I think it's a bunch of fucking bullshit and a rip off of the bitcoin community.
Isn't it already a bunch of crap that we pay 3& to credit card companies. They claim to charge that for their "highly protective, massively fraudulent services that use thousands of computers and office buildings thousands of employees etc etc etc.
So why are we expected to pay these guys 2% of every transaction to use this service as a merchant?
What did they do, besides write a simple program, which should give them 2% off all merchants fees? What do they do that qualifies this HUGE EXORBITANT FEE from these guys? I don't get it. I call this a bunch of baloney
I hope another one comes along next month and moves these guys down 2 notches.
Dude, they are a start-up, they need to pay off their initial costs, streamline their offerings, and above all turn in a profit. I don't know bit-pay's fee structure, but if they make it easy for merchants to start using Bitcoins by providing a great service, it's good for everyone. Also, from what I've heard on these forums the credit card companies basically make money every time there is fraud by charging merchants out the ass, so they aren't using their percentages primarily for that purpose. There's no reason competition can't fix the fee "problem" as usage goes up. From what I remember they offer Bitcoin directly to cash equivalent conversions, so those definitely have real costs that need to be covered. Some form of fee seems reasonable at this point and if merchants are willing to pay, that's their prerogative.
Maybe i'm being a little harsh on them, but they are ripping off the bitcoin community, plain and straight.
I'm not a programmer, but I have had dozens of websites in the past, and I happen to know for a fact that what they are doing is SIMPLE. Plain and SIMPLE. It's a great service they are providing, but they are taking ZERO risk, and they are doing VERY LITTLE to warrant a 2% merchant fee. I, for one, will absolutely not use them.
