Bitcoin donation goes live

Popper

@tom:

…
btw. your balance (also incomming) is shown below the logo.. maybe the display position will be changed in future but i was somehow in the hustle because the todolist is endless

:blink:? Which logo?

Joker

our gaytorrent.ru logo on the right top… direct between logo and the blue bar

Popper

I see nothing there … see the attached picture :afr:

Joker

did you have anything deposited to your bitcoin adress ? guess not.

Popper

No, still waiting to get the money wire transfer to arrive, so I can exchange it for bitcoins … should arrive tomorrow as strangely bank computers don't work the weekend.

Now I understand: That is to avoid the need to stay on the donation page waiting for the bitcoins to arrive :blind:

Update 2013-04-22 11:45 CET:
As expected, the Euro fund wire transfer arrived this Monday and I've placed an order (bid) to exchange it for bitcoins. My bid is 95 EUR / BTC, which was the rate ate MtGox at that moment. The exchange was made in less than 2 minutes.

Update 2013-04-22 13:30 CET:
I've asked to transfer the bitcoins to the address shown on the "Donate" page at 12:22 CET. The fee taken is 0.5% (the low fee of the exchange place was one of the reasons why I chose that particular one). At 12:23 CET, it appears on GayTorrent.ru under the logo that I've donated 0.99502 bitcoins with 0 confirlations. I need to wait for 3 confirmations of the transaction, which happens at around 13:14 CET. Then the "Transfer" button is available on the "Donate" page and I click it at 13:18 CET (after taking pictures for a future Guide). The exchange rate at that moment is 94 EUR / BTC (means 1 Euro less than the moment I bought my bitcoins. However, as GayTorrent.ru takes the USD value ( about 123 USD / BTC) as Euro amount and doubles it, I got a donation of 22.42 Euros credited for 9.5 euros spent to buy bitcoins.

To note that for the donation I didn't need an own bitcoin wallet , just to open an account at an exchange site and transfer money to them.

Remark: Don't wonder why I've no donor's star, for this a moderator's test account with standard Power User status was used.

–--

The complete story:

Checking out different bitcoin sellers conditions, reputations and identifications.
Easy account creation at the exchange place which accepts SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area > hXXp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area ) wire transfers on Friday. No verification needed there.
The transfer didn't cost any fee.
Due to the weekend, the wire transfer took long and arrived only today.
Placed an order for bitcoins at market price and got them in less than 2 minutes, no fees.
Transferred the bitcoins to the address shown on the "Donate" page, 0.5% fee. The action is visible on GayTorrent.ru within a minute.
Needed to wait about 1 hour for the confirmations and to be able to click to "Transfer" as donation.
Got credited 2.36 times the amount spent in Euro to buy the bitcoins.

Joker

wow .. thanks uwe for this approach… so people truly can see here: it works

even when it is still "a pain in the ass" compared to just paypal

BUT on pro side: more credits and totally anonymous for both partners

billhiggs

I would gladly donate but i cant figure out the whole bitcoin mess

I have enjoyed thei site but I guess I am done

Good luck

Popper

If you read through my experience, it comes out that the "bitcoin mess", as you call it, is rather simple.

There were two complicated parts in my experience:

Trying to understand what bitcoins are, how they work, the risks and the terminology associated. My conclusion is, that for the purpose of small amounts of money transfers, bitcoins can be understand just as a currency.

In opposite to real money, bitcoins are transferred between "addresses", which is a long series of numbers and letters, not bank account numbers (IBAN/BIC) or e-mail addresses (Paypal).

As for any currency, there is speculation on its value ongoing (see Speedmaster8's messages). It being a young, small currency, fluctuations can be high, so I won't use it for savings …, but that isn't the use here for donations.
Selecting the service to get some bitcoins for money. There are many, see the lists of them which can be found online, for example there:

How do you buy bitcoins? > http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/
Bitcoin Wiki (Buying bitcoins, major exchanges) > https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins#Major_Exchanges

Then there is the need to visit a few pre-selected, read there conditions, contact and company information to select one or two you think to trust and being competitive. Here come in many personal factors and therefore a choice which can be good for one, may be bad for another and vice versa.

I've created an own "bitcoin" support section in the forum with a board where members can post there experience with different services, hoping to there will be provided a help for this choice.

Once you have made the choice of your exchange service(s), things are rather straight forward:

Registering an account with an exchange service and confirming it
- Fund the account (or register a bank account for withdrawals)
- Buy bitcoins, respectively rather a fraction of a bitcoin
- Sending it to the address shown on the "Donate" page
- Wait the transfer is confirmed, then validate the donation transfer with the button on the "Donate" page
I am planning to make a pictured guide for the last two bullet's steps, which are common and specific GayTorrent.ru.

Popper

@Speedmaster8:

I only wanted to make clear, tom, that bitcoins are pretty useless, when it comes to payments and/or donations. I am aware that you certainly may buy percentages of a bitcoin, but after all recalculations, the bitcoin-buyer always looses, when we talk about "real money".

That depends on how you look at it. Bitcoins have advantages:

Low to no fees (wallet to wallet) if transferred on bitcoin basis, therefore well adapted for micro payments
Increased privacy if for each transaction a new address is created and used

I'd remind that for example Paypal and Banks take fees to withdraw or exchange currencies, too.

Seen the current fluctuations of value, I'd rather prefer not to get my salary in bitcoins, though (even if after the "crash" beginning April, it is climbing in value rather steadily like after the previous crashes).

movieguy

Would like to donate to you but cant follow this Bitcoin nonsense. Why cant I just use my visa card for a donation? As it stands at the moment I cant donate!!!

frankie65

Sorry but no at all sold on this new donating system. Looks like I will have to say goodbye to you guys as well unless you bring something back that is easier to implement. I'm sure there must be an easier way

Popper

It is not more complicated than opening a Paypal account (here open an account at a bitcoin exchange) and sending money from there.

You've got plenty of Seed Bonus Points, which should keep your account in a good standing for a while, if you exchange them for upload.

colt85

This is way too complicated. a more simple solution needs to be made. Having members invest in a new electronic currency with high exchange fluctuations is hardly a solution to no paypal. I want to donate but its too much work :crazy2:

Popper

You don't need to "invest" in a currency. Just to buy as much as you need, then immediately transfer to GayTorrent.ru and donate. that is done in about an hour, there are very unlikely huge changes in that short time.

Remember as well, that as an incentive to use bitcoins, you'll get their US dollar value credited as Euros and that doubled as donation. It is really profitable for members compared to the previous Paypal donations.

An example:
1/ You bought 89 minutes ago at market price of 127 USD (a temporary peak) 0.1 bitcoins = 12.7 USD or 9.64 EUR
2/ You transferred them immediately, the transfer was confirmed 51 minutes ago and you donated them immediately. The market price at the donation moment was 117 USD (a temporary low peak)
3/ You get 11.7 USD taken for a 11.7 Euro donation, times two = 23.4 Euro donation for having spend 9.64 EUR

In that example I've taken quite worst case peaks in exchange rates over the last two hours, high for buying, low for donating and you see that it is largely positive.

Baboon

I'm pretty sad! I really like this site but im very bad in computer operations…new donate system its too complicated....bye and thanks for everything.

fellatio3

Im not sure you are going to convince people that this bitcoin stuff is simple. Ive enjoyed the site but Im going elsewhere too.

Popper

Everybody is free to look elsewhere and I am as well member on a number of other gay torrent sites. Depending of what you find there and your expectations, you might well get back to GayTorrent.ru … or rather use multiple.

Bitcoins require some effort, because they are the new thing. However compared to uploading an own torrent on a private tracker, it isn't difficult.

What I hope is that members give it a trial.

elixis

Yeah, Id like to fix my ratio and have donated in the past. But this is way too complicated. I dont want to spend an hour or two figuring out how to use this.

Mestrl

Any word on how much $ equals how much ratio?

I don't mind trawling through the new system, but I'm not going to send money blindly ;D

Like Mestrl, I'm open to trying it out, but only if I have a good idea of how much uploaded credit I will get. Right now there are too many unknowns for me – even if I put forth the effort to get bitcoins, then figure out how to donate to gtru, I have no idea how much credit will come from donating. For all I know, I could donate $10 and get only 0.5GB! That would be useless and entirely not worth it.

But four points of warning:

People are right about the fluctuation of bitcoin. You guys are DEFINITELY asking people to make a risky investment. But, for the most part, if bitcoins can be traded quickly enough, then the fluctuation should be minimal.
You guys are trying too hard to sell this as a simple and preferable process. The fact is, as long as bitcoin is the only option, you're going to lose tons of potential donors. Not only is it sketchy, but people simply do not want to spend money to TRY a system they're unsure about -- especially when they can go to other websites that offer less risk.
If you guys do as I say above and I still don't like the bitcoin donation system after trying it out, then I myself will not come back. And like I said, I'm one of the people willing to try -- just as long as I know before donating how much my donation will count towards my ratio.
The biggest pain in the ass is the amount of time it takes. If people (like me) are donating for their ratio, they want to be able to do it fast. If it takes less time for us to upload than to transfer bitcoins, then what's the point of donating?