesa* For Bitcoin" Sending BTCs with SMS (Read 1323 times)
April 29, 2013, 07:08:08 PM
This is great news. The near future may see apps like WhatsApp taking over for SMS if cell providers keep charging so much to send a text. For now, this is perfect.
April 29, 2013, 06:20:17 PM
why time and time again does the cart come before the horse when it comes to bublicising prospective bitcoin-related services?
I believe that there are a few reasons for that. For one, most Bitcoin users are a bit more forgiving of innovative and yet raw websites coming out. They can look past the lack of ergonomics and joe six pack simplicity and are willing to jump through some hoops to use your service (look at how people exchange government currency for bitcoins).
Secondly, Bitcoin is sort of highlighting the fact that patents and copyrights are not exactly necessary as most new services within Bitcoin have become the de-facto company for that service. Look at MtGox and the amount of problems they are having. But because they were first and are trusted, they get the traffic. BitPay actually has competitors. There are other services that do what BitPay does, but because they were first, they are considered the main company for merchants accepting bitcoins. Look at SatoshiDice. I have not been there since they first opened, but it was just a web page with tables of numbers.
Getting out the door first yields you rewards.
April 29, 2013, 06:01:18 PM
why time and time again does the cart come before the horse when it comes to bublicising prospective bitcoin-related services?
I believe that there are a few reasons for that. For one, most Bitcoin users are a bit more forgiving of innovative and yet raw websites coming out. They can look past the lack of ergonomics and joe six pack simplicity and are willing to jump through some hoops to use your service (look at how people exchange government currency for bitcoins).
Secondly, Bitcoin is sort of highlighting the fact that patents and copyrights are not exactly necessary as most new services within Bitcoin have become the de-facto company for that service. Look at MtGox and the amount of problems they are having. But because they were first and are trusted, they get the traffic. BitPay actually has competitors. There are other services that do what BitPay does, but because they were first, they are considered the main company for merchants accepting bitcoins. Look at SatoshiDice. I have not been there since they first opened, but it was just a web page with tables of numbers.
Getting out the door first yields you rewards.
April 29, 2013, 05:07:21 PM
This was a project created at the hackathon.
Prototype stage at this point.
Given that don't you think they got a little too excited with the release and the website not really making it clear that it is the case? I know we're all excited but as someone pointed out above why time and time again does the cart come before the horse when it comes to bublicising prospective bitcoin-related services? Prototype stage at this point.
April 29, 2013, 05:03:27 PM
This was a project created at the hackathon.
Prototype stage at this point.
Prototype stage at this point.
April 29, 2013, 05:00:50 PM
How is that a "catch"? Do you mean for the business model?
For the users it seems perfect anyway (IMO).
I think the 'catch' as far as there is one is I can't see how for a simple sms phone the private key can be kept anywhere other than with the service provider such as it was with the mybitcoin wallet so we can't get the client-side encryption we're used to with the likes of blockchain.info so at the end of the day it comes down to how secure is it and how trustworthy the providers. M-Pesa would stay out as long as they can because their margins are crazy but if it came down to it their brand already has the trust so it would take some beating. But by all means let's see these things get out there - with awareness of the risks of letting go of the 'be my own bank' concept. For the users it seems perfect anyway (IMO).
April 29, 2013, 03:07:14 PM
How is that a "catch"? Do you mean for the business model?
For the users it seems perfect anyway (IMO).
For the users it seems perfect anyway (IMO).
April 29, 2013, 02:44:20 PM
The catch is that there is nothing stopping M-Pesa from adopting the system. Or anyone for that matter. This is a no-barrier-to-entry business model. Hence them taking only 24 hours to start it.
April 29, 2013, 02:43:38 PM
I edited the first post with the info I could gather on how to use the service.
April 29, 2013, 12:39:21 PM
24 hours to develop a new service? 
No wonders bitcoin services epic fail
No wonders bitcoin services epic fail April 29, 2013, 12:26:08 PM
It looks interesting, but the paywithbits website lacks basic info, like how to fund your wallet. . .
This. And also no way to withdraw from phone to external addresses.
I had friends in different countries sign up so we could try it out. USA signup got a text response, but in other countries, the signup message was never acknowledged.
So for now, a nice announcement of intentions...but not enough functionality to call it even a beta system.
April 29, 2013, 11:45:54 AM
It looks interesting, but the paywithbits website lacks basic info, like how to fund your wallet. . .
This. And also no way to withdraw from phone to external addresses.
I had friends in different countries sign up so we could try it out. USA signup got a text response, but in other countries, the signup message was never acknowledged.
So for now, a nice announcement of intentions...but not enough functionality to call it even a beta system.
April 29, 2013, 09:55:05 AM
This belongs in the press section.
April 29, 2013, 08:29:49 AM
It looks interesting, but the paywithbits website lacks basic info, like how to fund your wallet. . .
April 29, 2013, 02:17:42 AM
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/28/pay-with-bits-wants-to-be-the-square-for-bitcoin/
Sending bitcoins with SMS.
This might be huge...
Edit: How to use the service
Text "Signup" to 1.415.675.1348 (don't trust me, just go there: http://paywithbits.com/)
Text "Address" to receive your Bitcoin address. From there you can send some bitcoins to your account. (Only small amount guys, this is still in development)
Wait for confirmations...
Now you can send bitcoins to other cell phone numbers:
Text "Send <# BTC> to <# phone> for"
They are still working on how to withdraw BTCs.
Sending bitcoins with SMS.
This might be huge...
Edit: How to use the service
Text "Signup" to 1.415.675.1348 (don't trust me, just go there: http://paywithbits.com/)
Text "Address" to receive your Bitcoin address. From there you can send some bitcoins to your account. (Only small amount guys, this is still in development)
Wait for confirmations...
Now you can send bitcoins to other cell phone numbers:
Text "Send <# BTC> to <# phone> for
They are still working on how to withdraw BTCs.
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