<story><title>BitPay, PayPal for Bitcoin, raises $510K – already has 2,100 businesses on board</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/07/bitpay-banks-500k-in-angel-investment-to-become-paypal-for-bitcoin-already-has-2100-businesses-on-board/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>TY</author><text>Nice idea. I&apos;ve gone through their website and even watched the explanation video.&lt;p&gt;One thing they don&apos;t mention is how buyers come into possession of bitcoins. Buying bitcoins is currently a hassle for an average consumer and has transactional fees that are paid to bitcoin exchanges - enterprises of unknown origin and reputation that don&apos;t have household level brand name recognition (ask your aunt Sally or uncle Kamal about Mt. Gox).&lt;p&gt;I assume that chargebacks that are offloaded to bitcoin exchanges. These exchanges are the weakest point of the bitcoin ecosystem at the moment - this is where bitcoins touch the real world.&lt;p&gt;Contact with the real world makes them susceptible to the control of the authorities (regulators, law enforcement, criminals and etc), easy target for malicious parties meaning harm (yes, don&apos;t want to use the word hackers) as well as financial manipulators.&lt;p&gt;Success of BitPay and the like depends on the health and stability of the whole ecosystem, which is still quite immature, so if I were a merchant I&apos;d approach this cautiously.</text></comment>
<story><title>BitPay, PayPal for Bitcoin, raises $510K – already has 2,100 businesses on board</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/07/bitpay-banks-500k-in-angel-investment-to-become-paypal-for-bitcoin-already-has-2100-businesses-on-board/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>nym</author><text>If you&apos;re interested in buying bitcoins, check this out:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;We have regional guides, as well as company reviews+ratings so you can buy with trust.</text></comment>