Process your first $1,000,000 of Bitcoin payments for free with Coinbase

http://blog.coinbase.com/post/59417545262/

by FredEE • 13 years ago

140 49 13 years ago

blog.coinbase.com

yumcoin• 13 years ago

Interesting development, but $1M seems a bit much.

ISL• 13 years ago

If you want to make bitcoin really attractive to merchants, this might do it.

doublemorph• 13 years ago

I wonder if adverse selection will apply where people will abuse this for high frequency transfers of some sort.

chatman• 13 years ago

I almost double checked if its not 1 April? How will they make money?

indrax• 13 years ago

On the second million.

Me1000• 13 years ago

This appears to only be for merchant accounts. Personal trades will still have a fee.

citricsquid• 13 years ago

The number of people using Bitcoin now is negligible, it may as well be 0. Coinbase is perfectly positioned to be a serious player if Bitcoin does achieve the lofty goals supporters are aiming for: Coinbase will make money hand over fist from personal users if that happens. 0% for merchants is Coinbase investing in the long term success of Bitcoin. The money they would make now from charging merchants is inconsequential compared to the money they will make long term if Bitcoin succeeds.

t0• 13 years ago

This is more of a marketing stunt. They might as well pay you to be a merchant.

MacsHeadroom• 13 years ago

On personal exchanges between Bitcoin and other currencies.

Also, on the increased value (deflation) of Bitcoin they already hold from the increased adoption caused by the allure of fee free e-commerce.

miles• 13 years ago

How will they make money?

The answer is simple: volume.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/2315

juzfoo• 13 years ago

Unfortunately until coinbase support non-US banks, we could only watch and sigh! :)

eruditely• 13 years ago

Coinbase is not instant like advertised, it's identity verification system to level 2(the one that is instant) is incorrect and I try it every day but it will not accept that the information I provide to prove my identity is correct, even though it is. So I'm stuck at level 1 for no reason,

Coinbase's main thing going with it is that they're the only competitor that seems to have not let the entire operation burn down(bitinstant).

christiangenco• 13 years ago

The exact same thing is happening to me! Every time I try to enter my information it says:

Your ID could not be verified at this time. Insufficient Data for Questions

I've emailed, tweeted, and posted to their support center about it with no response over the last week. They need to get that support staff[1] up and running quick.

1. http://blog.coinbase.com/post/58733449732/we-are-looking-to-...

superuser2• 13 years ago

I think they're trying to question you about database entries regarding your life in Experian-type databases. Past addresses, cars you owned, etc. If you never generated that sort of paper trail, the automated verification fails and they just won't do business with you. I too hope they can set up an alternate method soon.

pkfrank• 13 years ago

I think this is a great move. For one, it further cements their position as the best-funded, most-respected Bitcoin processor. Even putting $1mm figure into the ether raises their profile.

Their investors (USV et al) definitely understand marketplaces back-and-forth and are in it for the long game. It makes sense to do anything possible to spur merchant adoption, and this is an eye-popping way to do it. Without merchants broadly and happily accepting Bitcoin, the marketplace just can't mature properly.

What % of Coinbase's value of is captured in merchants that will process less than $1mm lifetime? I'm sure it pails in comparison to the potential profits on the (hopefully huge and forthcoming) merchants that will drive Bitcoin at the same order-of-magnitude as Paypal, traditional credit cards, etc.

ballard• 13 years ago

Really cool giveaways (say a Tesla) seem to work for mass appeal on the other end of the double-end of this. And the press lap it up = free marketing. :)

DanBlake• 13 years ago

Too bad it's completely impossible to use the service. It takes forever to get verified and even when you do transfers hardly go through. Total waste of time when I tried it a month or so ago.

revelation• 13 years ago

Merchant adoption might be key, but user and buyer adoption might be even more important. Merchants will happily adopt if theres demand.

In that direction, it seems like charging customers has become untenable since PayPal (and credit cards, really).

ekanes• 13 years ago

Great promotion. We just signed up. 1% of $1M is $10k, and compared to the alternatives (CC, Paypal) it's pretty huge savings. I do agree their support/responsiveness needs to be better or they'll cement a poor reputation.

PS: In terms of adoption, Bitpay has several companies doing $1M+ monthly, so this promotion isn't without meaningful value to someone.

cperciva2• 13 years ago

Why can't coinbase follow Stripe's example of having a "publishable key" for payment forms? If it weren't for the headache of needing to make an API call to create a payment page (or button, or iframe), I would have added Coinbase support to Tarsnap months ago.

Osiris2• 13 years ago

Something else that's a bit different is that you have to create an invoice/order number to send along to Coinbase, then mark that invoice as paid later. With Braintree/Stripe, the server makes a call to the service with the amount to charge and it gets back a success or fail which I can then immediately display to the user showing that the purchase went through.

With Coinbase I haven't found a way to have that tightly integrated experience.

epscylonb• 13 years ago

Probably because a bitcoin transaction doesn't confirm instantly? (a block is found once every 10 minutes on average).

a3voices2• 13 years ago

I hope one day Coinbase adds Litecoin support.

rlpb• 13 years ago

Are there any figures on how many people actually care about Litecoin, as opposed to Bitcoin?

a3voices2• 13 years ago

Look at the subscribers of http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoin compared to http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoin.

Also this: http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=bitcoin%2C+litecoin#q...

alerkay• 13 years ago

One metric to track usage is the number of transactions per day:

- Bitcoin: ~50k transactions/day (http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions)

- Litecoin: ~5k transactions/day (http://ltc.block-explorer.com/charts)

downandout• 13 years ago

Coinbase may have venture investment, but their customer service and week-long verification process will make this a nonstarter. If you want to read some of the more entertaining stories about their customer "service" read this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=147341.80

One of my favorites:

Well they refunded the BTC. In order to get a response, all I had to do was post on several BTC related forums and chat, contact the founders on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and file a complaint with the government.

What a company. Now hopefully I am able to successfully transfer the coins out (doubtful).

carrja992• 13 years ago

"week long verification process"!? I really have to call B.S. on that one. I setup a coinbase account a few weeks ago and was verified within 3 days.

I can't comment on their customer service as I have yet to need it.

ComputerGuru• 13 years ago

I hardly think one anecdotal experience of 3 day turnaround is enough to call a second anecdotal claim of 7 days "BS"

For a process that sometimes takes 3 days, I can easily envision someone else having a 7-10 day turnaround. You make it sound like it's an order of magnitude off, but it really isn't.

beaner3• 13 years ago

Well they refunded the BTC. In order to get a response, all I had to do was post on several BTC related forums and chat, contact the founders on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and file a complaint with the government.

Note that the user did not actually have to do any of those things for a response. It made no difference. Coinbase has a queue and they get through the whole thing - you're attended to when they get to your place in line. You can make all those other posts if you want, however there's no evidence to suggest that any of it affects how quickly they get back to you.

Also, by "verification process" you really mean "ach bank transfer", which is not exactly something Coinbase invented. Interfacing with banks is difficult and time consuming and stupid - that's part of why bitcoin exists - but as long as ach is around you kind of have to deal with that. Two parties are involved in an ach transfer, and the banks are the end that take that long. You're blaming Coinbase for the problem they're helping to solve.

randall• 13 years ago

I set up my account yesterday and was verified yesterday.

They have some sort of yodelee integration with online banking that lets you verify within seconds.

lectrick• 13 years ago

They're a startup. I guarantee you there's probably no more than 10 guys there. I've worked at startups and here's the deal- Support is very uneven and capital- (and time-) intensive, when you're new. You haven't worked out all the workflows yet and you're too busy building out product to know when to change gears to handle a support backlog. Eventually it gets sorted out, but the beginnings are always rocky. Don't judge a brand new service based on its support record please... I promise you that not a single person who ever worked at a startup thought "man, fuck those complaining customers... we need to build our vision!"

jcampbell1• 13 years ago

This is negative marketing. Anyone that does $1M+ a year in online sales doesn't want their payment vendor losing money. What I want are honest FAQs and simple integration options. "Free" is irrelevant. If I can get incremental customers and I hope that means $20,000 more bucks. I don't give a shit about $400 vs. $200 vs. $0. Hell, I pay Apple $6000, and I am only kinda mad.

hackerboos• 13 years ago

This is negative marketing. Anyone that does $1M+ a year in online sales doesn't want their payment vendor losing money.

Forgive me but won't they make money by selling the Bitcoins they receive?

etioyuahgdhjdkg• 13 years ago

They don't want to. Coinbase is in the business of payment processing, not speculating on obscure forex spreads.

beaner3• 13 years ago

This is negative commenting. A new awesome feature came out and you said you don't really care about it unless they also provide X features. But then you gave no argument as to whether or not they already provide X features. This leads the reader to assume they don't, when in reality they actually do. So I'm not sure what your point is?

ronaldx• 13 years ago

Agreed: I found this offer a bit strange. It alerted my Ponzi-senses.

I'm open-minded, but how can they afford to offer this for free? Will this offer be attractive paying customers, and why do they want to attract non-paying customers?

Anderkent• 13 years ago

It attracts startup businesses, most of which will fail, but some of which might turn into profitable and paying customers later on. A big winner there can easily pay for all the lost ones - esp. since most startups will probably fail very early, not using anywhere close to the 1 million.

Yes, it's a loss leader. However, if they have the cash to support it for a time they might tie some very profitable businesses to their infrastructure.

jaggederest2• 13 years ago

I wonder how long until the first merchant to take the money and run? Alice buys something from Bob, Bob sends a tracking number for a rock in a box and chuckles his way to the bank.

Or vice versa, of course, Alice buys something, Bob ships it, Alice never pays.

jessaustin2• 13 years ago

How would the second scenario occur with BTC? The start of the process is Alice paying.

jaggederest2• 13 years ago

I'm not clear whether customers will be comfortable paying in advance. There's zero way to recover your money, unlike credit cards or bank transactions.

dcc1• 13 years ago

No payments to banks in europe :(

Process your first $1,000,000 of Bitcoin payments for free with Coinbase

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