Tinkercoin Will Sell You $20 in Bitcoin, But Only Once

http://www.coindesk.com/tinkercoin-sell-20-bitcoin-only-once/

by trevorcreech • 12 years ago

92 70 12 years ago

ck2• 12 years ago

Oh they are headed for trouble, you cannot avoid regulation that way.

You can get a stack of $20 one-use debit cards and you can get a CC generator from some banks for your card to use for a one-time purchase online.

One could automate buying thousands if they had the time and money.

reso6• 12 years ago

This is Gareth from Tinkercoin, thanks for checking us out! We are completely compliant with all US federal AML/KYC laws. We also have a strong background in credit-card fraud and it's been top of our mind since day one.

highCs• 12 years ago

How are you going to deal with disputes? ie. I buy bitcoin at tinkercoin and now I'm want my $20 back. I've only to start a dispute at my bank and I'll get my money automatically until you prove that I've received the bitcoin. I'm not sure but I think you might have a hard time proving your system has no bug and that everything went as you say it did (ie. the customer actually own the bitcoin address you say is his etc.) I've always thought that you can't prove by your own system and that nobody will ever reach your code so see if it's right and even then, what prove that it is the code which was live when the customer was here etc.

Clearly, how are you going to prove the customer bitcoin address is actually his? Note I've almost no knownledge in this field and it's been a time I'm looking for an answer to this question.

edit: one might think that one $20 loss per x transactions can be absorbed by the cost of business but I think it doesn't work since the hack's going to be shared and it will grow in quantity and in efficiency to finally reach a buzz stage. I might be wrong again here.

dangrossman• 12 years ago

Why would someone go to the trouble? If you want to buy $1000 in Bitcoin there are plenty of places willing to sell that to you without buying one-time-use debit cards and VPS accounts for proxies and everything else involved in evading detection at a business that doesn't want to sell it to you.

eli4• 12 years ago

There are plenty of places willing to sell you $1000 in bitcoins on a credit card?

paulgb• 12 years ago

How do you get around the phone verification step? Burner phones aren't that cheap.

ceejayoz• 12 years ago

Twilio or Google Voice numbers, maybe?

rahimnathwani• 12 years ago

Ipkall's free PSTN->SIP numbers?

GFischer• 12 years ago

A new number here in Uruguay costs U$ 2.

Though the market here is VERY different, many people legitimately use prepaid phones, it's not like in the U.S. where it's something seen as suspicious/fringe, so it might be subsidized by the phone company.

Edit: they do sell prepaid SIMs in the USA but they're really expensive, much like cell phone service overall there.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2414494,00.asp

some forums suggest there are cheaper options

www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g32655-i61-k5212639-Pre_Paid_SIM_card_while_in_USA_non_residents-Los_Angeles_California.html

toomuchtodo• 12 years ago

You can easily detect a prepaid card from a traditional debit/credit card.

http://www.maxmind.com/en/ccv_overview

baddox• 12 years ago

“There’s almost no future in which selling $20 of bitcoins to someone will label you as any kind of significant money transfer businesses,” said MacLeod, explaining how he expects to fly under the regulators’ radar in both the US and Canada with his service.

I hope he's not naive enough to genuinely believe that.

reso6• 12 years ago

Yeah, I might end up eating my words. The quote was taken a little bit out of context, what I was trying to convey was that amounts this small are very unlikely to need the intense KYC/AML checks that full-featured Bitcoin exchange are required to do.

marcbarbosa• 12 years ago

The money transmission license aren't necessary for firms dealing less than 1000 USD per person per day, as the article says, and they are offering only 20 dollars one time ever.

To me it's just an attempt to create a large database with people interested in bitcoin (with their credit cards).

TryBTC.com introduces bitcoin to new users more effectively.

gus_massa• 12 years ago

However, there’s also another facet: customers have to sign up for an account, which means that the firm will have their email address, potentially turning the business into a large bitcoin-focused list-building operation.

Do I need to create an account to do a one in a life time purchase? The data for the account are only c.c. number and email? Or they include full name, birthday, address, password and recovery question, parents name, pets name, ...?

Dosenpfand• 12 years ago

You can login only via Facebook and it requests the following information: public profile, friend list, e-mail address, employer, status messages, education, hometown, place of residence;

saraid216• 12 years ago

This is going from amusing-scam to transparent-scam really quickly.

rksprst• 12 years ago

Why is FB login required? I was going to purchase, but don't want to link my FB profile.

reso6• 12 years ago

Totally understandable. We're planning to add other login options soon.

sync• 12 years ago

Well, after entering all of my information (billing address + facebook + email confirmation + credit card details) I am presented with: http://monosnap.com/image/Q8brXxtQsTJEkReseHlSyNolOgf2TX

"call_us_maybe"

Now filled with regret.

reso6• 12 years ago

Hey, email me at gareth@tinkercoin.com and I can take a look!

Edit: I had a good chat with sync and he/she successfully got bitcoins.

roboneal• 12 years ago

(See Edit) Count me in the "me too" category. Pretty sketchy process. I've revoked their permission to my Facebook account and pray my cc info is not being sold on the Russian black market. Edit: Trevor at TinkerCoin cleared up the issue and the BTC are in my Coinbase wallet. So Kudos to them.

reso6• 12 years ago

Completely understand your frustration. We have to keep a very high bar because of the possibility of credit card fraud, and sometimes we have false negatives. Sorry for the confusion!

ithkuil• 12 years ago

reso replied that you got the bitcoins. Could you please confirm?

apf2• 12 years ago

Don't do it! SCAM. They steal all of your data. After giving them my FB info, and Credit card I got the same error. I was unable to get a hold of anyone (3 e-mails, 3 phone calls) I finally got "Trevor" on the live chat. He said "Their processor can't process my card" and "it's outside of their control" ... so thanks for stealing all of my data. My card works 100% just fine, don't fall for this!

andrewmunsell• 12 years ago

I also had the same issue, but Gareth verified my information and got the transaction through in around 10 minutes. Props to them for quick service.

michaelhoffman2• 12 years ago

Given the difficulties people have in converting Bitcoins to dollars, a more useful service would be one that converts Bitcoin to $20, but only once.

pbhjpbhj• 12 years ago

Well, you could start your own tinkercoin, that would work (even more than once) ;0)

[that was supposed to be jovial rather than facetious, hope it worked out]

jnbiche2• 12 years ago

Who is having difficulties converting Bitcoins to dollars? Have you personally had difficulty, or are you just repeating hearsay?

I ask because I've been in Bitcoin since 2011 and I've never had trouble converting Bitcoins back to USD. Right now, I'm not happy about the wire fees I'm paying (and may switch exchanges), but it's as easy as pie to get the money.

michaelhoffman2• 12 years ago

Here's the story I was thinking about:

http://buttcoin.org/easy

Is there a service that makes the process of turning BTC into USD as easy as Tinkercoin claims to for USD to BTC?

gnaritas4• 12 years ago

Given the difficulties people have in converting Bitcoins to dollars

Citation. I think you made that up.

maxerickson4• 12 years ago

Some of it just comes down to how you want to define things.

I mean, how do the various levels of problems dealing with Mt. Gox not fit under difficulties?

nathancahill• 12 years ago

Does anyone else think their logo looks like Simple's?

650REDHAIR• 12 years ago

How is this sustainable? I wonder what they have planned next.

meraku2• 12 years ago

"Tinkercoin will receive the following info: your public profile, friend list, email address, work history, status updates, education history, hometown and current city."

No thanks.

rsync• 12 years ago

... then why is it ok for facebook to have all of that same information ?

justinreeves• 12 years ago

Because he chose to give it to FB? Just because he's fine with FB having that info, doesn't mean he needs to be fine with every other company getting it.

meraku2• 12 years ago

As justinreeves said, I choose to give that information to Facebook. It's absurd having to share all of this information to Tinkercoin so they can supposedly verify my identity to allow me to purchase $20 worth of BTC, without any indication of how they're going to use all this valuable information about me.

Stopped using Facebook auth a long time ago for this very reason and revoked access to all apps except those that I trust. There's no reason to share my entire Facebook account with everyone out there, and if that's the only way I can use their service, then I just won't use it. No big deal.

ketralnis• 12 years ago

(1) Maybe it's not

(2) He gets to decide that, not you.

acjohnson552• 12 years ago

Cool idea, but I'm experiencing cognitive dissonance. The great promise of Bitcoin to the regular consumer is supposed to be transactions without the surcharges of financial institutions and privacy, yet here we have a service that takes a large cut even after their money processor takes its cut, and requires you to sign up through an organization hardly known for its privacy (Facebook).

I don't mean to beat on Tinkercoin, because I think it sounds like a totally decent way to....well....tinker with coins, but I am critical of the overall hubris behind Bitcoin.

jjmardlin• 12 years ago

I can't speak for Tinker, but they are friends of mine.

As I understand it, their intent is to help people get their first bitcoins really easily. Most services require that you scan and upload a lot of documents. This is quick and painless.

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC• 12 years ago

How is it really easy when you need a Facebook account?

IntentionTech2• 12 years ago

Has anyone told Carly Rae Jepsen about this? #callmemabey

apf2• 12 years ago

I got the same "call us" error. Sent an e-mail about 1.2 hours ago. Gareth replied that he's working on it, so just waiting. It wasn't clear or not if my credit card was charged, Gareth assured me it hadn't been. Will update this if transaction is successful.

Aardwolf• 12 years ago

Do they accept European credit cards?

awalton• 12 years ago

Ah, so this is what the Bitcoin burglars have up their sleeves. Sell the bitcoins for pennies on the dollar in trade for clean identity information.

They're really going to clean up.

z3bra• 12 years ago

Facebook? how 'bout no?

Tinkercoin Will Sell You $20 in Bitcoin, But Only Once

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