Bitcoin Forum

Hi everyone,

I've put up a tool for Bitcoin users to find each-other in the real world. This way we can trade Bitcoin locally, without needing to use through-the-mail or online services. The amount of information you give and the type is entirely up to you. The service is here:
http://tradebitcoin.com/ (http://tradebitcoin.com/)

The original thread was on Trading (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3787.0).

UPDATE:
At the suggestion of AyKarsi, I've put up a feedback system (http://feedback.tradebitcoin.com/).  If you get an idea for the site you can click the tab on the right and make a suggestion. Thanks AyKarsi!

UPDATE:
If you're interested in helping this project.

• Please sign up! We have four continents and lots of people but we'd love to have more.
• Let people know. Get the word out however you can. If you are on a Bitcoin services site and you don't see the site, please submit it.
• Link to us. If you have a bitcoin website, please link to us. We have a 100% link-back policy. I'm putting up a Spend Bitcoin page for Bitcoin services. Just message me your site.
• Donate. The project has never received a single donation. A mere 6ptc would pay for the hosting this month. Anything you can donate helps me justify my time to my wife. lol

At the moment there is no limitation on creating accounts. Please put some method of contact in your profile! Accounts with no contact method may be culled at some point.

So what do you guys think? Would you pay a listing fee? What other information would you like to see as part of the trader profile?

As it is currently designed, I would not use it at all, because it depends on enabling requests to a third party website which I do not necessarily trust.

error: Which website is that?

Not sure whether I would use it or not, but I signed up anyway.  :)

I think it is a good idea.  I was just wondering earlier this evening how many Canadians were on here and now here's a way to find them.

I've signed up but I can't figure out how to search for members.  I'm using Firefox... maybe I'm not seeing some option because of this?

maxmind.com, I would guess.


You need to disable Adblock Plus.

wtf do I need to do with adblock to make the site work? I added the main site URL in a filter and did not check enabled. I guess I see the point in trying to force people to see ads, but I don't know if that is really a formula for success. I see no people on the map = fail. No chance in hell I would pay 5 BTC for this. You need to actually offer something of value first.

Ok, I researched this. The only information given to third party websites (Maxmind's GeoIP) is your I.P. address. This information is given out with every single request to every website you go to. Your I.P. address is in the server logs of every website you frequent, including the Bitcoin forum. A great way to fix this is using http://mullvad.net (http://mullvad.net) to hide it. They accept Bitcoin and they do a GREAT job.

The information you give to my site is entirely optional. As it says on the profile page, you can put in an address, intersection or latitude/longitude. You aren't required to use your real name, your home address or any personally identifying information. In fact, you can just put in a nickname, a Skype id and a lat/lon and you're in business. I don't know how much more anonymous I can make this. Thanks for trying it out error!

Hi! Thanks for trying out the site!

I love AdBlock! There are no ads on the site! At the moment it's 100% volunteer run. I use AdBlock Plus and Firefox 3.6 for development. I don't think it's an issue with AdBlock. Did you try zooming out on the map? The site just launched in Beta a few hours ago, so there are only 16 people signed up so far, it could be that nobody has signed up in your area. Type "Columbia, Missouri" in the search on the home page and click "Go" you should see me on the map. If not, there's probably an issue.

Love the site and love the idea.

Keep working on it and it will be great! :)

Tx

Works if I enable requests to maxmind in NoScript and RequestPolicy. :(

I think I would have preferred to see it use the Geolocation API (http://www.w3.org/TR/geolocation-API/). (Howto (http://blog.mozilla.com/webdev/2009/05/01/geolocation-in-the-browser/))

I like the site. Is it possible to include a feature to communicate with other members using an internal messaging system. Skype,phone,etc is nice but I don't want to give that information out to just anyone immediately before talking to them online.

I agree with you completely, I wish I could've used that. It's the hated beast known as IE which prevented me from using it. I went with MaxMind because it works across browsers. The GeoIP part is just a convenience, it's not important to the operation of the site. I'll test it out and try and fix it so that if MaxMind is blocked with AdBlock then the site will work transparently. Thanks for testing it out. I really hope I can get it working for everybody.

<p>Hello, we detected that you are not using a web browser. <a href="http://firefox.com/">Install a web browser now</a> to continue using the Internet.</p>

God I hate IE so much...

Here's an idea,

Download the free maxmind database for IP2location, and just take the user's IP and do the lookup server side without using any maxmind JS includes.

:)

tx

ROFL! Thanks! :D

Haha! Great idea!

I currently sign out to be able to see other users.
How Can I search and see other users while being logged in please?

Also, messages within the site would be good; or maybe a forwarding email address @tradebitcoin.com?

Thanks,

I don't normally do this but... THIS! :)

Oh, also - password retrieval is still not working. :(

I guess your CSS just happened to not load as soon as I started messing around with adblock since people were talking about it.

Anyhow I just tried zooming out the whole way to planet earth, honed in on Columbia, MO and stuff but see zero dots besides my own. I also see nowhere to search at all - using FF 3.6 and don't see what plugin would do anything weird.

I just fixed this. You should be able to do both now.


This seems to be a very popular feature. It will be a week or two before I'll have enough free time, but I'll definitely be adding something.

Thanks for reminding me! It's working now.

Yeah, I think a message system of some kind would be great. I'll think about it.

I've added a feedback system (http://feedback.tradebitcoin.com/) for the site. If you have any ideas please make a suggestion, or up-vote an idea if you like it!

Wait?   I though the world was round.  The map shows it flat.   ;D

This project is brilliant. Thanks (donation sent).

Good idea. But nobody near me yet :p


=> We may do something together with bitcoin-contact.org (http://bitcoin-contact.org) for the messaging system ?

There is no one in my country there :(

Thank you! I'm really glad you like it!

It's so cool getting to see new pins pop up on the map. I've been watching it all day. We now have local Bitcoin traders who have listed their contact info on 5 continents and 19 major cities! Just for chuckles I added up the population for these cities and got 30,010,082. So in theory we're providing access to local bitcoin to over 30 million people! More realistically, if only 1% of those people are in our demographic then Bitcoin is locally available to around ~300,000 people.

The next think I'd like to do is make reliable Bitcoin payment processing APIs for every shopping cart out there. Using Bitcoin favors the website owner. If we can make it so easy to accept that it's just a button click away for all the major shopping carts then providers will be much more likely to use it. There are no transaction fees, so using Bitcoin is effectively a 2%+$0.30 for every transaction.

Anyway, it's really exciting. Thanks!

How is this different from bitcoinmap.com ?

It's a great site! But the only thing the two sites have in common is a map. Bitcoinmap.com  answers the question "Where in the World is Bitcoin?", just like the site slogan says. Bitcoin.local on the other hand answers the question "Where in my town is Bitcoin?" It's more locally oriented and user friendly for that. Bitcoinmap.com is awesome though. Both sites are doing their own thing for Bitcoin.

If you want a longer list than just the site focus I can give you one. These are not criticisms of bitcoinmap.com by the way - just a compare and contrast.
1. Bitcoin.local uses open web technologies, Bitcoinmap.com uses the proprietary Flash player which doesn't work on a wide variety of devices and never will work on all of them. (The non-Flash version appears to be broken.)
2. Bitcoin.local is focused on local search and automatically shows the user Bitcoin traders in their area. In fact, only the closest 40 Bitcoin users will ever be shown. Whereas Bitcoinmap.com shows everyone.
3. Bitcoin.local offers account functions and the ability to change your location or contact information afterward. Bitcoinmap.com does not.
4. Bitcoin.local offers login through Twitter, Facebook, (and eventually) Google Accounts and OpenID. Bitcoinmap.com does not.
5. Bitcoin.local is supported by donations and I always intend it to be that way. Bitcoinmap.com is advertising supported.
6. (This is just my opinion but) Bitcoin.local is prettier. ;)

That said, there's a lot of synergy between the two sites. But we do different things in a righteous battle to make Bitcoin viable for everyday usage - for great justice.

Anyway, yeah, that's the differences.

The map seems to be broken, if this site is still being supported.

I signed up. Great work!

There is a broken link ...  on http://tradebitcoin.com/about the link "transaction guide" is wrong. You might want to run a 404 checker over it.

I wasn't a big fan of the random woman at the bottom. She looks a bit scammy almost. I get the idea behind this image but it just comes off looking a bit cheap.

A few bits of the site are lacking a bit of fit/finish - for instance clicking some of the pins on the map pops up a bubble but the content doesn't always fit inside it.

Here's a feature idea: let people put the currencies and exchange rates they're willing to trade in. Right now if you're in an area with several traders (like Zurich) there isn't a good way to choose between them beyond ratings, which nobody has yet.

I think this site has a tons of potential but I'd suggest working on it some more before moving on to another project. Totally agree that local traders are important.

Oh, also, why not show email addresses as a contact method? I'd much rather be contacted by email than phone or Skype.

You probably shouldn't tell people that Bitcoin is anonymous. It could lead to careless transactions.

Do i need to make another account to use in the feedback system?

Is the map actually displaying for those of you commenting here?

works for me

Being in Europe, I now only see pins in Europe and all those that were previously visible in the US are gone-

Haven't seen any activity here in a while, but I just got contacted for the first time. I'm going to meet with someone tomorrow to exchange a 20 BTC BitBill for cash. Nice!

Anyway to change details on this site?
It gives error OVER_QUERY_LIMIT, & not saving changes.
Anyone still maintaining this site or anyway to contact the site admins?

I'm getting this "We're sorry, but something went wrong."
while i'm trying to register. What's wrong with the service?

Better try https://localbitcoins.com/