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Square Market Now Accepts Bitcoin
An anonymous reader writes "Square today announced it has added support for paying with Bitcoin. As a result, buyers can now use the digital currency to purchase goods and services on Square Market, which allows sellers to create an online storefront with online payment processing. The mobile payment company promises the experience won't feel any different for sellers and they 'don't have to change a thing, except potentially expecting new trailblazing customers and more sales.' In other words, Square wants them to be able to offer Bitcoin as a payment option without any headaches."
Stripe is also adding beta support for Bitcoin as a funding source. No word from Paypal yet.
It's going mainstream. Buy now - this is the last push before it gets to $800 - $1000 per Bitcoin (again) and settles for quite some time.
If you're looking to speculate on BTC, this is the last chance to buy in and get near-guaranteed profits of 50-80% in the short term.
I currently hold zero Bitcoins, but I may pick some up again. (I mined all my previous BTC.)
Sweet! Sounds like a great deal
I get the convenience of the transactions being helpfully reported to the government making my taxes easier
I get the joy of paying middlemen.
I get the reliability and stability of bitcoin.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
the draconian new IRS regulations
The new IRS regulations say that bitcoins will be treated just like any other property, such as, say, a bushel of corn. The alternative is to treat it officially as a financial instrument, which would involve more reporting and regulation. So the IRS has simply clarified the rules in a less draconian direction.
It's not the first time Bitcoin would change its value that rapidly or that much. But its volatility doesn't really matter much when using it as a transaction medium - you get BTC, you immediately sell it for USD, and that's that. And why would a US-centric service care about what Russia or China do?
Wasn't bitcoin created to get rid of these financial middlemen?
Between the new IRS rules and the supposed drama in China, Bitcoin has been on something of a downtrend the last few days. I've personally tried to accept Bitcoin as payment for some electronics I sold online, but by the time the buyer paid, I actually lost about $5. I would've actually come out ahead by accepting PayPal, fees and all.
I've come to the conclusion that cryptocoins are more-or-less a stock market fantasy game being played with real money. This isn't to say the concept of cryptocurrency can't work, but I don't think stability can be achieved if you're relying on a decentralized approach where people are only willing to run the a coin's P2P network when there's something in it for them.
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
The payoff's immediate and self serving.
I'm going offline for 24 hours to let the barrage of poor jokes wash over. This is April Fools, isn't it?
Not for another day here, but you have the right Idea.
"At the other end, the seller receives the amount of the purchased goods or services in the amount of USD advertised to the sellersâ(TM) customer at the time of transaction, and can fulfill their customerâ(TM)s order. In other words, the seller takes no risk on Bitcoin value fluctuation"
In otherwords, all prices are still in US Dollars and neither Square Market nor the seller assume any of the risk. Plus the Bitcoin holder gets to have fun reporting every single last sale's exchange value to the IRS, and has no protection against any fraud that might occur. Which, honestly, doesn't really further the cause.
Bitcoin holders are now learning the hard way that bitcoins are not the magical deflationary stores of value they thought they were.
-Matt
So basically, if you're willing to risk it, now is the time to get in.
Acknowledge it as a threat by said superpowers. It could hardly get better advertising.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
In case you haven't noticed, the value of Bitcoin has dropped by more than half over the past three months. Between the MtGox scandal, the Bitcoin bans in Russia and China, and the draconian new IRS regulations
So what? BTC is a medium of payment. The businesses accepting BTC as payment are largely converting it into their preferred currency, so the volatility isn't very important.
I'm amazed that it's still trading in the $500 range.
Your amazement should be taken as a clue that you don't actually understand the Bitcoin market.
It sure as hell don't see it coming back to $1,000 soon, that's for sure.
See above.
People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
If you mean "inevitable wave of the future", as in "3-D movies in the home is the inevitable wave of the future" or "nuclear power is the inevitable wave of the future"...well, all I can say is, good luck with that, LOL.
You are conveniently forgetting the conversion to and from USD also involves transaction fees. Not only that, but you also have to trust the trading institution that is holding your dollar balance to not abscond with your dollars, otherwise you have to ALSO transfer your dollars into and out of the institution immediately.
So we are now talking about three transaction fees at a minimum, and five transactions if you don't trust the institution doing the dollar conversion. Plus someone has to eat whatever change in trading value occurs during the period where the transaction is being stored in BTC.
This immediately causes numerous problems, not the least of which being that the trade value of BTC is no longer deflationary if nobody doing real commerce is holding a balance in BTC. In addition to the fact that it won't be deflationary anyway because there can be any number of crypto-currencies in existence.
We are considering the question of volatility and whether it matters. The answer is: Yes, it does matter, and for some obvious reasons.
Consider the two holders of BTC. The speculators, and those trying to use it for commerce. You need stability for commerce-users to hold a BTC balance of any significance. Without stability the only people holding BTC are the speculators. When speculators are the only game in town, instability is guaranteed.
Now consider the so-called deflationary property of BTC (which is a phantom property in my view... wishful thinking at best). What happens to the two holders of BTC if you actually get deflation? What you get is hoarding by the commerce users (i.e. it stops being used for commerce) and more speculation by the speculators. Result == even worse volatility. Hoarding can easily destroy any currency as has been proven over and over again throughout history.
-Matt
"So what? BTC is a medium of payment. The businesses accepting BTC as payment are largely converting it into their preferred currency, so the volatility isn't very important."
Really. Why don't you name a few? From where I stand no real business is keeping balances in BTC. All their prices are in USD and their payment processor (such as coinbase) is paying them in USD.
You realize how dumb your statement is? You think any business is going to forgo double-digit profits or accept double-digit losses by quoting a stable price in BTC? Good luck with that concept!
-Matt
You're funny. Now is the time to be getting into bitcoin. Nothing is broken except sentiment, and there is massive new infrastructure for actually paying for real things with bitcoin.
The MtGox scandal is a good thing. MtGox is the single worst source of bad bitcoin drama and it is good for them to collapse before bitcoin actually becomes a really big thing. The bans in Russia and China are setbacks, but nothing particularly unexpected. After all, bitcoin is antithetical to centralized currencies. As for the IRS regulations, how can you even think this is a bad thing? This is legitimate recognition, and is a necessary step for full corporate and Wall Street adoption. Now the bean counters know how to treat bitcoin.
All the conversion fees etc are basically the price of doing the transaction. Since I'm not a merchant, I don't know how they compare to e.g. credit card processing fees (which a lot of people complain about). I suspect they are actually comparable, but even if BTC is more expensive, it's not hard to factor that into the price, or even expose the fees directly to the customer.
Long-term prospects of BTC don't really matter all that much for that purpose if it lets you get some clients now. Even if it goes out of the window in a month, so what?
Actually, you do have to pay capital gains tax on foreign currency in many circumstances. However, for most consumer cases, it is not worth the effort to go after people. In the case of bitcoin, the value change is signficant enough that it is worth their while to pursue the taxation.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Surely you can name just a handful of the many places you use bit coins regularly for daily purchases such as groceries, then? Because looking at your Homepage I live not too far from you, and I've never seen a single fucking place in the real world that offers to accept Bitcoins.
Can Monopoly money be far behind?
I would love to know as well. And also, I wonder if you are recording those purchases since you have to declare each one on your tax return as a capital gain or loss.
Your argument is a bit absurd considering bitcoin's volatility, let alone the grade-school economics. Big words might be taken more seriously if not for the clear insanity behind the comment.
You honestly think you are being capital-efficient by using stored BTC as the basis for your working funds? I can't imagine how you plan your finances for the year.
-Matt
Read more carefully. There's a big difference between accepting Bitcoin and pricing something in Bitcoin. Square market is pricing everything in dollars (because, really, no merchant in their right mind would ever price anything in actual BTC unless they were intentionally trying to fleece you).
It's a near meaningless gesture which puts the entire burden and risk on the consumer holding the BTC, who is not only eating the overhead from the transaction and the exchange spread, but is also creating a coincident sale on the exchange at market and is likely causing the whole BTC market to drop.
If you want to know how much it's costing you, consider that bitcoin has lost over half of its value over the last 4 months. Now you can make up all the reasons you like for why it is dropping, but my bet is that people are draining their BTC on goods and creating a field day for short speculators on the exchanges.
-Matt
The problem is Bitcoin is so volatile its price can change enough that selling for a nice price can turn into selling for a loss in the time it took for the transaction to be confirmed.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
No. Now is NOT the time to get in, we're currently in the bull trap after the peak on this chart:
http://www.portfolioprobe.com/...
Bitcoin has gone through all the classic stages of a bubble so far. I would not be in the least bit surprised if it ends up falling back to around $5.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
You are conveniently forgetting the conversion to and from USD also involves transaction fees.
So does VISA, Paypal, and everything else...
No sig today...
If you mean "inevitable wave of the future"
This is just another online store using Bitcoin for free advertising. All you need to do is set up a Bitcoin conversion system on your store's front end (they're not going to keep them for more than 2 seconds), announce you accept Bitcoin, and.... bingo! Your store is now being advertised on every tech site in the world as "Bitcoin News!!". That's millions of $$$ of advertising, for free!
No sig today...
No reporting is necessary for personal purchases (i.e. groceries). There's a lot of hysteria about the IRS regulations but it doesn't really affect anyone except traders and people moving large amounts. I've written a few bots, and have meticulous records for every trade (have to, to make sure the bot isn't losing money).
You are surprisingly judgmental for someone on a "news for nerds" website. I guess it's true that people become bitter as they age. Or maybe you're just jealous. Imagine how jealous you'll be when the next bubble blows through $2k and you could have quadrupled your $450 purchase. But no, you're just trolling instead of learning. Ouch. Who cares about capital gains when you put an additional zero on your account every year? Besides, the smart people are selling some bitcoin at a loss right now to swallow up capital gains.
Bitcoin is already up 10 percent from my purchase yesterday. I routinely save 10-15 percent (after exchange fees!) on my grocery shopping, even in a down market. I buy bitcoin when it dips, then buy groceries in between dips. Oh, I almost forgot about the 3% Gyft cashback for bitcoin purchases, better add that on there, too.
Maybe, hence the conditional. However, based on Bitcoin's history and prospects, I'd say we're in the despair phase.
I would. There's too much demand for sending cash over the Internet, which is what Bitcoin ultimately amounts to.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
3-D Movies at Home + Nuclear Power = Entertainment Too Cheap to Meter!
-kgj
Sell all the drugs you want but don't you dare sell guns with our payment service.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ab...
I have heard the same tune in 2011 (I can't believe we are still trading at $5, we'll never get back to $32), then again in 2013 (I can't believe we are still trading at $100, we'll never get back to $266). To the non-believers: Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
It's psychologically easier to hate bitcoin as a technologically inclined person than to admit to oneself that they missed a big opportunity to get rich quick. Perhaps if one could let go of this notion and look deeper into how the protocol functions, one might change ones mind.
I think you should re-read my statement. I believe you'll find that you are in error WRT what you think I said.
Dumb indeed.
People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
Would that be the Greater Fool Theory? Or the notion that there's a sucker born every minute?
Generally speaking, if you find yourself going negative on something that a bunch of other people are enthusiastic about, the chances are fairly good that you don't understand it. That's not to say that Bitcoin is a stable market (it's not) but that there are probably many more variables contributing to the price than you are aware of.
People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
If you are referring to the game currency, it's not secure against counterfeiting or inflation (Hasbro can print more whenever they want).
If you are referring to fiat currencies, they are in fact government or central bank monopolies, but also not secure against counterfeiting or inflation.
There's plenty of demand for sending cash over the Internet, but Bitcoin as it stands isn't working for that because:
- it is too volatile, the value of what you sent can change too much by the time you've confirmed the transaction
- it's too difficult to turn into currency you can spend in a grocery store
I'd love to see a cryptocurrency work out because good riddance PayPal. But Bitcoin as it stands isn't this replacement, and for at least the next couple of years will only be working as a speculation instrument.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows