Latest posts of: nii236

EDIT: Crossposted Reddit thread located here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1ex7er/a_proposed_method_to_facilitate_p2p_trading/

Hi all,

I've been thinking for awhile for a good method to enable P2P exchanges. The recent thread regarding Bitmessage (BM) and OpenTransactions (OT) left me swimming in my thoughts for the past couple of days.

One of the main issues with getting Bitcoins is moving fiat money in and out of the system. Wiring money around or doing a bank deposit has been the best method so far with large quantities to MtGox or similar. Smaller quantities are taken are of with the Localbitcoins OTC system. My proposal will allow a global P2P exchange by all participants by first converting their fiat to digital fiat. The issues of this will be covered and a solution proposed afterwards.

After reading about OT I think I understand the general gist of it. My proposal is an extension of the coloured coin system I first read about here (http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1clrk3/whats_coming_colored_coins_could_allow_p2p/). The coloured coins will be used to convert fiat to the digital equivalent of that fiat, pegged to that fiat's value. The difference with my concept is having there being only one type of digital fiat for each country's currency, such as dUSD or dAUD, as opposed to per company as described in that post (Mt Gox Dollars, Silk Road Pounds).

The problem with issuing from USD to, say, dUSD is that the issuer of the currency can flood the market with a supply of dUSD if supply is not controlled. So the issuer can just generate his own dUSD and go spend it in the global OT economy. This is not desirable and removes the value of dUSD. To counter this, I propose the value of the fiat be stored in Bitcoin and locked away until the dUSD is returned to the system. The OT servers will operate as a sort of 'bank' but without the crazy fractional spending that banks do today. People can deposit Bitcoin and receive the equivalent dUSD in return, either for trading, exchange or whatever. If desired, the dUSD can be redeemed at the OT servers for the equivalent Bitcoin.

I will attempt to explain this from points of view of different parties in a world where my concept has taken hold and is available globally.

System

The following currencies are available in the OT global economy:

   - Cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Altcoins)
   - Digital Fiat (dUSD, dAUD, dEUR, etc) - There is a digital version of the fiat of every single currency in the world. These are pegged to the value to their real life counterparts, and are minted then supplied to the global OT economy only when the equivalent amount of bitcoins is deposited in.

Summary:

   - dUSD is pegged to the USD 1:1
   - Fresh dUSD is issued by depositing Bitcoins into the OT system
   - These Bitcoins can be released proportional to whomever returns the dUSD to the OT 'bank'
   - The dUSD can be used to trade with other cryptocurrencies or digital fiats

Assumptions:

   - 1BTC = 100USD
   - 1USD = 1dUSD
   - All of the digital fiat is cryptographically controlled in a similar manner to Bitcoin (I don't know if this is possible, I hope so!)

Local exchanger

Alice wants to become a local exchanger of cryptocurrency. She has offered Bitcoins for quite some time but the demand is not high as face to face meetups aren't suitable for geeks, or the value of Bitcoin is too unstable. She owns 10BTC. Instead of sitting around waiting for someone to trade BTC with she decides to send 10BTC into the OT system and as a result the OT system issues 1000dUSD back. She can not receive any more dUSD than this until she puts in more BTC. Alice now advertises that she sells dUSD! Alice finds she gets a lot more interested parties because the value of the dUSD is obvious and not subject to speculation.

Interested trader

Bob wants BTC, but is not comfortable with the crazy rise and fall of Bitcoin. He does, however, know that 1 dUSD is always equal to 1USD so is happy to transfer a large amount of cash for that. He finds Alice through the crazy magical OT system and then he wires Alice 1001USD for 1000dUSD. He has now suddenly given his fiat money access to the entire global OT economy! He can use this to convert money to Bitcoins when the price is more ideal, trade with other altcoins or perhaps he can hang on to it until he goes on a holiday to Australia where he can use the OT system to convert to dAUD before he departs America, or perhaps the OT system will find someone willing to convert dUSD for real AUD.

In a foreign land far far away

Chen is travelling to America soon and needs USD. He only has dRMB. Using the OT system a triangular transaction is setup (Bob goes to China and needs dRMB, Chen is going America and needs dUSD, Bob is going to Australia and needs dAUD). This will allow everyone to exchange local currencies quickly and easily without any fees.

Meanwhile since Alice is working in Bitcoin she can just deposit the Bitcoin into the OT system and convert to the digital fiat equivalent of any country she wants to visit.

Why is this system good?

Because the amount of value of the issued dUSD is equal to the amount of Bitcoins deposited into the OT servers and locked away, there is no value being created out of thin air. This controls the supply of dUSD which is important. The OT servers become a bank which won't play with your money and lose it. Nor will it demand exorbitant fees from you. This also means that dUSD holds true value as opposed to just representing an IOU. With IOUs, the issuer can refuse to accept your dUSD to USD. If this happens, the holder of dUSD can just send it into the OT servers and convert the dUSD back to the original Bitcoin that was used to mint the dUSD! Or they can do any of the options I outlined above.

Also having a 1:1 value of dUSD to USD is clear, simple and leaves no room for speculation or concern. Just buy it, bam, you hold the same value in your hands and it won't become valueless tomorrow.

Also while the world slowly plays catchup and adopts Bitcoin, this system will allow you to go to any country and convert your digital fiat into that country's fiat. Enjoy your holiday! While the world still uses fiat, using a digital version of that exact same fiat just makes things easier.

The proposed system prevents a central point of failure. OT servers can be everywhere, linked with other locales with Bitmessage, and all currencies are supported, which can all be traded together. It becomes a true P2P trading/exchange system.

Expanding this system also provides a great method of remittance, which is something I'm interested in. For instance I might be in Australia and want to send money to friends in Ghana. If the proposed system is up and running then I can put BTC into the OT system and receive freshly minted dGHS. I can send these to Ghana easily to my friends wallets. Hopefully the local economy there is happily accepting dGHS in my vision.

Wouldn't people just buy BTC directly?

Yes and no. I know I don't want to put so much money into a wildly fluctuating commodity just yet. Bitcoin, however, works well as a reserve currency which is why its used to allow issuance of a specific amount of equivalent digital fiat to whoever deposits in.

This proposed system is more of a intermediate measure between today's economy and a full global bitcoin-only economy. Its important because people like to think in their own respective currencies. This system has digital fiat types pegged to the value of every single fiat in the world. This system allows people to transform their existing money into a digital form to be used globally easily.

What happens if the issuer no longer wants to redeem the dUSD? What if too many people want to redeem their dUSD into USD and there isn't enough money between all of the exchangers?

By having a large number of exchangers in the country, hopefully this will be prevented. Alternatively I've thought of a couple of other solutions.

The people with the dUSD can convert their dUSD to Bitcoin in the OT system. This can be done by standard trading, or perhaps the Bitcoin that was locked away when it was deposited and dUSD can be released by returning dUSD to the system. For instance, Bob comes to Alice demanding to convert 500dUSD to 500USD, but Alice is now homeless and is dirt poor. Bob can either:

- Find another exchanger in his area
- Since it is a global economy, he will be able to trade his dUSD for Bitcoin or Litecoin or perhaps another digital fiat.
- Bob can become an exchanger on his own. He needs to find one of his friends willing to convert their USD to dUSD and then they can trade.
- The Bitcoin that was locked away in the beginning to allow issuance of the dUSD can be released by returning the dUSD to the OT servers. So Bob returns 500dUSD to the system, and in return he receives 5BTC.

Point 4 is cool because its like having the OT servers act like a bank, issuing currency. But the cooler thing is that fractional reserve banking is not possible here, and the value that was deposited into the OT 'bank' always remains there waiting to be redeemed.

Anyway I'm still thinking about this concept, I was wondering what were your thoughts? Am I onto something here or is there no point creating digital fiat currencies with controlled supply? I feel that this idea has value because as soon as the fiat is converted to digital fiat (that has provable equivalent value to the real fiat through use of Bitcoin deposits) the entire global economy is available instantly and without fees.

Ideally everyone would just work in Bitcoin but we know that is not the case. Fluctuating prices and price discovery is still working. Bitcoin can be the 'gold' and the value of the dUSD and other digital fiats can be based on this 'gold'. While Bitcoin is busy fluctuating, pegging digital fiat values to real fiat will really get the global economy ball rolling.

Thoughts?

TL;DR - Make fiat currency become digital, whose value is backed by Bitcoin