Backpage: An Opportunity or Liability for Bitcoin?
Recently, the classifieds website Backpage was banned from using American Express, MasterCard, and Visa, loudly. The reasoning behind this is that the site is used for sex workers to find customers. The site is said to sell millions of classified ads to women in the United States, and a sheriff in Illinois instigated the shutdown. Before that, MasterCard and Visa had no problem processing transactions for Backpage. Backpage began accepting Bitcoin at some point, and now it is the only form of payment that works for the website. Of course, the Bitcoin network cannot be shut down. But if you....
Related News
Coin Cafe is meant to be an easy way to buy and hold bitcoins, but they apparently do not like people attempting to use bitcoins at the free classifieds provider Backpage.com. After the problems that the website had in the last several weeks, with all of its other merchant processing accounts closed, Bitcoin has garnered some coverage. However, it appears that users of Coin Cafe are not welcome to use their hosted wallet to purchase services from Backpage.com. The site seems almost hostile to those who would use its services to hire ads from Backpage.com. It seems this is a company policy,....
Paxful was chosen by Backpage.com to provide users with bitcoins when the company was shut down by Visa and Mastercard. Now that Paxful is up and running, they've had their hands full teaching many people the basics of Bitcoin in the process of selling it to them, so they can place their ads on Backpage.com. Now the company has made a video to ease the process for Backpage.com users. Also read: Chicago Sheriff Barred From Tampering With Backpage Funding. In plain language, the process of buying bitcoins and spending them at Backpage.com is explained. The video aims to take some of the....
Backpage says “screw off” to squeamish credit card companies Visa and MasterCard by dropping fees for adult ads and announcing that it is going to accept all digital currencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin. Some estimates say Backpage’s acceptance could open up a $100m (£64m) opportunity for Bitcoin, since it is one of the site’s only remaining payment options. This decision came as Visa and MasterCard cut off their services to Backpage, citing illegal or brand-damaging activities as the reason. Therefore, users who want to post ads on Backpage must now use Bitcoin, Litecoin, or....
Following the news that Backpage had launched a lawsuit against Chicago-area Sheriff Thomas Dart, the company has made more headway, winning a "restraining order" against the outspoken sheriff. He will no longer be able to make "de-funding" efforts against Backpage.com. Lawyers for Backpage.com are pushing to have the Sheriff rescind his letters to MasterCard and Visa, which would amount to an apology. There is no way for Backpage.com to force the credit card processing companies to start working with them again, but if the companies knew that the Sheriff's threats of legal action were....
Classified ads site Backpage.com has filed a lawsuit against the County Sheriff who led a successful campaign to have Visa and MasterCard cut its payment processing. Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart’s complaint resulted in Backpage having to use cryptocurrency as an exclusive payment method for ads in its adult section. Dart had alleged that the ads promoted and encouraged sexual trafficking, something which Backpage had struggled to counter in recent years, Talking Points Memo reports. Now, a suit filed Tuesday against Dart alleges he “achieved his purpose through false accusations,....