[Qgis-psc] Bitcoins

[Sandro Santilli]

On Tue, May 07, 2013 at 09:50:08AM +0200, Vincent Picavet wrote:

> The main problem is the volatility of the money. If you look at the 
> bitcoin/USD exchange rate, you will see that variations are huge. It is 
> therefore very difficult to fix any price in BTC, as its value varies too much.

I think the volatility issue can be fixed by NOT keeping BTC as such
but rather immediately convert to fiat currency. Services like bitpay
do that for you for a 1% fee (and a minimum transfer of 100 EUR).
Other services also exist. I've no direct experience of withdrawal though.

The most work will likely be deciding how to organize the thing:
should someone keep the coins offline or should they be stored online ?
Should they be kept as BTC or immediately converted ?
It would be interesting to know which of the qgis team expenses
could be done via BTC directly, as converting to EURO and then
transferring to final recipient would not exploit the cost advantage.
Example services that could be of interest for qgis:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Hotels
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Travel_Companies
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Web_Hosting
(more on that wiki page)

--strk;

> 
> If we'd want to fix a price in BTC (for standard donation e.g.), it should be 
> dynamic and indexed on the USD/BTC rate (or EUR/BTC) and computed on the fly.
> If it's used to do donations, let the amount free and let the user choose its 
> donation according to current exchange rate.
> 
> There also is no guarantee on the future of bitcoin, which is considered an 
> experimentation by its conceptors. It could be superseded by another virtual 
> money, or attacked by governments, central banks, or payment agencies (visa, 
> paypal...). DDOS on main transactions sites happen frequently too, and even 
> cracking of these sites may arise (Mt.Gox, Bitcoin24x have been subject to 
> attacks).
> 
> Therefore, accepting bitcoins means a bit of work to assure that the BTC will 
> be withdrawn, and withdraw it when the rate is not bad, so as to eliminate the 
> risks in keeping bitcoins.
> 
> As for simple payment options, Flattr is a good tool for opensource projects 
> too.
> 
> Vincent