| Will PayPal allow GitTip to escrow the funds? If not (and likely not, considering PayPal does not allow for their payment network to be used for "pre-sales"), then GitTip can only charge for the actual amounts tipped (and claimed by the donation target). Right now, let's say I'm willing to tip $150 per year. I can then donating $0.25 to ten people. Since I carry no balance myself (from received tips), that means every Friday I get a charge for the amount I tip. So I would see a charge of $2.50 (10 X $0.25) plus $0.30 plus ($2.50 X 3.9%) = $2.90. So that is a 16% payment network fee. Certainly this can be optimized, but Bitcoin doesn't have such high fees. The sender pays the fee, and even then it is a fraction of a penny. And the conversion from Bitcoin to USDs is generally under one percent. Cash (USDs) can be received once each week by GitTip as an ACH direct deposit (using BitFloor) or through Dwolla (using Mt. Gox, Intersango or Camp BX) so easy cash-out methods are covered. And there are no chargebacks. So regardless of your politics or what you want to use as a store of value, Bitcoin solves problems very well. Especially for micropayments problems like this. |