Topic: PayPal Could Stop Supporting Sales of Bitcoin Miners [Acct Restored] (Read 1415 times)

I sold a couple of jupiters last week on ebay/paypal.  I got a call from a concerned customer care person from paypal,  who just wanted to be very, very sure that I was not selling preorders.  I pointed him to the tracing numbers, etc.   He seemed happy and wished me a nice day.  Seems like they might only be going after the big guys or people selling preorders?

Agreed.  No idea why people do that.

Only had $100 balance in PayPal.  I never carry more than that over night.

But in certain conditions they can go into your bank account and pull money out. 

Agreed. But the higher the BTC goes the more people care.

Love those mining contracts listings. Some are just plain ripoff! wonder who buys them!

Have a look around on ebay.  There's tons of miners for sale, as well as more dodgy items like "mining contracts", preorders, and various altcoins (purely digital delivery).

When you start selling more, maybe then?

You should be happy you didn't lose money. They just tried to cancel your account.

Ive emailed paypal to ask why ebay sellers are aloud to be paid with paypal, there is alot of listing right now that accept paypal with no shits given

I've been selling some of my old miners on ebay for a few weeks now (USB BEs and Avalons).  No problems so far.

All in-hand of course.  Never preorders.

In the past I have sold loads of the block erupters.  Currently I am selling a batch of the Nano Furys that I made myself (no reselling).  I have sold blades and cubes to a lesser extent.  Never pre-orders.  That would be a nightmare.

Their main concern is the really money transmitters (exchangers).  You have to be registered with state and federal government to be transmitter.  In this case it would be selling crypto-currency for dollars.  Since very little legal or regulatory specifics on BTC have been determined by courts or the feds, Paypal could broaden the their definition of a money transmitter to include me.

I don't want to judge them too harshly.  BTC is incredibly disruptive to highly regulated businesses like Paypal.  It has the potential to be very profitable to them.  But it also has the potential for great liability if the law or regulations turn out negatively.  They are like any legacy fiat business not wanting to miss a great opportunity but also not wanting to get stuck on the wrong side of the law.  It's a tight rope for money servicers.

As for their TOS.  I have certainly not read every word.  But I'm guessing deep on page 43b, section 2 - After they list all the things you can and can not do or sell, there is the line that says "not withstanding the above we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone."  Or some such verbiage.  They certainly don't have a line in there gives me the explicit right to sell miners.

I've been using them for a long time, every payment method has problems. I'm just saying I don't see any mention of bitcoin in the official TOS. They usually update those documents fairly regularly. What were you selling that they called bitcoin miners?

Any policy change with paypal has to be related to the nonsense that BLF tried to pull, not allowing refunds on paypal payments. Thanks again BFL!

It's their company and they can exclude anyone at any time with no explanation. Use of their services is not a right but a contract. And the they make the t's and c's.   

I don't see the word bitcoin in any current paypal TOS. I don't think they can selectively create policies like that.

I am expecting one of these messages myself, but its yet to arrive. 

I will update the thread on how it goes.

Lets hope they don't ban altcoin mining equipment, like the ATI 6990 and even motherboards and processors, where will it end?

Pre-sales on BTC Mining hardware sucks. If you got burned like Paypal you would be singing like a Canary.

They did this to my personal and buis account. Exact same message, but a few months back.

Paypal sucks !

End of story.

I think it was probably a wide brush stroke to reduce losses from some of these sales gone bad.  And instead of restricting preorders, they just restricted the entire market.

Terrahashs comes to mind when I think of PayPal losses as a result of miner sales over PayPal.

My PayPal account was limited this morning and my PP Debit Card was cancelled.   Among other things they have requested that I sign and notorize the following statement:

I, the undersigned, do affirm that I understand and will comply with
PayPal's policy regarding the use of PayPal accounts to sell electronic
currency. I understand that PayPal may not be used for the exchange of
electronic currency including the sale of Bitcoin Miners. I further affirm
that any future violation of the policy may result in immediate restricted
access to the account.

Let me know if you are a reseller and have received similar.

Alternatives???

EDIT: After calling them to enquire as to why I was "Limited" my account was fully restored in 30 minutes.
BUT - They clearly were prepared to cancel it if I was selling miners.  Better start looking for alternatives.