Comment · Wed, December 14, 2016
Circle Discontinues Bitcoin Support
Original post in this thread
MisterYouAreSoDumb · 14 points
So it looks like Circle just rage-quit Bitcoin today. They seem to be frustrated by the transaction limit issue the past year, and would prefer to move to their own proprietary blockchain currency called Spark. I think they are going to fail miserably, but we will see.
Circle removes ability to buy and sell Bitcoin as it doubles down on mobile payments
What this means is that anyone with a Circle account can no longer use it for the only real purpose it had. You can no longer buy/sell BTC, nor can you send the BTC already in your account to another wallet. This means that you cannot pay for orders via Circle anymore, which sucks. Unfortunately, the only real alternative with the same ease of use is Coinbase. So for now, we suggest using Coinbase to purchase your BTC. Then I would suggest using an intermediate wallet, like blockchain.info or Electrum, to actually pay for the orders. Coinbase has been a bit strict with closing people's accounts. So it is best to use an intermediate wallet for payments for the time being.
There are a couple other Bitcoin servi…
What they were answering
ghost_of_kalrand · 2 points
I'm actually kind of surprised that you have trouble converting BTC into fiat. You've got a business, with customer invoices, suppliers, employees, and all of the paperwork that goes along with all of that. Most issues I've heard of with BTC in bulk is that it can look quite indistinguishable from money laundering; I wouldn't expect you'd have that issue.
Do you run into similar issues that you do with CC processors? That they just don't want to do business with your company?
You're point about the stability/liquidity of other currencies is quite valid; I'm glad to hear you've looked into it.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
The past year or two has seen some massive changes to the financial industry. Banks are not wanting to deal with "risky" industries, since the financial regulations put in place since 2008 are so vague and horribly written. Our government is getting DEEPLY involved in all aspects of the financial industry, and Operation Chokepoint has really fucked everything up. The nootropics industry is very new, and banks do not like things they do not have precedent for. So recently they have been erring on the extreme side of caution, and declining to do business with nootropics vendors altogether. FinCEN has gotten deeply involved in Bitcoin now as well, since congress ruled it was a currency. So the major BTC processors have gone the way of card processing banks, and have started to drop people and close accounts.
I am not exaggerating when I say we have either been dropped or denied by over 50 banks/processors now. We've had tens of thousands of dollars effectively stolen or held hostage by banks. Some of the things they have done are very illegal, but they know most vendors do not have the money to take them to court. That, or they keep their thefts low enough to not have it make sense to sue them. $10K here, $20K there. Some processing banks are taking 10-20% rolling reserves on account, with no intention of giving that reserve back. So they process for a vendor for a while, take their high percent commission and fees off the top, and also "hold" their 10-15% reserve. Then they drop the vendor, and keep the reserve. 9 times out of 10 those vendors cannot afford to go after them in court. The 1 out of 10 that does is settled, and they bank an extra couple million a year by effectively stealing from vendors. This is a normal part of the high risk processing industry, and has become so commonplace that most vendors just automatically consider their "reserves" lost from day one.
It's seriously the most corrupt and bullshit industry I have ever worked with, but we have no choice. They control who can send money to whom. We just have to take it, and bite the pillow while they screw us. It's part of doing business at the moment, and we don't have a choice. They can and do ruin businesses overnight.