Bitrix + Bitcoin. Part 2. The choice of processing

Intro: In the first part, we looked at the standard module structure for Bitrix. A further logical step in the development of the payment module will be the choice of processing, which I would like to tell. In this article I will try to assess the current situation in the world of Bitcoin.

Disclaimer: Everything written below is a set of subjective assessments of the author, mixed with facts and does not claim to be the ultimate truth.

What do we compare?

For comparison, I took the four most popular services through which Bitcoin can be more or less conveniently displayed:

• Mtgox
• Bitpay
• Walletbit
• OKPAY

There are actually more services, but in order to make such a squeeze it was necessary to thoroughly interrogate Google. All the others that were not included in this sample either do not cause much confidence (subjectively) or throw up inhuman commissions (objectively).

What are the criteria?

For me, as a developer, the basic requirements for any third-party service are reliability and ease of integration. For the seller, these criteria are somewhat different. Of course, this is the same reliability (no one wants to lose their hard-earned money one day), popularity and the amount of commissions charged by the system. In addition, one of the important factors in the choice of processing is the variety of methods for transferring electronic funds into cash. Based on this, the following list of criteria is obtained:

1. Fame and reliability
2. Easy integration
3. Commission amount
4. Easy withdrawal

')

Mtgox

The oldest and most famous stock exchange Bitcoin.

Fame
MtGox needs no introduction. Anyone who was at least a bit interested in the topic of Bitcoin, came across this exchange. In fact, for many, they are almost synonymous.

Easy integration
Everything here is not as good as we would like. Payments can be accepted by pre-setting the amount, the description of the goods ... you understand, right? There is no question of any automation. The documentation is very poor, only in English. Half a year ago, after a request to give at least an example of a button generation code, the following answer was given: “We will not give examples of the code. Soon there will be a new API, wait. ”
We are still waiting.

Commission amount
Commissions from 0.25% to 0.6% , depending on turnover, are applied to all operations.

Easy withdrawal
You can withdraw funds in several ways.

• Bank transfer (0%)
• Through many exchangers (2% -5%)

MtGox itself does not charge commission for withdrawal of funds. The commission is taken by the partners through whom the withdrawal is made, respectively, its size is individual in each specific case and may vary. Very strange system of withdrawal limits. To increase the withdrawal limits, you need to go through a full verification - messing around with a bunch of documents (up to the compilation of the apostille and sending it by physical letter to Japan). Many users complain about the speed of withdrawal. Some had to wait for a few weeks to send their funds.

Bitpay

Pretty nice service, focused only on payment through Bitcoin.

Fame
The company is proud of a series of publications about them in several economic journals, such as Forbes and The Economist. The entire collection of publications can be viewed on the site . In general, the fact of receiving investments from several business angels can be a guarantee of reliability.

Easy integration
At the disposal of the company's customers there are several ready-made modules for the most common e-commerce systems and their libraries in PHP and Node.js. If your solution is different from the standard one - welcome to the section with API . API itself can be called standard, no frills. IPN technology: supported.
Documentation only in English.

Commission rate
With the commissions, the situation is ambiguous. For one transfer of BTC, the company takes 0.99%, but that's not all. You can transfer this money into cash (at the current rate)

• Bank transfer (not only, but it is the only profitable way)
• In a limited circle of countries
• Minimum 1.70%, if the withdrawal is carried out in USD and 2.00%, if the withdrawal is carried out in another currency
• As a result, it turns out that the conversion and output of BTC will cost at least 2.69%

Easy withdrawal
There are several options for withdrawing money:

• Bank transfer. It will cost at least 2.69% for USD and maximum at 2.99% for other currencies (there are too few of them, here is the list )
• PayPal with commissions from 3.06% for withdrawals from $ 500 to 33% !!! when withdrawing from $ 1
• Visa / MC with commissions from 3.52% to 13.5% respectively.

Walletbit

Slightly less well-known service, also focused only on payment through Bitcoin.

Fame
As mentioned above - a slightly less well-known company, it works the same way as BitPay since 2011. Not very actively promoting your service, but not too lazy to shine on bitcoin.it and several other specialized resources. Does not create the feeling of a one-day firm, mentioned in some foreign blogs.

Easy integration
Like BitPay, there are payment modules for many popular CMS. An example of a library for working with processing only in PHP. There is a good section with documentation (barely found). IPN technology: supported.
Documentation only in English.

Commission rate
Like BitPay, the commission is divided into:

• BTC Translation - 0.89%
• Withdrawal by bank deposit - 1.86% for all currencies

In the amount of withdrawals, the commission will be 2.75%.

Easy withdrawal
The only way to withdraw money is a bank deposit, the commission on which will be 2.75%, other withdrawal methods are not supported.
Unlike BitPay, a wider list of currencies for withdrawal is supported. The minimum amount of commission for each currency is determined individually.

OKPAY

Fairly well-known in Europe payment service. Unlike the others, it works not only with Bitcoin, but also with domestic and foreign payment systems.

Fame
The company was founded in 2009 and is active in many markets - the site is translated into 15 languages. Wikipedia says that at the beginning of 2011 more than 300,000 users were registered in the system.

Easy integration
Like the previous two, OKPAY implemented ready-made payment modules for all popular CMS. Detailed documentation on the organization of payment acceptance, sample code for PHP and C #. IPN technology: supported. There is documentation in Russian .

The amount of commissions.
The commission does not consist of the BTC processing fee and the conversion fee.
Conversion is carried out automatically at the current rate in the base currency specified by the seller. The commission is fixed and amounts to 2.5% recently.

Easy withdrawal
Since OKPAY is a payment system that works not only with Bitcoin, but also with other electronic currencies, there is a wide range of possibilities for withdrawing funds:

• Electronic currencies (LiqPay, Yandex.Money, W1, etc.)
• Bank transfer
• Money transfer systems (CONTACT, Migom, etc.)
• Crediting to MasterCard debit plastic card issued by the company itself and tied to the merchant account.

Check weighing

Service	Integration	Withdrawal of funds	Commission amount
Mtgox			from 0.25% to 0.6% + commission of the partner (2% -5%)
Bitpay			from 2.69% to 2.99%
Walletbit			2.75%
OKPAY			2.5%

^{* Rating is subjective}

PS

In addition to all the above, there is the possibility of connecting processing "manually." To do this, you need to register on one of the many services that send IPN after confirmation of payment. But consideration of these services is still beyond the scope of this series of articles in view of the complexity of this approach. If there are interested people, I will try to highlight this topic beyond the framework of this cycle.

I would be grateful for the correction of errors and inaccuracies in the descriptions.