Who would want to see a decentralized bitpay-like service?
I shared it on
reddit first. Not sure if the one reply I got is representative of the community's enthusiasm about such a service, so I ask here again:
The hackathon thread inspired me to share an idea for an Android app that should not take more than a weekend to code:
I want an Android App that allows me to run deals with physical places to accept bitcoins into my wallet. The app should keep both me the bitcoin junkie and the what-is-bitcoin-merchant updated of our mutual dept.
- The merchant should be able to type in the price in any currency (google converts to USD, bitstamp converts to BTC, later updates will support formulas using vwap, min, max, etc.)
- The app should be able to show a QR-Code with amount
- The merchant should know (sound) when the bitcoins arrived (blockchain.info has an api for that, later a dedicated server could take over. This server would not need to know anything about the users)
- The bitcoin junkie should also get alerted of his updated debt, maybe via a mail ("check your balance"-ping. transaction timestamps and historical exchange rates should allow to come to coherent conclusions both end without writing details into these mails).
- When the merchant receives fiat from the bitcoin junkie, he should be able to tell the app.
The bitcoin junkie part of the app should be able to keep track of more than one merchants.
Improvements would be to incorporate fees for fiat delivery delays (parties should be able to agree on for example "weekly settlement is free but any day delay costs 1%), limits on the amount of bitcoins to be bought ("I help you get started with bitcoin but will only buy up to $200 per month"), merchants should be able to link to several bitcoin junkies, too (maybe the one would handle big volume but the other would take no fee etc.).
It would help people to accept bitcoins in a bitpay way so they never actually touch bitcoins and don't need to worry about volatility or regulations as in their books it's just the bitcoin junkie who owes them fiat. I'm interested in any feedback as I'm an Android developer I'm thinking of doing this myself but would be in to participate in an open source project or would be happy to see others get this going as an open source project.
This is not meant to run as one big branded service but as an enabler for many thousands of independent "providers" that would operate under the radar. It would also primarily be meant for markets where there is no good bitcoin infrastructure yet.
