Fast Approaching

kyusho (68)in #cryptocurrency • 6 years ago

Coinbase Merchant Tools End

Another shot fired (see end of post)

This is seemingly not a problem as you can merely change all sell points to the new platform... and many will not pay much attention. But the shuttering of "Coinbase Merchant Tools" and its replacement with "Coinbase Commerce" Can be daunting if you have an extensive product list.

One of the more problematic areas is in subscriptions as they will no longer function and poses increased efforts by the customer. How many will want to go through a new process? Many will feel that it is a potentially difficult task and of course not opt in. Some will see it as a potential for double billing issues and not opt in... some will see it as both.

Subscriptions are a trickier business than simple point of sale as it involves commitment, relations and ongoing support. And as we all know people will enjoy something that arrives to them constantly, yet if it is interrupted they can easily get distracted. So this will affect all current and prior accounts... any interruption in service can bring severe drop off in sales.

Initial Issues

Any new startup has it's kinks that need to be worked out, but with Coinbase Commerce there is one huge kink.... you can not access the funds purchased through it. So why force merchants to switch to a platform that you can not access your funds, they remain locked in this new platform until a date not yet determined or specified.

A direct lie from one of the platforms posts in Medium: "Coinbase Commerce is not a hosted service, so merchants have full control of their own digital currency." (https://medium.com/@coinbasecommerce/coinbase-commerce-the-easiest-way-for-merchants-to-accept-digital-currency-54ba64966f8d)

Here is an actual example from my Coinbase Commerce account:

"Withdrawal functionality is coming soon. To withdraw funds immediately, import your recovery phrase into a third-party wallet such as Jaxx."

Really they want the recovery phrase to one of my wallets.... huh, what, duh???? Even if it is safe, it does not seem to make sense... as in opening this to them you loose the control you sought to gain. A shame as the old system was working, they now (and again) just make it more convoluted and difficult.

Here is the official note from Coinbase:

As a reminder we will be disabling order generation in Coinbase Merchant Tools at the end of the month. The last day of support will be April 30th, 2018.

This means that you will no longer be able to create new orders to accept bitcoin after April 30th. You will still have access to your account and may continue processing refunds. We’ve put together the following timeline to facilitate your transition:

Apr 30th, 2018 — You will no longer be able to generate new orders using Coinbase Merchant Tools. Merchant Tool users will still be able to process refunds.

May 31st, 2018 - Final date to migrate to Coinbase Commerce.
We’re dedicated to supporting the growth and scaling of cryptocurrencies and look forward to making it easy for anyone anywhere in the world to start accepting cryptocurrency with Coinbase Commerce; a free non-custodial way to start accepting cryptocurrency payments. Should you have any questions you can reach us at [email protected]

Thanks,
Coinbase Team

Upside

The upside is that people will not need a Coinbase account to register... this may be more appealing to some, especially those not in cryptos as they can use other payment options.