Guild Wars 2

Microsoft now takes bitcoins as a form of payment; why doesn’t ANet?

You can now buy apps, games and other stuff from microsoft with bitcoins. Source

Just putting it out there.

Also relevant, from the other thread under the now defunc BLTC section.

Probably because bit coins are a money laundering paradise.

It probably has something to do with the instability of the value of bitcoin. It is great to be able to advertise a set price for a long time. Bitcoin fluctuates too much for that.

Or maybe it’s because they use a third-party payment processor that doesn’t accept bitcoins.

Microsoft is a several billion dollar company in income. ArenaNet is barely breaking 100 million dollars.

More specifically, ANet’s transaction agent, the company that handles all the accepted forms of payment as well as charging tax when appropriate, doesn’t handle BitCoin.

http://www.digitalriver.com/our-company/newsroom/press-release/global-ecommerce-provider-digital-river-now-accepting-bitcoin/

There is no way to back the value of bitcoins. Only a complete kitten would accept them for anything.

Zeivu.3615:

There is no way to back the value of bitcoins. Only a complete kitten would accept them for anything.

I believe, as other bitcoin threads have pointed out, there are services that will take bitcoins and convert it to whatever currency the company wants. ANet or NCSOFT don’t need to get into the bitcoin business, just sign up with one of these bit coin intermediaries who well take the price, say $10 for 800 gmes, and charge the buyer the correct amount in bit coins and turn around and pay ANet $10 minus transaction fees.

This puts the risk on the bitcoin processor and not ANet.

Still sounds like a waste of time for Arenanet with little benefit to get directly involved. The idiots who invest in it can trade it for real currency and then buy it like everyone else.

Behellagh.1468:

Zeivu.3615:

There is no way to back the value of bitcoins. Only a complete kitten would accept them for anything.

I believe, as other bitcoin threads have pointed out, there are services that will take bitcoins and convert it to whatever currency the company wants. ANet or NCSOFT don’t need to get into the bitcoin business, just sign up with one of these bit coin intermediaries who well take the price, say $10 for 800 gmes, and charge the buyer the correct amount in bit coins and turn around and pay ANet $10 minus transaction fees.

This puts the risk on the bitcoin processor and not ANet.

Zeivu.3615:

There is no way to back the value of bitcoins. Only a complete kitten would accept them for anything.

you could say the same thing about the dollar, or pretty much any other currency these days. the only things backing them are a few questionable promises, media coverage and public relations campaigns.

Thuggernaut.1250:

Zeivu.3615:

There is no way to back the value of bitcoins. Only a complete kitten would accept them for anything.

you could say the same thing about the dollar, or pretty much any other currency these days. the only things backing them are a few questionable promises, media coverage and public relations campaigns.

Usage. Everyone has accepted it and the value of the dollar is stable. Can you say the same for Bitcoin?

LOL @ some of the replies here.

“Bitcoin is not backed by anything”
“bitcoin value not stable”

blah blah blah. Do your education or shut your mouth. Merchants who accept bitcoin, have 0% risk by doing it. They get paid dollar amount in their bank account next day, they never see the coins. The merchant processor handles everything for the merchants. There is really 0% risk of accepting bitcoins through a merchant processor, no matter what the price is.

Ayrilana.1396:

Thuggernaut.1250:

Zeivu.3615:

There is no way to back the value of bitcoins. Only a complete kitten would accept them for anything.

you could say the same thing about the dollar, or pretty much any other currency these days. the only things backing them are a few questionable promises, media coverage and public relations campaigns.

Usage. Everyone has accepted it and the value of the dollar is stable. Can you say the same for Bitcoin?

the dollar has existed for more than 200 years. bitcoin has existed for five or six years. given the same amount of time, bitcoin can achieve the same acceptability and stability (if not better) than the dollar.

the value of the dollar, stable? don’t make me laugh. if you consider an average decline in the real purchasing power of the dollar of 4% each year (for the last 30 years) as stable, let me have whatever it is you are smoking.

Malediktus.9250:

Probably because bit coins are a money laundering paradise.

And I suppose you think that governments being able to type nonsense numbers into their bank accounts to justify the printing of their legal tenders by federal reserves is sound fiscal policy.

Educate yourself.

Gentlemen and/or ladies. The point is if a processor was willing to pay ANet the majority of $10 USD from a transaction in a currency ANet doesn’t directly accept, it shouldn’t matter if the currency was Yen, Rupees, Bitcoin or the giant stone coins from Yap.

It’s just the processor that ANet uses doesn’t accept Bitcoin and ANet doesn’t see a reason to signup one of the major Bitcoin processors. End of story.

Thuggernaut.1250:

Ayrilana.1396:

Thuggernaut.1250:

Zeivu.3615:

There is no way to back the value of bitcoins. Only a complete kitten would accept them for anything.

you could say the same thing about the dollar, or pretty much any other currency these days. the only things backing them are a few questionable promises, media coverage and public relations campaigns.

Usage. Everyone has accepted it and the value of the dollar is stable. Can you say the same for Bitcoin?

the dollar has existed for more than 200 years. bitcoin has existed for five or six years. given the same amount of time, bitcoin can achieve the same acceptability and stability (if not better) than the dollar.

the value of the dollar, stable? don’t make me laugh. if you consider an average decline in the real purchasing power of the dollar of 4% each year (for the last 30 years) as stable, let me have whatever it is you are smoking.

You may want to look into what currency stability actually means.

Shayne Hawke.9160:

Malediktus.9250:

Probably because bit coins are a money laundering paradise.

And I suppose you think that governments being able to type nonsense numbers into their bank accounts to justify the printing of their legal tenders by federal reserves is sound fiscal policy.

Educate yourself.

Maybe you should keep up to date on current events.

Dennis.5904:

LOL @ some of the replies here.

Do your education or shut your mouth. Merchants who accept bitcoin, have 0% risk by doing it. They get paid dollar amount in their bank account next day, they never see the coins. The merchant processor handles everything for the merchants. There is really 0% risk of accepting bitcoins through a merchant processor, no matter what the price is.

Yes but you pay the handler to manage the risk, either with fees or trading rates that give profit to the handler. Why would a business either take the risk or pay off the risk when they can avoid it altogether? No customers are walking away from the computer game because they can’t pay in bitcoins. Nobody.

Just to ensure: He said it’s POSSIBILITY, they MIGHT add this option. This is NOT a guarantee of any kind. #kthxbai

Thuggernaut.1250:

Zeivu.3615:

There is no way to back the value of bitcoins. Only a complete kitten would accept them for anything.

you could say the same thing about the dollar, or pretty much any other currency these days. the only things backing them are a few questionable promises, media coverage and public relations campaigns.

The value of currency is guaranteed by the Reserve Bank of your respective country. As long as that exists, with a government to support it, it will have stable value, regardless of inflation or deflation – it is legalised tender with the support of a nation state. Bitcoin doesn’t have that and is more reflective and affected by market confidence.

why pay money for bitcoins to pass onto Anet when you can just pay the money directly to Anet? Seems like a bit of a detour. I assume this function would only be useful if you had loads of bitcoins which I can’t imagine is the majority of people at all

As far as I am aware Bitcoins are unregulated and technically not a currency.
At best they can be considered a virtual commodity and therefore no-one has an obligation to accept them as legal tender even if they use a payment processor that accepts them.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Shayne Hawke.9160:

Malediktus.9250:

Probably because bit coins are a money laundering paradise.

And I suppose you think that governments being able to type nonsense numbers into their bank accounts to justify the printing of their legal tenders by federal reserves is sound fiscal policy.

Educate yourself.

Maybe you should keep up to date on current events.

If by “current events”, you mean things that happened ten months ago, then yes, I am quite up to date on current events.

If you earn a Bit coin or any other crypto-currency, you know you have to declare value on it in government backed currency at that time for taxes and also when you sell it in barter or currency exchange, also for taxes.

Do you all realize how nice we have it not to have to deal with the national, regional, and city taxes on real money gems transactions? Arenanet’s accountants are responsible for all taxes and exchange fees.

I like chocolate chips, why doesn’t Johnny? I like dogs, why doesn’t Linda?

greatwolf.1758:

Microsoft now takes bitcoins as a form of payment; why doesn’t ANet?

Because it’s a complicated ponzi scheme?