Here's my otc rating:

http://bitcoin-otc.com/viewratingdetail.php?nick=kgo&sign=ANY&type=RECV

If there's anything else I can do to assure you I'm trustworthy, please let me know.

If anyone here who I've done business with would like to vouch for me, I'd appreciate it.

I had two or three spare cards around.  They were the only thing was able to reliably sell on #bitcoin-otc.  Since the cards come from Germany, shipping can get expensive.  I decided to order a ten pack along with some readers and see if I could sell them all for bitcoins.

You can use gpg to encrypt wallet backups.  I do.  But there are other methods that are just fine.  But there's no direct integration with gpg.

gpg is used more extensively on the #bitcoin-otc web of trust.  If you're unfamiliar, it's a feedback system like Ebay, but based around gpg.  It also lets you ensure that the person you're talking to is indeed the person with the good rating, since someone could log onto the channel with your name.

It's also used some to digitally sign contracts.  You can write out a statement like:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

I will deliver one OpenPGP + SmartCard combo to you via priority mail for 3 BTC.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.17 (MingW32)

iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJOGjILAAoJEP5F5V2hilTWxl0H/ip6+3WrXoK8rI+YghnIOJle
gNoW6+xygv8pP4oBR77pYqOtOzQP0LF1GCLX30sPi4tZoAHAAPnpsCdNGCYMKYN/
Sb3fVgH0KEN+4uo+pPm5PmGAdLp9K5kr3U2m+5yUb/ygWjJbTB4nCl4vbxkdhDnN
f0jZIywnbl/mzyWJ664ZAn8Zn2ITX08pUK9VAGsxkuHmoKKfJKMkdkqf+ky09IKc
VVz+LuHolsjkh1+Qi3k4y0ic1+9XbHsreF+wUIP3e11Ao6X+aEEPxZG/dDY2xdIA
jLCYs4ulb5m2r1uDS+1/Eph1iZOsDjfH2KueDt+NBPAkpsX1zYR4mt4AqH9leAI=
=6yS6
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

A user can use gpg to verify that you wrote this.  And if you try to deny it down the road they can prove you signed it.  A concept called non-repudiation.

If someone tries to forge the content:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

I will deliver a one ounce gold nugget to you via priority mail for 0.3 BTC.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.17 (MingW32)

iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJOGjILAAoJEP5F5V2hilTWxl0H/ip6+3WrXoK8rI+YghnIOJle
gNoW6+xygv8pP4oBR77pYqOtOzQP0LF1GCLX30sPi4tZoAHAAPnpsCdNGCYMKYN/
Sb3fVgH0KEN+4uo+pPm5PmGAdLp9K5kr3U2m+5yUb/ygWjJbTB4nCl4vbxkdhDnN
f0jZIywnbl/mzyWJ664ZAn8Zn2ITX08pUK9VAGsxkuHmoKKfJKMkdkqf+ky09IKc
VVz+LuHolsjkh1+Qi3k4y0ic1+9XbHsreF+wUIP3e11Ao6X+aEEPxZG/dDY2xdIA
jLCYs4ulb5m2r1uDS+1/Eph1iZOsDjfH2KueDt+NBPAkpsX1zYR4mt4AqH9leAI=
=6yS6
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Then it can be proven that the document has been tampered with.

These cards just provide a more secure way to store your gpg keys.

Only 8 more left!

Hello all,

My new escrow service just went live:

http://mybitsafe.com/

It basically follows the clearcoin model.  You setup a release address and deposit coins to an escrow address.  When you get your goods or services, you release the coins to the seller.  If the seller rips you off, you don't release the coins and they go to the bitcoin faucet after 30 days.  This way the seller must deliver to get the coins, and the buyer has no incentive to withhold payment since they can't get their coins back.

I charge a small tiered fee of 0.025 BTC per hundred BTC held in escrow.  This means that all deals up to and including 100 BTC are charged 0.025 BTC.  Deals between 100-200 BTC are charged 0.05 BTC.  These charges are to cover server overhead and my time doing support/maintenance, and maybe buy a few beers.

So am I reputable enough to trust with your bitcoins?  I'd like to think so.  I've completed many deals, buying and selling, both here and on #bitcoin-otc.  The domain is registered with my real name and address.  Several people here have shipped me goods and can confirm my real-world identity and location.

-Grant Olson
mybitsafe.com

I'm willing to ship internationally, but would need to get a price quote on shipping first.

I bought 20 ounces.  Everything worked as advertised.  Couldn't have gone smoother.  My only regret is that I don't have enough BitCoins to buy gold. 

Noitev, why haven't you been on -otc  when I've been on?  I've got too many questions.  Anyway, I too am interested in the private key version.

Between trojans, hackers, and sites getting hacked, recent incidents have shown that you can never be too secure.  Why leave your critical gpg keys sitting on you disk when you can secure them on a smartcard?

A smart card provides several advantages over a traditional file-based secret key:

• Once your key is loaded to a card, it cannot be extracted.  Even if you're on a compromised machine, an attacker can't get your key.
• Crypto operations occur on the card itself.  Even if you're on a compromised machine, an attacker can't install trojan softare on the smart card.  The integrity of the operations is protected.
• The cards contents cannot be duplicated, providing true two-factor authentication.  Compare that to storing your keys on a USB drive that can easily be duplicated.
• The card features a self-destruct option that makes brute-forcing impossible.  If you enter an incorrect pin 3 times, the card locks.  If you enter the incorrect password three times, the card self-destructs.  This means you no longer need a 40 character password to be secure.  (Note, the 'self-destruct' simply wipes the card's memory.  It can be reset to factory defaults and re-used.  You just need to re-load or re-create a key)
• The card can be used for ssh authentication, giving you two factor authentication to any sensitive servers you may ssh into.

This package consists of:

• 1 OpenPGP v.2 SmartCard http://www.g10code.de/p-card.html
• 1 SCR-3110 Reader http://www.scmmicro.com/products-services/smart-card-readers-terminals/smart-card-reader/scr3310.html#c590

I've personally used this combo on Linux, Windows, and OSX without any issues.

Price also includes priority mail shipping anywhere in the US, and technical support if needed.

[Note: These cards only support 2048-3072 bit RSA keys.  If your existing keys are DSA and ElGamal, or RSA-4096, you won't be able to transfer them to the card.]

Correlation != causation, but the sipa charts show growth trailing off or even possibly going negative:

http://bitcoin.sipa.be/

If it makes sense and the price is right, I'd be willing to front bitcoins, and let you figure out how much of them you need to turn into cash, and ship directly to me.  I'm not sure if that easier or harder thanhavingyou to get the money together first, order these, and put them on bitcoin harbor, and ship to me.

PM me if you wnt to try to figure something out.

1. The purpose of mining is to generate a valid block chain.

2. A reward of 50 BTC is generated to the lucky miner who gets a block.

3. The reward acts as an incentive for many people to mine.

4. This incentive creates a large network which reduces the possibility of a single user compromising the system.

The purpose of mining is to generate and secure the block chain.  The side effect of paying out coins acts as an incentive to meet this goal.  The reason most people mine is to get bitcoins, but it's not the purpose of mining.

If that's your strategy, you should sell now no matter what.  Then buy back if it drops below 10, or cash out if it doesn't.

That is somehow must be a ponzi scheme or pyramid scheme.

Now when I talk to people, I always explain up-front that the mining payout is a side-effect of securing the block chain.  The payout isn't the purpose of mining. 

The initial perception is that it's somehow free money, so it must be a scam.

Hey, tried to order one.  I had to switch computers to pay.  The website told me not to submit my address until I paid.  Somehow my browser flipped out and the buy screen went away.  How can I send you my payment ID and Address?

P.S.  It would be nice if there was a contact email on the website.

Spot gold is actually closer to 1500 than 1400.  $1487.40 as we speak:

http://www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.html

And bars and coins always sell for more than spot.  Here's the same bar on apmex:

http://www.apmex.com/Product/11951/1_oz_Pamp_Suisse_Gold_Bar_9999_Fine_in_Assay.aspx

Buying one with a credit card + shipping/insurance would be about 1600 bucks.

jjjrmy might be a newbie here, but he spends plenty of time in #bitcoin-otc and has a good rating there.  I haven't personally bought a card, but know at least one person who has without problems.

If you can find some at that price, good for you, but realistically 1 oz rounds trade above the spot silver price.  Government issued coins like ASE's and Canadian Maple Leafs are like $4-5 dollars above spot.  And that's before shipping.  So two BTC might be a little low to get some bites.

FWIW, I've bought from both TraderSteve and Bitcoins4Gold, deals went smoothly.

I put out a feeler to see if anyone would be interested in a glbse offering to raise the money to print 100 coins.  Basically a hundred shares at 2 BTC each would entitle each shareholder to one coin per share.  Got zero replies.

But as long as the price is right, I'd buy a few. Maybe a $10-15 premium above spot.

I wanted to put a picture of Satoishi on the face, which would be a generic silhouette with a question mark, and the text IN SATOISHI WE TRUST.

Mine was actually in the middle of an old magazine, which was then put in an 8-1/2 by 11 envelope.  I thought that was a pretty clever way to ship it.  But that was US.  Maybe that approach seemed too expensive for international shipping.

I just wanted to report that my coin showed up safe and sound, without delay or any hassles.  Would do business with this person again.