Revenuenetwork no more supports BTC

[Sherlock]

As of September 1, 2022, Bitcoin will no longer be an available payment method moving forward.

Revenue Network will be replacing our Bitcoin payment method for all commission payments with Tether (USDT-ERC20), which is available on the Ethereum blockchain.

This is interesting. I started to buy BTC because of Bovada started to pay us in BTC. Now this twist.

I assume it will not be the last twist. I think it is logical to use stablecoins for gambling and affiliate payments for now. But there will be AML war against stablecoins in future. So maybe in few years they will switch back to BTC.

Either way this is convenient to most people I think. Stablecoins are pegged 1:1 to fiat. USDT can be spent from card directly at Binance. Or it can be exchanged at USD/USDT pair at Kraken.

Using BTC for gambling recently seems to be overkill.

[eenzoo]

Yeah finally, and as I mentioned in an other RN thread. Partners.io (Bitcasino) is going the same path.

And yes, it is somehow logical and (imo) without any downsides for affiliates. I can receive my commission at Friday without losing 10% on Sunday

[wonderpunter]

or gaining 10% lol

Yeah finally, and as I mentioned in an other RN thread. Partners.io (Bitcasino) is going the same path.

And yes, it is somehow logical and (imo) without any downsides for affiliates. I can receive my commission at Friday without losing 10% on Sunday

[Sherlock]

Anyone can convert the USDT to BTC instantly. I will for sure do that.

Stablecoins are way to go for few years until the big brother will shut them down. Then it will all revert to BTC or to some algorithmic stablecoins if they will ever exist after LUNA massacre.

[Inersha]

What's the easiest way to receive USDT payments and convert them to BTC? Just get them sent directly to an exchange, trade for BTC, then send to your wallet?

I wouldn't say I'm a bitcoin maximalist, but I enjoyed the simplicity of just dealing with BTC for payments. I can understand the change though.

[Sherlock]

Yes. Easiest way is to send USDT to your wallet at exchange and convert to BTC.

The safest way is to send the USDT to your proprietary wallet first and then to the exchange (just like by BTC). The fees to send USDT oevr ETH network are (far) higher than sending BTC (and you need some ETH for that in the wallet).

[Inersha]

Thanks Sherlock.

So by sending directly to the exchange I would be avoiding the fees involved with sending from my own wallet, but obviously the trade-off is not having custody of the USDT during that time? That seems like the most straightforward option and a risk I'm comfortable with.

But if I were to use a wallet, which one would you recommend? At first glance these ones looked like decent and simple options: MyEtherWallet, Coinomi

[Sherlock]

The trade-off is a very small (but rising with time) probability that some future AML check can cause that your funds at the exchange will be frozen, because you will be connected with "gambling money". Even if it is not against any rules now, it can and will be against some rules in future. And they will seek even retroactively for any gambling related funds. Especially if gambling will switch to stablecoins (which I think is very probable), the hunt for the gambling related funds will be huge.

I am using Metamask + Ledger X/Nano. It is possible to use just the wallet from Ledger directly I think. But the sw of Ledger is pure sh1te. So for me it is Metamask. If you want to use the wallet just to receive and send the funds to exchange, I think you can use just Metamask (if you are aware of all potential threats and it depends also how much money Bovada will send you). But coinomi and MyEtherWallet are probably both on the same level as MM.

[rmeeuwsen]

This is interesting. I started to buy BTC because of

I was also forced into BTC to get commissions. I still do not really understand the whole thing (and many parts of it). To me it's similar to "gold is pretty" and therefore valuable and fiat currency (backed by so-called stable governments/economies).

Holding BTC is just like gambling. Right now, I don't do either!

[Sherlock]

To me it's similar to "gold is pretty" and therefore valuable

Gold is valuable, because it is valuable. And fiat is also valuable, because it is valuable.

The snow flakes around my house now are pretty. But they are not valuable.

It is connected to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_value

Just being pretty (like snowflakes), just being rare (like platinum that is more rare and cheaper than gold), just being useful (like water) does not mean that it will have some extra value. There must be some magic that will lit some initial interest of people and around that initial interest will snowball the value.

[dannyx]

There are programs that beyond accepting US players and offer more convenient withdrawals than Bitcoin, namely Neteller, Skrill and others.

[Sherlock]

- i do not know any programs for US that pay on NT or Skrill, the top ones for sure not
- bitcoin is more convenient than Skrill or NT
- Skrill and NT are absolutely unreliable at best (they are thieves let's say it openly)
- this thread is that RN is stopping BTC payouts and they provide USDT payouts; hardly can be imagined anything more convenient than USDT under banking circumstances in 2022

[dannyx]

As for the programs, the fact is there are not many, but there are.


I am also a proponent of cryptocurrencies and I am not saying that Neteller or Skrill is better. It certainly isn't. It may be more convenient for a certain group of people.

I like both. And I don't consider Neteller a bad company. They have proven themselves over the dozen or so years that I have been using this wallet.

One can have something to accuse them of like any company. But certainly calling them thieves is an abuse.


The fact of the subject is different, and as has been said in sum it changes nothing, but I wonder how other BTC-only operators and bookmakers like Nitrogenbetting will do, or maybe their player balance over time will be in USDT instead of mBTC, interesting to see.

[Sherlock]

Neteller and Skrill close accounts at their will and for some it is impossible to pass through random AML/KYC. They held me hostage several times and even the biggest sh1tc0in is more reliable than Paysafe Thievery corp. Certainly defending them is an abuse after all that I suffered with them. Yes, they were fine until approx 10 years ago. And they were excellent until 2006. But it was completely different company, completely different owners and management and completely different times.

Name some at least average US facing program that pays in Skrill/NT. I am genuinely curious about it. Skrill/NT stopped serving anything related to USA long time ago. They even blocked in 2010 mine account for small p2p transaction to US person which was completely within rules by the time. And that times was normal compared to 2022 and Skrill and NT were still very good companies by then.

[dannyx]

I sent you a PW.
However, I don't know if it catches on average, too niche.

I did KYC Neteller many years ago, so about that I can't comment on how it is now.
But with bookmakers I have different experiences some immediately what I don't send they accept at others it's a drama.

[Sherlock]

PM received thanks.

The issue is not KYC at Paysafe. Issue is ongoing, never ending abuse by them. I had several times locked 6 figures from totally legit sources like Unibet with them. I finally recovered all money with great effort. But there are other people, who still have money locked with them. One of them is with 400K locked and he probably never recovered it iirc.

Using BTC or USDT with inflow directly from betting site to any exchange is much lower risk than using Skrill/NT. That company should not be even mentioned. Even when I am using them for some small withdrawals where is no alternative.

[tufty]

No U.S. unregulated firms can pay affiliates via neteller or skrill, so it is not relevant.

[TheGooner]

I have lobbied for years for RN to offer stable coins like USDT as an OPTION for affiliate payment.
I don't think that they really listened to me though.

The irony is that the BTC payment method has been a good 5-10% bonus most months and "Forex exchange" has been a great profit line item on my balance sheet for the last 3-4 years - and now BTC payments are not going to be an option I'm disappointed.

[xecutable]

I have lobbied for years for RN to offer stable coins like USDT as an OPTION for affiliate payment.
I don't think that they really listened to me though.

The irony is that the BTC payment method has been a good 5-10% bonus most months and "Forex exchange" has been a great profit line item on my balance sheet for the last 3-4 years - and now BTC payments are not going to be an option I'm disappointed.

Sounds like someone doesn't wanna give out bonuses to their affiliates anymore. It's not like you can't convert USDT into BTC right away after you get your payment though. Good thing is ERC-20 fees have gone down A LOT these recent months. While being up to 50.00$ at time around January and a few weeks ago, I moved some assets for as low as 1.60$. Very keen on the merge date being on track for September 15th.

[PROFRBcom]

Stablecoins are pegged 1:1 to fiat. USDT can be spent from card directly at Binance. Or it can be exchanged at USD/USDT pair at Kraken.

I think that stablecoin payments introduces a new counterparty risk that I personally do not want to have to endure.

I also don't think that everyone has the same options of easily converting stablecoins into other cryptos, as each person's situation can be quite unique.

Lastly it puts more work on the affiliate to "manage it themselves".

Personally, the counterparty risk is what scares me the most. Tether does not have the shiniest of reputations and there has been speculation of counterfeiting and fraud related to Tether for many years. In the past it was easily ignored by affiliates, as they didn't have to deal with it. Now, that counterparty risk is added into our EV calculations.

Essentially the bulk of the risk has been shifted from RN to affiliates. I think USDT should have been an OPTION, not the sole source of payments.