4 ms·

As someone who spent a lot of time working with BTC in a professional sense, this statement rings a little hollow considering you're using Coinbase. Can you el

As someone who spent a lot of time working with BTC in a professional sense, this statement rings a little hollow considering you're using Coinbase. Can you elaborate?

dalton 13y ago
App.net is a subscription service. We have a subscription state machine that works great with Stripe. We have systems to deal with upgrades, downgrades, proration, shifting to different plans. Additionally this requires us changing our accounting systems and wading into new tax complexities. It's fascinating to me that people think that for any retailer to accept Bitcoin it's as easy as embedding a widget on their site. I have been comparing notes with other companies that are also considering adding Bitcoin support and these are the sorts of questions that come up.
- natrius 13y ago
  "Additionally this requires us changing our accounting systems and wading into new tax complexities." That's only because you're setting prices in BTC instead of USD, right? I always thought accepting BTC through Coinbase for USD-denominated goods and services had no tax implications.
- Touche 13y ago
  > It's fascinating to me that people think that for any retailer to accept Bitcoin it's as easy as embedding a widget on their site. The only downside you've listed is that you mistakenly tied your subscription code with one payment provider.
- pdeuchler 13y ago
  Gotchya, thanks for the response. I wasn't aware app.net utilized such a complex billing system.
steveklabnik 13y ago
Even if you have Coinbase turning BTC -> USD automatically, there are still issues. Here's just one: I purchase something on Overstock for 0.5 BTC. The item has an issue, and I want a refund. In the meantime, the price of BTC/USD has fluctuated 20%. What happens? This question is not insurmountable, obviously. But there are tons of edge cases that need to be thought of and dealt with.
- natrius 13y ago
  I don't see tons of edge cases. Any current logic tied to your existing payment processor must be reimplemented to handle another one as well, in this case, Coinbase. Internally, everything is dollars. Coinbase handles Bitcoin for you. This may be good PR for App.net, but it's bad PR for Bitcoin and Coinbase if the idea that accepting Bitcoin is complicated spreads. It isn't. Using Coinbase is as easy as using Authorize.net, unless you make things hard for yourself by pricing things in Bitcoin.

As someone who spent a lot of time working with BTC in a professional sense, this statement rings a little hollow considering you're using Coinbase. Can you elaborate?

dalton 13y ago

App.net is a subscription service. We have a subscription state machine that works great with Stripe. We have systems to deal with upgrades, downgrades, proration, shifting to different plans. Additionally this requires us changing our accounting systems and wading into new tax complexities. It's fascinating to me that people think that for any retailer to accept Bitcoin it's as easy as embedding a widget on their site. I have been comparing notes with other companies that are also considering adding Bitcoin support and these are the sorts of questions that come up.

natrius 13y ago
"Additionally this requires us changing our accounting systems and wading into new tax complexities." That's only because you're setting prices in BTC instead of USD, right? I always thought accepting BTC through Coinbase for USD-denominated goods and services had no tax implications.
Touche 13y ago
> It's fascinating to me that people think that for any retailer to accept Bitcoin it's as easy as embedding a widget on their site. The only downside you've listed is that you mistakenly tied your subscription code with one payment provider.
pdeuchler 13y ago
Gotchya, thanks for the response. I wasn't aware app.net utilized such a complex billing system.

steveklabnik 13y ago

Even if you have Coinbase turning BTC -> USD automatically, there are still issues. Here's just one: I purchase something on Overstock for 0.5 BTC. The item has an issue, and I want a refund. In the meantime, the price of BTC/USD has fluctuated 20%. What happens? This question is not insurmountable, obviously. But there are tons of edge cases that need to be thought of and dealt with.

natrius 13y ago
I don't see tons of edge cases. Any current logic tied to your existing payment processor must be reimplemented to handle another one as well, in this case, Coinbase. Internally, everything is dollars. Coinbase handles Bitcoin for you. This may be good PR for App.net, but it's bad PR for Bitcoin and Coinbase if the idea that accepting Bitcoin is complicated spreads. It isn't. Using Coinbase is as easy as using Authorize.net, unless you make things hard for yourself by pricing things in Bitcoin.