Purse.io is shutting down - page 3. | Bitcointalksearch.org

Dalmar

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IMO, the pressure by governments has squeezed their business model, it is hard to survive nowadays. My another guess is: Big fish eats small fish, who knows? Yesterday the employee of the company announced this officially on Reddit:

Quote

Closing Down
[ANNOUNCE]
We've made the very difficult decision to dissolve the company. We're grateful for the opportunity afforded by our supporters to build products and services for the cryptocurrency community.

To everyone who used our products, told their friends, or helped us in any way, thank you.

We will continue to offer support for ongoing orders and withdrawals until June 26, 2020 to ensure all transactions and accounts are settled.

As of today, April 16, 2020 new signups have been disabled.

“Shop” and “Earn” functionality will be disabled next week on April 23, 2020. Open orders that have not been matched will be canceled.

Purse.io will cease operations on June 26, 2020.

If you have a balance on Purse.io, please withdraw all funds as soon as possible.

It's been a privilege serving people all around the world. We're thankful for our customers who used purse.io increasing bitcoin's utility and distribution. We're also thankful to all the developers and companies who continue to support open source projects including Bcoin and HSD. Thank you for helping us make crypto useful.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email our support team at [email protected]

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/PurseIO/comments/g2l4hu/closing_down/

malevolent

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They wouldn't have lasted this long (six years) if that had been the case. They were a legitimate company but they have faced many similar accusations from people unacquainted with their business model.

bbc.reporter

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How big is the possibility that much of purse.io's volume is for money laundering through hacked or stolen gift cards? Their team might have discovered that their success is based on criminal activities.

malevolent

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Quote from: AdolfinWolf on April 17, 2020, 12:56:37 PM

I don't think Amazon has ever seen more orders than as of right now though (by the looks of their hiring stats? https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company-news/amazon-hiring-for-additional-75-000-jobs ?).

You'd think that would also correlate with an increase in Purse.io usage.

And their shares are at an ATH, 30% up in the last 30 days. Maybe their users are different than average Amazon users, maybe too large a part of their income was from the Amazon Associates affiliate program, maybe the most common sources of gift cards are drying, maybe they're anticipating drastically lower demand once people start running out of money / the financial crisis starts for real / etc. It'd interesting if they could share all the numbers if they're shutting down for good.

gentlemand

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Quote from: AdolfinWolf on April 17, 2020, 12:56:37 PM

You'd think that would also correlate with an increase in Purse.io usage.

The BTC price is wobbly and the future is looking wobbly too. I wouldn't be going to town treating myself to Lego Death Stars either even if I was bored out of my mind. If things are looking dicey you'll probably be more conscious of selling it than spending it.

AdolfinWolf

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Quote from: malevolent on April 17, 2020, 12:17:03 PM

They had 17 employees working in San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the world. Combined with a crisis potentially much greater than the one in 2008 and Amazon slashing their affiliate commissions they must have not seen much hope and the numbers must not have been great before these two events. It's shame because it was the best place to buy at Amazon with a discount, all other places that I know of are shadier/have more scammers.

I don't think Amazon has ever seen more orders than as of right now though (by the looks of their hiring stats? https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company-news/amazon-hiring-for-additional-75-000-jobs ?).

You'd think that would also correlate with an increase in Purse.io usage.

ABCbits

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I tried their service once, but the website UI sucks and their customer support wasn't good, no wonder they got shutdown.

Quote from: joniboini on April 17, 2020, 01:39:44 AM

Do we have alternatives for this? I never managed to use purse but will probably need something like them later this year if I upgrade my PC.

Your only choice is either register to Amazon and buy Amazon Gift Card with Bitcoin or looking for individual who offer such service

malevolent

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They had 17 employees working in San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the world. Combined with a crisis potentially much greater than the one in 2008 and Amazon slashing their affiliate commissions they must have not seen much hope and the numbers must not have been great before these two events. It's shame because it was the best place to buy at Amazon with a discount, all other places that I know of are shadier/have more scammers.

AdolfinWolf

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Quote from: LeGaulois on April 17, 2020, 02:32:49 AM

and the fact they never managed to protect buyers against fraudulent purchases done with stolen CCs and vouchers, here we go.

I think this is the main reason they shut down. Always seemed to me like it would be too easy for people with hacked giftcards or giftcards received through scamming to cash out using them.

Perhaps they got pressured by certain authorities about this very issue? My best guess.

gentlemand

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Quote from: LeGaulois on April 17, 2020, 02:32:49 AM

Purse.io was already dying for 2 years since some countries were removed for whatever reasons. I'm not really sure if they removed some countries or the areas were dying in the offers but the only countries available were US, UK, Canada, and Japan while more were available before.

I never used them largely because their attempts at servicing foreigners were half hearted and confusing. They did a fixed 5% discount from themselves I think. It was offered to me as a Brit but if I remember rightly it could only come from Amazon.com which isn't much use if it breaks or I need it within a couple of weeks.

Similarly there were very few offers from non Americans.

LeGaulois

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Purse.io was already dying for 2 years since some countries were removed for whatever reasons. I'm not really sure if they removed some countries or the areas were dying in the offers but the only countries available were US, UK, Canada, and Japan while more were available before.
.
Added with the fact that it's easier to buy bitcoins with a credit card nowadays and the fact they never managed to protect buyers against fraudulent purchases done with stolen CCs and vouchers, here we go.

I used the website myself and got some nice 30% discount but oh well, RIP Purse now

joniboini

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The explanation doesn't really mean anything (as you'd expect from public relations talk). It's hard to know why they close down at this point, and probably not worth questioning further. Do we have alternatives for this? I never managed to use purse but will probably need something like them later this year if I upgrade my PC.

Quote from: Potato Chips on April 16, 2020, 09:09:02 PM

Also, this June 26 should not be final given how uncertain our current situation is (covid-19) with shipping delays going on.

This is for ongoing withdrawals and orders only btw. As for registration, it is disabled on April 16th. Shop & Earn & open orders will be disabled too on the 23th. Just to make it clear for someone who doesn't have time to read the news.

Potato Chips

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All we've got for now is this

Quote from: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-startup-purse-to-shut-down-after-6-year-run

“It was a business decision, nothing funky going on,” Purse support manager Eduardo Gómez said in a Twitter DM. Purse will disclose more information in a forthcoming blog post, he added.

....Gómez said the decision to wind down the company was not related to the recent move by Amazon to slash commissions on its affiliate program.

From what I read in other communities, people are either saying it's because of legal trouble or amazon cutting down commissions. I'm guessing their reply pertains to that. But If they were pressured, there's a high chance they wouldn't say it on their blog post... we'll see once it's here

Quote from: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-startup-purse-to-shut-down-after-6-year-run

Purse will continue to facilitate services until June 26

Also, this June 26 should not be final given how uncertain our current situation is (covid-19) with shipping delays going on.

gentlemand

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It seemed such an obvious avenue for fraud that I assumed they had some sort of super robust system to kill it whenever it popped up.

The alternative of it being a total free for all seems too obvious so maybe that is what it was.

mk4

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Weird. I thought Purse.io was going well as a business and suddenly we get this. Would it be possible for Purse.io to shut down due to all those fraud going on in their platform? I could also see how money laundering could possibly take place on the platform too. Might be a bit too far-fetched, but probably pressure from the government or from Amazon itself? It's just a weird timing. It's not like bitcoin dropped to sub $3k levels while heavily lowering down usage.

figmentofmyass

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Quote from: gentlemand on April 16, 2020, 05:14:18 PM

Where did they make their actual money? I could never be bothered to figure out how they worked and it was never completely clear how/if it worked for non Americans.

i've always assumed they act as a market maker, skimming profit off the discount/premium spread. meaning gift card sellers get a bit less BTC, and BTC sellers get a bit less gift card value.

Quote from: odolvlobo on April 16, 2020, 04:29:58 PM

Purse.io is shutting down. They haven't given a reason yet. This is bad for Bitcoin.

any service shutting down---especially one that provides market liquidity---is bad for bitcoin. but it probably isn't a huge deal in this case. i don't think purse.io is particularly popular at this point, though i'd be interested to see some numbers.

i always avoided it like the plague because of the fraud risks.

rdbase

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Only did find out about their services late last year and knew about how they deal with amazon on accepting crypto in purchasing their giftcards.
So it fundamentally a way for amazon to accept cryptocurrenies as a start but now that is gone with this announcement.
Very bad for bitcoin in going mainstream with the powerhouse amazon being the leader in online purchases.

logfiles

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This is very sad to the bitcoin developers and bitcoin community at large. I just got learn about how important they in regard to funding of bitcoin development last month. According to an article that was shared by bitmex research last month, they have been one of the top known funders of the open source development of bitcoin

Source: https://blog.bitmex.com/who-funds-bitcoin-development/

gentlemand

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Quote from: Csmiami on April 16, 2020, 05:42:44 PM

But even if it was "just" to get rid of the cards, a 40% on market price.... it's a bit abusive to say the least; it's way easier to just sell the codes here on currency exchange, and even if you don't get a 100% value of the code, you won't be wasting that much. But it's a free market, so we can't really tell people what to do with their stuff

40% is pretty darned extreme. I hardly ever saw that big a discount. If you want to let go for that little then that was your choice but I for one would've been more than a little wary of buying one with that desperate a discount. No idea what the stats were for carded codes but they must've been horrific.

Csmiami

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Quote from: gentlemand on April 16, 2020, 05:39:23 PM

--

But even if it was "just" to get rid of the cards, a 40% on market price.... it's a bit abusive to say the least; it's way easier to just sell the codes here on currency exchange, and even if you don't get a 100% value of the code, you won't be wasting that much. But it's a free market, so we can't really tell people what to do with their stuff

Topic: Purse.io is shutting down - page 3. (Read 993 times)