
Namecheap now officially accepts Bitcoin - redegg
https://www.namecheap.com/support/payment-options/bitcoin.aspx
======
gibybo
Well, I just tried to transfer one of my domains to Namecheap using Bitcoin,
but their implementation leaves a lot to be desired.

I filled in my domain, got to the checkout page, and it gave me three options:
Pay from 'Funds', 'Credit Card', or 'Paypal'. Turns out in order to pay with
Bitcoin, you have to first add 'Funds' to your account. So I click the link to
do that, it asks me how much I want to add (I don't know, aren't you supposed
to tell me how much I owe?). Anyway, I follow a few pages and finally end up
on BitPay's page where it asks me to send a specific number of Bitcoins to
their address, so I do. The page recognizes immediately when I have sent the
funds, and redirects me back to Namecheap.

Great, now I can find my way back to the checkout page and finally finish the
transfer! Except I can't. Despite having sent the funds, they won't show up in
my account for another hour (or possibly up to 24 hours). I understand they
want to prevent double spend attacks, but this is absurd. We're talking about
a $10 domain that they can just revoke if the payment doesn't clear. They have
to wait 45+ days for paypal/credit cards to clear, but they give the product
to me immediately, and I don't have to go through their ridiculous fund adding
process to do so.

I applaud the effort Namecheap and I'm happy to see Bitcoin becoming more
useful, but this needs work.

~~~
shiftpgdn
NameCheap actually doesn't have the capacity to revoke domains as they're an
eNom reseller. Enom's policy is that once you buy a domain, it's yours. With
domains sales being such a low margin business I can understand their level of
caution.

~~~
danielhughes
I had no idea they were a reseller. It's all the more interesting when you
look at eNom's reseller pricing page <http://www.enom.com/resellers/benefits-
pricingplans.aspx>. I hope NameCheap is getting better bulk rates than what is
listed.

------
ashamedlion
I'm loving this Bitcoin ramp up over the past few weeks. Namecheap should be
applauded for their general endorsement of "what's good for the internet". Of
course it's in their best interest, but you don't see GoDaddy doing the same.

I think back to the "So, that's the end of Bitcoin"[1] article by Forbes and
chuckle to myself. Hopefully one day we can look back at that article in the
same way we look back at Ballmer laughing at the iPhone [2]

[1] [http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/06/20/so-
thats-...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/06/20/so-thats-the-
end-of-bitcoin-then/)

[2] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U>

~~~
invalidOrTaken
Second that on Namecheap apparently being on the side of the internet. Weren't
they a vocal opponent of SOPA?

~~~
ashamedlion
Yep

[http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/12/22/we-say-no-
to-...](http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/12/22/we-say-no-to-sopa/)

<http://www.namecheap.com/moveyourdomainday.aspx>

<http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2012/01/18/blackout/>

------
qdot76367
Ok. So accepting bitcoin, but they still won't have things like two-factor
auth available for "several months" (reference:
[https://community.namecheap.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10...](https://community.namecheap.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4766)).

I realize PR departments are probably flailing wildly over $33 bitcoins, but
which feature do you think your users are more likely to use?

~~~
doublextremevil
minor correction to a valid post: as of 06:33 UTC, bitcoin goes for 37.9 USD

~~~
sachingulaya
And now its $39. Its volatility makes it impractical to use as a currency. A
bitcoin yesterday is worth 10% less than a bitcoin today.

~~~
jimworm
Today's bitcoin is a little more liquid than yesterday's, and the trend will
continue as long as more and more people start accepting bitcoin as payment.
This liquidity has a positive effect on value.

~~~
robryan
I would assume that one of the major reasons in holding bit coin is still to
sell it at some point (until a large amount of people accept it)

Meaning that once it hits a certain level people will start cashing in and
crash the price again?

~~~
runeks
> Meaning that once it hits a certain level people will start cashing in and
> crash the price again?

Only if they all sell at the same time. I don't see why that would happen.
Selling ones bitcoins isn't an event you coordinate with other holders of
bitcoins. It will happen gradually, and have a dampening effect on the price.
In all likelihood it's happening right now. There was a huge ask wall at $40.
Seems like a lot of people wanted to take profit at that price.

This is also why a crash doesn't happen. If everyone decided right now they've
made enough money and wanted to sell their coins, the price would start
dropping, until it reaches a point where people are no longer satisfied with
the price, and they will stop selling. At which point some buyers will be
satisfied with the price drop, and get into bitcoin again, thus raising the
price, and the cycle continues.

It's really fascinating to watch the sum total of the actions of all the
sellers and buyers, and how it unfolds as an ever-changing price and order
book.

------
Skoofoo
Neat, but will they turn a blind eye to domains registered with false
information? After all, the biggest advantage of Bitcoin over traditional
digital payment methods is its capability to be used anonymously.

~~~
n3rdy
> Neat, but will they turn a blind eye to domains registered with false
> information?

I imagine in the future internet, domain registrations will be just as
anonymous (like .onion on tor) as bitcoin, no reason domain names can't be
decentralized (different tld's of course).

~~~
chii
i would love a method to be able to anonymously host websites that is un-take-
down-able and untracable. It would mean that contriversial stuff can be put
there without fear of repercussion, and thus, more democratic.

~~~
hucker
Tor hidden service? [1]

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)#Hidden_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_\(anonymity_network\)#Hidden_services)

------
bmiranda
The price of Bitcoin is currently hovering around 37 USD. I remember when
Bitcoin was $2.00 after the first crash, I never expected it to rebound so
quickly. Announcements such as Namecheap's lend credence to the current price,
but I would not be surprised if a correction brought Bitcoin below $30.

Regardless, I am excited that there are more places to spend Bitcoin each and
every day.

~~~
dmix
Well I don't think any average person is really keeping large amounts of money
in bitcoin.

It has mostly a transactional since the use cases are so niche.

~~~
disintermediate
>use cases are so niche

This is a first-world misperception. There is half a world excluded from
traditional payment methods.

~~~
wmf
Is Bitcoin a realistic option for those people?

~~~
dublinben
Maybe for low-fee international money orders. Certainly not for everyday
transactions away from the internet.

------
foxylad
A domain registrar is going to have a fairly technically literate customer
base, but bitcoin is edging towards the mainstream faster than I'd expected.

------
daniel-cussen
The Coupa Café of Palo Alto is going to support paying with bitcoin soon.
Yesterday I bought coffee for $2.00, with the option of paying .17 bitcoin.

~~~
tlrobinson
Do you know what technology they're using? How long do they make you wait for
confirmation, etc.

~~~
daniel-cussen
I asked, but the people there didn't know much at all about it yet.

------
kalleboo
Looks like they're using BitPay <https://bitpay.com>

edit: I just tried it. The workflow works well, but this brings me back to my
biggest reservation about the usability of BitCoin for regular transactions:
The long period (hours) to confirm a transaction.

~~~
mwsherman
Hours to settle into $? Or hours to confirm the Bitcoin transaction at all?

~~~
kalleboo
To confirm the Bitcoin transaction at all. That's just how Bitcoin works - you
have to wait for X new blocks to get confirmations from other peers. How long
you wait determines your risk level.

~~~
KingMob
It doesn't require hours at the protocol level, it's just a social standard.
Typically, the first confirmation would occur in ~10 minutes. At the moment,
the convention is 6 blocks / 1 hour is sufficient to prevent double-spending,
but any merchant could have its own standard.

Also, for something revocable like a domain name, there's nothing preventing
Namecheap from giving you the domain name immediately, and then revoking your
access to it later if the transaction ultimately fails.

~~~
runeks
> Also, for something revocable like a domain name, there's nothing preventing
> Namecheap from giving you the domain name immediately, and then revoking
> your access to it later if the transaction ultimately fails.

Not according to shiftpgdn:

> NameCheap actually doesn't have the capacity to revoke domains as they're an
> eNom reseller. Enom's policy is that once you buy a domain, it's yours. With
> domains sales being such a low margin business I can understand their level
> of caution.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5323964>

------
score
I seems the overall useage and popularity of bitcoins has gone down though. I
haven't had a single purchase with bitcoins in about a year at Flow and Zone
Games ( <http://flowandzonegames.com> ) and that's quite a change from the
one-a-week clip before.

I don't understand the currency so maybe I'm overpricing.

~~~
3am
Welcome to deflation.

------
ihsw
Now Amazon needs to start accepting Bitcoins for EC2 instances and the world
will be on its way past the Visa/Mastercard duopoly.

~~~
taligent
Well since we are living in a fantasy land why not McDondalds, Ferrari, Apple
and Starbucks as well.

~~~
StavrosK
I much prefer it if they all just gave stuff away for free.

------
davidroberts
I think in five years, the idea of using credit or debit cards for electronic
transactions will seem slightly ridiculous, sort of the way using snail mail
to pay bills by check seems now.

~~~
Nursie
I think most people will still love the idea, because of a little thing called
payment protection.

No chargeback possibility? No sale from me.

~~~
GaryRowe
Not every online transaction requires a chargeback. Perhaps donating to your
favourite artist, author, charity would be easier in Bitcoin. And would mean
you don't have to keep careful track of your spending to avoid huge interest
rates from the card company.

------
teoruiz
It's a great step towards domain anonymity, but at the end of the day
Namecheap is a company in the USA that needs to comply with USA law and its
enforcers. And we know it's not the most privacy-friendly country in the
world.

To be fair, registering a .com domain is a bad idea if you want to stay
anonymous. Go for a .is, a .ch or even a .eu.

~~~
Muromec
>It's a great step towards domain anonymity

It`s not about anonymity. All other payment systems just suck.

------
andreyf
This is crazy: MtGox is 37 USD/BTC today, up from 20 USD/BTC a month ago.

~~~
Nursie
Bubble 2.0?

------
juskrey
Interesting if anyone had conducted an experiment, whether new Bitcoin button,
near old good CC payment, actually worsens whole conversion rate, due to
interesting Bitcoin reputation in masses.

------
WhoIsSatoshi
This is beautiful to watch unfold: The universe is taking flight! Do help it,
not for the sake of a cryptocurrency, but for the ethical implications. For
you and for me.

~~~
jacoblyles
Why ask useless questions? How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky? Who is
Satoshi Nakamoto?

~~~
WhoIsSatoshi
Galt he isn't - "The universe believes in Encryption" (J.Assange) and this
fact is at the same time the redeeming and redemption of the system we're
watching suffer. Key point though - we're not relying on Nietzchieans supermen
championing themselves or their genius. We're championing the universe, and
empowering everyone. Freedom.

~~~
agorabinary
Atlas? :)

------
lowglow
Hey all! I'm trying to build a domain registrar we'd actually love to use.
Does bitcoin really appeal to you as a user? I'm trying to find a list of
must-haves and want-to-have features to bake into my project.

~~~
doctoboggan
Let me programmatically set the ip you point to and I will give you money

~~~
shiftpgdn
Can you expand on this? You could run your own DNS server and setup the
appropriate DNS records at any registrar.

~~~
doctoboggan
I have a free subdomain from afraid.org. They've given me a URL with a secret
key. When that URL is requested afraid updates my records to point my
subdomain at the IP the request came from. I don't have a static IP at my
apartment, but I have a script that calls that URL whenever my IP changes,
allowing me to always have a domain name pointed toward my home server.

I am not familiar with operating a DNS server. Would that accomplish the
usecase I described above? I would like to set up the same system but with a
domain I own and not the free one from afraid.org

~~~
tracker1
There are other DNS providers that will do what you want with a purchased
domain... you can also use afraid.org for that matter... I put up a domain I
wanted others to be able to use for dyndns on afraid.org ...

~~~
doctoboggan
I remember seeing something about using my own domain on afraid.org. However I
use google apps, and I wasn't sure if it was possible or what it would take to
keep my email hosted there while still using the dynamic dns. Honestly I don'y
have much experience in this area and I don't really know what to research to
learn more.

------
adrianwaj
I'd like bitcoin to succeed even to a small extent if only as a counterweight
to keep central banks in check but it would be better if it weren't so
cumbersome to use, ie slow.

~~~
jacoblyles
It usually takes several days for funds to transfer between banks. Payment
processors are a layer built on top of USD. The same infrastructure can be
built on top of bitcoin.

~~~
Nursie
"It usually takes several days for funds to transfer between banks"

Maybe in the US. In the civilised world it can be pretty much instantaneous.

------
tedsanders
Accepting a volatile currency seems risky.

What if bitcoin drops and I fill register domains on the cheap? Is there a way
to prevent this? Are the prices somehow pegged to the dollar?

~~~
Maxious
The payment gateway BitPay calculates how many bitcoins equal a USD price and
then give that amount (minus their fee) in USD to Namecheap within 2 days.

"It does not matter how many bitcoins we collect, how long it takes to collect
them, what we can sell them for, or how long it takes to sell them."

<https://bitpay.com/bitcoin-payment-gateway-api>

------
mariuolo
The same namecheap that blocked *.imgur.com ?

------
stevewilhelm
To put in perspective:

_____~10000000 (10 million) dollars in bitcoin transactions a day [1] verses

~5000000000000 (5 trillion) dollars in daily foreign currency trades
worldwide. [2]

[1] <http://s831.us/XIQoZ7> [2] <http://s831.us/XISAQb>

~~~
zanny
My take away is "holy crap, 10 million bitcoin a day is trading hands. That's
a lot!"

Especially for a fledgling currency with staunch opposition by traditional
bankers and financial markets because it solves a lot of problems that make
them a lot of money.

------
vishaltelangre
Well, just reading about bitcoin and saw this here. I am pretty fascinated by
the fact that it take not much time for currency conversion across the world.
Awesome. Hope, this will dominate the current methods, and frauds.

------
johnx123-up
OT: Can anyone suggest a good Bitcoin processor? What about Mt.Gox? Is it
sensible to create our own processor and escrow for Bitcoin?

------
rrrrtttt
Let's say I think that in one year's time Bitcoin will be gone. And let's say
I want to put my money where my mouth is and want to short Bitcoin. Presumably
there's a lot of people who think that Bitcoin is going to appreciate and thus
should be happy to give me a low-interest loan. And yet there is no way to get
a Bitcoin-denominated loan. Does this mean that people don't really believe
Bitcoin will be with us in one year's time?

~~~
geoffschmidt
Bitcoin is not exactly a mature currency. When a new merchant starts accepting
Bitcoin payments it's still front page news. So I wouldn't read too much into
the lack of lending infrastructure. Evaluating creditworthiness, and going
after defaulters, is a lot more work than holding cash deposits or accepting
cash in return for products, and those things are still big logistical
challenges in Bitcoin land.

~~~
rrrrtttt
Sure, but I still have my doubts. Apparently merchants like Namecheap
accepting Bitcoin don't name their price in Bitcoin, they name their price in
USD. Again, if you believe in Bitcoin, shouldn't you name your price in
Bitcoin?

~~~
lucb1e
With the volatility of Bitcoin's price, it's quite hard to do. They can't set
a single price, so they would have to modify their existing site (where most
people probably come to pay in USD anyway) to automatically fetch the current
market price.

------
lucb1e
Looking pretty good, privacy and IPv6 support like you might expect nowadays,
only no DNSSEC. Not buying.

------
eduardordm
Because bitcoins are illegal in my country, I'll keep my personal domains on
namecheap but will certainly move my company domains out of there until I
figure out if there's a chance I have problems with this.

I like bitcoins just like everyone, but there are laws you need to abide by
and bitcoins are illegal in many countries.

~~~
josephagoss
Sorry dude, you have several people asking you what country your in and you
give no answer. What you said (That Bitcoins are illegal in your country) is
complete FUD until you provide some proof.

As far as I am concerned, until you tell us where your country is, it seems
your trying to damage namecheap's and /or Bitcoin's reputation for no reason.

Please provide the country and law cited. Cheers.

~~~
eduardordm
My country is in my contact information, I didn't answer because I went to
sleep.

This is the law that complete forbids using any currency other than the
national for internal commerce and disposes about how forex must work, which
bitcoins do not comply.

<http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/LEIS/L4595.htm>

This is a case where people were using dollars to pay for national contracts:

[http://jus.com.br/revista/texto/8566/da-impossibilidade-
de-p...](http://jus.com.br/revista/texto/8566/da-impossibilidade-de-pagamento-
em-moeda-estrangeira-nos-contratos-celebrados-em-territorio-nacional)

~~~
josephagoss
Thanks for replying, I can't read the links however I have a question: Is
buying a domain from namecheap considered internal commerce? Also many other
items bought with Bitcoins would be external to your country.

Surely you can buy a wordpress account with USD without being arrested? What
makes buying wordpress / namecheap with Bitcoin any different? Or maybe i'm
misunderstanding something. (Honest I probably am missing something, this
happens to me a lot :)

------
nuII
Fuck yeah Namecheap!

------
largesse
It's odd about technology. The more pervasive it becomes before it legislators
are aware of it, the harder it is to crack down upon. I don't know what the
legal challenges will be to the widespread use of BitCoin in commerce, but I'm
sure there will be some.

