10 ms·

WordPress.com accepts Bitcoin

287 points by skeltoac 14y ago

Munksgaard 14y ago
On trying to access bitpay.com I got redirected to this: http://www.homeimprovement.com/bitpay.com/ http://www.homeimprovement.com/bitpay.com/ ? Edit: Aha, the article links to http://https//bitpay.com/ http://https//bitpay.com/ instead of https://bitpay.com https://bitpay.com Edit2: Aaaand it's fixed. Disregard this post.
- Pwnguinz 14y ago
  https://bitpay.com https://bitpay.com is working for me.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
fsiefken 14y ago
With Wordpress accepting BTC, Reddit considering it and a complete hardware store http://www.bitcoinstore.com/ http://www.bitcoinstore.com/ bitcoin comes of age, now trading at 11 USD.
- Steko 14y ago
  Totally come of age. It's been literally months since the top US exchange has been hacked.
  - cwkoss 14y ago
    Hasn't it been over a year since the MtGox hack?
    - LCoder 14y ago
      MtGox is actually out of Japan. He is referring to the bitfloor hack which is based in the US.
  - mxxx 14y ago
    bitfloor was hardly the top US exchange. it was extremely promising but their volume was dwarfed by others.
pelle 14y ago
BitCoin's price seems to be stabilizing a bit, which means it's less deflationary. This I think is whats starting to encourage people to use it for commerce instead of just holding. It will be interesting to see what happens to these initiatives next time there is either an upward or downward move in price.
- mtgx 14y ago
  The bigger the economy behind it starts to become, the less it will be affected by speculation-based transactions, too. So in the future I doubt we'll see crashes like the one from $30 to $10 again. Does anyone know if Paypal gave a reason for blocking Bitcoin? Is it simply because it can be a competitor in the future? Oh well, more market for Coinbase and the others then.
  - cwkoss 14y ago
    I think they have a general policy against using PayPal to exchange digital currencies? The _real_ reason is that lots of scammers used paypal to buy bitcoins, and would then initiate a chargeback. High chargeback rates are painful for payment processors, and lead them to dropping those merchants with the highest rates.
  - dangrossman 14y ago
    Fraud issues aside, I'd be surprised if there weren't regulatory concerns, especially considering how many countries PayPal is licensed in. Currency exchange might not be covered by their money transmission and banking licenses in all regions. The U.S. federal government has shut down other "virtual currency" companies in the past as well.
- peterjancelis 14y ago
  Being deflationary is a feature, not a bug. But I agree bitcoin needs to stabilize in its variance even more so than it already has.
nowarninglabel 14y ago
This is rather exciting, as I've written in the past, the main problem with us not being able to adopt Bitcoin is the legal uncertainty surrounding it. With Wordpress plunging full-steam ahead, that question should get resolved in the next few months.
- javert 14y ago
  > as I've written in the past link?
  - mvleming 14y ago
    I'd like to know as well. And for that matter, is there any interesting material out there that talks about Bitcoin?
    - javert 14y ago
      Yes. For example, both the FBI and the ECB have written on bitcoin in a way that acknowledges it as a useful medium of exchange. What are you looking for? https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page has a lot of good info on a lot of stuff. reddit.com/r/bitcoin is a pretty helpful place to ask casual questions.
      - mvleming 14y ago
        I'd love to read on thoughts about how a digital currency will change economic policies, the market, and just things in general. If its decentralized (i.e. the currency is not distributed from a central bank), then presumably you can't deflate or inflate the value of the currency in order to encourage economic growth (am I getting this right?). Also I'm wondering what Bitcoin means in terms of banks. If I don't need a physical safe to hold my money anymore, then obviously banks will be forced to go digital as well right? And what does that mean for financial instruments? How does a digital currency play in with high-frequency trading? So many questions. Bitcoin is really making re-evaluate a lot of things. I think I've given you a sense of what I'm looking for.
pdog 14y ago
For those wondering what you can actually pay for, here's the store for premium upgrades: http://store.wordpress.com/premium-upgrades/pro-bundle/ http://store.wordpress.com/premium-upgrades/pro-bundle/ -- Here's what you can buy: Pro Bundle (all upgrades in a single purchase) Custom Domains Custom Design Premium Themes VideoPress Extra Storage Ad-Free Guided Transfer Offsite Redirect
- westi 14y ago
  Thanks. Actually, the Pro Bundle doesn't include all our other upgrades just a selection of our most popular upgrades at a discounted price. The Pro Bundle includes: A Custom Domain (Either a new one or map one you already own). The Custom Design Upgrade - Fonts, Colours, CSS. VideoPress video hosting. Makes your site Ad-Free. An extra 10GB of storage for your images/videos. You can see the full store listing here: http://store.wordpress.com/premium-upgrades/ http://store.wordpress.com/premium-upgrades/
alokhar 14y ago
Would Bitcoin be considered another currency to stand alongside the USD and the CAD?
- mtgx 14y ago
  And the Euro. But yes, I think so. My only concern is that if it becomes a 1 trillion $ worth of economy, you'll be talking in very small decimals of Bitcoin. Everything will cost like 0.000000x Bitcoins. I think this will be a very poor UX for most people. Unless they give the smallest decimal another name (Bits, coins, nanocoins, whatever), and then everyone deals in nanocoins, rather than Bitcoins. I wish the designer of Bitcoin would've thought about this before creating it. Maybe he just didn't think Bitcoin will become that popular, and become orders of magnitude more valuable than a dollar in a more distant future.
  - cryowaffle 14y ago
    Actually Satoshi discusses this in his original paper many years back. People will just transact in a smaller unit, like micro bitcoins. The official client has the ability to display your balance in a smaller unit. It all works quite well.
  - wmf 14y ago
    Like IPv4, Bitcoin is an experiment that got out of hand before its flaws could be found and fixed.
  - Raphael 14y ago
    Metric prefixes work just fine. milli, micro, nano, pico, femto, atto...
  - GaryRowe 14y ago
    Already in place: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#What_do_I_call_the_various_denominations_of_bitcoins.3F https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#What_do_I_call_the_various_de...
tosh 14y ago
Very interesting to see a major brand starting to accept Bitcoin. I guess that's a huge next step. So where are the reliable exchanges right now? Haven't really looked into BTC since the Mt Gox incident. Also http://bitcoin.com/ http://bitcoin.com/ looks way more accessible and polished compared to last year. What are the major obstacles for mainstream adoption?
- javert 14y ago
  > So where are the reliable exchanges right now? MtGox is a really good exhange. Bitfloor is also really good and seems to be run by great people (plus it's located in NYC instead of Japan, which I think is nice), but you have to be willing to forgive them for a security breach in the recent past. (Never leave large amount of BTC in an exchange.) CampBX is another good option, they are located in Atlanta, GA. Sorry if I've left out anyone's pet exchange. A (generally) better way to acquire bitcoins for spending (as opposed to speculation/wealth storage) is to use bitinstant. You can literally buy bitcoins at Wal-Mart and CVS (which are super ubiquitous where I'm from) using bitinstant. edit: apparently you can also buy them using coinbase (a YC company). I didn't realize you could do that until someone else mentioned it, since they advertise themselves as a hosted bitcoin wallet.
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    Is there a relationship between coinbase and blockchain.info? Even their websites look very similar.
    - javert 14y ago
      No relationship. They look similar because they both use an open source web gui tookit called Bootstrap. http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/ http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/
  - Steko 14y ago
    >> So where are the reliable exchanges right now? > MtGox ... > Bitfloor ... If this is the first two you come up with I'm guessing none of them are reliable.
beering 14y ago
Aren't there regulations around trade with certain countries? Can anybody speak to the issues around a US company accepting payments from people in countries that aren't too friendly with the US?
- jacquesm 14y ago
  How will you prove that you traded with a country, company or individual that is embargoed?
  - rprasad 14y ago
    You don't have to prove anything; that is the job of the prosecuting agency.
  - beering 14y ago
    Easy: some blogger in an embargoed country gains some notoriety, and then somebody else notices that they have a premium WP.com subscription. That's probably enough suspicious evidence to cause some headaches for the service provider.
- rprasad 14y ago
  There are some tax issues with receiving money from certain foreign countries ("terrorist" nations or "israel boycott" nations) that limits tax attributes related to income received from such nations, so you get taxed on such income but generally are limited in your ability to deduct expenses related to such income. Legally, there are some export laws that may apply, but those depend on the good or service being exchanged.
alenam 14y ago
lots on news this week n accpeting bitocoin! reddit is looking into this too! the world is shifting to bitcoin!! if it is indeed less inflationary/deflationary than we can just transfer USD into bitcoin on www.coinbase.com (which is pretty much paypal for bitcoin) - S12 YC company
- jacquesm 14y ago
  > the world is shifting to bitcoin!! I think that wins the prize for the most hyped remark on HN, ever. Really, the world has not shifted to bitcoin, it won't shift to bitcoin in the near future and possibly never. Bitcoins are interesting, a very nice implementation of the idea of a digital currency with some thought provoking possible consequences. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market), but it isn't a general currency at all, let alone that the world is switching to it. What you are seeing is that a few companies have caught on to using bitcoin as a way to promote themselves because 'accepting bitcoin' is a way to get free press. Can you get by for a month just spending bitcoin without any other resources than bitcoins at the beginning of the month, sufficient for a normal months' worth expenses? When you can go to your local greengrocer and buy an apple with bitcoin I'll cede to you that the world has indeed switched to bitcoin. Until then, it's neat but not quite there yet.
  - BladeMcCool 14y ago
    give it 20 years. bitcoin will be the worlds reserve currency.
    - jacques_chester 14y ago
      I'll take that bet. I'll accept payment of US$250 or €250, whichever is the higher value.
      - jacquesm 14y ago
        Will you take bitcoin ;) ?
Groxx 14y ago
Wow, that's big news. Now they just need a client that doesn't take days to download the block chain :| Seriously, I wonder if one of the bigger barriers to bitcoin adoption is the lame official application.
- javert 14y ago
  This is being worked on, but I don't know the details. However, for just spending coin, it's easier to use a hosted wallet like coinbase.com (a YC company). You don't need to run an actual bitcoin node yourself unless you're doing something beyond just using bitcoin for spending. (e.g. holding large sums for long periods of time, mining, building some service, etc.)
  - Groxx 14y ago
    Oh, definitely easier. But everyone links to the official client / a site which describes BitCoin and links to the official client. It's still a horrible experience for would-be users.
- pacpac 14y ago
  The future is here my brother: http://multibit.org/ http://multibit.org/ http://electrum.ecdsa.org/ http://electrum.ecdsa.org/
  - Groxx 14y ago
    Thanks! I haven't seen these before. Electrum looks interesting, due to simplicity. What does it mean by using a remote server though? Do they just use a single block chain remotely and tell you what your balance is for keys <a-z> ?
    - haarts 14y ago
      I'm not sure about the balance part, but I do know that they basically have the block chain on their server(s) and verified it's integrity. Still, now I have to trust some third party.
Breakthrough 14y ago
Muhuhahaha (evil laugh), and my parents thought I was crazy when I told them there was a new digital currency you kept in files, that had no inflation, was (almost) completely anonymous, and - get this - that it was real and traded on actual markets. When I started talking about Bitcoin mining, that was when they seriously thought I was going off the deep end. And really, most non-tech-savvy people would think the idea was crazy. Crazy enough that it's genius. I smile a little every time I see "Bitcoin Now Accepted Here". I personally don't use them, but the ideology behind the currency is fascinating and remarkable. Not to mention the credibility WordPress gives it (and hopefully soon, Reddit...).
- javert 14y ago
  ideology behind the currency is fascinating and remarkable I'm going to take the liberty to nit pick. There isn't any ideology behind bitcoin. It's just a protocol. Among existing serious bitcoin users, there's a pretty diverse range of political opinions (some of which I find pretty distasteful), plus disagreement on the actual merits and potential demerits of bitcoin.
  - wmf 14y ago
    Bitcoin does have a particular monetary policy coded into it, which can be seen as an ideology.
    - javert 14y ago
      "Monetary policy" and "ideology" are two distinct and separate concepts. I'm not even sure I would be in favor of labelling bitcoin as having a "monetary policy." Monetary policy describes governmental policy-making. The rules of the bitcon protocol are also unlike "policy" in that they can never change. I know I'm nit picking, but I think that it's really important to keep concepts clear and crisp. (There's a bit of ideology for you!)
      - nickpinkston 14y ago
        Well, I'm not sure picking nits is a good policy either ;-) (or am I picking one now?)
zhoutong 14y ago
Accepting Bitcoin is much easier than it was a year ago. At NameTerrific[1] we use Blockchain Wallet[2] to temporarily hold transactional funds. Whenever a customer places an order and chooses to pay by Bitcoin, we will use Blockchain API to generate a Bitcoin address for the invoice. After the customer pays, they can press a "Check Payment" button and then the system will simply check the balance of the Bitcoin address generated. If it's greater than or equal to the invoice balance, it's considered "paid". We keep a history of Bitcoin exchange rates (the NameTerrific rate) for tax purposes. All invoices have records of the applied BTC/USD exchange rate so they can be translated into fiat amounts in the books. For Australians, the GST is being accounted using the daily rate method (BTC/USD rate from the invoice, and daily AUD/USD rate from an official source). The wallet gets cleared every 10 BTC or so to prevent theft. [1]: https://www.nameterrific.com https://www.nameterrific.com [2]: https://blockchain.info/wallet/ https://blockchain.info/wallet/ EDIT: WordPress.com accepting Bitcoin is huge.
- fuckzhouttong 14y ago
  ZhoutTong IS A THIEF AND NAME TERRIFIC WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY
  - jlgreco 14y ago
    Care to provide some more information / collaborating evidence?
    - rorrr 14y ago
      His user account was created an hour ago. Ignore the troll.
    - fuckzhouttong 14y ago
      He robbed the bitcoinica customers and he'll rob you too https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0
merty 14y ago
For some reason, I always thought it was matter of time that Bitcoin would be declared illegal. People say different things regarding its legality so I will continue to stay away from it, at least for now. Though, I think Automattic wouldn't accept it as a form of payment if there was such a possibility. Is there anyone who can enlighten me about the legality of Bitcoin?
- ghshephard 14y ago
  With no central authority standing behind it's value, right now you are engaging in barter. What is the legality of barter in your jurisdiction?
- zhoutong 14y ago
  Bitcoin is an unregulated financial asset, similar to gold. The fact that it exists in digital form makes the whole situation much more complicated.
  - fuckzhouttong 14y ago
    fuck you you scammer https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0
- BladeMcCool 14y ago
  bitcoin is just ledger entries that can be retitled by cryptographic signature. its protected free speech.
dewiz 14y ago
quick question, regarding the people that can't buy Wordpress services with Paypal or credit card, how do they buy bitcoins?
- erikpukinskis 14y ago
  Mining, exchanging local currency for bitcoins locally, selling things for bitcoins.
- LaRakel 14y ago
  There are bitcoin exchanges using various methods, for example by SEPA bank transfer. I think many people without credit cards can use Paypal but don't want to.
- GaryRowe 14y ago
  Lots of choices here: http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/ http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/
thisismyname 14y ago
And now for Amazon...
- josephagoss 14y ago
  I know it doesn't matter, but I think its still kinda funny that revenue in one day on the Amazon store is more than the entire net worth of the whole Bitcoin network. This just means its early days for Bitcoin. I fear governments will present themselves as a major obstacle in the next 5 years. Lets hope i'm wrong, the idea of Bitcoin is really interesting (in a good way).
mrb 14y ago
Another recent news is stunning for Bitcoin, but somehow got unnoticed: A company pouring $1M+ to develop a 65nm Bitcoin mining chip: http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=69 http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=69
- taligent 14y ago
  What I don't understand is how this is stunning ? It just shows the fundamental lack of equality or fairness in the 'currency'.
  - mrb 14y ago
    This is not particular to Bitcoin. It is a basic economic principle that those with the most capital can invest to make the most returns (in this case investing in a chip). How is this unfair?
  - jlgreco 14y ago
    How so? If we were still on a gold standard, would investing in new mining techniques signal similar about our currency?
- javert 14y ago
  That endeavor may be "unknown" in general, but it is super well-known in the "Bitcoin community" and the subject of unending discussion/debate/conspiracy theories.
- smsm42 14y ago
  Personally, I like the idea of digital currency, but the knowledge that it is based on completely useless computations (gold at least has many practical applications and looks nice) annoys my programmer side. I know money do not have to be otherwise useful, but still the feeling is there.
  - Lerc 14y ago
    As far as I am aware, they are not completely useless computations. Isn't the model supposed to be that transactions are verified using calculations of effectively a tuned brute force method where the brute force needed is tuned to the power of the network. Tuning the difficulty means that no-one else can beat it to the brute force goal without having comparable computational power. In that sense the computation no less useless than any other cryptographic technique that has complexity to thwart brute force attacks. [I may be completely off base here, I wouldn't call myself a bitcoin expert, but this is how I perceived it]
joblessjunkie 14y ago
What will WordPress do with the Bitcoins they receive? Do they have business costs that can be paid with Bitcoins, or will they simply trade them for a "real" currency like USD?
- zhoutong 14y ago
  They use BitPay, which automatically converts them to USD.
  - fuckzhouttong 14y ago
    fucking scammer https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
nym 14y ago
If you are interested in buying bitcoins, please check out a guide I help maintain called "How do you buy bitcoins?". It's 100% free, and we are on a quest to provide custom guides for every country. It's really easy to buy bitcoins these days, especially in the United States. http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/ http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/
bbit 14y ago
Reddit next.
piokoch 14y ago
That's very interesting. There are two things, which seems to be crucial if Bitcoin will become more popular. - How banks would react? They would loose they power of creating money (which is good, since they create mostly sick kind of money - http://www.moneyasdebt.net http://www.moneyasdebt.net) - How goverments would react? Would they try to tax Bitcoin incomes, if yes, how to do this?
ridiculous_fish 14y ago
According to my understanding, the bitcoin economy is small enough that all clients can have a record of all transactions. Bitcoin was designed for a truly distributed model, but this aspect is untested in practice. It seems to me that the move from "everyone knows everything" to a truly distributed model entails a lot of risk, and it's possible that the protocol just may not work at this scale. Is this a reasonable concern?
lucb1e 14y ago
One of the addresses they (or bitpay) use: http://blockchain.info/address/1JDELvQTsa7fGo9BQHhvSVUiYzy3uRkTm2 http://blockchain.info/address/1JDELvQTsa7fGo9BQHhvSVUiYzy3u...
netcan 14y ago
Ideologically, bitcoin is a currency. But, apart from fringe speculators, ideologues & novelty seekers its gaining traction as a payment method. That's great because a better payment methody something we really need. A payment method for a world where computers exist. Credit cards, paypal and friends are doing this job terribly, inequitably, opaquely and at a high cost. For "card not present" transactions credit cards work like this: (1) a merchant tells CC company (through payment gateways) that a customer wants to pay them some amount (2) the credit card company says OK (or no) (3) If at any point in the next 6 months the customer demands that money back, they take it out of the merchants account. If this happens too often, they cut off the merchant's ability to accept credit cards. Step 3 puts the entire cost of fraud on the merchant. They then find their own way of minimizing it. There's the cost of the actual payment processing (2%-4%), the cost of fraud & the cost of preventing fraud. That's around 2.5%-10% of gross. In some cases it just completely prevents entire business categories. This also amounts to a pretty steep competency requirement just to accept payments. There are a lot of businesses and business categories that just don't exist because the basic infrastructure of the digital economy (money) is crap. We're basically using seashells.

287 points by skeltoac 14y ago

On trying to access bitpay.com I got redirected to this: http://www.homeimprovement.com/bitpay.com/ http://www.homeimprovement.com/bitpay.com/ ? Edit: Aha, the article links to http://https//bitpay.com/ http://https//bitpay.com/ instead of https://bitpay.com https://bitpay.com Edit2: Aaaand it's fixed. Disregard this post.

Pwnguinz 14y ago
https://bitpay.com https://bitpay.com is working for me.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

fsiefken 14y ago

With Wordpress accepting BTC, Reddit considering it and a complete hardware store http://www.bitcoinstore.com/ http://www.bitcoinstore.com/ bitcoin comes of age, now trading at 11 USD.

Steko 14y ago
Totally come of age. It's been literally months since the top US exchange has been hacked.
- cwkoss 14y ago
  Hasn't it been over a year since the MtGox hack?
  - LCoder 14y ago
    MtGox is actually out of Japan. He is referring to the bitfloor hack which is based in the US.
- mxxx 14y ago
  bitfloor was hardly the top US exchange. it was extremely promising but their volume was dwarfed by others.

pelle 14y ago

BitCoin's price seems to be stabilizing a bit, which means it's less deflationary. This I think is whats starting to encourage people to use it for commerce instead of just holding. It will be interesting to see what happens to these initiatives next time there is either an upward or downward move in price.

mtgx 14y ago
The bigger the economy behind it starts to become, the less it will be affected by speculation-based transactions, too. So in the future I doubt we'll see crashes like the one from $30 to $10 again. Does anyone know if Paypal gave a reason for blocking Bitcoin? Is it simply because it can be a competitor in the future? Oh well, more market for Coinbase and the others then.
- cwkoss 14y ago
  I think they have a general policy against using PayPal to exchange digital currencies? The _real_ reason is that lots of scammers used paypal to buy bitcoins, and would then initiate a chargeback. High chargeback rates are painful for payment processors, and lead them to dropping those merchants with the highest rates.
- dangrossman 14y ago
  Fraud issues aside, I'd be surprised if there weren't regulatory concerns, especially considering how many countries PayPal is licensed in. Currency exchange might not be covered by their money transmission and banking licenses in all regions. The U.S. federal government has shut down other "virtual currency" companies in the past as well.
peterjancelis 14y ago
Being deflationary is a feature, not a bug. But I agree bitcoin needs to stabilize in its variance even more so than it already has.

nowarninglabel 14y ago

This is rather exciting, as I've written in the past, the main problem with us not being able to adopt Bitcoin is the legal uncertainty surrounding it. With Wordpress plunging full-steam ahead, that question should get resolved in the next few months.

javert 14y ago
> as I've written in the past link?
- mvleming 14y ago
  I'd like to know as well. And for that matter, is there any interesting material out there that talks about Bitcoin?
  - javert 14y ago
    Yes. For example, both the FBI and the ECB have written on bitcoin in a way that acknowledges it as a useful medium of exchange. What are you looking for? https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page has a lot of good info on a lot of stuff. reddit.com/r/bitcoin is a pretty helpful place to ask casual questions.
    - mvleming 14y ago
      I'd love to read on thoughts about how a digital currency will change economic policies, the market, and just things in general. If its decentralized (i.e. the currency is not distributed from a central bank), then presumably you can't deflate or inflate the value of the currency in order to encourage economic growth (am I getting this right?). Also I'm wondering what Bitcoin means in terms of banks. If I don't need a physical safe to hold my money anymore, then obviously banks will be forced to go digital as well right? And what does that mean for financial instruments? How does a digital currency play in with high-frequency trading? So many questions. Bitcoin is really making re-evaluate a lot of things. I think I've given you a sense of what I'm looking for.

pdog 14y ago

For those wondering what you can actually pay for, here's the store for premium upgrades: http://store.wordpress.com/premium-upgrades/pro-bundle/ http://store.wordpress.com/premium-upgrades/pro-bundle/ -- Here's what you can buy: Pro Bundle (all upgrades in a single purchase) Custom Domains Custom Design Premium Themes VideoPress Extra Storage Ad-Free Guided Transfer Offsite Redirect

westi 14y ago
Thanks. Actually, the Pro Bundle doesn't include all our other upgrades just a selection of our most popular upgrades at a discounted price. The Pro Bundle includes: A Custom Domain (Either a new one or map one you already own). The Custom Design Upgrade - Fonts, Colours, CSS. VideoPress video hosting. Makes your site Ad-Free. An extra 10GB of storage for your images/videos. You can see the full store listing here: http://store.wordpress.com/premium-upgrades/ http://store.wordpress.com/premium-upgrades/

alokhar 14y ago

Would Bitcoin be considered another currency to stand alongside the USD and the CAD?

mtgx 14y ago
And the Euro. But yes, I think so. My only concern is that if it becomes a 1 trillion $ worth of economy, you'll be talking in very small decimals of Bitcoin. Everything will cost like 0.000000x Bitcoins. I think this will be a very poor UX for most people. Unless they give the smallest decimal another name (Bits, coins, nanocoins, whatever), and then everyone deals in nanocoins, rather than Bitcoins. I wish the designer of Bitcoin would've thought about this before creating it. Maybe he just didn't think Bitcoin will become that popular, and become orders of magnitude more valuable than a dollar in a more distant future.
- cryowaffle 14y ago
  Actually Satoshi discusses this in his original paper many years back. People will just transact in a smaller unit, like micro bitcoins. The official client has the ability to display your balance in a smaller unit. It all works quite well.
- wmf 14y ago
  Like IPv4, Bitcoin is an experiment that got out of hand before its flaws could be found and fixed.
- Raphael 14y ago
  Metric prefixes work just fine. milli, micro, nano, pico, femto, atto...
- GaryRowe 14y ago
  Already in place: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#What_do_I_call_the_various_denominations_of_bitcoins.3F https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#What_do_I_call_the_various_de...

tosh 14y ago

Very interesting to see a major brand starting to accept Bitcoin. I guess that's a huge next step. So where are the reliable exchanges right now? Haven't really looked into BTC since the Mt Gox incident. Also http://bitcoin.com/ http://bitcoin.com/ looks way more accessible and polished compared to last year. What are the major obstacles for mainstream adoption?

javert 14y ago
> So where are the reliable exchanges right now? MtGox is a really good exhange. Bitfloor is also really good and seems to be run by great people (plus it's located in NYC instead of Japan, which I think is nice), but you have to be willing to forgive them for a security breach in the recent past. (Never leave large amount of BTC in an exchange.) CampBX is another good option, they are located in Atlanta, GA. Sorry if I've left out anyone's pet exchange. A (generally) better way to acquire bitcoins for spending (as opposed to speculation/wealth storage) is to use bitinstant. You can literally buy bitcoins at Wal-Mart and CVS (which are super ubiquitous where I'm from) using bitinstant. edit: apparently you can also buy them using coinbase (a YC company). I didn't realize you could do that until someone else mentioned it, since they advertise themselves as a hosted bitcoin wallet.
- StavrosK 14y ago
  Is there a relationship between coinbase and blockchain.info? Even their websites look very similar.
  - javert 14y ago
    No relationship. They look similar because they both use an open source web gui tookit called Bootstrap. http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/ http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/
- Steko 14y ago
  >> So where are the reliable exchanges right now? > MtGox ... > Bitfloor ... If this is the first two you come up with I'm guessing none of them are reliable.

beering 14y ago

Aren't there regulations around trade with certain countries? Can anybody speak to the issues around a US company accepting payments from people in countries that aren't too friendly with the US?

jacquesm 14y ago
How will you prove that you traded with a country, company or individual that is embargoed?
- rprasad 14y ago
  You don't have to prove anything; that is the job of the prosecuting agency.
- beering 14y ago
  Easy: some blogger in an embargoed country gains some notoriety, and then somebody else notices that they have a premium WP.com subscription. That's probably enough suspicious evidence to cause some headaches for the service provider.
rprasad 14y ago
There are some tax issues with receiving money from certain foreign countries ("terrorist" nations or "israel boycott" nations) that limits tax attributes related to income received from such nations, so you get taxed on such income but generally are limited in your ability to deduct expenses related to such income. Legally, there are some export laws that may apply, but those depend on the good or service being exchanged.

alenam 14y ago

lots on news this week n accpeting bitocoin! reddit is looking into this too! the world is shifting to bitcoin!! if it is indeed less inflationary/deflationary than we can just transfer USD into bitcoin on www.coinbase.com (which is pretty much paypal for bitcoin) - S12 YC company

jacquesm 14y ago
> the world is shifting to bitcoin!! I think that wins the prize for the most hyped remark on HN, ever. Really, the world has not shifted to bitcoin, it won't shift to bitcoin in the near future and possibly never. Bitcoins are interesting, a very nice implementation of the idea of a digital currency with some thought provoking possible consequences. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market), but it isn't a general currency at all, let alone that the world is switching to it. What you are seeing is that a few companies have caught on to using bitcoin as a way to promote themselves because 'accepting bitcoin' is a way to get free press. Can you get by for a month just spending bitcoin without any other resources than bitcoins at the beginning of the month, sufficient for a normal months' worth expenses? When you can go to your local greengrocer and buy an apple with bitcoin I'll cede to you that the world has indeed switched to bitcoin. Until then, it's neat but not quite there yet.
- BladeMcCool 14y ago
  give it 20 years. bitcoin will be the worlds reserve currency.
  - jacques_chester 14y ago
    I'll take that bet. I'll accept payment of US$250 or €250, whichever is the higher value.
    - jacquesm 14y ago
      Will you take bitcoin ;) ?

Groxx 14y ago

Wow, that's big news. Now they just need a client that doesn't take days to download the block chain :| Seriously, I wonder if one of the bigger barriers to bitcoin adoption is the lame official application.

javert 14y ago
This is being worked on, but I don't know the details. However, for just spending coin, it's easier to use a hosted wallet like coinbase.com (a YC company). You don't need to run an actual bitcoin node yourself unless you're doing something beyond just using bitcoin for spending. (e.g. holding large sums for long periods of time, mining, building some service, etc.)
- Groxx 14y ago
  Oh, definitely easier. But everyone links to the official client / a site which describes BitCoin and links to the official client. It's still a horrible experience for would-be users.
pacpac 14y ago
The future is here my brother: http://multibit.org/ http://multibit.org/ http://electrum.ecdsa.org/ http://electrum.ecdsa.org/
- Groxx 14y ago
  Thanks! I haven't seen these before. Electrum looks interesting, due to simplicity. What does it mean by using a remote server though? Do they just use a single block chain remotely and tell you what your balance is for keys <a-z> ?
  - haarts 14y ago
    I'm not sure about the balance part, but I do know that they basically have the block chain on their server(s) and verified it's integrity. Still, now I have to trust some third party.

Breakthrough 14y ago

Muhuhahaha (evil laugh), and my parents thought I was crazy when I told them there was a new digital currency you kept in files, that had no inflation, was (almost) completely anonymous, and - get this - that it was real and traded on actual markets. When I started talking about Bitcoin mining, that was when they seriously thought I was going off the deep end. And really, most non-tech-savvy people would think the idea was crazy. Crazy enough that it's genius. I smile a little every time I see "Bitcoin Now Accepted Here". I personally don't use them, but the ideology behind the currency is fascinating and remarkable. Not to mention the credibility WordPress gives it (and hopefully soon, Reddit...).

javert 14y ago
ideology behind the currency is fascinating and remarkable I'm going to take the liberty to nit pick. There isn't any ideology behind bitcoin. It's just a protocol. Among existing serious bitcoin users, there's a pretty diverse range of political opinions (some of which I find pretty distasteful), plus disagreement on the actual merits and potential demerits of bitcoin.
- wmf 14y ago
  Bitcoin does have a particular monetary policy coded into it, which can be seen as an ideology.
  - javert 14y ago
    "Monetary policy" and "ideology" are two distinct and separate concepts. I'm not even sure I would be in favor of labelling bitcoin as having a "monetary policy." Monetary policy describes governmental policy-making. The rules of the bitcon protocol are also unlike "policy" in that they can never change. I know I'm nit picking, but I think that it's really important to keep concepts clear and crisp. (There's a bit of ideology for you!)
    - nickpinkston 14y ago
      Well, I'm not sure picking nits is a good policy either ;-) (or am I picking one now?)

zhoutong 14y ago

Accepting Bitcoin is much easier than it was a year ago. At NameTerrific[1] we use Blockchain Wallet[2] to temporarily hold transactional funds. Whenever a customer places an order and chooses to pay by Bitcoin, we will use Blockchain API to generate a Bitcoin address for the invoice. After the customer pays, they can press a "Check Payment" button and then the system will simply check the balance of the Bitcoin address generated. If it's greater than or equal to the invoice balance, it's considered "paid". We keep a history of Bitcoin exchange rates (the NameTerrific rate) for tax purposes. All invoices have records of the applied BTC/USD exchange rate so they can be translated into fiat amounts in the books. For Australians, the GST is being accounted using the daily rate method (BTC/USD rate from the invoice, and daily AUD/USD rate from an official source). The wallet gets cleared every 10 BTC or so to prevent theft. [1]: https://www.nameterrific.com https://www.nameterrific.com [2]: https://blockchain.info/wallet/ https://blockchain.info/wallet/ EDIT: WordPress.com accepting Bitcoin is huge.

fuckzhouttong 14y ago
ZhoutTong IS A THIEF AND NAME TERRIFIC WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY
- jlgreco 14y ago
  Care to provide some more information / collaborating evidence?
  - rorrr 14y ago
    His user account was created an hour ago. Ignore the troll.
  - fuckzhouttong 14y ago
    He robbed the bitcoinica customers and he'll rob you too https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0

merty 14y ago

For some reason, I always thought it was matter of time that Bitcoin would be declared illegal. People say different things regarding its legality so I will continue to stay away from it, at least for now. Though, I think Automattic wouldn't accept it as a form of payment if there was such a possibility. Is there anyone who can enlighten me about the legality of Bitcoin?

ghshephard 14y ago
With no central authority standing behind it's value, right now you are engaging in barter. What is the legality of barter in your jurisdiction?
zhoutong 14y ago
Bitcoin is an unregulated financial asset, similar to gold. The fact that it exists in digital form makes the whole situation much more complicated.
- fuckzhouttong 14y ago
  fuck you you scammer https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0
BladeMcCool 14y ago
bitcoin is just ledger entries that can be retitled by cryptographic signature. its protected free speech.

dewiz 14y ago

quick question, regarding the people that can't buy Wordpress services with Paypal or credit card, how do they buy bitcoins?

erikpukinskis 14y ago
Mining, exchanging local currency for bitcoins locally, selling things for bitcoins.
LaRakel 14y ago
There are bitcoin exchanges using various methods, for example by SEPA bank transfer. I think many people without credit cards can use Paypal but don't want to.
GaryRowe 14y ago
Lots of choices here: http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/ http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/

thisismyname 14y ago

And now for Amazon...

josephagoss 14y ago
I know it doesn't matter, but I think its still kinda funny that revenue in one day on the Amazon store is more than the entire net worth of the whole Bitcoin network. This just means its early days for Bitcoin. I fear governments will present themselves as a major obstacle in the next 5 years. Lets hope i'm wrong, the idea of Bitcoin is really interesting (in a good way).

mrb 14y ago

Another recent news is stunning for Bitcoin, but somehow got unnoticed: A company pouring $1M+ to develop a 65nm Bitcoin mining chip: http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=69 http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=69

taligent 14y ago
What I don't understand is how this is stunning ? It just shows the fundamental lack of equality or fairness in the 'currency'.
- mrb 14y ago
  This is not particular to Bitcoin. It is a basic economic principle that those with the most capital can invest to make the most returns (in this case investing in a chip). How is this unfair?
- jlgreco 14y ago
  How so? If we were still on a gold standard, would investing in new mining techniques signal similar about our currency?
javert 14y ago
That endeavor may be "unknown" in general, but it is super well-known in the "Bitcoin community" and the subject of unending discussion/debate/conspiracy theories.
smsm42 14y ago
Personally, I like the idea of digital currency, but the knowledge that it is based on completely useless computations (gold at least has many practical applications and looks nice) annoys my programmer side. I know money do not have to be otherwise useful, but still the feeling is there.
- Lerc 14y ago
  As far as I am aware, they are not completely useless computations. Isn't the model supposed to be that transactions are verified using calculations of effectively a tuned brute force method where the brute force needed is tuned to the power of the network. Tuning the difficulty means that no-one else can beat it to the brute force goal without having comparable computational power. In that sense the computation no less useless than any other cryptographic technique that has complexity to thwart brute force attacks. [I may be completely off base here, I wouldn't call myself a bitcoin expert, but this is how I perceived it]

joblessjunkie 14y ago

What will WordPress do with the Bitcoins they receive? Do they have business costs that can be paid with Bitcoins, or will they simply trade them for a "real" currency like USD?

zhoutong 14y ago
They use BitPay, which automatically converts them to USD.
- fuckzhouttong 14y ago
  fucking scammer https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

nym 14y ago

If you are interested in buying bitcoins, please check out a guide I help maintain called "How do you buy bitcoins?". It's 100% free, and we are on a quest to provide custom guides for every country. It's really easy to buy bitcoins these days, especially in the United States. http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/ http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/

bbit 14y ago

Reddit next.

piokoch 14y ago

That's very interesting. There are two things, which seems to be crucial if Bitcoin will become more popular. - How banks would react? They would loose they power of creating money (which is good, since they create mostly sick kind of money - http://www.moneyasdebt.net http://www.moneyasdebt.net) - How goverments would react? Would they try to tax Bitcoin incomes, if yes, how to do this?

ridiculous_fish 14y ago

According to my understanding, the bitcoin economy is small enough that all clients can have a record of all transactions. Bitcoin was designed for a truly distributed model, but this aspect is untested in practice. It seems to me that the move from "everyone knows everything" to a truly distributed model entails a lot of risk, and it's possible that the protocol just may not work at this scale. Is this a reasonable concern?

lucb1e 14y ago

One of the addresses they (or bitpay) use: http://blockchain.info/address/1JDELvQTsa7fGo9BQHhvSVUiYzy3uRkTm2 http://blockchain.info/address/1JDELvQTsa7fGo9BQHhvSVUiYzy3u...

netcan 14y ago

Ideologically, bitcoin is a currency. But, apart from fringe speculators, ideologues & novelty seekers its gaining traction as a payment method. That's great because a better payment methody something we really need. A payment method for a world where computers exist. Credit cards, paypal and friends are doing this job terribly, inequitably, opaquely and at a high cost. For "card not present" transactions credit cards work like this: (1) a merchant tells CC company (through payment gateways) that a customer wants to pay them some amount (2) the credit card company says OK (or no) (3) If at any point in the next 6 months the customer demands that money back, they take it out of the merchants account. If this happens too often, they cut off the merchant's ability to accept credit cards. Step 3 puts the entire cost of fraud on the merchant. They then find their own way of minimizing it. There's the cost of the actual payment processing (2%-4%), the cost of fraud & the cost of preventing fraud. That's around 2.5%-10% of gross. In some cases it just completely prevents entire business categories. This also amounts to a pretty steep competency requirement just to accept payments. There are a lot of businesses and business categories that just don't exist because the basic infrastructure of the digital economy (money) is crap. We're basically using seashells.