So the i2p website and other related domains are blocked. And i2p itself is prevented from bootstrapping as a result of that. However if you can get some kind of proxy address you may be able to get someones netdb folder. Once you have this you're able to connect, really all you need is the contents of netdb. But it is very very slow. I think a high traffic server needs to be operating inside China connected to i2p for things to be able to speed up.

No need for passwords, use keys for authentication and authorisation.

dwdollar: Yes it's trust, but I think that having some kind of audit can build trust, for good reasons.

iOS

Exactly. Your platform, is it web based or have a native client? Does it use ricardian contracts? Does it use signatures by both buyer, seller and market server to record thde transactions, is it using Open-Transactions?

I am asking this as I am working on the exact same thing. It seems there are a few of us here with the same idea and intention.

 This is a really exciting time for bitcoin, the birth of a ( what should it be called? ), and we are the figures that are in a race to et up the first bitcoin market, fighting to be the first then fighting for market share, with no governmental controls or checks. A real market economy, a libertarians dream, something even anarchists will like.

This feels like history in the making.

I was thinking of something like, mtgox wants to place usd to trade on the exchange, he keeps the reserves(ensuring liquidity in and out of the bitcoin market) and can then sell say 1000 mtgox dollar reserve shares, these shares are then traded on the exchange by anyone, at any time they can be redeemed for what they're face value is at mtgox.

The same cam be done for any good.

What you are describing is having some agents acting on our behalf, plugging the mainsteam market into the bitcoin economy.
You could try to think of it as a kind of meta trading. An agent buys shares for a company on the NYSE, then puts ricardo contracts representing these shares on a bitcoin exchange where they are bought and sold for btc. When distributing the dividend the agent collects the cash dividend, exchanges to btc via mtgox or others, and deposits the btc into an address contolled by the exchange. The exchange distributes the dividends to the btc account of each owner of the ricardo contract.

This requires a number of steps before it is a possibility.

1) A trusted, general purpose exchange/market that uses ricardo contracts and supports paying dividends.
2) A trusted currency exchange.
3) A trusted agent buying and selling shares

All these steps require multiple levels and layers of trust and reputation.

Another related item are shares for companies dealing entirely in btc, for this you need to replace step 3 with a trust company issuing shares instead of a trusted agent.

Without agents making different items available ( shares in mainstreet companies, gold, sugar etc.) every time there is a transaction with the economy outside bitcoin it must go through a currency exchange, with the associated costs and delays. Agents permiting metta trading, and holding the goods, stock on our behalf in the mainstream market allow bitcoin trade with the outside economy to flourish.

This all requires conventions and protocols to prevent fraud and theft, like remote audits of anonymous exchanges, that I was talking about in another thread.

I do not understand what you mean by "Amnesia might be a very expensive illness in bitcoin world", could you explain, I am  sorry I missed the joke.

But for your post, I agree with almost everything you say, except....

To prevent government people (or anyone else) from just coming and taking everything the exchange itself is a secret. No one except me knows where it is, and no one knows who I am except for my online persona (which, if bitcoin becomes successful will probably be worth more than my real identity). This is the whole point of it being in a secret location.

For bitcoin to succeed people must be able to enter and exit the bitcoin economy by being able to exchange currency. This means that there must be reserves of these currencies that someone doing the exchange must have in order to keep liquidity. So exchangers must have reserves, enough to cover the needed exchanges.

If bitcoin becomes successful it will quickly be banned by governments around the world, in the EU and US money laundering and terrorism laws will be used to take all assets(in other countries they don't even need that excuse). Anyone doing exchange openly will be put in prison and have everything taken from them. This is more obvious for someone like me, where I am; but it also applies to you where you are, you just don't realise it yet (some do).

And you are also right about what is to stop me from just taking these reserves  and leaving. I don't want to hold a lot of cash, or btc for other people, this is a huge responsibility. But until there are enough people buying and selling btc for yuan I need to provide some liquidity so new people can start using bitcoins. The more people that use bitcoins the more my bitcoins are worth.

What is to stop me? Incentive to make more btc, I will make much more operating an exchange and keeping the spread than a once off theft.

What would happen if I left with all the money and btc? Those who have saved or invested would lose it, very simple. Buyer beware. However this is not all that different from what happens in the real world, how many people have lost money from big companies defrauding them? And how many of those responsible have been put in prison or even fined.

The answer is simple, but more obvious, buyer beware, the only difference is there is no illusion of security or protection here.

Yes you can be sure of btc when they are in your wallet.dat, so keep them there, it is a bad idea to put all your money into only one thing. I have only been able to accept small amounts, and have had all my reserves bought for the next month or two (that is, new reserves that I introduce, a kind of futures contract). Keep things small so if something bad does happen you don't lose a lot.

Currently I have enough reserves.

First install the OpenJDK

apt-get install openjdk-6-jre-headless

create the directory you want to have i2p installed, cd to that directory.
wget http://mirror.i2p2.de/i2pinstall_0.8.2.exe
then to run the install on the command line
java -jar i2pinstall_0.8.2.exe -console

this should install it, then just cd to the newly created i2p directory,
./i2prouter start
and you are now connected to i2p
assuming it's on your local machine point your browser at 127.0.0.1:7657 and you should get the console.

Then you need to set up a proxy to use i2p when you see a .i2p address, foxyproxy is best if you are using firefox.

The rest is available on the i2p websites.

Easy actually, and the more of your connection you share the faster you will be able to connect to other hidden services.

I miss understood, on a related note would anyone like to sell me 180btc for 1$US?

Yes the idea is to prove that you have possetion of the physical goods (cash,gold,chocolate etc.) in the amounts that you are supposed to(or that you have said you have).

Bringing in an outside auditer does help a little but it also shifts the required trust, and raises the possibility of the secret location being discovered. It is also not cheap, I am not paying to fly someone here to audit 500yuan.

As was mentioned by grondilu, any audit seems to be only a snapshot, that at that time the goods were there( but no guarantee of before or after ), and as was also mentioned by FreeMoney that an audit of any other company cannot do any better.

The signed photo ( maybe video for more detail and information ) has merit, but as was mentioned there must be surprise audits otherwise the one being audited can prepare for them.

Audits on demand, such that once certain conditions are met ( the person being audited is in the location with the goods and is online ) then once an audit notice is given it must be fulfilled within say 30 minutes. Actually on demand audits ( there must be limits, it would not be usefull for anyone to initiate an audit demand or as often as they want) are a usefull way to prove the possetion of said goods at any time.

I'm not sure if this is the best place to put this.

How would you conduct an audit ( so that customers can be sure of the existence of stored goods) for an exchange where the identity, and location of said exchange must remain secret?

As I have mentioned before I am exchanging yuan for bitcoin, I also will hold yuan for all who wish ( those who wish to hold yuan but not take physical posetion for what ever reason , while also keeping yuan reserves liquid). Any ideas on how I may conduct an audit to prove I  have said reserves to my customers without revealing my identity or location?

All I can think of is a live audit with a webcam wearing a mask while having voices muted.

Only the central bank of china has the authority to exchange yuan, it also has the power to delegate that authority. All else is illegal, quantity does not matter.

Unmarried sex is also illegal here but is only prosecuted when the government want to get some one.

$1US for 180BTC?

Good luck getting that rate.

But...your...name....

Hmmm, I guess the lesson here is never make assumptions.

After looking everbank has a yuan account, requires $10,000 deposit.

Maybe some places offer yuan but I am sure they can't beat my rate.

I think you are wrong, if you are not in China you can't buy Yuan in your local bank, there are two(I think) branches of Bank of China (located in the US) that have begun to allow foreigners (non-Chinese) to open Yuan account's, with a minimum balance of $500, but unless you go to those actual branches it's very impractical.

If you are in China you can of course buy $US, if you are not Chinese there is a lot of paperwork in exchanging Yuan in to $US, however it is no problem to exchange $US into Yuan. You also must supply your passport to exchange and money in China, and your ID is recorded with the transaction.

Recored, 350rmb remaining


It's illegal, but you don't know where I am, nor does anyone else here, so no matter how much you are tortured you can't tell. The money that I am keeping is in cash, the government doesn't know that I have it.

This is essentially a black market yaun/btc exchange. Currently it's very VERY small scale, but as it grows so will it's ability to continue despite government pressure.

If you want to actually get your yuan(the cash itself) the only option is face to face cash delivery for people that I already do not know. If I know you then bank transfers are ok (Chinese bank to Chinese bank). This is the only way, it must be cell structured to resist government squashing (when the event actually happens).

It will operate on a web of trust. At least, it will until I get arrested(very likely if this becomes successful).

Monopoly I say!.......
Would you settle for a duopoly or better yet, an oligopoly? Price fixing anyone?

But seriously, do you have yuan?

Unless cryptoman changes his mind he has gotten the first 75rmb, leaving 425rmb.

Further payments are to the address 1PGo8dQUvwR7c7hxQBN1wAPs4JfD4p4vsv, you can send a message with the payment also(such as address instructions or something).


I need to set up a somewhat automate chinese yuan exchange/market soon. I don't like these manual entries.

It seems I made a typo

I should have said, buying bitcoin at 3 yuan for 1 bitcoin, selling bitcoin at 4 yuan for 1 bitcoin sorry about that mistake. If you would still like to go ahead 25 btc will get you 75 yuan and I will keep this for you, exchangable at any time in the future for btc, if you dont want to continue at that rate I will refund you btc (tomorrow as The address you sent to is actually my other machine, and is for " donations". for a refund just tell me the address you sent from and I will refund the whole amount). 

As I said I have limited amounts. I am sorry for the confusion the typo may have caused.

Again, the rate is buying bitcoin at 3 yuan for 1 bitcoin, selling bitcoin at 4 yuan for 1 bitcoin. That means a spread of 1 yuan.

The only reliable way(if you are paying cash) is to do a bsnk transfer to mtgox (or similar) for amounts that are not too small, maybe 200-300. There is not really any other reliable method than using a bank transfer.

Exactly.

I have spent some time thinking about this and have had something of an epiphany.

Because the yuan is not a floating currency, that is you can not readily buy it on the market and trade it, China is therefor something of a walled garden. I had thought that when exchanging yuan for bitcoin the exchange rate would be based on $US, which is around 2btc for 1 yuan, but it is not based on the dollar.

I (and maybe only two or three others here) are the only ones with access to yuan, the entire value of bitcoin to yuan is my bitcoin reserve. We can charge what we like (until more competitors come in)

So I am buying bitcoin at a rate of 3 yuan for one btc, and selling yuan at a rate of 4 yuan for 1btc.

This is a good deal to those with bitcoins, and it will mean that bitcoins should flow into the yuan exchange. This will make btc available to those in China that wish to purchase( it is not cheap and also therefor encourages trading) as btc flows into the yuan, btc should drop in value relative to yuan, meaning those who have yuan can later buy back their btc, and at the same time this should increase the overall value of btc relative to the dollar and euro as more individuals join the btc economy.

The only problem is it will leave me yuan poor  

So for the moment I will not be trading huge amounts. I only have 500 yuan available, which is about 60$, and will only sell 100 yuan per customer( for a current total of 500 yuan). Since yuan is not transferable internationally I will hold the yuan for you and you can exchange it back to btc at any time, at the prevailing rate.

Hopefully this should allow btc to get "kickstarted" in China.

Is there anyone else in China who would like to join with me in offering yuan for btc? It's a cornered market.