I got a 500 Internal Server Error when I clicked to sign up for Coinbase though (http://trybtc.com/ajax/coinbaseregister). My account still got created and I managed to get it back by requesting a password reset from Coinbase.
I think the hardest part of "trying bitcoin" is quite simply converting any native currency into bitcoin. The last time i looked into it from a GBP perspective, it was a major pain in the butt.
If i could buy bitcoin with my CC online like i can pay for anything else with my CC online, then there'd be a lower barrier of entry.
Had the same experience (also UK). At some point, there was a service to exchange to BTC via Barclays Pingit [0] - it wasn't working when I tried a while ago but seems open now.
The difficulty with that is the reversibility of CC payments. A user could buy coins using their CC, then go to the CC provider claim they were scammed and get not only the coins they bought but also their original payment. This is why you should not buy BTC with services like PayPal.
There are a number of services that will be opening their doors in the coming months that will lower the barriers to fiat <--> btc conversion.
The general problem with buying bitcoins with credit cards is the fungibility of the good you're buying. In other words, bitcoins are so fungible that buying them with credit cards becomes a problem.
When buying anything else with bitcoin, it's generally hard to resell the item, and make your money back. With the amount of credit card fraud, buying bitcoins with a stolen credit card would mean sites offering this service would have too many chargebacks, and they would have to charge a 5% fee on top of the 3% VISA already takes. Few people are going to want to pay an 8% markup on money. Money has a very definite price, they're not like other goods. You can see that you're paying a hefty markup, and people don't like that.
The term "wiring money" still has a connotation of being complicated, probably from all the movies and TV shows that mention wiring money in exchange for hostages, etc. I wish people would just refer to it as a bank transfer.
Off topic... wiring DOES seem hard. I'm from NZ, where it's very common to do an EFT payment to another bank account. We do this for paying bills, giving money to friends, and even paying for online purchases.
I recently set up a US bank account at Wells Fargo. Today I needed to pay someone (in the US) from it, and after fruitlessly searching for a way to transfer money to another account was told by customer support that the only solution was to do a wire transfer. At a cost of $35 and having to visit a branch to set this up.
They did have something called SurePay that involved sending someone an email or SMS message, but my beneficiary is a corporate so this isn't really an option. SurePay also seems to be limited to very small amounts.
Given this is free and simple to do in every other country I've banked in (NZ, Aus, UK and Canada), I'm still suspicious that I'm missing a something on the internet banking website. Any suggestions?
This was an amazing experience, great work! I especially like the Ocelot :)
One issue is that the sign up and claim link to register with Coinbase seems to be be stuck, or else is taking over a minute. (Edit: still got the email from Coinbase)
How have reactions been from people who aren't already familiar with Bitcoin?
We're still working to fix the strange Coinbase register bug... it's related to the fact that the site currently doesn't force HTTPS (when it should). If you load using HTTPS it works fine.
Reactions from newcomers are almost all positive. They like the interactivity, graphics, and ease of use. Theres plenty of negative feedback from BTC pros when it comes to how we oversimplify technical details (these are all intentional), but I believe this is essential to onboarding people who aren't familiar with BTC.
Beautiful. The third screen appeared to be breaking on my computer though. Clicked the next (right arrow) button once and the numbered information boxes disappeared with some flickering without any further information displaying. Needed to press button again to progress to next screen. Noticed similar problems when clicking through a few times (ex: "This is your wallet's Bitcoin address" shown below with no address displayed)
I'm using Safari 6.0. If anyone can remember one of those services that captures machine information I'd be happy to use one and post that here.
I just ran through the demo and everything was great. Although, I believe I just dumped 400 uBTC into a black hole (was given 500, donated 100, didn't bother saving the wallet #).
I'm sure a lot of people will do exactly the same. You might want to not give out the 500 uBTC so easily / fast, I doubt much of that will ever be used.
Another solution is to update the donate screen to be donating all 500 of it, that way it's completely used up by the end of the demo.
There is not donation happening in that step and the receiving addresses are not from any charities neither. The charities might want to take legal action against being used in this way.
I'm new to the concept of Bitcoin and the part I have the hardest time with is how do I get out? If I have Bitcoins and want to turn it back into Canadian money, how does that work? Or does it work at all? Am I locked in? Can I only buy tech items on a couple websites that support it?
Hate to be the pessimist but surely this is easily abusable? From the way you described the process of sending money from a wallet to another, there is likely some way of using a botnet or something of the sort to run through your site, create a wallet, send to a central wallet, repeat thousands of times?
Sneaky advertisement. I'm just curious and before I realize it, I gave them my facebook ID and spammed my friends. Could work. I mean I won't spam my friends but hey, facebook is evil, so why not make the facebook-experience for everybody just a little worse and nag them with something actually cool.
Uhm, pardon? They "recommend" coinbase to claim the 500µBTC in my wallet but don't let me give them just any other receiving address? So for me the 2nd screen where they say they give me 500µBTC is a lie and they are scammers.
WTF?? Ok, so they forced me to go to coinbase to claim my money which according to other posts here does not work. So I started over again and checked the charity addresses they show which are actually not related to any charity neither do they get any donations in the progress.
(4) A wallet is a computer file which holds Bitcoins. Bitcoins are sent between wallets; each wallet is represented by a Bitcoin address.
The simplifications in this explanation are ultimately damaging.
A real wallet does "hold" cash, but a Bitcoin "wallet" only holds keys & relevant history information. (It would make as much or more sense to say the balance is actually "held" by the globally replicated network.)
A "Bitcoin wallet" is not just (or even mainly) a "file", but the active software which gives you the power to spend your balances. It is atypical (and against best practice) for a "Bitcoin wallet" to be represented by a (single, distinct) Bitcoin address.
Confusion over these points have cost a lot of early adopters a lot of Bitcoins, to theft or complete destruction.
(Personally I think the very term "wallet" should be discarded, because the notions of 'physical containment' and reification-in-a-single-place that creates are counterproductive. Perhaps it's too late to fix that, though.)
Hey everyone, we're currently experiencing a security breach which has resulted in us temporarily freezing Bitcoin transactions. Because of this, claiming your wallet at the end will not work. We hope to have this fixed in the next hour. Thank you all for your patience.
As far as I can tell, there's no way to claim the remaining bitcoins at the end of this without creating a new coinbase account, even if you already have one.
Given that coinbase pays for referrals, that makes sense, but it nonetheless seems tacky.
45 comments
[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 68.6 ms ] threadI got a 500 Internal Server Error when I clicked to sign up for Coinbase though (http://trybtc.com/ajax/coinbaseregister). My account still got created and I managed to get it back by requesting a password reset from Coinbase.
If i could buy bitcoin with my CC online like i can pay for anything else with my CC online, then there'd be a lower barrier of entry.
[0]: https://blockchain.info/wallet/deposit-pingit
There are a number of services that will be opening their doors in the coming months that will lower the barriers to fiat <--> btc conversion.
Sell, not buy. There's no obvious risk to buying BTC with PayPal, if anyone is foolish enough to sell them that way.
When buying anything else with bitcoin, it's generally hard to resell the item, and make your money back. With the amount of credit card fraud, buying bitcoins with a stolen credit card would mean sites offering this service would have too many chargebacks, and they would have to charge a 5% fee on top of the 3% VISA already takes. Few people are going to want to pay an 8% markup on money. Money has a very definite price, they're not like other goods. You can see that you're paying a hefty markup, and people don't like that.
Bitstamp allows you to buy bitcoins by wiring money to them: https://www.bitstamp.net/help/how-to-buy/
It might be me, but I really don't see why wiring money is so hard. I just log into my online banking site and set it up, takes a couple of minutes.
I recently set up a US bank account at Wells Fargo. Today I needed to pay someone (in the US) from it, and after fruitlessly searching for a way to transfer money to another account was told by customer support that the only solution was to do a wire transfer. At a cost of $35 and having to visit a branch to set this up.
They did have something called SurePay that involved sending someone an email or SMS message, but my beneficiary is a corporate so this isn't really an option. SurePay also seems to be limited to very small amounts.
Given this is free and simple to do in every other country I've banked in (NZ, Aus, UK and Canada), I'm still suspicious that I'm missing a something on the internet banking website. Any suggestions?
One issue is that the sign up and claim link to register with Coinbase seems to be be stuck, or else is taking over a minute. (Edit: still got the email from Coinbase)
How have reactions been from people who aren't already familiar with Bitcoin?
Reactions from newcomers are almost all positive. They like the interactivity, graphics, and ease of use. Theres plenty of negative feedback from BTC pros when it comes to how we oversimplify technical details (these are all intentional), but I believe this is essential to onboarding people who aren't familiar with BTC.
I'm using Safari 6.0. If anyone can remember one of those services that captures machine information I'd be happy to use one and post that here.
I'm sure a lot of people will do exactly the same. You might want to not give out the 500 uBTC so easily / fast, I doubt much of that will ever be used.
Another solution is to update the donate screen to be donating all 500 of it, that way it's completely used up by the end of the demo.
Sometimes you'll need to go through some hoops to verify your identity, and you'll likely end up getting a bank transfer (as opposed to PayPal, etc).
No thanks.
I would say this is fishyfish.
The simplifications in this explanation are ultimately damaging.
A real wallet does "hold" cash, but a Bitcoin "wallet" only holds keys & relevant history information. (It would make as much or more sense to say the balance is actually "held" by the globally replicated network.)
A "Bitcoin wallet" is not just (or even mainly) a "file", but the active software which gives you the power to spend your balances. It is atypical (and against best practice) for a "Bitcoin wallet" to be represented by a (single, distinct) Bitcoin address.
Confusion over these points have cost a lot of early adopters a lot of Bitcoins, to theft or complete destruction.
(Personally I think the very term "wallet" should be discarded, because the notions of 'physical containment' and reification-in-a-single-place that creates are counterproductive. Perhaps it's too late to fix that, though.)
You don't have that much - please visit the Buy/Sell page to add more funds to your account..
Any Suggestions?
Given that coinbase pays for referrals, that makes sense, but it nonetheless seems tacky.