Bitcoin Forum

I find there is a big problem with bitcoin as it is not able to be traded in person.

Please tell me that I am wrong and show me the solutions.

Thank you.

We are all waiting for a good Android and/or iPhone client. The lack of one is probably the biggest thing holding up the Bitcoin economy right now.

Are you asking about it not being a physical item, like paper money or coin?

You can't trade money from your credit card in-person (it requires an electronic connection to the payment network), yet that doesn't seem to be a big problem for that payment system.

Today you can use the web access on a mobile to send bitcoins (using the web site for an eWallet, for instance).  Othre solutions for using Bitcoin on a smartphone are coming as well.

Are these the type of solutions you are asking to know more about?

It's unfortunate that Apple (and likely Google as well) is resistant to Bitcoin. (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5550.msg107980#msg107980)

Google (rather, google employees) is actually working on a bitcoin client themselves (not a version of bitcoin, but a bitcoin client)

http://code.google.com/p/bitcoinj/

Here is how I imagined trading in person.

Two people meet in public location.  Both have laptops with cell connections.
Cash guy shows he has cash
BTC guy transfers BTC to cash guys account
Cash guy gives cash, after verifying transaction


Simple?  No more serious then picking up a bike from craigslist, other than needing internet to make and verify transaction.

You forgot the 10 minutes of awkward small chat while waiting for confirmation. :D

What would be awkward would be when cash guy refuses to hand over the cash after verifying the transaction.

I can see people being violent in private transaction involving large amounts of money.  No different then drugs I suppose.

That's why trust is also important - we need a central ratings database for merchants, exchangers, sites, etc.

I'm meeting a person in Starbucks tomorrow. I'll let you know how mission impossible goes.

If I SEE someone click "send", I don't think there would be need to wait for verification really

There's ways to fake it... But I agree completely.

If the person receiving the Bitcoins has a laptop with their own client running, then once the transaction shows up on their machine, there's very little risk involved.  In fact, I wouldn't worry about it for anything less than 500 BTC, maybe more.

That's 10 minutes for the unconfirmation.  60 minutes for the confirmation :D

Trading in person: http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/5447193583/bitbills-physical-bitcoins-launch (http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/5447193583/bitbills-physical-bitcoins-launch)

Navigating to mybitcoin.com is pretty easy on a smartphone. It's a standard method I use for any in-person payments.

Agreed. Instawallet is good for this too. Double spending is theoretically possible but I'd say most people don't have the technical knowledge to do it (actually, has anyone released a skiddie tool for this purpose yet?)

Sorry for the delayed update.

It went well. I went to my instawallet on his computer and copied the address from his client. He put dollar bills on the table.

I did a pretty good sized cash/btc transaction with mndrix in SF recently, and things went quite smoothly. Main problem was crappy wi-fi causing the receiving client to not get any connections.  We waited around until it was at least on blockexplorer.  Also, got a few strange looks, since it was evening, and it was a "nice" bar where laptop use isn't the norm.

That's funny. We met in a Starbucks, but I didn't have a phone and we didn't describe ourselves and there were a lot of people. So I wrote "Bitcoin" on a notebook. Blended right in, laptops everywhere. I could probably run an exchange service from a starbucks if I lived in a better spot.

ubitex.org

I have ordered some 1BTC bitbills for this purpose. Also tcatm made a web-based mobile bitcoin solution that will work just fine on android and iphone. On Android you can scan a QR code, not sure about iphone.