Bitcoin: Led By Example

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I hear a lot of skepticism and little chickens crying in fear of the adoption of Bitcoin; well here's a case of where it's already been adopted. Pay attention to the change in customer-base and transaction sizes in particular with this case:

JOSEPH YOUNG on AUGUST 7 said:
18 Months after Adopting Bitcoin, TigerDirect Reports Fantastic Experience and Continued Growth
TigerDirect, an online retailer of computers and consumer electronics has been accepting bitcoin for 18 months through BitPay, beginning in January of 2014.

Bitcoin Magazine sat down with Steven Leeds, head of marketing at TigerDirect to learn more about the company’s experience as one of the earliest major merchants to embrace Bitcoin. While recent reports from Expedia suggest that it has seen a decrease in bitcoin payments, TigerDirect shared a different story.

According to Leeds, TigerDirect has been thrilled with its decision to accept bitcoin. Leeds noted that Bitcoin has drawn new users to TigerDirect, with 46 percent of customers purchasing with bitcoin being new users. The company also told Bitcoin Magazine that the average order placed with bitcoin is 30 percent larger than the average order.

Leeds explained that TigerDirect sees the highest volume of bitcoin orders during periods of volatility for bitcoin price. These purchases are typically luxury items such as high-definition TVs, gaming consoles and computer monitors.

“On days when the price is rising, we see users eager to spend some of their newfound wealth. And when the price begins falling, we see others who want to avoid the volatility by spending it on consumer electronics,” said Leeds.

Despite the fall of the bitcoin price into the $200s, TigerDirect has still seen consistent bitcoin transaction volume.

Advantages for Bitcoin Companies

In addition to it’s consumer electronics business, TigerDirect also supplies hardware to many businesses, including a significant number of Bitcoin companies. Some of these companies include miners who use TigerDirect to buy power supplies, cooling systems and other hardware. These miners do not have to convert their bitcoin to cash, as they can pay directly with the bitcoin that they have mined.

TigerDirect was originally introduced to Bitcoin by some of it’s employees who were early adopters and miners of the currency.

“We’d recommend Bitcoin to any company considering it,” Leeds said. “We’ve had a fantastic experience accepting it, and BitPay allows us to integrate the payments into our existing checkout flow easily.”

See orignal article here

If TigerDirect can do it, surely Entropia can follow suit.
 
not sure how accurate comments on articles can be, but this one is interesting... and a bit relevant:
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/banks-handcuff-bitcoin-businesses-opening-bank-accounts/
Show me the law that says I can pay my taxes in Bitcoin then. Please. What you have done is given over 2 million dollars to a payment processor and they have paid your bill on your behalf. So you didn't buy anything with bitcoin - you used an agent to do the buying FOR you and the agent paid Tiger direct on your behalf. Tiget Direct DOES NOT TAKE Bitcoin. That is what is happening on the Tiger Direct purchases, Amazon, Overstock etc. Don't disagree that this is a way to get people used to transacting in bitcoin, but the taxes are paid on FED NOTES, not the bitcoin equivalent. I'll even stretch a bit and say that the Money Exchanger's license (required to "trade with the enemy") contract states that in order to hold that license then taxes must be paid on the
FRN equivalent of any and all "non FED" currencies they deal with.

I'm sure there will be several intermediaries that will accept bitcoin in payment of your taxes, but they will be just another clearing house like Bitpay or Script and the others. They accept bitcoin and pay your tax bill and retail bill with FED notes. I can pay my VISA Bill with bitcoin as well - Oh wait a minute - No I cannot - I can pay an intermediary Bitcoin and they will pay my VISA bill with Central Banking Notes on my behalf. They have to pay the taxes on it (my money exchanger license statement) so they would of course include the expense in the price of the service.

Other interesting reading on this topic:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/bitcoin/help.asp#bitcoin_TsCs
Tigerdirect.com is committed to accepting Bitcoin and making shopping and payment at Tigerdirect.com as convenient, fun and rewarding for our shoppers as possible. However, our acceptance of Bitcoin as a form of payment, and these terms and conditions, may change at any time, for a variety of reasons, at our complete discretion and without any advance notice whatsoever.
 
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Well, it says nothing about how many the Bitcoin payments are or how big share of the total payments is done in Bitcoin. Is it 0.1% or 0.01%? :silly2:
 
Well, it says nothing about how many the Bitcoin payments are or how big share of the total payments is done in Bitcoin. Is it 0.1% or 0.01%? :silly2:

Good point :D.

I am a lover of Bitcoins, as it bypüasses rediculous high bank fees and is as fast as Paypal (nearly). But the system itself is only for tech fanatics like me, I know only very few people who are interested to learn how to use it.

So my bet is the next generation of cryptocoins, I doubt (even though I was hoping for), that Bitcoins will replace Paypal.
 
There are even games that begin to fully integrate bitcoin and blockchain technology in their game economy, with items being tradable on the blockchain outside of the game.
 
So, accepting Bitcoin will drive a whole new crop of players to EU? I thought they already accept Bitcoin through Netteller. What happened to that?
 
people will only spend there money were they want the only thing bitcoin if they increase the players here is that bitcoin is more easy to pay other wise your not going to get alot more new players

can i buy bitcoin at the local store or bank if you have to use your bank acount or credit card to buy the first bit coin why not do it here also
 
people will only spend there money were they want the only thing bitcoin if they increase the players here is that bitcoin is more easy to pay other wise your not going to get alot more new players

can i buy bitcoin at the local store or bank if you have to use your bank acount or credit card to buy the first bit coin why not do it here also

Hehe, I go to a restaurant regulary that accepts BTC in Munich/Germany :)
 
so you only go to that restaurant because they accept bitcoin so now they have a long line up of bitcoin customer
 
I am a skeptic, and refuse to buy into them.

Consider the design of bitcoin before the money aspect.

This is a system that basically converts processing power into money. The designer is completely unknown, its purpose is completely unknown.

What is known, is that in order to generate a coin, a massive amount of processing power goes into encrypted algorithms that are used to calculate or process something unknown. At this point, as a farmer, you need a hefty investment in equipment (you can no longer mine them with high end PCs in any regularity) that nearly costs as much in electricity in the end of conversion as you get in coins. That is how much is processed, server farms are the only profitable miners....

This power collectively encroaches, and perhaps at this point surpasses NSA and Google level processing...which if anyone even knows how many server farms they have...it is insane. We are talking the ability to copy and store every detail of an entire population in short order, make assumptions based on that data, and make predictions that are scary accurate.

This could also be enough for a group to say, hack entire government systems and gain information though sheer processing brute force, enough processing will eventually unlock very thick doors.

It could even theoretically allow an AI to completely operate and integrate into every aspect of our lives. Look around at some of the greatest minds, and most powerful people today hawking, buffet, gates and more ...the number one fear in the world for many of them is the upcoming real threat of AI.



Yep, I am a skeptic, and its got some fear basis to it. I fully admit it is hypothetical stuff, but a very real possibility that I cannot for certain rule out. I choose to not support bitcoin, because I cannot rule out that it may be doing bad things, even inadvertently. I hope others at least take some time to consider the warning, technology in today's age is increasingly powerful, even if it turned out to be false.

Especially if you try and figure out just how much you need to process in order to get one single coin, or wonder what one coin even could possibly be processing.

I worry convenience and hope for return is doing real harm thru bitcoin and no-one can verify that it isn't.
 
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Bit coin is like any other fiat currency. There will be the fan boys who love it because it is geeky just as much as there are silver and gold bugs.

To each their own.
 
@OP:

People fear what they don't understand. Hell, most haven't even heard of bitcoin yet. Or just plain don't give a shit. Anyway, the masses, aka sheeple, won't be ready for bitcoin until TPTB and mainstream media tell them they are ready for bitcoin.

Until that time arrives, we early adopters/advocates of bitcoin, aka geeks and fanboys and anyone else who has found utility in using bitcoin, whether as a store of value, a speculative tool, a way of transacting business - legal or illegal, or for some other reason since bitcoin is more than just a currency as you already know, will continue to obtain, spend/use/lose/accumulate and learn as much as we can while the naysayers carry on poo-pooing it.

To me, these are exciting times, man. #btcFanboi4Lyfe
 
The neteller version is actually more expensive than using credit card at the moment. It's not because Bitcoin transactions are expensive it's just the fees Neteller and MA charge. Bitcoin transactions fees are actually negligible; next to nothing.

Apparently the acceptance of Bitcoin brings in more customers and more revenue for TigerDirect. I'm sure the same is true for many other companies as well.

The nay-sayers argue they are not ready for cryptocurrency. Who said anything about eliminating their sacred fiat? If you don't like Bitcoin don't use it.
 
The neteller version is actually more expensive than using credit card at the moment. It's not because Bitcoin transactions are expensive it's just the fees Neteller and MA charge. Bitcoin transactions fees are actually negligible; next to nothing.

Apparently the acceptance of Bitcoin brings in more customers and more revenue for TigerDirect. I'm sure the same is true for many other companies as well.

The nay-sayers argue they are not ready for cryptocurrency. Who said anything about eliminating their sacred fiat? If you don't like Bitcoin don't use it.

This. So much this.

If MA were to add a bitcoin deposit option, it wouldn't mean all other deposit options would be eliminated and everyone would be forced into solely using bitcoin against their will.

An added bitcoin option for deposits is just that - an added option for those with bitcoin to use in addition to all the other options currently available.

A couple of reasons someone with bitcoin would prefer a bitcoin deposit method just off the top of my head:

(Using a bitcoin processor like Coinbase and NOT via Neteller or converting to fiat via CC or paypal)

1. Essentially no fees for MA to pass along. eg: deposit $1,000 US in BTC and essentially receive $1,000 US worth of PED or 10,000 PED.
2. No personal identity info nor any bank/cc info at risk of being exposed and stolen.

And just to add, preemptively(again), if MA were to use a bitcoin payment processor such as Coinbase, they would not be subject to the price volatility of bitcoin.
 
1. Essentially no fees for MA to pass along. eg: deposit $1,000 US in BTC and essentially receive $1,000 US worth of PED or 10,000 PED.
2. No personal identity info nor any bank/cc info at risk of being exposed and stolen.

And just to add, preemptively(again), if MA were to use a bitcoin payment processor such as Coinbase, they would not be subject to the price volatility of bitcoin.

1). So, why can't you just use Coinbase to convert your own Bitcoins and deposit with cash?

2). MA and other companies have enough scrutiny from governments over anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism issues as it is. If you are depositing or withdrawing, they will always have your info on file.
 
1). So, why can't you just use Coinbase to convert your own Bitcoins and deposit with cash?

2). MA and other companies have enough scrutiny from governments over anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism issues as it is. If you are depositing or withdrawing, they will always have your info on file.

1. Show me the option where one can deposit with cash without having to pay a vig.

2. I wasn't refering to money-laundering or terrorism. Why do people keep bringing up old anti-bitcoin talking points which have been shot down years ago many times over already? It's much easier to commit and get away with money-laundering and funding terrorism with good old fashioned fiat currency than bitcoin.

I was refering to identity theft. As you already must know,everytime one pays for anything with their credit card/bank transfer/paypal/etc they give full access to everything about their bank accounts to the merchant - even if just buying a pack of gum with a debit card at the store. This in turn, gives hackers who get past a merchant's security system full access to their bank accounts, passwords, etc.

With bitcoin, there is no access given to any identifying or cc/bank account info to steal when depositing.


*EDIT: My statement above about not having to give up any personal identifying or CC/bank account info when using a bitcoin payment processor is wrong. As Rumsponge correctly points out in his reply post below: by law, using a payment processor requires a merchant to collect a customer's identifying and financial info including their CC's and bank account(s).
 
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2. I wasn't refering to money-laundering or terrorism. Why do people keep bringing up old anti-bitcoin talking points which have been shot down years ago many times over already? It's much easier to commit and get away with money-laundering and funding terrorism with good old fashioned fiat currency than bitcoin.

And you missed the point. Due to the activities that you mentioned, any business that moves money around is required to maintain positively identifying information on the sources of the money. Here in the US, they are typically referred to as "know your customer" laws, but I would be extraordinarily surprised if similar laws do not exist in virtually every one of the industrialized nations.

If you are going to be putting money into this game or taking it out, MA is going to have requested some sort of information from you that you would not want to fall into the hands of hackers.

This has nothing to do with bitcoin, it has to do with any form of money movement. If you were to show up in Sweden with a bucket full of $100 bills and hand it to a MA employee personally, they still will most likely ask you for that sort of information.


As far as the lack of fee, are you saying that Coinbase converts Bitcoin to USD for free?
 
And you missed the point. Due to the activities that you mentioned, any business that moves money around is required to maintain positively identifying information on the sources of the money. Here in the US, they are typically referred to as "know your customer" laws, but I would be extraordinarily surprised if similar laws do not exist in virtually every one of the industrialized nations.

If you are going to be putting money into this game or taking it out, MA is going to have requested some sort of information from you that you would not want to fall into the hands of hackers.

This has nothing to do with bitcoin, it has to do with any form of money movement. If you were to show up in Sweden with a bucket full of $100 bills and hand it to a MA employee personally, they still will most likely ask you for that sort of information.

You are right, Sir. And I stand corrected.

https://www.coinbase.com/legal/privacy

So scratch #2 off the list. I was mistakenly thinking from my perspective of paying for goods and services direclty with bitcoin (not using a processor like Coinbase). Paying with bitcoin directly makes up pretty much all of my purchasing experiences using bitcoin. In which case identifying info and cc/bank account info has never been required.

But yes, you are right. Using a payment processor - whether its fiat currency or bitcoin would require a person to give up their identifying and cc/bank account infos as you clearly explained.

As far as the lack of fee, are you saying that Coinbase converts Bitcoin to USD for free?

The last time I checked previous to today, one of the plans Coinbase offered merchants was their 0% plan: No merchant fee to accept payments and therefore no fees to pass on to the consumer. They made money by their exchange rates: their sell price a few dozen cents higher and their buy price a few dozen cents lower than the price on Bitfinex - the highest volume US-bitcoin exchange. I've never seen their buy/sell rates differ by more than a dollar in either direction.

I've just checked Coinbase's site just now and it seems they now charge a 1% fee. This fee is waved on the merchant's first $1,000,000 US in merchant processing. So yeah, free until they go over $1 million, then it becomes 1%.

So again, Sir, I stand corrected (with an asterisk this time, lol).

Deposit $1,000 US and get 10,000 PED, until MA reaches 1 million US in bitcoin deposits, then the example becomes deposit $1,000 US and get 9,900 PED assuming MA passes along just the 1% fee.
 
I'm wondering how volatile the exchange rate on bitcoins is and to what degree is it predictable.

Real world currencies can be volatile but unless in major upsets it is to a degree predictable and in the case of say the US$ you can pretty safely bet that any downturn will come around eventually.
 
I'm wondering how volatile the exchange rate on bitcoins is and to what degree is it predictable.

Real world currencies can be volatile but unless in major upsets it is to a degree predictable and in the case of say the US$ you can pretty safely bet that any downturn will come around eventually.

On a day to day basis, maybe a few percent, but the big problem is the occasional huge swings. They were around $225 earlier this summer, then the Greek thing happened, people started hyping Bitcoins, and they are now around $290. Wish I would have bought them at $225.

The problem is that the price swings are like watching sheep stampede or lemmings running off a cliff. You never know what is going to set it off, but when it does, watch out.
 
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On a day to day basis, maybe a few percent, but the big problem is the occasional huge swings. They were around $225 earlier this summer, then the Greek thing happened, people started hyping Bitcoins, and they are now around $290. Wish I would have bought them at $225.

The problem is that the price swings are like watching sheep stampede or lemmings running off a cliff. You never know what is going to set it off, but when it does, watch out.

Absolutely. Bitcoins and others are too small and too young currently to be called "stable". Due to this, companies that accept BTC usually turn it into regular cash immediately.
 
I have another question.

So people want transactions without fees, correct?

How would this work? Somewhere along the chain someone will want to make money. I'm guessing that if MA were to implement direct bitcoin deposits, the processor would be charging MA.

Would the amount of deposits through bitcoin justify this? And does anyone know how large these fees are in general?

Because someone, somewhere will have to pay for it. It is not charity for either side nor the middleman, it's business.
 
To you who want to deposit through bitcoins I have a question;

- from where do you get the bitcoins?

All my IRL incomes I get in the currency where I live (SEK).

If I would to deposit through bitcoins, I would need to buy bitcoins through a broker, most likely using credit card, and most likely, if MA accepts it MA or someone on their behalf would need to sell their bitcoins through a broker - so it's two conversions, and two times where a middle hand wants to get paid for their services.

Only case I know people get paid straight in bitcoins (as a source of income) is activities such as ransomware, where those running those enterprizes probably want some way to Clean their Money without being able to be traced...

For most normal people the currently is a bit too volatile to be a way to keep day-to-day Money in (unless you live in a country with a tremendous inflation); and there is Always a risk of losing bitcoins either because of problem on "your" side (computer gets hacked or hard drive with bitcoin file crashes), or because a service you use to store your bitcoins gets into techical trouble (gets hacked, or due to other difficultes stop their operations levaing your bitcoins unaccessible).
 
i get em from coinbase and mining
 
Bitcoins are fiat and thus have no real advantage over cash given the cost of adoption and implementing services to use them. There is nothing keeping anyone from inflating the total number of bitcoins or exchange founders from running off with 55 million dollars worth of them.

For those that love bitcoins, I would like to point you to what happened with eGold.
 
Bitcoins are fiat and thus have no real advantage over cash given the cost of adoption and implementing services to use them.

Exactly this is wrong:
US players currently need to pay 35 US$ or sometrhing like that to withdraw 1000 PEDs from Entropia... due to bank fees. With any cryptocurrency it would go down to a few cents.

Someone told me, that this forum is filled with people who are heavily against BTC and this topic already is filled with wrong assumptions etc. And many of the poeple wo make false statements (e.g.: only criminals need BTC) repeat their arguments over and over again, but never took the time to actually learn something about the system.

And no, I am not a "fan-boy", my statements above make clear, that not everything is good about BTC plus it will not replace normal currencies.
 
It isn't wrong. It costs a lot to implement from a development side. Yea your bank fees may be reduced (now) but they could easily get you later on cash conversions.. that's what banks do.. and they need to recoup the costs. I'm not going to debate bitcoins with you. The only way a currency other than cash will work and survive is if it is backed by something of value and isnt vulnerable to manipulation and right now that does not exist. Bitcoins are no exception and it does not take a genius to understand the major faults of fiat currency.

Don't make assumptions about how much research people have done on the subject. I looked at bitcoins when I wanted to try to make money with it. The math does not add up and Entropia would actually be hurt by bitcoins with the heavy shifting in price. Again, you need to learn about the history of eGold from a practice point of view. Wikipedia doesn't tell the whole story (never does). I've been burned by eGold so I know the consequences of such products.
 
I have another question.

So people want transactions without fees, correct?

How would this work? Somewhere along the chain someone will want to make money. I'm guessing that if MA were to implement direct bitcoin deposits, the processor would be charging MA.

Would the amount of deposits through bitcoin justify this? And does anyone know how large these fees are in general?

Because someone, somewhere will have to pay for it. It is not charity for either side nor the middleman, it's business.

The bitcoin processor, Coinbase, charges zero fees until the merchant reaches $1Million US in transactions. Then the fee becomes 1%. If MA were to use a bitcoin processor, they would not be subject to the current price volatility of bitcoin.

If MA were to accept bitcoin directly, ie without using a bitcoin processor, then the transaction fee would be the same for any other peer-to-peer bitcoin transaction. The fee is optional. If you don't pay a fee, your transaction may or may not take longer to complete.

Someone more knowledgeable can correct me if I am wrong, but the usual fee is a flat 0.0001 btc or a little over 2 and a half cents which is paid to the miners. Some people will add a little extra (eg an extra .00001 btc for a total of 0.00011 btc)to the fee to get their transaction completed faster.

The transaction time is based on the integration of your transaction into a newly mined block.
Miners will prefer transaction with a higher fee (+some other factors like coin age, amount of btc,datasize), so they will include them first.
If there is a low number of transactions your transaction without a fee may be handled right away.


Bitcoins are fiat and thus have no real advantage over cash given the cost of adoption and implementing services to use them. There is nothing keeping anyone from inflating the total number of bitcoins or exchange founders from running off with 55 million dollars worth of them.

For those that love bitcoins, I would like to point you to what happened with eGold.

Fiat: an official order given by someone who has power : an order that must be followed http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiat

So fiat currnecy = currency that is forced into circulation by a government.

Bitcoin: Transfer of bitcoin is voluntary and does not have to be accepted by the receiving party.

There is nothing keeping anyone from inflating the total number of bitcoins or exchange founders from running off with 55 million dollars worth of them.

A pre-defined schedule limits the total number of bitcoins so that they gradually approach a total of 21 million (ignoring those that have been lost through deleted or misplaced wallet files). The limit of 21 million bitcoins is "hard-wired" in to the protocol, and there will never be more bitcoins than this.

And soon, no need to worry about shady bitcoin exchanges:
http://www.coindesk.com/winklevoss-twins-plan-regulated-us-bitcoin-exchange/
http://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-secures-approval-launch-regulated-us-bitcoin-exchange/

For those that love bitcoins, I would like to point you to what happened with eGold.

LOL. I'm sure those that "love" bitcoin would already know eGold =/= Bitcoin

eGold: centralized
Bitcoin: decentralized, backed by a consensus network with a processng power that is 100 times more powerful than Google. https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-100-times-powerful-google/

With Bitcoin, there is no controlling entity for law/government to go after or take down if it doesn't like it. All's they can do is tax it. And when government taxes something or is trying to figure out how to tax something, you know that that something is here to stay.

People can hate it all they want, but the Honey Badger of digital currency don't give a shit.
 
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