I'm exploring ways of accepting payments and thinking about blockchain.info Receive Payments API.
I can't realise why this service going to pay network fees instead of me. Where the profit? I see only loss.
Can someone explain why they pay fees?
2 Answers
The fees are about 1 cent per transaction - a small price to pay for attracting customers who may later use their paid services.
Offering a service for free to expose a product with paid premium features is a popular online monetization model, also known as "Freemium".
-
Sounds reasonable but I can't find any paid services on their site. Commented Oct 15, 2013 at 12:04
-
@TemaBolshakov: The most well-known one is the mixing service, from their wallet interface there's a feature to send coins "anonymously" for 0.5% fee. I think they're also a gateway for purchasing bitcoins via SMS. I'm sure they'll come up with more revenue sources in the future. Commented Oct 15, 2013 at 14:59
Perhaps it's so that they build up a large initial userbase and then they could add a small fee when everybody is using their API (where it wouldn't be worth changing to a new provider).
Or possibly simply that they're good guys? blockchain.info seem to have done quite a lot for the community and their site is basically the place to go for transaction information. Maybe they'll get some good karma, get the word spread and maybe gain some potential customers who want to additional services like their wallet?
-
Well, their wallet is free too... But yes, they have paid services and will probably offer more in the future. Commented Oct 15, 2013 at 8:20