Bitcoin as the ONLY payment option, lol what?

[Sherlock]

I hope I am not nitpicking, but there is nothing like a "bitcoin account". There is either the bitcoin wallet or bitcoin address. But bitcoin wallet works differently than ewallets (where can be a debit/prepaid card associated and therefore you probably confused it a bit).

Bitcoin wallet is either online or software or hardware storage of bitcoin addresses. The bitcoin addresses is the virtual place, where the bitcoins are stored, from where they are sent etc.


The bitcoin wallet and the debit card can be provided by two different entities. When you go with software or hardware wallets it is even impossible to have somehow debit card attached to that wallet, because you are your own wallet provider and you manage the addresses. Some online wallets indeed have debit card connected to the wallet (Xapo, Bitplastic etc), but some cards are different and they are just the card. Then the card indeed has an address but you do not have private keys and the funds you sent there beofre are usually locked at the card or you can recover them to free btc only for a fee.

So it is important to know upfront what you are going to do with bitcoins. My suggestion is that if you are going the spend the btc during the month, you do not want to have troubles with exchanges and you have no problem to pay like 2-4% extra fees, then the online wallet associated with debit card is the way to go.

But if you are not going to spend all the money via the card, or you want to save a bit, or you want a more secure way or you can not say upfront what you will do with the bitcoins, then store them in software/hw wallet and from there you can always send as much as you want to a debit card, exchange or spend them directly with merchants.

[renaldo.catania]

For small and medium affiliates, it becomes a real pain, and I m not sure it is worth it. Better work with aff programs using traditional payment methods. It looks the aff programs paying with bitcoins are covering themselves with $ money transfer, but then it falls on the affiliate to explain sudden bitcoin money transfer on their bank account.

[VincentPerro]

For small and medium affiliates, it becomes a real pain, and I m not sure it is worth it. Better work with aff programs using traditional payment methods. It looks the aff programs paying with bitcoins are covering themselves with $ money transfer, but then it falls on the affiliate to explain sudden bitcoin money transfer on their bank account.

Completely agree, for small scale contractors it's terrible. I don't think bitcoin will survive for long enough, it's just inconvenient. In some countries it can be a huge turn-off because of its semi-illegal status.

[justbookies]

Completely agree, for small scale contractors it's terrible. I don't think bitcoin will survive for long enough, it's just inconvenient. In some countries it can be a huge turn-off because of its semi-illegal status.

All the US firms will be using this method. 5dimes and Betting Partners have started something and bookmaker has already copied them by making it the only payment method. That's arguably the three biggest. It gets around all their difficulties.

Not sure what "semi-legal" means. It is either legal or it isn't. I guess you are Russian or Chinese, because I am not aware of any other restrictions. You are aware of all the regulated exchanges for bitcoin in the US and UK? Nothing 'semi' legal about that.

I suspect your comment about bitcoin not being around for long is just wishful thinking. Its use is expanding, particularly in this industry, and the more its use expands the more legs it has. It'll live a lot longer than anyone on this forum!

If you are an affiliate of US-facing firms then engage with it or get out of the business, because luddites wont get paid. I agree with the comments about banks asking questions, which although they can be answered, would raise a red flag on your account if it happened.

[hublot]

If you dont mind, where do you have your Bitcoin wallet? I would love to have a debit card associated with my Bitcoin account.

https://bitpay.com/visa/
https://xapo.com/card/

[renaldo.catania]

Still if you are making a few hundred buck a month on each aff programs (sometimes less), it's not worth the hassle. I would, personally, prefer aff programs paying in real $$$, I paid enough fees on transfers and too much time consuming too. @ JustBookies, I believe you are not 100% right, there is still enough aff programs to choose from, with real money payment options, again this is from the point of part-time/small affiliates. if you are an affiliate with a proper team, then different story.

[Sherlock]

For small and medium affiliates, it becomes a real pain, and I m not sure it is worth it. Better work with aff programs using traditional payment methods. It looks the aff programs paying with bitcoins are covering themselves with $ money transfer, but then it falls on the affiliate to explain sudden bitcoin money transfer on their bank account.

The part of it is a nonsense. Smaller affiliates are able to consume all the bitcoin money and therefore they do not need to transfer them to bank accounts. And if they transfer them 3 or 4 figs are much more under the radar than 5 or 6 figs. It is a challenge for bigger affiliates.

[renaldo.catania]

The part of it is a nonsense. Smaller affiliates are able to consume all the bitcoin money and therefore they do not need to transfer them to bank accounts. And if they transfer them 3 or 4 figs are much more under the radar than 5 or 6 figs. It is a challenge for bigger affiliates.

How about if get 4/5 bitcoin transfers a month + time consuming. believe you me it will be a pain. There is still enough aff programs to choose from, paying in real money, so for now, I personally, will go toward those programs. btw small &part-time affiliates are often on 3 figs monthly commissions, again barely worth the trouble...

[wonderpunter]

How about if get 4/5 bitcoin transfers a month + time consuming. believe you me it will be a pain. There is still enough aff programs to choose from, paying in real money, so for now, I personally, will go toward those programs. btw small &part-time affiliates are often on 3 figs monthly commissions, again barely worth the trouble...

Time consuming? how? logging onto your email can be time consuming, I don't get what all the big fuss is about, it's not rocket science it's not difficult and it's not illegal I suppose they said the same when the video killed the radio star

[renaldo.catania]

Time consuming? how? logging onto your email can be time consuming, I don't get what all the big fuss is about, it's not rocket science it's not difficult and it's not illegal I suppose they said the same when the video killed the radio star

nothing to do with rocket science... check the requirements to get your commissions at bettingpartners. the (big) fuss is about changes (time consuming) and reorganising your payments options, going under the radar with small amounts is hard enough (taxman and your bank) but with bitcoins involved, it will be even harder... Again, I m talking from my point of view, or though I m sure I am not the only one.

[justbookies]

nothing to do with rocket science... check the requirements to get your commissions at bettingpartners. the (big) fuss is about changes (time consuming) and reorganising your payments options, going under the radar with small amounts is hard enough (taxman and your bank) but with bitcoins involved, it will be even harder... Again, I m talking from my point of view, or though I m sure I am not the only one.

It is dead simple. here is one way to do it 1) set up electrum on your pc 2) receive payments to electrum 3) set up account with kraken or coinbase 4) send your bitcoins to your kraken account 5) exchange bitcoin on kraken for your currency of choice (the same one as your bank account) 6) send that money from kraken to your bank account.

simples.

[Sherlock]

Completely agree, for small scale contractors it's terrible. I don't think bitcoin will survive for long enough, it's just inconvenient. In some countries it can be a huge turn-off because of its semi-illegal status.

So what is the option for payments, when fiat money is not possible and Bitcoin is not convenient? It does not make sense to not continue. When you say A, say B. Or C. Or D.

The B here is: Bitcoin is way too inconvenient, nobody wants to learn it, nobody wants to deal with it. So soon we will see some Swift alternative or major liberation in bankng. Russia, North Korea and South Arabia or Iran will start a war with USA and USA will be forced to suspend the influence over the world (otherwise the easing is obviously impossible).

The C here is: Gambling in the USA will be liberated and moderately taxed on federal level. US will give licences to anyone, Bodog will have bodog.com returned, etc. Less probable future than B.

The D is: it will emerge some other currency or cryptocurrency. It will be very convenient to use, because banks and USA will be supporting it, because they will be so stupid that they will not notice it will be used for circumvent of law. Less probable future than C.

I am somehow feeling the A alternative (people will learn how to deal with bitcoins) is astronomically higher than B, C, D...

Btw it is worth of reading what US bettors say about bitcoin, e.g. http://www.sportsbookreview.com/foru...ed-higher.html They are scared of bitcoin less than the affiliates (maybe because during the last decade they had to learn how to use paypal, then neteller, then how to recover money from neteller, then how to recover money from black friday and then how to use amazon gift cards in some shady deals).

[Sherlock]

How about if get 4/5 bitcoin transfers a month + time consuming. believe you me it will be a pain. There is still enough aff programs to choose from, paying in real money, so for now, I personally, will go toward those programs. btw small &part-time affiliates are often on 3 figs monthly commissions, again barely worth the trouble...

Since the maximum for Bp payout is 450K at once, then I am not sure what are we talking about here. About a small affiliate that is making 7 figs per month?

Yes, I believe you that there are plenty of excellent US programs, that offer normal wires, their bookies have alexa ranks during offseason like 1500. I am sure about that. They must exist. I was just too stupid and did not see them. So educate me. Maybe the pure btc bookies like Nitrogen or Cloudbet that are making it to top 10 or top 5 from nothing in the USA are paying with wires?

[wonderpunter]

nothing to do with rocket science... check the requirements to get your commissions at bettingpartners. the (big) fuss is about changes (time consuming) and reorganising your payments options, going under the radar with small amounts is hard enough (taxman and your bank) but with bitcoins involved, it will be even harder... Again, I m talking from my point of view, or though I m sure I am not the only one.

I know the requirements, it took me 1.6 seconds to copy and paste my bitcoin address.. to cash out its simple.. use localbitcoin to get it sent to your neteller, paypal, western union, or a debit card which allows you to draw 60k per month.. it's quciker and cheaper than a wire if you actually tried it you would see how quick and easy it is.. stop being scared and give it a go.. then complain after

[hublot]

I know the requirements, it took me 1.6 seconds to copy and paste my bitcoin address.. to cash out its simple.. use localbitcoin to get it sent to your neteller, paypal, western union, or a debit card which allows you to draw 60k per month.. it's quciker and cheaper than a wire if you actually tried it you would see how quick and easy it is.. stop being scared and give it a go.. then complain after

This... so many people are complaining without actually trying the process, I've found it to be faster and easier than wires and its simple, if you can use e-mail, you should be able to use bitcoin...and less big brother involved...

[ogpaper]

This... so many people are complaining without actually trying the process, I've found it to be faster and easier than wires and its simple, if you can use e-mail, you should be able to use bitcoin...and less big brother involved...

You are kidding, right?!?

Do you know what I had to do to get a wire payment? NOTHING! Absolutely nothing, month after month - nothing. Not-a-single-thing.

Now every month I have to generate different addresses, move BTC to wallets, exchanges, sell them, transfer to bank account and whatnot...

Less big brother? Good luck with that. If anything, you are inviting more scrutiny than with any other payment method.

[wonderpunter]

You are kidding, right?!?

Do you know what I had to do to get a wire payment? NOTHING! Absolutely nothing, month after month - nothing. Not-a-single-thing.

Now every month I have to generate different addresses, move BTC to wallets, exchanges, sell them, transfer to bank account and whatnot...

Less big brother? Good luck with that. If anything, you are inviting more scrutiny than with any other payment method.

Bank wires get lost delayed, and rejected and sometimes questioned.. If its ease then get a linked debit card it really is simple i can recreate an address in a second, let me guess you haven't tried it yet either?

[yeahfree]

ok, next round... just to keep people up to date, it might be useful to somebody.

buy a couple of usb sticks... DONE

i have been doing some testing with veracrypt. good stuff!
it's nice that you can also use it as a portable version.

option 1: encrypt the whole disk (encrypt a non system partition/drive).
This works well, when you put the disk in the pc it does not recognize it (logical), which gives me a comfortable feeling if the usb stick would ever end up in the wrong hands. I like this option, but where to leave veracrypt itself. leaving it on your computer might give an impression that there is something to hide somewhere.

option 2: create an encrypted file container, no hidden volume
Very clear. you can still open the usb stick. you can stuff it full of other files in the encrypted and in the unencrypted part. the encrypted file container can be any file in between. you can leave veracrypt itself on it, which can be an advantage (practical and leaves no traces on your computer), or a disadvantage (if the usb disk gets stolen, they will know that there will be an encrypted file on it). i don't consider the disadvantage a huge risk. the veracrypt encryption appears to be solid, and even when they would get access, they still need to hack theirselves into the password or the seed from electrum. ... this would give me at least a headstart of at least 100 years to be able to transfer the bitcoins out of my wallet once i notice it's missing.

option 3: create an encrypted file container, with hidden volume
the hidden volume demands that you open the open volume (if you would ever do that already, there actually is no need for it unless somebody would point a gun to your head) with 'protect hidden volume against damage caused by writing to outer volume', so that you would not overwrite your hidden volume.
while this one with hidden volume is definitely the best option out of a security point of view, it's not something for me for now (i might think different on this next week though).

for this round i'm going for option 2, encrypted file container, with veracrypt on it.

things that i will need to think about... how to password protect
i will end up with a password for veracrypt, for electrum, and the seed.
with veracrypt you can use key files, which looks really cool. no more typing, secure type of password, but... where to put that file

another thing that i will need to think about is how big i will need to make the encrypted file. on a 16gb stick i can make it 8gb for instance, more than enough space i guess. update: i'm going for 3gb, should be more than enough.

and last one... figure out how to make a backup of the encrypted file , just copying it does not seem to be the idea, i will need to RTFM...

[hublot]

You are kidding, right?!?

Do you know what I had to do to get a wire payment? NOTHING! Absolutely nothing, month after month - nothing. Not-a-single-thing.

Now every month I have to generate different addresses, move BTC to wallets, exchanges, sell them, transfer to bank account and whatnot...

Less big brother? Good luck with that. If anything, you are inviting more scrutiny than with any other payment method.

Well I'm not sure if you work with multiple programs, but personally I end up spending about 5-8 hours a month trying to track down who sent what, which program changed their wire descriptors, having my bank hold wires because they need more information on the sender (including invoices, contracts etc), so while everyone is in a different situation, personally for me, it will end up saving some time for me, also on the reconciliation side of things as programs stagger their amounts/increments, I won't need to do that anymore...

[VincentPerro]

All the US firms will be using this method. 5dimes and Betting Partners have started something and bookmaker has already copied them by making it the only payment method. That's arguably the three biggest. It gets around all their difficulties.

Not sure what "semi-legal" means. It is either legal or it isn't. I guess you are Russian or Chinese, because I am not aware of any other restrictions. You are aware of all the regulated exchanges for bitcoin in the US and UK? Nothing 'semi' legal about that.

I suspect your comment about bitcoin not being around for long is just wishful thinking. Its use is expanding, particularly in this industry, and the more its use expands the more legs it has. It'll live a lot longer than anyone on this forum!

If you are an affiliate of US-facing firms then engage with it or get out of the business, because luddites wont get paid. I agree with the comments about banks asking questions, which although they can be answered, would raise a red flag on your account if it happened.

Russian, exactly. Nonetheless, Russia's the 5th country in the world ranking by amount of cryptocurrency operations. Although some other countries, obviously less developed than US and EU, aren't happy with bitcoin either.
But my doubts about its longevity are linked to the fact, that despite bitcoin's ever-growing popularity, its final amount is limited, thus it will either go away, or become something extremely valuable, more like a collectible. As far as I know (please correct me if i'm wrong as I'm anything but a bitcoin connoisseur) bitcoin's value keeps lowering, which is a sign of the first situation that I described.