Great idea! I've updated my script to calculate a 48-hour (MtGox recent trades) volume-weighted price. I would do a 24-hour volume-weighted price if I weren't too lazy to deal with the date arithmetic.  #!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'open-uri'
require 'json'
total_vol = 0.0
price_vol_product = 0.0
quote_str = open('http://mtgox.com/code/data/getTrades.php').read
quotes = JSON.parse(quote_str)
#puts quotes
quotes.each do |q|
price_vol_product += q["price"] * q["amount"]
total_vol += q["amount"]
end
usd_per_btc = price_vol_product/total_vol
#puts usd_per_btc
And maybe other bitcoin exchanges for the matter  For example the ones that allow you to trade LRUSD/LREUR/EUR/BTC for free  ...and the trade data APIs for these other sites can be found...where?  |
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If you're in the U.S., you can get a Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 from Amazon for $99 after rebates (until 2011.1.15). I think this is the best hash/$ deal currently out there.
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I was wondering if the community had thoughts on what is the best way to come up with BTC/USD, BTC/EUR, etc. exchange rates for pricing goods and services on a merchant site. I wrote a little script to grab the LAST trade from MtGox: #!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'open-uri'
btc_per_usd = 0.0
quote_str = open('http://mtgox.com/code/data/ticker.php').read
quote_str = quote_str.gsub(/["{}]/,'')
quote_str = quote_str.gsub(/ticker:/, '')
quotes = quote_str.split(',')
#puts quotes
quotes.each {|q| btc_per_usd = q.delete('a-z:').to_f if q[/last:/] }
#puts btc_per_usd
There are several problems with doing it this way. The last trade could have been unusually large or small in volume and not indicative of the true current exchange rate. Also, it doesn't make sense to continually update the exchange rate in real time because the price in BTC of items could fluctuate during the order completion process. I'm thinking that the rate should be set once per day from a cron job by taking some sort of average of the previous day's MtGox transactions. Any ideas or scripts you'd like to share? |
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Let me see if I understand this. I buy the VCC from you for 50 BTC and tell you what name and address (possibly fictitious) I want to use. You then issue me the VCC which I can use to register and verify a paypal account. How much money is on this card, or do I pay you however much I want on it in addition to the 50 BTC? In this case, how is the exchange rate determined? In order for the fee of 50 BTC not to be unreasonable, the card would need to be USD 500 or more. This is a lot of trust for someone to place in a new merchant/exchanger.
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The last time I tried Tor hidden services, it was very slow. Have you considered anonymously registering your domain and then hosting it on the regular internet (mirrored, of course)? You could do a continual transaction backup through Tor to a server you have possession of.
At any rate, I think it's a great project, and I wish you the best of luck.
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Why not give a presentation instead? That seems like a better option since Bitcoin isn't really a vendor.
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Which client is this based on? There have been some useful changes in recent client releases, particularly listtransactions.
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I cannot currently reach bitcoin-otc.com. |
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Just because it is available for free doesn't mean it's legal to sell it.
I see your point. I thought the 0.02 BTC was to cover server costs, but I see now that the ubitio.us site provides a way for the uploader to receive payment. |
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The book is available for free around the net.
I read the first 50 pages. It does a pretty good job of repudiating government interference. It also is a good read for those anarchists who are anti-capital and anti-property. However, I still think there are some dangers inherent in large concentrations of capital and property. It is possible that these concentrations could not happen without government's help.
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My only criticism is that you ask the question "Who controls the economy?" followed by an introduction to Bitcoin. It's almost as if you are saying Bitcoin currently controls the economy. You should talk about the banksters first, followed by Bitcoin.
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Another way to look at this is the entire world GDP is around 100 trillion USD today. If Bitcoin someday became so successful that it displaced all other currencies in circulation, then 21 million BTC would have to represent the equivalent of 100 trillion USD, or around 5 million USD per Bitcoin. We would all be incredibly rich at that point.
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Do you have Ruby 1.9 and Rails 3.0?
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I wonder whatever happened to Tim May. I guess he is retired now. He would get into heated arguments with so many people on the cypherpunk mailing list and then inevitably put them in his kill file. Near the end he was probably only talking to himself, lol.
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I like the one about the boy arrested for farting in class.  |
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I like the idea. Better yet, let's just switch to Bitcoin ourselves and forget about the national debt. The politicians and bankers created it, and the problem is theirs to contend with, not ours.
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My point is, how to keep a business running until the fat, ignorant lady hears about bitcoin? (sorry for putting it this way)
Choose a business that doesn't need to burn money on a daily basis. Many of us here are already paying for web hosting for other purposes. It's not like you have to obtain a business license and pay rent for a physical storefront and file quarterly reports with the government (you can if that floats your boat). Set up your site to send you an SMS when there is an order so you can forget about it until someone places an order. And, like kiba said, select products and services that appeal to ubergeeks. |
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It will take time to build the Bitcoin economy. One of the best ways is for sites that already have a proven business model to start accepting Bitcoins. Exchange with national currencies is not terribly easy, so that will slow down adoption outside of Bitcoin fanatic circles. Anyone putting up a site or otherwise offering a product/service has to understand that business may be slow to develop.
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I wonder what the community thinks about having a "snazzy" Bitcoin merchant directory? Something like the site below: http://www.boiseonlinemall.com/online-shopping-mall-directory.phpThis is not to deprecate the work that others have done putting together merchant lists (notably http://www.bitcoin.org/trade and http://bitcoinshop.com), but I'm just interested in making Bitcoin look a bit more mainstream. This merchant directory could also be a revenue stream for someone by charging for banner ads and/or upgraded listings. I would love to do something like this, but I'm already busy with several other Bitcoin ventures. I see that someone already has bitcoinmall.com registered. Any takers for this project? |
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