Bitrix + Bitcoin. Part 2. The choice of processing

Intro: In the first part, we looked at the standard module structure for Bitrix. The next logical step in the development of the payment module will be the choice of processing, which I would like to talk about. 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 pretend to be called the ultimate truth.

What are we comparing?

For comparison, I took the four most popular services through which it is more or less convenient to withdraw Bitcoin:

• 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 who were not included in this sample either do not cause special trust (subjectively) or break up inhuman commissions (objectively).

What are the criteria?

For me, as a developer, the main requirements for any third-party service are reliability and ease of integration. For the seller, these criteria are slightly different. Of course, this is the same reliability (no one wants to lose their hard-earned money at one point), the popularity and the size of the fees charged by the system. In addition, one of the important factors in the choice of processing is the variety of ways to transfer 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. Convenience of withdrawal of funds

Mtgox

The oldest and most famous Bitcoin exchange.

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

Ease of integration
Everything here is not as good as we would like. Payments can be accepted by pre-setting the amount, description of the goods ... you understand, right? There is no talk of any automation. The documentation is very scarce, only in English. Six months ago, after requesting to give at least an example of a button generation code, an approximate answer was given: “We will not give examples of the code. There will be a new API soon, wait. ”
We are still waiting.

Commission amount
All operations are subject to a commission of 0.25% to 0.6% , depending on the turnover .

Convenience of withdrawal of
funds There are several ways to withdraw funds

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

MtGox itself does not charge a commission for withdrawing funds. The commission is taken by the partners through whom the conclusion is made; accordingly, its size is individual in each specific case and may vary. A very strange system of limits on withdrawals. To increase the limits for withdrawal, it is necessary to undergo a complete verification - to mess with a bunch of documents (up to compiling an apostille and sending it by physical letter to Japan). Many users complain about the speed of withdrawals. Some had to wait a few weeks to send their funds.

Bitpay

A pretty nice service focused only on payment via Bitcoin.

Fame
The company is proud of its series of publications in several economic magazines, such as Forbes and The Economist. The entire selection 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 own libraries in PHP and Node.js. If your solution differs from the standard one, welcome to the section with the API . The API itself can be called standard, no frills. IPN technology: supported.
The documentation is in English only.

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

• By bank transfer (not only, but this is the only profitable way)
• In a limited circle of countries
• Minimum for 1.70% if the withdrawal is made in USD and 2.00% if the withdrawal is in another currency
• As a result, it turns out that converting and withdrawing BTC will cost at least 2.69%

Convenience of withdrawing money
There are several options for withdrawing money:

• Bank transfer It will cost a minimum of 2.69% for USD and a maximum of 2.99% for other currencies (they are also few, here is a list )
• PayPal with commissions from 3.06% for withdrawals from $ 500 to 33% !!! for withdrawals from $ 1
• Visa / MC with commissions from 3.52% to 13.5%, respectively.

Walletbit

A slightly less well-known service, also focused only on payment via Bitcoin.

Fame
As mentioned above - a slightly less well-known company, works the same as BitPay since 2011. They’re not very active in promoting their service, but they were not too lazy to light up on bitcoin.it and several other specialized resources. Does not create the feeling of a one-day company, mentioned in some foreign blogs.

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

Commission amount
As with BitPay, the commission is divided into:

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

In the amount for withdrawal of funds, the commission will be 2.75%.

Convenience of withdrawing funds
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 commission amount for each currency is determined individually.

Okpay

Quite well-known payment service in Europe. 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 has been translated into 15 languages. Wikipedia says that at the beginning of 2011, more than 300,000 users were registered in the system.

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

The size of the commissions.
The commission does not consist of a commission for BTC processing and conversion fees.
Conversion is carried out automatically at the current rate in the base currency specified by the seller. The commission is fixed and has recently been 2.5%.

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

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

Control weighing

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

^{* Assessment is subjective}

PS

In addition to all of the above, it is possible to connect processing "manually". To do this, you need to register on one of the many services that send IPNs after confirmation of payment. But the 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 cover this topic beyond the scope of this cycle.

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