6 ms·

Pay for Uber with Bitcoin

103 points by jschwartz11 11y ago

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
pajop 11y ago
Used this yesterday and today here in the Philippines! This is an awesome workaround because only 3% of Filipinos have credit cards https://www.techinasia.com/is-southeast-asia-ready-for-online-payments/ https://www.techinasia.com/is-southeast-asia-ready-for-onlin...
jerguismi 11y ago
Awesome, and works very smoothly. I really hope that uber won't ban it. Or even better, I really hope that uber would implement a system where you would be able to convert bitcoins directly to uber credit :)
- ljk 11y ago
  is there a reason why uber would want to ban it?
  - jerguismi 11y ago
    Just FYI, Uber removed bitcoinbuilders account couple of days ago. So, it was too good to be true...
  - jerguismi 11y ago
    Regulation, KYC/AML laws. Brand/image reasons. I don't know.
    - josu 11y ago
      KYC/AML law only apply to financial institutions.
      - aianus 11y ago
        That's not true. If you're, say, a car dealership and Walter White comes in with $50,000 cash looking to buy a car, you are required to file a Currency Transaction Report with the federal government.
        josu 11y ago
        Sorry, you are totally right, I was meaning to write a longer comment mentioning the exceptions outside of the financial world.
  - elif 11y ago
    I can think of two cases. - the first time there was a confusing instance of chargeback/dispute resolution.. it's easier to say "this is a TOS violation" than to "figure it out" - if the total amount coming from this account makes different taxes/regulations apply that aren't beneficial to uber
    - ljk 11y ago
      good points, thanks!
- Rmilb 11y ago
  Uber uses Braintree for payment processing[1]. Braintree already has integration with Coinbase[2]. I assume that bitcoin transfers being push (instead of pull like credit cards) is the reason they haven't activated it. 1. https://www.braintreepayments.com/case-studies/uber https://www.braintreepayments.com/case-studies/uber 2. https://www.braintreepayments.com/features/coinbase https://www.braintreepayments.com/features/coinbase
  - jerguismi 11y ago
    Uber already has "uber credit" system, for example promotions where you get $10 in your uber account. They could very trivially just add option, where you could add uber credit to your account with bitcoin (or any other push-only payment method, for example cash via coupons).
    - aarkling 11y ago
      Yeah but that goes against their "press a button for a taxi" philosophy.
  - aarkling 11y ago
    Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe you can make pulls from coinable wallets provided you have enough money in there.
noobie 11y ago
This will work greatly in India, most of my Indian friends say that most Indians don't have credit cards/prefer to pay with cash.
- xasos 11y ago
  Doesn't Uber India have cash payments?http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/11/uber-is-testing-cash-payments-in-hyderabad-india/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/11/uber-is-testing-cash-paymen...
  - mikeyouse 11y ago
    Yep.. http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/21/uber-gets-serious-about-cash-payments-in-india/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/21/uber-gets-serious-about-cas... And the Uber design post about how they made it work (in broad terms); https://medium.com/uber-design/designing-the-uber-cash-experience-649a2749b324 https://medium.com/uber-design/designing-the-uber-cash-exper...
  - wehadfun 11y ago
    How does U get their cut?
- mynameisvlad 11y ago
  Which Uber already supports. There was a thread on this yesterday by the Uber Design team: https://medium.com/uber-design/designing-the-uber-cash-experience-649a2749b324 https://medium.com/uber-design/designing-the-uber-cash-exper...
- aianus 11y ago
  Why would they prefer to pay with cash if they had a credit card?
bosdev 11y ago
I wonder what happens if you try to charge them for a ride which costs more than you have in your account. They require a $25 balance, but you can certainly go on much more expensive rides.
- jerguismi 11y ago
  The bitcoinbuilder option will automatically disappear, when your balance goes below certain amount. I would guess they would ban accounts which do that permanently. Anyway, there probably are lots of users who are very happy to use this system fairly, such as me.
djhn 11y ago
This is as close to a frictionless bitcoin transaction (at least in situ) as I've seen yet in the context of useful, frequent payments.
yjgyhj 11y ago
That is super cool, and has the coolest website for it.
Animats 11y ago
Anonymous business. No street address. Not in Dun and Bradstreet. "Private registration" domain. And they want you to deposit money with them. Yeah, right.
- vonklaus 11y ago
  > Anonymous business. No street address. Not in Dun and Bradstreet. "Private registration" domain. This will be more and more common and isn't a bad thing. None of those provide any real safeguards and frankly, private domain registration is pretty common. I wouldn't dump > a half weeks paycheck in there, but measuring risk and reputation will no longer be a simple BBB or Dun and Bradstreet lookup.
  - jegutman 11y ago
    "None of those provide any real safeguards". Don't you feel like this is an overstatement? Like if Microsoft commits a fraud I can sue Microsoft. Like yes it's possible that in the future these safeguards wont' be available, but having real legal entities with known individuals you can have a trust based relationship in society is of tremendous value. Knowing that your counter-party in a transaction has repetitional risk is definitely beneficial.
    - snogglethorpe 11y ago
      ... and frankly, at least in a country with a stable legal system, it's a slight bit of comfort to know that if all else fails (hopefully it never reaches that point of course), the police can go and arrest somebody that caused us harm, and/or seize their assets.
  - awch 11y ago
    I agree. I'm curious, however, to know what the D&B replacement will be for these types of operations in the future. I believe CoinsSource provided a trust index for altcoin developers at one point [0], and it looks like Bitrated has a web-of-trust-based system for bitcoin-denominated transactions [1]. [0] https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/cryptocurrency-trust-index-demands-developers/ https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/cryptocurrency-trust-index-d... [1] https://www.bitrated.com/ https://www.bitrated.com/
athenot 11y ago
It's Uber for Bitcoin! Oops, I mean Bitcoin for Uber! Wait no, it's like Paypal for Bitcoin for Uber... These analogies are really messing with me. :)
ShotgunSnipist 11y ago
This website is really ugly. I wish they had put some time into at least making it look nice.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
bduerst 11y ago
I guess don't get the problem that this is solving. Isn't Uber rolling out a cash option?
- spectrum1234 11y ago
  Using bitcoin to buy things. Obviously?
- zhoujianfu 11y ago
  I think that was only for a few cities in India? This works everywhere uber works. Today!
abrkn 11y ago
Awesome service! I've already used this for four rides: https://i.gyazo.com/b6ba0bd02566eb7eb54781411b322bbd.png https://i.gyazo.com/b6ba0bd02566eb7eb54781411b322bbd.png
jron 11y ago
Bitcoin Builder started out as a way to trade against MtGox's internal ledger when they halted withdraws. Users could effectively bet on MtGox's future by using privately held bitcoins to trade with users wanting to sell their "Gox coins" at a fraction of the market price. Anyone that sold their Gox coins for less than 100% market value made out far better than those that didn't. It was a wild idea that basically created a functional market for the greedy and the desperate. I'm sure millions flowed though the site during its short lived existence. Congrats on the new idea, Josh.
- zhoujianfu 11y ago
  Thanks jron!
nnx 11y ago
Really nice workaround until Uber accepts Bitcoin itself. My only concern: Does your rides and personal information (eg. name and phone number) become available to Bitcoin Builder through the Uber Business backend?
- fpgaminer 11y ago
  Good point. According to Uber's website: > Your company will see trip information about rides that were charged to their Uber for Business account, including pickup location and destination, product type, time of day, and duration.
  - zhoujianfu 11y ago
    Your name and phone number don't get revealed, but yeah, like Uber says, they do give us the information above. I can promise we don't do anything with it?
nnx 11y ago
Really nice workaround until Uber accepts Bitcoin itself. My only concern: Does your rides and personal information (eg. name and phone number) become available to Bitcoin Builder through the Uber Business backend?
fpgaminer 11y ago
I don't see a mention of how much the service costs; what fees they charge. Perhaps that becomes transparent after creating account, but it's probably important information to have immediately available.
- zhoujianfu 11y ago
  Ah, that's because there are no fees! But, we should probably make that clear!

103 points by jschwartz11 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

pajop 11y ago

Used this yesterday and today here in the Philippines! This is an awesome workaround because only 3% of Filipinos have credit cards https://www.techinasia.com/is-southeast-asia-ready-for-online-payments/ https://www.techinasia.com/is-southeast-asia-ready-for-onlin...

jerguismi 11y ago

Awesome, and works very smoothly. I really hope that uber won't ban it. Or even better, I really hope that uber would implement a system where you would be able to convert bitcoins directly to uber credit :)

ljk 11y ago
is there a reason why uber would want to ban it?
- jerguismi 11y ago
  Just FYI, Uber removed bitcoinbuilders account couple of days ago. So, it was too good to be true...
- jerguismi 11y ago
  Regulation, KYC/AML laws. Brand/image reasons. I don't know.
  - josu 11y ago
    KYC/AML law only apply to financial institutions.
    - aianus 11y ago
      That's not true. If you're, say, a car dealership and Walter White comes in with $50,000 cash looking to buy a car, you are required to file a Currency Transaction Report with the federal government.
      - josu 11y ago
        Sorry, you are totally right, I was meaning to write a longer comment mentioning the exceptions outside of the financial world.
- elif 11y ago
  I can think of two cases. - the first time there was a confusing instance of chargeback/dispute resolution.. it's easier to say "this is a TOS violation" than to "figure it out" - if the total amount coming from this account makes different taxes/regulations apply that aren't beneficial to uber
  - ljk 11y ago
    good points, thanks!
Rmilb 11y ago
Uber uses Braintree for payment processing[1]. Braintree already has integration with Coinbase[2]. I assume that bitcoin transfers being push (instead of pull like credit cards) is the reason they haven't activated it. 1. https://www.braintreepayments.com/case-studies/uber https://www.braintreepayments.com/case-studies/uber 2. https://www.braintreepayments.com/features/coinbase https://www.braintreepayments.com/features/coinbase
- jerguismi 11y ago
  Uber already has "uber credit" system, for example promotions where you get $10 in your uber account. They could very trivially just add option, where you could add uber credit to your account with bitcoin (or any other push-only payment method, for example cash via coupons).
  - aarkling 11y ago
    Yeah but that goes against their "press a button for a taxi" philosophy.
- aarkling 11y ago
  Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe you can make pulls from coinable wallets provided you have enough money in there.

noobie 11y ago

This will work greatly in India, most of my Indian friends say that most Indians don't have credit cards/prefer to pay with cash.

xasos 11y ago
Doesn't Uber India have cash payments?http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/11/uber-is-testing-cash-payments-in-hyderabad-india/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/11/uber-is-testing-cash-paymen...
- mikeyouse 11y ago
  Yep.. http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/21/uber-gets-serious-about-cash-payments-in-india/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/21/uber-gets-serious-about-cas... And the Uber design post about how they made it work (in broad terms); https://medium.com/uber-design/designing-the-uber-cash-experience-649a2749b324 https://medium.com/uber-design/designing-the-uber-cash-exper...
- wehadfun 11y ago
  How does U get their cut?
mynameisvlad 11y ago
Which Uber already supports. There was a thread on this yesterday by the Uber Design team: https://medium.com/uber-design/designing-the-uber-cash-experience-649a2749b324 https://medium.com/uber-design/designing-the-uber-cash-exper...
aianus 11y ago
Why would they prefer to pay with cash if they had a credit card?

bosdev 11y ago

I wonder what happens if you try to charge them for a ride which costs more than you have in your account. They require a $25 balance, but you can certainly go on much more expensive rides.

jerguismi 11y ago
The bitcoinbuilder option will automatically disappear, when your balance goes below certain amount. I would guess they would ban accounts which do that permanently. Anyway, there probably are lots of users who are very happy to use this system fairly, such as me.

djhn 11y ago

This is as close to a frictionless bitcoin transaction (at least in situ) as I've seen yet in the context of useful, frequent payments.

yjgyhj 11y ago

That is super cool, and has the coolest website for it.

Animats 11y ago

Anonymous business. No street address. Not in Dun and Bradstreet. "Private registration" domain. And they want you to deposit money with them. Yeah, right.

vonklaus 11y ago
> Anonymous business. No street address. Not in Dun and Bradstreet. "Private registration" domain. This will be more and more common and isn't a bad thing. None of those provide any real safeguards and frankly, private domain registration is pretty common. I wouldn't dump > a half weeks paycheck in there, but measuring risk and reputation will no longer be a simple BBB or Dun and Bradstreet lookup.
- jegutman 11y ago
  "None of those provide any real safeguards". Don't you feel like this is an overstatement? Like if Microsoft commits a fraud I can sue Microsoft. Like yes it's possible that in the future these safeguards wont' be available, but having real legal entities with known individuals you can have a trust based relationship in society is of tremendous value. Knowing that your counter-party in a transaction has repetitional risk is definitely beneficial.
  - snogglethorpe 11y ago
    ... and frankly, at least in a country with a stable legal system, it's a slight bit of comfort to know that if all else fails (hopefully it never reaches that point of course), the police can go and arrest somebody that caused us harm, and/or seize their assets.
- awch 11y ago
  I agree. I'm curious, however, to know what the D&B replacement will be for these types of operations in the future. I believe CoinsSource provided a trust index for altcoin developers at one point [0], and it looks like Bitrated has a web-of-trust-based system for bitcoin-denominated transactions [1]. [0] https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/cryptocurrency-trust-index-demands-developers/ https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/cryptocurrency-trust-index-d... [1] https://www.bitrated.com/ https://www.bitrated.com/

athenot 11y ago

It's Uber for Bitcoin! Oops, I mean Bitcoin for Uber! Wait no, it's like Paypal for Bitcoin for Uber... These analogies are really messing with me. :)

ShotgunSnipist 11y ago

This website is really ugly. I wish they had put some time into at least making it look nice.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

bduerst 11y ago

I guess don't get the problem that this is solving. Isn't Uber rolling out a cash option?

spectrum1234 11y ago
Using bitcoin to buy things. Obviously?
zhoujianfu 11y ago
I think that was only for a few cities in India? This works everywhere uber works. Today!

abrkn 11y ago

Awesome service! I've already used this for four rides: https://i.gyazo.com/b6ba0bd02566eb7eb54781411b322bbd.png https://i.gyazo.com/b6ba0bd02566eb7eb54781411b322bbd.png

jron 11y ago

Bitcoin Builder started out as a way to trade against MtGox's internal ledger when they halted withdraws. Users could effectively bet on MtGox's future by using privately held bitcoins to trade with users wanting to sell their "Gox coins" at a fraction of the market price. Anyone that sold their Gox coins for less than 100% market value made out far better than those that didn't. It was a wild idea that basically created a functional market for the greedy and the desperate. I'm sure millions flowed though the site during its short lived existence. Congrats on the new idea, Josh.

zhoujianfu 11y ago
Thanks jron!

nnx 11y ago

Really nice workaround until Uber accepts Bitcoin itself. My only concern: Does your rides and personal information (eg. name and phone number) become available to Bitcoin Builder through the Uber Business backend?

fpgaminer 11y ago
Good point. According to Uber's website: > Your company will see trip information about rides that were charged to their Uber for Business account, including pickup location and destination, product type, time of day, and duration.
- zhoujianfu 11y ago
  Your name and phone number don't get revealed, but yeah, like Uber says, they do give us the information above. I can promise we don't do anything with it?

nnx 11y ago

fpgaminer 11y ago

I don't see a mention of how much the service costs; what fees they charge. Perhaps that becomes transparent after creating account, but it's probably important information to have immediately available.

zhoujianfu 11y ago
Ah, that's because there are no fees! But, we should probably make that clear!