Logins, downloads, subscriptions, these are all things I did not mention. I had suggested that Paul could start off by simply placing a bitcoin address to his donations page. And then I explained the simplicity, explaining it need not take more than 30 minutes.
You talk about cost-benefits so I’m asking you, what benefit must 30 minutes of work show? - not even 30 minutes, I just did a timed experiment… I went to blockchain.info and opened an account in just 3 minutes. That would give him a full 27 minutes to copy and paste his bitcoin address to his donations page and that’s it, job done. What other work must be done to accept bitcoin donations?
Just so we’re clear; opening an account at blockchain.info in 3 minutes means there is no other software to install, though there is a an optional blockchain.info app on Google Play. The website does not ask for signup fees, usage fees, or identity checks for sending or receiving bitcoins. Sending bitcoins literally costs just a few cents and nothing to the receiver, regardless of the amount. Can you say the same for PayPal? You talk about ROI and volatility but you didn’t mention the potential for chargebacks months down the line, PayPal’s rubbish fx rates or the charges they make for handling foreign currencies… there you go, that’s a loss to Paul right there. Bitcoin volatility only occurs if and when someone switches into another currency. Paul could just leave the bitcoin to accrue, waiting for an opportune moment to cash out, or he can pay for services directly in bitcoin and thus avoiding volatility and fx charges all together.
If people such as yourself prefer using PayPal to bitcoin, that’s fine, it’s your free choice. I’m not suggesting Paul supplant one method for another. If people want subscriptions they’ll continue to use PayPal right? And if you remember from that other thread of ours, donations and subscriptions are completely different… donations are one way without the same benefits of subscriptions. So again, no problem.
As for exchanges going out of business, I concede there is some truth in that and I can help you out there…
With bitcoin there are two parts; a public bitcoin address that acts like an account number for receiving funds, and a private key that unlocks your account so that you can sign messages or spend bitcoin (or part thereof). From this you can see the private key is the most important part and you should never reveal it to anyone. Fortunately, because these two parts are separate, you can continue to receive bitcoin yet at the same time keeping your private key completely offline. These offline keys are called “paper wallets”; basically a printout of your private key. Spending from a paper wallet is very easy and fast, and most importantly completely safe from hackers and viruses.
In the past, some exchanges (such as Mt.Gox), encouraged people to store their private key on their servers. This always carries a risk, but as explained above, this is 100% avoidable. You never have to entrust your private key to anyone and you can keep it 100% offline, 100% of the time.
There are two significant advantages with blockchain.info. First of all, all of it’s parts directly involved with the wallet service are open source. Secondly, all keys are encrypted / decrypted in the browser before it is sent to their server. Two-step authentication is also available. And if, for whatever reason, this is still not good enough, you can use a completely different open source wallet. Personally, I would highly recommend Mycelium for android, again all open source.
Can I ask that you at least try it before judging it too deeply. If you need any help you can either ask here or contact me directly at mark@circle.io
Thanks