BitCoin as a payment method for aMember

Was added to 4.2.19, only allows 1x payment.
Im waiting for approval from bitpay to test it out.

David

Demonstration of a bitcoin transaction.


Site: Coin Republic


David

I have the same mixed feelings. And I'm not referring to the aMember bitpay plugin with regards to this response, but you can process an instant payment through bitcoin by opting for zero confirmations. Yes it's possible for clients to fake their bitcoin transactions but from my understanding that is hard to do.

I'd say the risk of fraudulent transactions are still low even if you fulfill the subscription after zero confirmations. I plan on finishing my own custom bitcoin plugin and that is the process I will use to fulfill instant access. My guess is that the aMember/BitPay plug only allows you to choose from 1-6 confirmation. I haven't looked at it, but I'm sure it could be modded to support zero confirmations if one were so inclined. That would mean instant gratification for customers balanced against a low risk of bitcoin fraud.

I would have to assume though that the increased sales/benefit from instant payment processing would override the impact of adding a 10 minute to 2 hour time delay that aims to guarantee 100% against a fraudulent BTC transaction. Just my thoughts...

Nope- it allows for 3 settings, 0 confirmations (unconfirmed), 3, or 6.

Been getting pretty heavy into the bitcoin scene- let me know if you have any questions.

David

Good to know, thanks David! Do you know the difficulty level that a customer would have to go through in order to reverse their bitcoin transaction after 0 confirmations? My understanding is that it becomes increasingly more difficult as more confirmations show up in the Blockchain. However, I am most interested in the level of difficulty for someone to be able to defraud the seller at zero confirmations. That is because I intend to offer near real-time subscription access, which means I have to validate the transaction at zero confirmations.

I will probably reconsider my stance if I find out that any ole Joe can relatively easily reverse his transaction before 1 confirmation has shown up in the bitcoin blockchain. Do you know much about bitcoin in this particular area?

I did an interview with the CEO of gyft, and he's using 0 confirmations for low dollar amount gift cards- he said he hasnt had any reversals on it yet, however, technically it could be done.

I think bitpay has a small protection method built in- wait a few extra seconds to make sure that a double spend isnt happening.

Thats why you see it actually take about 10-20 seconds for the bitpay transaction to clear on a 0 confirmation-, and i think bitpay has said that they haven't had a double spend yet.

What are you selling fred?

If its gold bars- you will wait for confirmations, and ship later anyway.
For digital content- i always go with ease of buying for the customer over fear of fraud or theft.

This was a good post on it:
http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/qu...methods-of-maliciously-reversing-transactions
Key parts
"Reversing a 1-confirmation transaction requires mining only two blocks in row, which can be profitable against certain targets with only around 5% of the network's computational power. With 5% of the network, the attacker has a 5% chance of solving the first necessary block and a 5% chance of solving the next block and succeeding in the double-spend. The attacker only risks losing a block while mining the second block, so his real odds of losing a block instead of reversing the transaction is 95% -- not too bad in some cases. This was MyBitcoin's excuse for how they lost customer money (which may or may not be true, though it is possible).
0-confirmation transactions can be reversed by solving only one block, and sometimes without solving any blocks. They should be treated as being nearly as reversible as credit card payments."


David

Thanks for the information and link David. It gave me very valuable insight into my concerns. I will confidently use zero confirmation while adding a few seconds to the mix like bitpay does.

By the way, I sell digital subscriptions valued at around $20 so it won't be a big loss for me if the payment is reversed. Thanks again for your insights!

Any chance to get the Bitcoin plugin for aMember 3.x too? I have no idea how much different the syntax is for aMember 4.

I don't see it there either? I looked in the plugins and its not there as an option?! What happened?

Or.....is it just integrated right into the new aMember?

hmm trying to add bitpay as well. I also am unable to see bitpay or any bitcoin alternatives in amember admin payment plugins (version 4.2.14.3b7ee0a).

is there a download I am missing?

Just wanted to update with my resolution, looks like my amember version was out of date and bitpay was not integrated until later release.