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WordPress To Accept Bitcoins
angry tapir writes "WordPress has said it will accept payment in bitcoins, opening up the blogging platform to payments from users in countries not supported by PayPal or credit card companies. WordPress is free, open-source software, but the company Automattic offers paid-for features such as blog designs, custom domains, hosting partnerships and anti-spam measures."
Is Paypal feeling threatened yet?
It's accepting Bitcoin "now" ;)
Yes, as you do while using your dollar cash.
As if other currencies don't attract crooks and idiots..
Should we stop using all kinds of money or what?
So?
Cast your mind back 12 years to what slashdot and similar communities were like when Linux was just beginning to be taken seriously.
"Linux will never mainstream until it does X"
Very similar to how bitcoin will never be mainstream until it's accepted by X. And of course in the mean time big companies like Sun (who?) Silicon Graphics (who?), Digital (who?) and MS of course all ignored it. In some cases it did X. In some cases it didn't. Nevertheless, it ended up as about the #1 operating system in the world. I doubt there's anything in wider use overall out there.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
The US dollar cannot succeed due to the violently idiotic community that has built itself around it.
From common con artists (Goldman Sachs, Enron) to large scale scale money laundering (Bank of America) the community is full of petty criminals.
Accepting USD is a mistake.
The people paying in dollars are all fucking crooks.
2013 will be the year of Bitcoin on the desktop!
(Just imagine: all those juicy unencrypted wallet.dat files, sitting on Windows machines on the Internet. Why phish when you can just steal directly?)
http://rocknerd.co.uk
It's not a ponzi scheme.
Silk Road works just fine (I know several people who have bought drugs successfully using SR but I suppose the FBI is "just waiting to make a big bust" or whatever excuse you've got).
Bitcoin will never be mainstream until we can buy a hotdog from a street vendor with it.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
What's a desktop and can I get an android app for it?
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
They're using BitPay. Assuming BitPay's charges are reasonable, it seems like a bit of a no-brainer.
Wordpress makes some simple API calls to BitPay. If someone pays in BitCoin, BitPay converts it to dollars, takes a processing fee, and adds it to Wordpress's balance. Wordpress can treat it as dollars from that point on, so tricky tax/accounting issues.
On that basis, why would you *not* accept BitCoin, if you think there are customers keen to spend them?
BitPay has to deal with tax/accounting/legality issues, but that's their business.
Money laundering now seems to mean not paying the bank their 6%. I shift a lot of money around the world through some very questionable countries but as long as I pay the bank, no one minds. If I take a lot of cash onto a plane to avoid the bank fees I am a money launderer. It is BS and I no longer take it seriously, to me it is a challenge. I am not a criminal but I will do all I can to avoid paying stupid banks in other countries money that they do not deserve.
Does anyone understand how real money laundering works? It is easy and it does not have to move countries. Just get a shop and sell stuff. If you want to clean some money you sell more on paper than you really sold. It is that easy. You do not need to go to another country with a suitcase of cash, that is stupid.
I really want Bitcoin to become a reality because then I can save 6%. Now the people I work with all want Swift payments or Moneygram. I try to avoid Paypal and Western Union as they charge way too much.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
I will pay you five billion bigsexyjoe nickels to stop running bitcoin stories.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
Is HSBC present in the countries you're operating? If you set up an HSBC Premier account in any of the countries it operates, you're automatically eligible to open HSBC Premier accounts in any of the countries it operates - without paying any fees. Then you can use GlobalView to log in in all the accounts at the same time and shift money without paying any fees.
You'll see, Bitcoin is gonna be mainstream before ya know it. And a big finger up into the air to all the naysayers and cynics here.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
arguing that the current regulated monetary system which regulated and supervised is the same as the bitcoin network is like comparing the criminal far west of 2 centuries ago with a moderately corrupt country today.
I think "Linux on the desktop" is an interesting analogy for Bitcoin, but it's not the only one available. If Bitcoin follows the trajectory of desktop Linux then it will grow and grow until it saturates its niche market, at which point usage will level off. Unable to tackle the challenges needed to advance to the next level, it will become something of a calling card for certain communities but will just be a curiosity to the rest of the world. The underlying ideas or philosophies, though, may have influence out of proportion to its usage (eg, Android being open source was certainly heavily influenced by Googles experiences with Linux).
That's one scenario. Another is that rather than being similar to desktop Linux, Bitcoin is more similar to the web. Bitcoin is about 3 years old, but really it's only more like 2 years old because for the first year it languished in absolute obscurity. If you think back to the internet in the early to late 90s, the net was this technically complicated and intimidating beast. You needed a crazy thing called Trumpet WinSock, and then you needed an ISP (only a few small ones existed) and then you needed even more software and often it just wouldn't work at all, and when it did there was no friendly start page or anything, you just had to know where to go. The de-facto standard for "normal people" was CompuServe and AOL. Movie trailers had AOL keywords at the end, not web addresses.
Despite that the web eventually triumphed and became the standard, replacing the sophisticated and well organized corporations that previously reigned supreme. Why? Well, it was an open and international system where everyone could take part. The protocols were documented, anyone could write software for it. Because it was open that's where the research was taking place. Then the existing institutions started to provide limited forms of web access alongside their walled gardens, lending it legitimacy. It's easy to forget that back then the net was frequently painted as swamped with immoral, degenerate or even illegal activity. In 1995 TIME Magazine ran with a cover story claiming the internet was completely dominated by porn, based on statistics about USENET that later turned out to be completely bogus. Parallels with some contemporary stories around Bitcoin are easy to see.
Anyway, there's no guarantees of success and either scenario is equally likely, IMHO (in the absence of a dystopian crackdown by governments that simply ban any financial system they cannot exert total control over).
That some may profit at the expense of others doesn't make anything into a Ponzi. But don't take my word for it, here's what the European Central Bank's analysts have to say on why Bitcoin isn't a Ponzi scheme:
http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/virtualcurrencyschemes201210en.pdf
"On the one hand, the Bitcoin scheme is a decentralised system where – at least in theory – there is no central organiser that can undermine the system and disappear with its funds. Bitcoin users buy and sell the currency among themselves without any kind of intermediation and therefore, it seems that nobody benefits from the system, apart from those who benefit from the exchange rate evolution (just as in any other currency trade) or those who are hard-working “miners” and are therefore rewarded for their contribution to the security and confidence in the system as a whole."
"Moreover, the scheme does not promise high returns to anybody. Although some Bitcoin users may try to profit from exchange rate fluctuations, Bitcoins are not intended to be an investment vehicle, just a medium of exchange. On the contrary, Gavin Andresen, Lead Developer of the Bitcoin virtual currency project, does not hesitate to say that “Bitcoin is an experiment. Treat it like you would treat a promising internet start-up company: maybe it will change the world, but realise that investing your money or time in new ideas is always risky”. In addition, Bitcoin supporters claim that it is an open-source system whose code is available to any interested party."
Can you lose your shirt if you invest heavily in Bitcoin? Yes. Can you get scammed by other users? Yes. Is the whole thing a Ponzi scheme? No.
you do realize that bitcoin is mostly used by criminals for illegal transactions and by people who want to avoid income tax
And you know this.. how?
It is certainly used by criminals - like any other currency - but "mostly" is just baseless speculation.
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Denying that there are huge organisations doing money laundering with dollars, euros and other currencies is simply burying his head in the sand. I'm sick of hearing ppl dismissing Bitcoin because "it helps money laundering". Bitcoin exists because conventional money is now far too regulated. And of course because in the 21th century we need digital gold... let the fools play with paper money you can print at will...
Sorry to burst your bias against Bitcoin, but you are simply spreading FUD. The volume of trade does not exist to launder significant amounts of money. Aside from some drug sales (which still pale in comparison the sales made in UNTRACEABLE fiat on the street) I don't think what actually happens on the network is quite like what you think happens.Your highly regulated and supervised system is still the monetary system of choice to launder money. The Internationale crime syndicate really doesn't need the Bitcoin network, they are doing quite well as is.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/06/29/u-s-banks-still-very-involved-in-money-laundering/
RTFA. They want to sell to customers in countries where banks/paypal/etc. don't serve.
But WordPress wrote on its blog that PayPal doesn't serve more than 60 countries, and credit card companies have restrictions due to political, fraud and other reasons.
"Whatever the reason, we don't think an individual blogger from Haiti, Ethiopia, or Kenya should have diminished access to the blogosphere because of payment issues they can't control," WordPress said. "Our goal is to enable people, not block them."
here is one link that took me 3 seconds to google. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/fbi-fears-bitcoin/ it doesn't take an einstein to understand that criminals would rush to using unregulated and uncontrolled methods of payment/money etc. despite the fact that i'm moderated as troll, it's all of you who really are.
straw man. I never denied that criminal activities happen with the current regulated currency. What i properly explained but you carefully avoided is that an unregulated and uncontrolled method of money is to the criminals just like honey for the bears. printing money is wrong, while on the other hand it's perfectly logical to create money out of thin air simply by gpu calculations ? and having one institution print money is wrong, having everyone do that with their gpus is right and it so much helps inflation. right.
Ok, I see you don't know the first thing about Bitcoin, too bad. Bitcoins can't be mined more than what has been defined on day one, no matter how many CPUs, GPUSs, FPAs, and (soon) ASICs you put at work. Nobody can do a heck about inflation in Bitcoin, no matter how large his resources. The (matematical) rules can be changed only id the majority of the network agrees to a new set. And guess what? Bitcoin is succesful *because* of that rules. Government money will always be scarce for someone (the majority of the people) and will always be printed at will by some other (a minimum minority). Bragging about criminal activities using Bitcoin is exactly the same as bragging about free speech. He who does not understand the importance of the latter can't understand the importance of the former.
So, we are supposed to take government propaganda as fact? Why should we let them have all the fun? What's good for the goose...
We have a right not to be tracked, regardless of your hysteria about 'criminals'.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I don't know if you can call it a scam when they cover that in their FAQ. Even if you disagree, they are transparent about it:
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
MS still ignore it.
Oh, so that's why they support Linux in Hyper-V, then.
They're more concerned with threats to their future profitability, and Linux is not - and will never - be.
Er, what? Which planet do you hail from and how long does it take to get to Earth. I'd love to visit.
So, I take it that Microsoft provide no software for servers (where Linux is very strong) or smartphones (where Linux is very strong) or embedded devices (where Linux is very strong).
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Wow, dude, you've really dominated this discussion so far with baseless accusation after baseless accusation. I'd call you a troll, but wow, you have too serious a hard-on over spewing your lies to count as merely a troll - You really seem to hate Bitcoin for some reason.
That said, your sincerity doesn't make you right. You should leave this topic alone until you learn the difference between "what I want something to be" and "what it is".
I don't care who benefits most.. That's your issue, not mine. I simply wish to protect my right to use alternative methods of exchange. I couldn't care less if you approve. You're either trolling (and I grant you were successful in drawing me into your net), or being hysterical, and we shouldn't let your type dictate how we can live our lives. Don't try to play the 'nothing to hide' card on me.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Money is only worth something if you can spend it freely. I may be a bitcoin billionaire, but it's not gonna do be a bit of good unless my bank accepts them or I can get a reasonable exchange rate for actual currency.
I got here through a series of tubes
By default facts are true and everything else is suspect.
The You stated that Bitcoins (the untraceable currency) are used mostly by criminals.
It was pointed our to you that you have no facts to assert and are just making an unsupported statement.
You responded by linking to an article about what the FBI fears will/might happen.
You still have no facts. What percentage of Bitcoins are used for money laundering?
What percentage of US dollars are used for the same?
The truth is there are people who can just print US dollars when ever they want. Bitcoins No.
US dollars are easily counterfeited. Bitcoins not so much.
Get some facts. Then get some understanding. After that comment please. We would love to hear you informed comments on the subject.
Otherwise STFU.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Sites and people handling bitcoins have had their compters hacked - exactly the same thing that would happen if banks had the same low lever of security as these victims (and indeed, this has happened to banks as well). If someone breaks into a physical bank, or steals your wallet, would you call paper money "hacked"? This analogy is apt, btw, because bitcoin behaves a lot like paper money in many ways, and if you store your paper money where someone can nick it, it's bound to happen sooner or later.
The actual currency bitcoin has so far not been hacked. So, just like you don't ask any guy on the street to keep your money and keep it safe, you should only store your bitcoins with someone you actually trust - or have good security on your own (equivalent to having good locks on your home).
"Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme and will NEVER be popular or mainstream, and I will continue to shout this mantra for any story on bitcoins on Slashdot. This includes stories that contradict my position - such as this one. As a tekkie of some sorts, I am still bitter that I never involved myself with bitcoin mining during the early days despite having the resources available at the time - and I will continue spewing this nonsense until this self-fulfilling prophecy becomes true. Either that or I work for a bank / paypal"
Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
Bitcoins can be divided down to 0.00000001 of a bit coin, so if the current value of 1 bitcoin is $11.6, then one satoshi (0.00000001 of a bitcoin) is worth 0.0000116 cents. So it looks pretty clearly that the smallest divisible unit will never be "worth too much to be useful as a unit of exchange".
Indeed, so Bitcoin will not become the number one currency, but the number one cryptographic decentralized digital currency.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
A pretty big shop is called a mall. 10 years ago I walked into a mall at Thapae Gate in Chiang Mai which was owned by the now Prime Minister of Thailand. None of the shops where selling anything but the car park was full of staff cars, escalators working etc. like something out of a horror film. On paper the mall was trading. I also know of holiday resorts on Samui that do not have any guests, same thing. It is easy and it does not involve moving money travelling from one country to another.
Transferring money around the world is a red herring. It only happens in films. Why would anyone take extra risk to do something the hard way and create a bigger paper trail that is easier to find. If you want to clean more money spread the load and use more sites. More hotels or shops. Do not take the crazy idea of carrying it through customs. That is for fools like me who have hard earnt money that they do not want to pay to transfer.
If you do want to carry money across a border, small gold coins in your jacket do not show up as anything special or diamonds are best for large amounts. Big bundles of cash shows up on the xray machine and lots of foil strips are distinctive. They will see it. They will see the gold coins but they will not know they are gold, they will just see coins. They will not see the diamonds if they are in your pocket and not xrayed. Diamonds and gold do not set off the alarms.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
Like dollars or gold.