PLEASE ACCEPT BITCOIN AS A PAYMENT OPTION!!!

In all intents and purposes you already accept Bitcoin using Wordpress.
This option would open up the Shroud of the Avatar world to a whole new group of people.
Traditional methods are great, but why not accept what the true gamers use. BITCOIN



Coinpayments.net
Shopping Cart Plugins

Accepted Coins

Coinbase

Coinbase Apps

Bitcoin API

Bitpay

Developers

 

They might not want to sit on Bitcoins or bother managing multiple transactions to convert it into money their suppliers and employees can use freely. In their position I wouldn't either.

 

I copied this over from the other thread, to hopefully give a little more exposure.

My Thoughts: I am very much in favor of this. I've been a fan of Bitcoin and Lord British for many years, I'd love to see one embrace the other to their mutual benefit. A simple google search will show you a list of major corporations (Dell, Expedia, DISH, Newegg, TigerDirect, Overstock, etc...) that have recently begun accepting Bitcoin using Bitpay and Coinbase, it is also evident in all these articles that the process was quick and painless, and has brought in thousands of dollars of additional income from the Bitcoin community showing it's support for major adoption. At the end of this post, I'll include a few of these links along with some pertinent information.

My Agreement: As Sir Jhorus pointed out, there are no legal or regulatory hurdles to overcome if they accept Bitcoin using a payment processor like BitPay or Coinbase. Bitcoin is collected by the processor, and Portalarium collects USD, just like accepting credit cards through Amazon or Paypal... just without the ridiculous fees associated with credit card processing and transactions.

My Pledge: My current pledge status is Knight, and I have already purchased a Collector level pledge for my brother. If Bitcoin becomes accepted as a payment option, I promise to upgrade my account to Knight Marshall and my brother's account to Ancestor. In addition, I'll purchase a Player Owned Town (most likely Hamlet level, as I haven't explored all options yet).

My Proof: Here are a few articles about major corporations and how accepting Bitcoin has affected their bottom line:

http://moneymorning.com/2014/08/15/check-out-how-many-overstock-sales-are-done-using-bitcoin/ - This article discusses Overstock's sales that use Bitcoin as a payment method. Since January (When Overstock started accepting Bitcoin as payment), they have more than $2 Million in Bitcoin sales. Purchases made with Bitcoin account for nearly 1% of all purchases made at Overstock and are generally higher than purchases made with Credit Cards or Paypal ($240 per Bitcoin purchase vs. $165). Averaging out to nearly $15,000 in Bitcoin purchases PER DAY, Overstock is definitely satisfied with their decision to accept Bitcoin.

http://www.coindesk.com/tigerdirect-tops-1-million-total-bitcoin-sales/ - This article discusses TigerDirect, and how after just 2 months accepting Bitcoin, they had already made more than $1 Million in sales!

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/07/18/dell-begins-accepting-bitcoin/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 - This article discusses Dell's decision to accept Bitcoin, and also touches on some figures from other retailers who have allowed their customers to use Bitcoin at checkout though payment processors like Coinbase.

http://www.coindesk.com/expedia-exec-bitcoin-payments-have-exceeded-estimates/ - This article discusses Expedia's decision to use Bitcoin, as well as, how much they underestimated the amount of new business that they would receive by making that decision. They don't release figures, but are very impressed with the amount of money coming in from Bitcoin, and can't wait to see what happens once Bitcoin can be used to book Flights and Cars (currently only used to book Hotels).

 

Thanks for the grammar correction. Yeah, they wouldn't need to do any of that. The three listed companies do that completely. We pay in Bitcoin, and they can either take the Bitcoin, or they transfer the fiat equivalent or other digital currency straight to their account or bank.

 

Also, the software they are already using for this website and the main account is made in Wordpress. Wordpress accepts Bitcoin, and they offer a shop/checkout service to be able to pay in Bitcoin.
It would be great if they offered this payment system to us. It would open the game up to a wider range of people.

 

Given that their goods are all virtual and have literally no cost of goods sold associated with them, it makes all the sense in the world to accept bitcoin as a source of payment. Heck, they could even source out the exchange part of it to a 3rd party exchange. No different than taking Euros instead of dollars in my opinion, you simply apply an exchange rate to bitcoin transactions.

Meanwhile, someone here has created a market for pledge accounts, so you kind of through several intermediaries created a bitcoin to cash secondary market.

 

Investors use bitcoin more than traditional coin, in time the atms will be worldwide. I agree with this tread, even kickstarter could add this options/wink...... I for one would accept it and back more readily with it, in my opinion... If its accepted on the stock market its not going away anytime soon.

 

Well. Given the prevalence of secondary markets to exchange for other currencies. The hold risk is minimal if they charge an exchange fee. Essentially, it's just going to be a revenue booster, not something to go into blindly, but ultimately it should be fairly beneficial.

 

Richard wants it, but it's unknown when it will happen for SotA. And in case you missed it, he spoke extensively about bitcoins here.

 

Yeah. I mean essentially were talking at most a 5-10 percent revenue increase? So 200-470k? Easily absorbable and convertible, I mean customers could pay in any currency as long as there is an exchange and afaik there is one for bitcoin. The company doesn't take currency risk if they convert currency on a regular basis, the exchange takes this risk. So as long as there are bitcoin exchanges, and portalarium charges a conversion fee. There is no currency risk on portalarium

Hell, if it all goes to heck they are out 200-470k in revenue ( very very unlikely if they are converting currency) with no inventory or other goods attached. So their loss is 0. They just didn't make any money. (Okay it's not 0 but it's very very negligible)

In the case of portalarium, revenue is king given their cost structure. I.e. Aside from fixed goods it doesn't cost portalarium ANYTHING between responder and lotm pledges, everything is virtual. They have 0 cost of goods sold to take a loss on, their expenditures are fixed and of an overhead/developmental nature.

 

Or could could just sell your bitcoins and pay in USD?

 

True, but just a note: there are no charge backs with bitcoin/for the merchant its a better deal in the end. Not currency but considered property like stocks/nods...

 

Well, I mean I work in corporate investment banking so I've got a bit of knowledge on the subject of currency and merchant exchange

I wouldn't recommend bitcoin for every business type, eventually with scale and transaction size you will run I to serious exchange problems. I. E. What do we do with all of this money if there isnt capacity to absorb it. Bitcoin is a very volatile currency and can present significant issues (as can ANY currency). Additionally, with 6 figure plus singular transactions, anti money laundering concerns and controls need to be implemented, and with how bitcoin operates, that can always be frustrating to set up. If you're selling goods or commodities and you take a huge loss due to currency conversion or devaluation. It can be devastating, but it's 99.99999 percent unlikely to happen with sota.

Now then Sota has none of those problems. Transaction sizes are small so money laundering due diligence is not any greater than any other retailer. Candidly, anyone trying to launder money via bitcoin in sota is a fool since it attaches to an account and creates a paper trail.

Secondly, there are open, and immediate exchanges for bitcoins via several processors. This is no different than accepting credit cards. They take an exchange fee and they convert the currency to usd. Sota accepting bit coins (to them) would be no different than accepting American Express.

In the end, there is decent upside in the form of revenue gains. There is little downsize given the prevalence of markets and exchanges.

 

Why would I want to do that? Silly fiat.

 

And thank you. The links are awesome. Great info!
Glad to hear it's being discussed!!!!

 

I understand that Shep/if we want someone to make money off the payment it would be SOTA.... not a third party which benefits none here... unless there were a player driven exchange/we could even use ingame coins exchange depending upon how many differing coins are ingame/etc. If it were written into the game/my opinion would be to attach it to a main bank..... deposit type payment/for add ons and upgrades it would be another name on the pull down. Then instead of Credit Card info it would be deposit to sota via our wallet to server codes/easy faster than usd. No chargebacks.....confirmed in seconds done, that is a big one.

 

Sure, let's accept internet funbucks.

 

You're being short sighted if you didn't read the posts, there is an instant exchange for bit coins.

I could offer stone coins of the Easter island pygmies, shrute bucks, or turtle eggs as payment. As long as there is an instantaneous exchange to convert the currency, there is very little risk.

 

Probably they don't want to accept a currency that can devalue dramatically in a very short period of time.

If you have bitcoin, convert it to USD and pay that way, rather than wondering why SOTA doesn't want to deal in a questionable currency that might crash at any moment.

For that matter, if you own bitcoins, be smart and cash them in now, before the bitcoin apocalypse.

 

Then why not instantaneously convert your currency and pay with dollars? Problem solved.