Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: BigEasy on August 21, 2012, 07:06 pm
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Very interesting news...
6-8 Weeks Until Bitcoin Debit/Credit Card, says BitInstant -
Those of you who have been around the Bitcoin block a time or two have probably heard of, and even used, BitInstant. BitInstant is a service that provides the ability to transfer funds between Bitcoin and governmental currencies much more quickly than would otherwise be possible. They're also well known for certain transaction types not offered anywhere else, such as the ability to buy BTC with cash at thousands of locations across the United States, and the similarly unprecedented ability to withdraw bitcoins to scam-laden PayPal. A few hours ago, Charlie Shrem confirmed in a conversation on IRC that they're 6 to 8 weeks away from launching the biggest Bitcoin breakthrough in recent history: A bitcoin-funded international debit/credit card.
I'll paste the entire contents of the IRC conversation at the end of this post, but here's the basic breakdown so far:
The card will function as a standard debit/credit card and should be accepted anywhere that accepts MasterCard, even internationally.
The first 1,000 or so will be given away for free, subsequent cards will cost an unknown, but fairly low, amount of money - Mr. Shrem thinks about $10.
Funding the card will cost roughly a 1% fee.
Each card will bear a QR code on the front and a printed address on the back for funding.
There will be an option to hold your card balance in BTC until the card is used to make a payment or withdrawal.
Transactions under $1,000 will be funded after the first confirmation, not the standard 6. Transactions over $1,000 were not discussed.
The cards themselves will be issued by "a major international bank" that BitInstant has teamed up with. This of course means that the traditional AML or other local laws & regulations for obtaining a bank account, such as proof of identity, will apply as per your jurisdiction.
You own the address on the card, though BitInstant has not yet determined the best way to hand over your private keys, or whether they should even offer such an option.
Update: There is now a signup form for the first cards going out. I assume there will be something more official on BitInstant's site in time, but for now this Google form has been made available by Mr. Shrem in the meantime.
DEBIT CARD SIGNUP: http://goo.gl/vl3nX (i know it may seem phishy that it is a Google Form, but for those of you who doubt please go to bitinstant.com's home page and follow the link from there.)
There is also interesting info in the IRC log on the original site: http://codinginmysleep.com/6-8-weeks-until-bitcoin-debitcredit-card-says-bitinstant/
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Just saw this, just signed up. Though as a buyer myself, I don't think this is going to impact me or my SR dealings.
Will be interesting to see if you'll be able to fund it yourself or with bitcoin itself, or if you'll need to always go through them with cash (I'm assuming the latter will apply).
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I'd be extremely wary of this.
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Exactly, they will be doing it to track transactions. I wouldn't get on this even if someone put a gun to my head. If anyone does decide to do it use it with EXTREME caution.
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Yes I would be wary of any such card !!
Sounds like the crew at BitInstant is busy busy, they are also launching BitCoin Wireless to buy phone time with btc in a couple weeks ( http://signup.bitcoinwireless.com )
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*Fixes foil hat*
One word. Honeypot.
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The guys from Bitinstant are good businessmen and have borught a lot of flow for the bitcoineers.
Of course this WILL be used with time as an honeypot but is not structured as that..
They just wanna make money and create value...why do you guys think this card is "made for you"? there many "legitimate" reasons to use tc and these cards.
bitcoinwireless may be interesting in a few ways though. Calling cards can be easily exchanged an a pretty liquid global market ..it is only a pain in the ass as there are seldom higher values than 50€ exchangeable.. we will see...they have to saturate as much as soon as possible..
africa and asia are very interesting for this as areas for exchange..call/voip time and web time ..
But as a vendor or buyer here we second Lim. Dont use them at all..this is for lazy guys and they will be caught in the future..
Lazyness is bad for business.If something make this easy it is probably a risk.
We hope we explained ourselves correctly
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DEBIT CARD SIGNUP: http://goo.gl/vl3nX (i know it may seem phishy that it is a Google Form, but for those of you who doubt please go to bitinstant.com's home page and follow the link from there.)
....and a shitty google form at that.
:\
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So what's to stop someone from funnelling their ill gotten gains into this debit card?
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Nothing at all. The _important_ and harder part is making them all anonymous.
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tldr; be wary. :D
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Are people really interested in this? Just the fact that they are a U.S. based company alone should tell you that you will have a hard time using it anonymously. And if you are into the whole fact ID/SSN etc thing and that is your excuse, there are rumored to be much easier ways.
and as I mentioned up thread...they have a google form as their "application" (a shitty one at that)
All in all ...this is no good.
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US. Govt despises any form of anonymous payments and uses their Federal Finance Laws to require ID/SSN whenever something gets big enough that they feel the need to control it. Once they start tying Identification with this sort of thing (as this does) and gain dominance of the community, there will be Federal Finance laws forcing the majority of companies to require ID/SSN for all BTC transactions.
I, for one, will not be part of the first 1000, nor the last 1000.
I will always continue to support the Free Market, not the Federally Controlled Market.