from Hacker News

Show HN: Accept Bitcoins on your site

by zabeth24 on 6/28/11, 5:03 PM with 21 comments

A friend(@wolever) and I spent the weekend hacking up a small web app which makes it easy for you to sell digital goods for Bitcoins. Once a customer has clicked the “buy” button, we take care of giving them a unique address, monitoring that address for transactions, then securely notifying your website once a minimum number of confirmations have been received. Oh, ya, and then we send you the Bitcoins :)

The website is here: BitWillet: http://www.bitwillet.com and there is a demo on the front page.

(full disclosure: BitWillet uses the Willet, http://dev.getwillet.com, platform, of which I co-founded)

  • by geuis on 6/29/11, 8:25 AM

    A good companion for this would be a browser extension that interfaces with the bitcoin network so interactions could be streamlined. The extension does not need to be a bitcoin miner, simply an interface for your existing account(s).

    The usage pattern would follow:

    1) Install the extension

    2) Configure extension with your bitcoin address(es).

    When encountering a site using bitwillet:

    1) User clicks "Pay"

    2) bitwillet overlay appears with generated bitcoin address to send payment to. bitcoin address is clickable.

    3a) Clicking the bitwillet address interfaces with the bitcoin extension to send the payment from your account to the one provided by bitwillet. A "Are you sure?" confirmation should appear before the transaction is complete.

    3b) Alternatively, the overlay interfaces directly with the extension and bypasses the need for the user to click the bitwillet address. Confirmation screen should still be used.

    4) bitwillet overlay updates its text to tell the user the transaction is in process.

    5) When the transaction is complete, the overlay message changes again to inform the user.

  • by alx on 6/28/11, 5:39 PM

    That's really great!

    Some feedback:

    - "This may take up to 5 minutes." < you might have to explain why - "What is BitWillet?" open a new tab instead of opening inside the popup

  • by adrianwaj on 6/29/11, 2:34 PM

    I'm glad you did this. http://bitcoinservice.co.uk/ has been doing something similar but without the polished look and feel, and higher fees.

    The big money in e-goods is with these guys http://www.clickbank.com

  • by nicksergeant on 6/28/11, 6:02 PM

    Doesn't work for people using an Apps account:

    Oops... you need a Google profile to use this feature. Google Profiles is not available for your organization.

  • by brk on 6/28/11, 5:05 PM

    Thanks, I will probably use this. I have been thinking about offering bitcoin-paid server colo options.

  • by dreamdu5t on 6/28/11, 11:11 PM

    I don't get it. How do you make money? Why spend all this time and effort without reward?

  • by iambot on 6/28/11, 5:14 PM

  • by chrislas on 6/28/11, 5:12 PM

    Sent this to a friend who was just looking for something like this!

  • by vgurgov on 6/29/11, 8:42 AM

    Please send 0.001 BTC to 1Gauo5b1X42wGjmpjt4QBDjiaURUPJGaGM.

    Please remove . (dot)

  • by swishercutter on 6/28/11, 10:37 PM

    This is exactly what I needed...Thanks.

  • by mrmang on 7/4/11, 4:30 AM

    i support this project :) wish more people started using bitcoin