Bitcoin Forum

With news of the Bitmit closing (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=119334.0) there have quite a few posts of disappointment about the loss of a business that was creating a much used and desired service to the bitcoin community.

In the event that Bitmit is not sold or other wise taken over and is not able to remain in business, it might be helpful to post in this thread  your thoughts and ideas about a similar service that could replace it.  If there is enough interest this might inspire an industrious developer or a team already working on a similar service to bring their project to market.

So if you have bought and/or sold on Bitmit and you found it beneficial  please post:

1.  You location (if you desire)

2.  What problem a service like Bitmit solved for you.

3.  Types of Items you bought and/or sold

4.  Pros and Cons of Bitmit or a similar service.
       a.  What was great about Bitmit
       b.  What was problematic about Bitmit
       c.  What would you like to see in a similar service that didn't already exist.
       d.  The benefit of Bitmit as opposed to a similar  fiat service.

And in the event they care to share maybe the Bitmit team could share the challenges they faced in operating and ultimately deciding to close the business.  

(Again some of this may have already been discussed in the other thread but the goal here post constructive feedback to identify the pro's and con's of a Bitmit like business so that  
       1. The Bitmit team or others could use is to improve on the existing service should it continue
       2.  Another team could realize the value and benefit of providing a similar service.

** Please only meaningful contributions to the conversations.

Thanks

reserved

Bitmit needs to be bought.  The biggest advantage bitmit brings now is the network effect.  People go to ebay to sell because it has the most goods and thus it has the most buyers.  In the bitcoin economy bitmit is that ebay.  Yeah it is very tiny but it has a network effect.  I am more likely to continue to sell prepaid wireless on bitmit even if a technically superior competitor comes along.

I know that doesn't answer you question but what I am saying it ..... MAKE SURE BITMIT GETS SOLD.  It's network effect IMHO is worth more than the current bids.  Starting over from scratch will be more expensive.  Even if a buyer doesn't like the site simply buying it for the name recognition and domain and then building a replacement site is better than starting from nothing.   One thing I would point out to any potential buyer ... don't let it go dark.  The network effect can be lost easily, it IS the value in bitmit.net.  Buying the site and then needing to take it down for weeks or months to transfer it and upgrade it well that would just be a waste.

Your direction questions.
1.  US
2. Provided a source of buyers, allowed us to offer prepaid wireless from day0 without any upfront investment.

2a.  Prepaid wireless refills.
(you got 2 twos in your list. :)

3
a. Network effect.
b. Nothing really.  It could use better investment, improvement, advertising but it has no critical flaws.
c. There is room for enhancements but they are minor (auto payout like a mining pool would be nice)
d. Network effect.

Good Points TC.  Maybe this thread will also help a buyer considering a purchase of Bitmit take the plunge.

I am hoping that bitmit continues on. Like the above post said. The network effect is it's most powerful element right now. It will take a long time for a new site to build up the brand recognition that bitmit has. It looks like bitmit is definitely going to continue on, based on how many interested buyers there are. Also heres to hoping that some new positive improvements come from the sale.

Buying digital content could be much more convenient then it is now. A trading platform should give a merchant tools to send automatic message to customer as soon as escrow confirms the payment from buyer. The message would have all the necessary information for customer to get the access to the digital content.

For example, if you buy a premium account on a website, you will receive account details in one hour after sending the payment, and you won't have to wait for a merchant to manually send it to you which could take days. The trading platform shouldn't store any digital content, if it's a book a merchant would need to have his own hosting and the automatic message would have a link to download it.

Totally agree with this.  Paypal is missing the boat on this big time.

Could you explain further....

Right now bitmit only connects a merchant with a buyer, but if the product is digital then bitmit or it's competitor can do much more then that. For example, as soon as the bitcoin payment confirmed and locked it escrow, the trading platform can send automatic message to merchant, and merchant's web server will respond by sending an email to customer with all necessary details about how to access the product, e.g. it could be details for premium account on a file sharing website or a link to download music file. Merchant's web server in this case could be an old laptop with an application developed by operators of the trading platform. As the result customer will not have to wait for the merchant to manually process the transaction and will need to wait only one hour or less instead of a day.

EDIT: The merchant could specify that he is willing to release the product in less then one hour, e.g. with 0 confirmations, and eat the loss in case it was double spend. In that case escrow will send automatic message the moment it sees that the transaction was broadcasted.