I think it will be pretty cool to see how this plays out and what kinds of debit cards can be used (pre-paid, tied to checking/savings accounts, etc.). I'm even interested if something like this will make it easier to exchange cryptocurrencies remotely without going through a central exchange.
Gotcha. Thanks, I thought you meant sending BTC to cards somehow.
Cryptocurrency exchange is currently against our terms, "Prohibited Transactions" -> "(18) currency exchanges or dealers" and "(49) virtual currency or credits that can be monetized, re-sold or converted to physical or digital goods or services or otherwise exit the virtual world," in https://www.balancedpayments.com/terms/selleragreement . This is due to our upstream providers.
What do you think of partnering with Coinbase or Bitpay to allow bitcoin payments to be deposited into the "escrow" account as USD? The only question would be how refunds would work, but certainly there can be a solution to that.
As a side note, out of curiosity, what do you see in Dogecoin over Bitcoin or Litecoin?
> The only question would be how refunds would work, but certainly there can be a solution to that.
Yup, this is one of a bunch of problems. For example, "no chargebacks" is great for merchants, but bad for consumers. And while coinbase does support a simple charge, they don't have any way of doing things like holds.
> Yup, this is one of a bunch of problems. For example, "no chargebacks" is great for merchants, but bad for consumers. And while coinbase does support a simple charge, they don't have any way of doing things like holds.
In the end, I think it makes sense that it should be the merchant's task to handle the refund requests. If the possibility is not built-in to bitcoin, why do you feel that you should make it? And of course, there would be no need for holds.
I actually did read that article in the past, didn't realize that was you. It may be interesting as a phenomenon, but I certainly wouldn't hold Doge in higher regard than Bitcoin, which has a much larger network.
> In the end, I think it makes sense that it should be the merchant's task to handle the refund requests.
Right, but the merchant is our customer, it's our job to make their lives easier.
And regardless of the details, my point is that you have to think about this case and others, and then make a call: it's not simply drop-in.
> If the possibility is not built-in to bitcoin, why do you feel that you should make it?
Consumers feel safe using their credit cards because of things like chargeback protection. If Bitcoin is really going to become a thing, it will need to have consumer protections built in. Doesn't have to be at the protocol layer, but it does need to exist in some form.
> which has a much larger network.
Depends. Yes, it's much larger now, but Doge is exploding in popularity. It has a higher trading volume than BTC, and has a bigger network (measured in hash rate) than Litecoin.
Don't underestimate the power of Reddit to turn memes into something big. I agree it's not there yet, but it could be.
