Monday, December 2, 2013

BitPay Transactions Soar

Jan Jahosky at BitPay just sent me this press release:

BitPay Drives Explosive Growth in Bitcoin Commerce


Also Sees Rapid Enrollments in All-Inclusive Processing Plans

ATLANTA -- December 2, 2013 --  BitPay, the world’s leading merchant processor for virtual currencies, announces that in November it processed a record 55,288 bitcoin merchant transactions, representing a 165% increase from October.  Strong activity from KNC Miner,Gyft, and Amagi Metals led the increase.



During the Bitcoin Black Friday event on November 29, BitPay processed 6,296 bitcoin transactions in a single day, making it the most popular day in the history of bitcoin commerce.  On November 29, more than 6% of all transactions on the bitcoin network were spent on goods and services through BitPay’s platform.  

“BitPay’s order volume is the most accurate indicator of the real bitcoin economy, and today that economy is soaring higher as merchants are seeing tremendous value in accepting bitcoin payments,” states Tony Gallippi, BitPay Co-founder and CEO.  “We are building the most powerful, reliable, and scalable tools for businesses to accept bitcoin.”

Last year, the Bitcoin Friday event was BitPay’s largest volume day in 2012 and the company processed 99 transactions.  The year-over-year growth of BitPay on Black Friday is 6,260%.

BitPay continues to enroll new merchants at a rapid pace, onboarding over 3,000 merchants in November to exceed a total of 14,000 bitcoin-accepting merchants.  Shopify’s integration of BitPay into its checkout process now makes BitPay available to 75,000 merchants using the Shopify ecommerce platform.

Enrollment in BitPay’s all-inclusive processing plans is also accelerating.  By selecting one of the all-inclusive plans, BitPay merchants can choose the software features they need, and process an unlimited number of transactions with zero transaction fees.  

“No merchant service provider riding on the traditional interchange rails can offer all-inclusive pricing because there are three or four middlemen who take a cut of every transaction,” says Gallippi. “Some processors tease merchants with flat-rate pricing, but there are many hidden fees and limitations that make flat-rate offers an illusion.”
RW Note: That zero transaction fee feature flies directly in the face of the banksters who control the high fee credit and debit card markets. A large part of those fees are because chargebacks are allowed to be made against purchases.The banksters are not going to allow BitPay to undermine their fee system.The banksters control Washington legislation. Legislation will be written that will force BitPay to allow chargebacks, at that point BitPay will lose its edge and will be forced to eliminate its current zero transaction fees platform.

2 comments:

  1. "Legislation will be written that will force BitPay to allow chargebacks, at that point BitPay will lose its edge and will be forced to eliminate its current zero transaction fees platform."

    Hypothetically, you could also imagine such legislation backfiring by encouraging people to move to native BitCoin transactions, conducted directly on the blockchain and without an intermediary. You might say that the Bitcoin network interprets regulation as damage and routes around it.

    The connection you posit between chargebacks and transaction fees is an interesting one, though--I had assumed that the high transaction fees characteristic of the legacy financial system are simply a rent enjoyed by that crony cartelized industry, and that transaction fees would be significantly lower in a truly free market system.

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  2. I don't know. The Internet decimated industries like magazines, newspapers, music distribution, and some of these had major political pull. (certainly more than the mom and pop ISP's that fueled the early growth).

    Credit Card legislation occurred at a time when the progressive movement was strong. There are great consumer protections built in (like a $50 limit for unauthorized charges and the ability to return an item and charge back the merchant for no reason at all). Banks did not want those features. The Debt card was developed. under a different political atmosphere. A debt card purchase cannot be undone and a thief with your pin might be able to clean out your entire bank account.

    The Internet is changing the world. It will be interesting if it does so in a way that advances individual freedom and autonomy. I read that Yahoo is going to start encrypting all email both between the customer and Yahoo and between Yahoo servers and other mail servers. Isn't competition great? Google can be in bed with the NSA so Yahoo maybe gets a chance to move in.

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