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Topic: Zealots and Criminals, Is no one using bitcoin for legitimate purchases? - page 4. (Read 5459 times)

hero member
Activity: 490
Merit: 500
It was Paypal President David Marcus that said "The big question is whether [Bitcoin] is going to go mainstream or stay limited to just a few zealots and criminals.

You realize he would've said the same thing about anything that could pose a threat to Paypal?
full member
Activity: 219
Merit: 101
A few things:

- I frequent these forums quite a bit and have never heard of stampbit.com.  Maybe a lack of advertising/exposure is hurting you.
- Ordering from your stampbit.com website requires me to download an excel spreadsheet and then fill it out and email it to you.  Most people would probably be more comfortable with something easier to use like a regular HTML form.  A potential alternative to making your own HTML form is a google docs form.  Info on google docs form here


Overall I think your business model is a solid one and bitstamp.com could be quite useful.  I hope more people use it because it's a service that I can see myself using in the future.
legendary
Activity: 1190
Merit: 1001
How many butthurt threads do you need to open, with shock value titles, whinging about how Bitcoin sucks, and your business doesn't make any money because bitcoin is no good etc.. etc..

"I opened up a store selling dingleberries for USD, but no one bought any...cuz it's impossible for make money using dollars...cuz only douchebags use USD and douchebags don't even buy dingleberries"
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 504
always the student, never the master.
It was Paypal President David Marcus that said "The big question is whether [Bitcoin] is going to go mainstream or stay limited to just a few zealots and criminals."
i use bitcoin and not in a criminal way.

Maybe the article would be better written as "Zealots and Criminals, Is it possible for anyone anywhere to pay or get paid without breaking any laws?". Technically if you get cash out of an ATM and spend it in a shop somewhere else your a money transmitter and need to be registered as such. That's the way the fascist states like it, everyone's guilty of something.

yep. america has become its own oppressor.
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 504
always the student, never the master.

It was Paypal President David Marcus that said "The big question is whether [Bitcoin] is going to go mainstream or stay limited to just a few zealots and criminals." I started my bitcoin business, stampbit.com, with the intention of finding out for myself. Its been two months since i have started and have seen very little interest for this bitcoin version of USPS click'n'ship. No its not instant like clicknship, nor can i reasonably compete with my supplier on price, but then again i am trying to provide something that may prove inaccessible to anyone without a paypal account or credit card, and do it in a way thats much more convenient that how USPS does.

But you'd think after two months i'd get the hint, no one cares! Yet i realized it was not only me when i stumbled upon bitcoinstore.com who so generously posts their sales figures in order to urge buyers to take the initiative and support bitcoin by allowing them to remain competitive. For these last two months ive seen these figures climb at a snails pace, in line with my own business. So maybe by business was just a bad idea, but what about bitcoinstores? Their prices are CHEAPER than its competitors newegg and BHPhoto! And they have all the same features as their competitors. Its only shortfall is that its selection is not as vast, but for a new businesses its selection is quite generous. So why then is bitcoinstore not beating them?  

  • Price fluxations put all the risk on buyers.
  • No one wants to take any risk when they have cheap, easy, safe, fiat.

And how do we create that price stability?

  • E-commerce.


and how do we do E-Commerce?  by offering insurance and reversibility on transactions, ie. legal tender.  In other words 'FIAT'.

maybe bitcoin people should venture out of their houses once in a while?

Yoda says: The FUD is strong with this one.
sr. member
Activity: 280
Merit: 257
bluemeanie

It was Paypal President David Marcus that said "The big question is whether [Bitcoin] is going to go mainstream or stay limited to just a few zealots and criminals." I started my bitcoin business, stampbit.com, with the intention of finding out for myself. Its been two months since i have started and have seen very little interest for this bitcoin version of USPS click'n'ship. No its not instant like clicknship, nor can i reasonably compete with my supplier on price, but then again i am trying to provide something that may prove inaccessible to anyone without a paypal account or credit card, and do it in a way thats much more convenient that how USPS does.

But you'd think after two months i'd get the hint, no one cares! Yet i realized it was not only me when i stumbled upon bitcoinstore.com who so generously posts their sales figures in order to urge buyers to take the initiative and support bitcoin by allowing them to remain competitive. For these last two months ive seen these figures climb at a snails pace, in line with my own business. So maybe by business was just a bad idea, but what about bitcoinstores? Their prices are CHEAPER than its competitors newegg and BHPhoto! And they have all the same features as their competitors. Its only shortfall is that its selection is not as vast, but for a new businesses its selection is quite generous. So why then is bitcoinstore not beating them?  

  • Price fluxations put all the risk on buyers.
  • No one wants to take any risk when they have cheap, easy, safe, fiat.

And how do we create that price stability?

  • E-commerce.


and how do we do E-Commerce?  by offering insurance and reversibility on transactions, ie. legal tender.  In other words 'FIAT'.

maybe bitcoin people should venture out of their houses once in a while?
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 504
always the student, never the master.
paid domob to compile a linux program for me . (.08)

My uses so far: Received 0.08 BTC as above and received 0.1 BTC for another small task. Cheesy

But honestly, I would be very delighted if something I need could be paid in bitcoin in the future (so far there was nothing).  Possibly I'll switch my webhosting to a bitcoin accepting one for a starter.

i recommend namecheap. their plans are only listed in year units, but if you contact support you can pay per month. 4.95 usd/mo for 4GB ram, 20 processes, 25 gb space and the best damn cpanel i've ever seen. plus their support people are nice as fuck. they definitely go the extra mile. i even asked them if i could run a bitcoin client on their server and they said sure, as long as it doesn't exceed the process limit.
legendary
Activity: 1135
Merit: 1161
paid domob to compile a linux program for me . (.08)

My uses so far: Received 0.08 BTC as above and received 0.1 BTC for another small task. Cheesy

But honestly, I would be very delighted if something I need could be paid in bitcoin in the future (so far there was nothing).  Possibly I'll switch my webhosting to a bitcoin accepting one for a starter.
sr. member
Activity: 364
Merit: 250

Alright so maybe bitcoin is just so small of an economy that it would not be reasonable to expect any business to thrive solely on it. How big of an economy is bitcoin exactly, in terms of USD? Looking at blockchain.info's USD transaction volume chart we can see the daily transaction volumes this past month reach a low of 1 Million per day to a high of 12.5 Million. That is Per Day. How much of that do you think is going towards legitimate bitcoin business?

One need to remember that those stats include every transaction, if you just move your coins around they are included in this list.
If you have to move coins multiple times, they add up again.
There are far less coins used to buy things daily.
hero member
Activity: 752
Merit: 500
bitcoin hodler
I buy humble bundle regularly with bitcoin, and I bought mining hardware with bitcoin...
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 504
always the student, never the master.
my uses of bitcoins to date:

bought psu, ram, and case fan from bitcoinstore. (.78 BTC)

bought computer monitor from bitmit (.35)

bought windows vista digital delivery from bitmit (.4) called Microsoft and it was actually an authentic copy. i was amazed.

paid domob to compile a linux program for me . (.08)
 
paid off a loan (.2)

bought an athlon x64 from gary492 (.14)

yeah i think i'm legally in the clear here. my whole draw on bitcoins is that it doesn't require a credit report, credit card, bank account and i'm in charge of essentially my own bank. its the future and i genuinely enjoy being a part of it.
legendary
Activity: 892
Merit: 1013
It was Paypal President David Marcus that said "The big question is whether [Bitcoin] is going to go mainstream or stay limited to just a few zealots and criminals."
i use bitcoin and not in a criminal way.
legendary
Activity: 1135
Merit: 1161
now what sort of person doesn't have a paypal account or credit card?

either 1) very poor people. 2) criminals who don't want to divulge their identity.  can you think of anyone else?  if so please let us know.
I have both, I'd rather have neither... to be more specific I'd rather live in a world where both are obsolete.

I've got a PayPal account, but also had lots of trouble with it and I withdrew all funds from it about a year ago and don't plan on using it.  I have no credit card and don't want one, either, but maybe it is easier in Europe to not have one than in the US.  But I find it rather troubling for how many things you need one when travelling - we had to get a credit card just for vacation in the US, even though we had never needed one before and also didn't need it afterwards.
hero member
Activity: 910
Merit: 1000
Items flashing here available at btctrinkets.com
now what sort of person doesn't have a paypal account or credit card?

either 1) very poor people. 2) criminals who don't want to divulge their identity.  can you think of anyone else?  if so please let us know.
I have both, I'd rather have neither... to be more specific I'd rather live in a world where both are obsolete.
sr. member
Activity: 280
Merit: 257
bluemeanie

It was Paypal President David Marcus that said "The big question is whether [Bitcoin] is going to go mainstream or stay limited to just a few zealots and criminals." I started my bitcoin business, stampbit.com, with the intention of finding out for myself. Its been two months since i have started and have seen very little interest for this bitcoin version of USPS click'n'ship. No its not instant like clicknship, nor can i reasonably compete with my supplier on price, but then again i am trying to provide something that may prove inaccessible to anyone without a paypal account or credit card, and do it in a way thats much more convenient that how USPS does.



now what sort of person doesn't have a paypal account or credit card?

either 1) very poor people. 2) criminals who don't want to divulge their identity.  can you think of anyone else?  if so please let us know.
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
I'll be happy to publish some rough figures on my small part (btctrinkets):

I've been in business for eight months exactly today. I initially started with three products and no website, and have been gradually growing my selection and added an online-store, so after the initial roll-out a large portion of my sales are more recent. To date I carry 9 different items, the tenth is waiting for photographs and eleventh is in production. My plan has all along been to keep re-investing what I initially put in and it has seemed like a sound plan so far.

I have shipped out around 200 packages.
I have sold roughly 330 items.
On an average my page sees about 140 loads a day.
On an average week I sell one item, recently it has been hovering at just about three.

What I really like about your service is that it caters to a need of another bitcoin merchant: I myself can only cover so much of my expenses without converting to fiat. Hosting, stamps and any computer hardware I need.

Would I use it ?
- Sadly no, with the average size and value of my packages and my geolocation it's not viable.

I wish I had more encouraging words to throw in, because I really belive your service is the type we need, I don't want to convert to fiat constantly and I believe there are others who think alike. When we reach the point where a business accepting bitcoin can use said btc on their own expenses, be it hosting, delivery, wages, bills or goods the we can really say we have a functioning economy and infrastructure.

One aspect is getting visibility, it's hard.. even when your willing to pay for it, there are only a handfull of worthwhile places to toss your money in atm.

This is understandable, such a small business cannot afford the risk of being a bitcoin-buyer, even on something as small as postage. It is my intention to make this automated (if i can find anyone who is willing to help for a share) so that businesses can streamline their process as they would stamps or endica, but at the moment i have aimed this at consumers and perhaps small businesses.
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
If you advertised anonymous ship n click on Silk Road you'd probably get a lot of business lol

Lot's of bitcoins went to buy Asics, pizza and amazon credits. Lot's are used to buy virtual visa cards too

You would think but then im the one who has to answer to the cops. Unfortunately there's nothing i can do about this but so is the nature of the beast.
hero member
Activity: 756
Merit: 500
I used the Bitcoins to purchase Pokemon cards and GPUs, wonder how criminal that is Sad
hero member
Activity: 910
Merit: 1000
Items flashing here available at btctrinkets.com
I'll be happy to publish some rough figures on my small part (btctrinkets):

I've been in business for eight months exactly today. I initially started with three products and no website, and have been gradually growing my selection and added an online-store, so after the initial roll-out a large portion of my sales are more recent. To date I carry 9 different items, the tenth is waiting for photographs and eleventh is in production. My plan has all along been to keep re-investing what I initially put in and it has seemed like a sound plan so far.

I have shipped out around 200 packages.
I have sold roughly 330 items.
On an average my page sees about 140 loads a day.
On an average week I sell one item, recently it has been hovering at just about three.

What I really like about your service is that it caters to a need of another bitcoin merchant: I myself can only cover so much of my expenses without converting to fiat. Hosting, stamps and any computer hardware I need.

Would I use it ?
- Sadly no, with the average size and value of my packages and my geolocation it's not viable.

I wish I had more encouraging words to throw in, because I really belive your service is the type we need, I don't want to convert to fiat constantly and I believe there are others who think alike. When we reach the point where a business accepting bitcoin can use said btc on their own expenses, be it hosting, delivery, wages, bills or goods the we can really say we have a functioning economy and infrastructure.

One aspect is getting visibility, it's hard.. even when your willing to pay for it, there are only a handfull of worthwhile places to toss your money in atm.
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