Bitcoin Forum

Well I am kind of new to BTC as I have not made any transactions thus far but have aquired quite some.  Anyway I was wondering what everyones favorite merchants are.   I really don't know what to do with these things ( no I'm not giving to you)  so I'm interested in what you use them for.  I'm not much of a saver I like to put a little aside for an investment and spend the rest.  Much of what I read about them, we need to be spending them to bring the value up, which is much of economics 101.   Anyway let me know whats a good place to spend at.

1. Your favorite Merchant
2. What does the Merchant sell?
3. Do you have alternatives to this merchant?
4. Why this merchant over the alternatives?

1. Your favorite Merchant

Myself.


2. What does the Merchant sell?

Anything but his own grandmother... including several hand made crafts from the Arctic.


3. Do you have alternatives to this merchant? / 4. Why this merchant over the alternatives?

Nowhere else on this planet. Heck I think I know all the bitcoin users in Greenland by name. Bitcoin provides a great opportunity to pay artists around the island in cash, and sell on the net with little risk.

That's sweet.  Im guessing that's the link to your store in your sig.  I'm gonna have to check it out.  I haven't bought anything yet but have sold a few unused items sitting around the house to a couple of people now I just got to decide to cash out or pass them along.  I really like the idea of them and they wont go anywhere if no one spreads them so that's what I'm going to try doing.

Like netrin, my favorite bitcoin merchant site is my own, BitBrew (http://bitbrew.net/). Coffee is a tangible good with an almost universal appeal - just what a new economy needs to grow into a global, revolutionary, benevolent force.  ;)

my top 3:

Babbletees : tee shirts
Cinfu.com   : VPS
Jeremy West (http://spendbitcoins.com/) : anything at amazon

Link?

http://spendbitcoins.com/

spendbitcoinds seems pretty cool, I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the link!

check out http://www.btcinstant.com    basically, allows you to spend bitcons at any online merchant.  ;D

Well I am sure glad I started this thread, there is some great information.  netrin your site is pretty nice although I don't think I have anywhere in my home for your items.  Btcintstant looks pretty badass I like it.  Being able to spend at just about any retailer makes these coins a lot more useful for me.  I bet they can make a killing before bitcoins really take off!  I mean if they hit mainstream there is no limit I would think.  There aren't enough people excepting coins yet, it seems it's still just you pioneers and I finally joining the wagon.

Check this out:  http://www.thebitcoinreview.com

1. BitVapes (http://bitvapes.com/) | CINFU (http://www.cinfu.com/)
2. e-cigarettes | VPS
3. Haven't tried any alternatives | Yep
4. Very economical and accepts Bitcoin | Reliable, cheaper than alternatives and accepts Bitcoin

1. Your favorite Merchant
Me
2. What does the Merchant sell?
Porn,paper and mining contracts
3. Do you have alternatives to this merchant?
only for the mining contracts
4. Why this merchant over the alternatives?
because you can't get live webcams or printed products direct for bitcoins elsewhere :)

Yea man I have seen this in another thread.  I just got done going through and browsing the different merchants on it.  That is perfect for me since I'm still trying to figure where I wanna use the coins I get.  There are quite a few prospects there.  I only wish more people would have reviewed them before I got to it, you know what I mean?  Very useful though I hope more people add reviews so it really provides a scope on where to and not to support.  I know I will add my reviews to there when I finally break down and pass my coins along.

BTW thanks for the link!

There are a number of things for which bitcoins are best. For example, hand made crafts from indigenous people, precious metals, illegal items, sponsorship (political) or items for which you may prefer deniability (porn), internet services, micro or frequent payments, and trading in other currencies.

Unfortunately, bitcoins are poorly suited for wishing wells, penny race cars, snorting coke, origami, toilet paper, wall paper, tipping strippers, bookmarks, and camping fuel.

Be sure to look at http://www.thebitcoinreview.com/ (http://www.thebitcoinreview.com/)

it holds over 770 bitcoin sites.

when you buy something from a bitcoin merchant, be sure to write him a review on http://www.thebitcoinreview.com/ (http://www.thebitcoinreview.com/).

Help us build trust!

I beg you Adam to look into a web-of-trust model, perhaps you should spend the weekend playing with PGP/GPG. Most likely your reviewers and thus their reviews are meaningless unless the pathways of trust can be demonstrated. Why shouldn't every merchant create numerous accounts and review themselves positively? What prevents competitors from reviewing negatively. Are larger merchants more trust worthy than small? Who are these people and why should we care?

What exactly is the web of trust thing you speak of netrin?  I have never heard of it and sounds as it could be of some use in confirming legitimacy although I didn't think it to be a problem for merchants just peer to peer stuff.  How exactly does pgp add to the trust thing, I thought it was just for encrypting information.  If it was encrypted how would we be able to read the reviews?  I'm really lost now..

See bitcoin-otc (http://bitcoin-otc.com/) for example. Here's the web of trust: http://bitcoin-otc.com/viewratings.php

Each user has its own GPG key and uses it to rate other users on the trades.

Thanks nmat, I am going to look at it when I get done with this post.

Anyway it seems like just about everyone here is selling goods for BTC or exchanging them so it leads me to this.  I would like to get in on the action just don't know if there would be any demand for it but here it goes.  I have a bunch of unused cable that I have leftover from when I built my house.  I have a spool of cat5, HDMI 1.3, and if I remember correctly 12g speaker wire that is being unused.  I have the crimpers and ends to put on each cable to make custom lenghts suitable to peoples demand.  I don't know what they would be worth each.  I know the cat5 is dirt cheap.  The HDMI was pretty expensive for me but I could probably part with that for around $2-3/ft plus $1 per end. So say the HDMI was 10ft it would be around $22.  The speaker wire is high end stuff too and I can't remember what I spent for the 500ft spool but it wasn't cheap.  Like I said I don't know what the cat5 and speaker wire would be worth to people but I cant go lower than $2 a foot on the HDMI.  Just wondering if you think anyone would be interested

very interesting !
ill be looking into it...

right now all i can say is, only one review is allowed per listing (based on ip). For a competitor to do allot of damage he would have to change his ip for every review for that listing..

my site is aimed at non-tech people. and so i don't want to have them need to understand techno-bable to write a review. but i would like to be able to establish trusted reviews.

Nowdays it seems astroturfing is so widespread that dishonest businesses can rent a crowd of online shills from businesses that specialize in helping them 'manage' their PR, so the IP address protection is a start but only a pretty basic protection.
Something like the web-of-trust idea Netrin mentioned does sound like it would be good if you can somehow make it fairly simple.

It could be a mix of identity providers. Identities can be verified in numerous ways (PGP key, posting a code on this forum, linking a facebook account, whatever plurality). You can integrate existing trust models (but just because I have facebook friended Ted Bundy does not mean I trust him).

Each identity may select those they trust, those they do not, and neutral (good, bad, ugly unknown) as a directed graph (just because I trust you does not imply that you trust me). Ignore all trust calculus linked through an untrusted identity (I don't care who an untrusted identity trusts or doesn't trust). You can play with the numbers, but for example: what I directly trust, I trust 100%. Each single link of trust is weighted 10%, each double indirection, 1%.

If my mom trusts a merchant, then I trust it 10%. If two of my mom's coworkers trust it and one does not, then I trust the merchant 12%.

As long as it's boolean (and neutral) and not qualitative (good products, cheap prices, fast delivery, sexy staff) this model works. There is no such thing as "I trust a merchant more than another", the identity has either delivered or not.