BitCoin as a payment method for aMember

I just upgraded to Amember 4 from 3 because php 5.3 was disabled at my host. While I did all my business through PayPal and had only one chargeback in 10 years (unauthorized use), they made me remove all payment buttons when they changed their terms to not allow any credit services. I've been unable to accept payments through any of the other payment services because their terms also prohibit any kind of credit services.

Obviously, that resulted in very few sales as few people want to send a check.

I just read up on BitCoin and it sounds like a good alternative:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

Unfortunately it's not listed with the plugins. Any plans on adding BitCoin?

Been thinking of accepting it- like the idea of the marketplace setting the price of a currency outside of any central authority.

David

Did a little reading on this and it seems that several bitcoin processors have been hacked- losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.... Which of these providers seem the most secure? Do any of them have something like bank insurance to protect your holdings?

David

This is something I've been thinking of integrating into my site as well. At the moment I use Zombaio as my processor but if I can also offer bitcoins as a separate means of purchase but still have the same integration with my vB4 site, I'd gladly do so. I suppose I can set it all up on the side and manually add members oncwe they pay etc. But a complete professional integration would be outstanding

Having read a bit on this as well, I noticed on the Bitcoin website that they don't suggest keeping a significant balance in your bitcoin wallet. Because of the very issue you raise, as well as the possible volatile changes in value they suggest converting to regular currency as much as possible.

Bitpay.com is the best processor in my opinion. Huge venture capital funding, they process $5 million/month, and have never had a major hacking incident.

Plus their CEO is happy to work with amember, I emailed him about it.

Please implement BitPay integration. They have their API documentation located here.

Has any progress been made on the integration already? Is there an estimated date of when it can be available?

This is FANTASTIC News! When are you anticipating the next release? Is is coming soon enough that I don't need to worry about searching for other options.

I agree, it's exciting news and I can't wait for the next release as well

I've been using aMember for more than 10 years and it has never failed me when it comes to integrating with a variety of payment options. BitCoin presents a very interesting possibility about future currency. And I love the idea of being one of the pioneers who can process it as an automated transaction!

Precisely what we're thinking!

Yes finally!!! Whens expected release date for this?

Ive been playing around with the different exchanges. Very disappointed in the time its taking to send coins to different exchanges. 30 minutes to verify payment? Its difficult to get money in and out and theres also a number of hidden fees...

David

Bitcoin is in the news. See latest at: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57...on-ordered-to-cease-operations-in-california/

I see bitpay as a new plugin in the 4.2.18 release notes- anyone ready to test it out?

Thinking of building a site about bitcoins etc... will be amember integrated of course

My overall feeling of bitcoin is mixed. The min time to do a confirmation is 10 minutes, with 6 confirmations it could take 30mins to 2 hours... Thats an eternity on the internet for accepting payments.

As a payment mechanism- mixed. Like the anonymity, decentralized nature, removal of banks and payment processors. Dislike the fast moving price changes of bitcoins to fiat and that its difficult to get cash in and out of the bitcoin system (you need to figure out how to buy bitcoins before you can use them to buy stuff).

As a storage of value, looks like the greater fool theory. Buy and hold hoping to sell to a greater fool later on.

As an exchange mechanism- pretty good. I'm able to do an exchange from US to other currencies pretty efficiently, and can get prices 5-10% over spot in low volume markets (can't scale this though for arbitrage) It will cost you 1.2% in fees to do a US$ to bitcoin and back to foreign currency .Its faster than doing a wire transfer but more expensive for larger dollar amounts and you are taking risk on the chance that fast moving bitcoin prices could reduce the final rate you are able to get it at. I'm normally able to do regular wire transfers at about .5% or less for larger amounts (but i've seen banks front run me on the forex rates...)

David

I see it in the changelog, but I don't see it in the actual download.

Was bitpay payment plug-in forgotten?