
OKCupid starts accepting Bitcoin using Coinbase - FredEE
http://coinbase.tumblr.com/post/48102298494/okcupid-starts-accepting-bitcoin-using-coinbase
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lbarrow
This seems like a great idea, since people who are into BitCoin are likely to
use online dating services.

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krichman
I thought this was funny, but downvoted because it was also rude and
unproductive.

I wish we could talk about Bitcoin without saying either 1. that its expected
value is negative infinity dollars and pyramid tulip 2. that its expected
value is infinity dollars and oppression fiat. I think both sides are well
aware of the counter arguments.

But even though that will never happen, I think we can stop short of allowing
ad hominems to be acceptable posts.

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wladimir
Yes. You'd expect a community such as hacker news to be above the usual nerd-
shaming.

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sneak
It's called tongue-in-cheek self-referential humor.

Naturally, you'd expect a community such as Hacker News to be below such
subtlety. :D

PS: I am a fat nerd wearing a black t-shirt, love bitcoin, and have used
OKCupid to get dozens of successful dates over the last 8 years.

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wladimir
Fair enough. I agree it can be funny, just somewhat immature. The line between
bullying and "self referential in-group humor" is pretty thin sometimes. I
guess it's a bit like sexist jokes, in that some things that are meant as
funny can be interpreted wrongly and hurt.

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hnriot
Seriously? You're getting bent out of shape over this??? Despite being very
likely true, the statement was funny and targeting just the right people for
it to be funny.

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hkmurakami
Do businesses that accept bitoins for payments typically immediately cash it
out on exchanges or do they actually carry the "FX" risk?

edit: since MtGox only charges a fixed %age fee for transactions, automating a
conversion into USD wouldn't cost any more than doing periodic larger
transactions (other than the development and maintenance cost of such a system

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patio11
_Do businesses that accept bitoins for payments typically immediately cash it
out on exchanges or do they actually carry the "FX" risk?_

People in the Bitcoin community believe that these options are mutually
exclusive, but _they're not_. If you're doing a dual currency transaction in a
period of high volatility, _somebody_ is paying for that exchange risk. It's
either the customer, the payment processor, or the merchant, or possibly two
of them, but it certainly isn't no-one.

There were multiple periods _today_ in which Bitcoin fell more than 10% in 15
minutes. If I were insane enough to sell Bingo Card Creator for Bitcoin, and
then gave an elementary schoolteacher a quote for
0.42785714285714285714285714285714 BTC ($29.95 at 70 to the dollar), it's
entirely possible that in the five minutes of thinking it took to process
everything on the screen, the 0.42785714285714285714285714285714 BTC that I
received would be worth only $27.81 at market prices. Hmm, that's funny, I
just paid 7.1% in transaction fees _before paying the transaction fees_.
(We're obviously operating in a perverse hypothetical world where elementary
schoolteachers would both understand that option, have BTC available to spend,
and be happy spending them, and where I would consider actually implementing
this.)

It's possible that the payment processor I was working with would absorb this
risk for me, because they hope to keep my business. That would be an
_extraordinary dangerous_ decision for them, because they're now running their
merchant payments operation as a sideline to currency speculation. (Which I
suppose makes them a perfect fit for the Bitcoin community.)

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minimax
To play the devil's advocate, I'll point out that anyone selling in multiple
currencies has to deal with hedging fx risk. For example, USDJPY has been
pretty nuts thus far in April (not BTC nuts, but intraday swings of 1-2%).

If you were 1) very determined to sell in BTC and 2) could buy USDBTC options
you could probably sell in BTC and limit your exposure to the fx risk.

~~~
patio11
_I'll point out that anyone selling in multiple currencies has to deal with
hedging fx risk_

Yes, and anyone whose business involves juggling chainsaws has to pay an awful
lot for workplace insurance, but Bingo Card Creator doesn't involve chainsaws.
Bitcoin proponents love to say "No transaction fees! Can your credit card
processor do that?" while perhaps forgetting to mention that the actual
mechanism for achieving this involves you juggling chainsaws.

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Evbn
Transaction fees are part of the spec for bitcoin. Who says there are no
transaction fees?

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brian_cloutier
I'm not sure why you were downvoted. Bitcoin definitely has transaction fees
which will only increase with time.

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DigitalSea
Until Bitcoin normalises it sadly doesn't matter who accepts it, the currency
is experiencing so much instability you're better off buying a prepaid Visa
debit card and using that for paying for online dating services. It;s good to
see more services accepting the currency but it doesn't change the fact it's a
hotbox for hacker attacks, old fashioned bank-running when the price rises and
all of the investors it has attracted looking to make a quick buck.

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rdl
I wish there were a simple-as-Stripe way to outsource multiple payment options
for customers (BTC, cards, ACH, etc.). I guess technically you could use
PayPal or maybe Amazon Payments for that, but I don't think they're
particularly likely to support Bitcoin anytime soon.

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jeffasinger
Spreedly comes pretty close to this actually, and they're much more likely to
support working with something like CoinBase for BTC soon.

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netcan
This is interesting but really more in the cool/cute/novel category than the
practical needs one.

I'm pretty hopeful and positive about bitcoin but that's one of the things
that makes me still very suspicious of it. Seems that the places adopting it
are doing so for fun, ideological or theoretical reasons rather than to solve
some problem they have.

I'm waiting to see online retailers requiring bitcoin payments for high risk
transactions (eg sending mobile phones to nairobi). Something that
demonstrates it solves a problem and (ideally) enables commerce where it
wasn't possible before.

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eric_bullington
There are more large, recognized businesses coming online soon. I'm talking to
a start-up right now that is fairly well-known among HNers that is working on
setting up Bitcoin payment options (and have asked them if I can share their
plans -- waiting for a response).

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codeulike
Wait, since when did OKCupid start charging? They were free when I was on
there (before the match.com takeover)

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jmtame
It was after their acquisition by IAC in 2011. Match.com is owned by IAC, so
technically it was taken over by IAC. The CEO said multiple times they'd never
charge, but plans tend to change after you get acquired.

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Sidnicious
Paying (for A-List) is entirely optional and gets you extra, nonessential
features (like no ads and extra search parameters). It's been around since
2009, long before IAC bought us. Using OkCupid is still, and will stay, free.

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jmtame
My mistake. I originally prefaced my comment with "I think" and should have
left that in there, because I didn't know for sure. I misread a Mashable
article that said OkCupid would never charge in 2011.

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JosephRedfern
The entire blog seems to be 404ing now.

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Trufa
This is interesting, I'm all for bitcoin, but I think if I am meeting someone
over the internet, I'd like at least some part of the process to not be
anonymous.

I know that doesn't necessarily make me safe, but it is one more step.

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thinkcomp
Same question as always. Money transmission license?

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untog
Fedoras, everywhere

