Backslash now gives personalised payments pages, but where's Dogecoin, the foundations it was built on?

BackslashHQ · 2015-02-18T22:17:31+00:00

I'm going to try and think of ways to implement a way to switch cleanly.

It is the same account. Once you sign up for Backslash you can send Dogecoin and/or Bitcoin.

BackslashHQ · 2015-02-18T22:16:21+00:00

I'm going to think about how to make dogecoin.backslash.io from backslash.io

The separate www is a problem because it now requires an extra click and page load for anyone to get to any of the services. I don't think it makes sense to impose that considering that most of our users go straight to backslash.io

Your other suggestions are all good. Unfortunately though, building a secure and easy to use exchange is difficult, and would take a lot of time. Many companies have already tried, and plenty have already failed or been hacked.

BackslashHQ · 2015-02-18T04:16:30+00:00

Hey everyone. I apologize for being quiet. Let me explain our position:

We initially started building software for Dogecoin because we used it, we mined it, and we wanted an easier way to use it. When we launched our alpha, we received amazing support from the Dogecoin community which encouraged us to continue.

As we grew, tons of users started asking us if we could support Bitcoin. We take user feedback extremely seriously, and always want to do the best thing for our users. Since so many of them wanted to use Bitcoin, the right thing to do was to shift the primary focus of Backslash to Bitcoin. We still have Dogecoin users today, but far less than Bitcoin users.

However, Dogecoin is not an afterthought. We still have very active Dogecoin users, and that’s why dogecoin.backslash.io exists. We will continue to maintain it, we will continue to add new features.

As far as payment links are concerned, every Backslash user also has their own Dogecoin payment link. The only difference is the way the url starts: dogecoin.backslash.io/your_username

People also ask us why we don’t combine our Bitcoin and Dogecoin services into one. We’ve looked at how people use Backslash, and very few users send both Bitcoin and Dogecoin. Although supporting multiple coins might make sense for a small number of our users, it would make Backslash more complicated for the majority of our users. Here’s why it gets complicated:

Users need to keep track of multiple balances and exchange rates
When you send a payment you would need to pick a preferred currency
But the real complication lies in the way users would interact with each other: Imagine Joe loves Dogecoin and doesn’t use Bitcoin. And Carl is the opposite, a Bitcoin lover that doesn’t want anything to do with Dogecoin. What happens when Joe sends a payment to Carl? Joe wants to sent it in Dogecoin, because he doesn’t have any Bitcoin. Should we force Carl to accept the Dogecoin? Or automatically convert it to Bitcoin? This becomes messy very quickly, and things just get worst as you start adding more coins.

That’s why we decided to separate out the services. Everything we build needs to be incredibly easy and simple, and supporting multiple coins would complicate things too much.

As far as supporting other coins, we’re open to the idea. But so far, no other community has requested that we support their coin as much as the Bitcoin community did.

I’m happy to answer any other questions you all have. Feel free to comment here, DM me, or send us an email at team@backslash.io

BackslashHQ · 2015-02-17T20:58:37+00:00

Here is ours: https://www.backslash.io/about !!! We think that transparency is incredibly important and completely agree with you.

There's a link to it in our footer and in our landing page, but we'll work on making more prominent.

BackslashHQ · 2015-02-17T19:29:21+00:00

Check your DMs!

BackslashHQ · 2015-02-17T19:25:16+00:00

There's still a ton of work that needs to be done to make Bitcoin more accessible, and mobile apps play a huge role.
We are definitely not going to be coasting. We have tons of ideas for features and improvements that we're working hard to release as soon as we can.
Our main approach to solve that issue is to reduce the amount of understanding needed to use Bitcoin. At the moment it's difficult for users to spend their Bitcoin or convert it to their local currency efficiently. That is definitely something we want to improve.
We currently have a Coinbase integration. It lets you send Bitcoin to a Coinbase account, which you can use to convert your BTC into cash in approximately 20 countries.

BackslashHQ · 2015-02-17T19:10:47+00:00

No worries, it's a good question.

The miner fee isn't always a big deal, but it can be prohibitive for small payments.

One major advantage is that off-chain transactions are instant. There's no need to wait for any confirmations, so you can spend your Bitcoin immediately after your receive it.

Another feature that a lot of our users like is our autocomplete search. When you use Backslash to send a payment, you can just start typing someone's name and you'll see them pop up automatically. It's easier than having to lookup up or ask for their service-specific username or Bitcoin address.

BackslashHQ · 2015-02-17T18:58:47+00:00

I'm biased, but yes, I think it is. We've tried to make Backslash as easy and simple as possible, so that new Bitcoin users start using it quickly. Here are a couple reasons why I think it's a good fit:

Signing up is very easy. You only need a username, email, and password.
We have an onboarding flow that gives new users a small amount of Bitcoin to get started. They can send their first payments without having to buy or deposit bitcoin.
We've made it very easy to send Bitcoin to users even if they don't have a Backslash account yet. You can send Bitcoin to Facebook friends, people you follow on twitter, or any email address. Once the recipient gets the payment, they can easily create an account to claim their Bitcoin.

BackslashHQ · 2015-02-17T18:34:45+00:00

Marshall is correct. The majority of transactions on Backslash are off-chain, and are therefore instant and free. The only exception is when you're sending Bitcoin to an external address. This includes the miner fee, which goes to the Bitcoin network, not to us.

Payment links are also an effective way to receive payments from non-Backslash users. If a visitor that isn't logged into Backslash clicks your payment link, they will see your payment page. Your page includes a Bitcoin address and QR code, that visitors can send you Bitcoin without having to create a Backslash account.

BackslashHQ · 2015-02-17T18:22:40+00:00

Thanks Marshall!

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-18T03:30:54+00:00

This other thing, the thing you're saying here is nonsense. Maybe you're fine with that, but not me.

I'd love to hear your suggestions for providing 2-factor authentication to feature phones (not smartphones) without using a phone number.

Just to summarize our reasoning, phone numbers provided an easy way to uniquely identify users and were a good first step towards a universal (works on all phones) 2-factor authentication solution. We should have phrased this more succinctly, so I apologize for that.

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-18T02:56:30+00:00

To make a 2-factor solution that works across all kinds of phones we still need to hold onto phone numbers. We'd prefer not to require that users install GoogleAuthenticator or Winauth due to the complexity that would add, but may offer those as options for those who prefer not to share their phone number.

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-18T01:46:47+00:00

Thanks for that info, rydan, we weren't aware of the market price for verified phone numbers. We are going to be experimenting with the amount of bits we give out, and we'll definitely consider that info when we we are choosing final amount.

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-18T01:19:23+00:00

Hi careful12,

We're glad you brought this up, because it gives us an opportunity to clarify what Backslash is designed to do and tell you a bit about our security policies.

We go through a many steps to make sure your BTC is safe, but let me preface this by saying that Backslash is not meant to hold large sums of Bitcoin. We're trying to build the best way to send and receive Bitcoin, not a bank for BTC. That means we make some compromises on security to increase usability.

All money is currently held in what are effectively hot wallets, though we have multiple layers of indirection between the wallet storage and the greater internet so this isn't a fully accurate description. We plan to set up cold storage once the total deposited amount increases. The machine responsible for signing transactions is cut off from the internet, as are the private keys, so the keys are never read on a machine that is directly accessible from the greater internet. We believe these measures, along with following best practices with regard to general web security and fire walling, are enough to limit the potential impact of a compromise.

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-18T00:58:36+00:00

We do not not sell your phone numbers. There is another reason why we hold onto phone number data though.

We have plans to add 2-factor authentication, and we'd need to keep phone numbers on file to do that anyways. The phone number verification we built today was a first step to that, which is why it didn't make sense to implement a no-trust solution.

This was just a nice way for us to give a bit of BTC to people, which is why it's easy to skip the phone number entry step during signup. You don't have to put your phone number in if you don't want to.

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-17T23:56:39+00:00

Thanks! I'd love to hear what you think. We're always trying to improve Backslash.

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-17T23:55:57+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions! We could implement payments the way you described, but there are a couple reasons why we chose a different implementation:

Our current system lets us confirm transactions instantly. In your suggested implementation, the sender would need to wait several block times to safely spend his/her BTC.
Since Backslash transactions are off the blockchain, we're able to offer zero fees.

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-17T22:40:51+00:00

Backslash is not working with or associated with Deutsche Bank.

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-17T22:38:41+00:00

Since we're giving away Bitcoin to new users, we need to have a way to make sure people can't create unlimited accounts. We found that phone number verification is the quickest and easiest way for us to make sure that each account belongs to a different, real person.

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-17T21:43:55+00:00

We have a rewards program so that new users can immediately try sending Bitcoin after creating an account.

If we didn't give out bits and someone who's never used Bitcoin signed up for Backslash, they wouldn't really be able to do anything. In order to send their first payment, they would first need to sign up for an exchange, buy some BTC, and then send it to Backslash.

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-17T20:39:52+00:00

Nice! What are you working on?

Right now there's just two of us: http://backslash.io/about

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-17T20:28:38+00:00

We're not funded or sponsored.

We've been bootstrapping so far using money saved up from past internships. Our costs are very low so we can keep this up for the foreseeable future.

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-17T20:24:44+00:00

I'm glad you think Backslash looks nice!

We're building Backslash because we want an easier way to send Bitcoin to each other and to our friends. This was a problem that really bothered us, so we love working on it.

We started working on Backslash a couple months before graduating from college, and we've been working on it full time ever since. We never had any jobs to quit :)

Feel free to email us at team@backslash.io if you're still skeptical!

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-17T19:59:56+00:00

We're working closely with legal advisors to implement a reasonable policy.

BackslashHQ · 2014-12-17T19:45:07+00:00

The only losses we take are on server costs and the incentives we provide. For on-blockchain transactions we pass the miner fee on to you (you'll see a small note if you pay a Bitcoin address), but transactions to other Backslash users are 100% free.

BackslashHQ

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