The typical investor thinks of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies merely as a speculative tool; when they should get in and when they can cash out. Here is an effort to show that you can actually use cryptos as actual money and profit from it's usage of shopping online.
Purse.io is a site which allows users to purchase any Amazon products in a straightforward manner using only bitcoin or bitcoin cash. For the time being the site is completely in English and there are no other options. The only requirement for registration is a validated email address which allows a high level of anonymity and security.
While it does offer recommendations, they screen is relatively clean compared to the cluttered Amazon site.
Even when searching for items, suggestions are minimal and clear. Prices are displayed in USD and at this point there are no options to change it to any other currency for display.
Product detail screens are also clear with no indication of what others have purchased. Comparison of the prices with the exact same product on Amazon shows that they are identical.
The shopping cart experience is standard and there are no surprises in adding or removing products.
Neither is there anything unusual on adding a delivery address.
Nor confirmation of shipping...
And now this is where the differences begin...
Besides the standard discounts, purse.io give the user the opportunity to select the discount they want with an intuitive slider bar; starting with a maximum of 15% for a new user right up to 33% for more regular customers.
This is on top of whatever other discounts that were initially offered. The higher the discount, the longer the delivery time and vice versa. Obviously customers who are not in a rush will benefit more from the slower delivery-slower delivery options.
Payment options do not exist for credit cards, Paypal or bank transfers.
The only option is bitcoin (BTC, XBT) or bitcoin cash (BCH, BCC). Scan the QR code or sent directly to the bitcoin address and you are off. Example used here is with the bitcoin payment method.
Since final payment is made in bitcoin which is volatile, the estimated bitcoin to deposit is displayed. Only as purchase time is final payment actually made. If more bitcoin is deposited than required, the balance is simply stored in the customer's purse.io wallet for future purchases or withdrawal.
Once paid for, the customer need not wait online till the order is processed.
*** Break ***
This would be a good time to talk about how purse.io is able to sell Amazon products when Amazon itself does not.
Every year many people receive Amazon gift cards which they do not use. Instead of leaving them to waste away or personally search for a buyer online, purse.io created a market for these "Earners" to use their gift cards to purchase products for "Buyers", and in return to receive bitcoin for payment.
Apparently many gift cards are received by workers in underdeveloped countries wanting to change it to cryptocurrency for use. If this is Indeed true, then purse.io is certainly practicing good Corporate Social Responsibility as well.
Break over
So when the bitcoin has been deposited, the order will be automatically processed. At the time of writing, the bitcoin fee set was approximately worth USD 0.10 and it took 50 mins to complete. It was noticed that processing begun after the 3rd confirmations of said transaction.
In this particular order, the purchase was made within 4 hours and 20 minutes of sending the bitcoin. Status above then changes to Shipping. Tracking details were emailed 4 hours after that.
Buyer / Customer Limitsis is set such that customers cannot immediately purchase high value ticket items without building up reputation first.
Sellers also have their own limits. Further, both Buyers / Customers and Earners are rated upon completion of each order much like a social network site. One would hope that these precautions prevent much fraud.
Note that Facebook, phone number and Google+ validation considerably lowers the privacy of users. Sharing your existing Amazon Wish List would also further lower privacy. So users are not recommended to use these options.
On the other hand, activating the 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) significantly increases security and should be activated.
While there is currently no way around supplying the delivery details to the site, there is considerably more security in not supplying any credit card details or other bio-data. No organization or person can expose data which they do not capture.
Maybe being simplistic here and intuitively easy to use is actually a strength. While there are many prettier online shopping sites with fast service, few will be able to give customers a good challenge when it comes to security and very competitive prices. This Unique Selling Proposition makes all the difference and might be a just what is needed in 2018 when consumer data protection is of prime importance.
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If you find this review useful and do decide to use purse.io using my referral would be appreciated. You will receive an additional USD 5 for each USD 100 spent (i.e. 5% discount).
https://purse.io/?_r=uBGLpX
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Update 27 June 2018
- It now appears that some product options in Amazon are not also available in purse.io This includes things like Kindle editions of books or Used Items.
- Sizes and colour options for clothing items are available on purse.io
Update 29 June 2018
- While purchase of the first item at a max of only 15% is permitted, subsequent items can be purchased with a request for discount of up to 33%.
However, most Earners can choose to not accept that deal. So it is to be expected that any purchases with a request of high discounts can be expected to take longer.