The trust issue

[Ron~Popeil]

It is clear to anyone that has been in the crypto currency world for any amount of time that there is a trust deficit with bitcoin businesses. You only need to cruise this forum a bit to read story after story about people getting burned by irresponsible or fraudulent businesses or individuals. This hurts all of us. The lack of trust makes people less likely to do business with the legitimate merchants and individuals that would like to transact business in bitcoin and bitcoin owners get hurt as well because there are less options for doing business in bitcoin. Less options mean less competition which means higher prices and less innovation.

If someone were to start an organization to rate merchants and certify them as a trusted crypto currency business based on clear publicly stated criteria would you as a business be interested in providing potential customers with peace of mind and would you as a consumer be more likely to do business with someone that has been vetted by an impartial and transparent organization?

This would not be a BBB for bit coin kind of thing. The BBB in the analog economy is just as corrupt as the rest of the system. This would be a rating system based on reports and data compiled and made publicly available.

If you feel this would be a good thing why? What kinds of things would you like to see included in the criteria? Would you be more likely to do business with a cloud mining company that has a verifiable address and proof of an actual mining farm on file with such an organization?

If you feel this would be a bad idea please explain why.

I am not proposing anything at this point, I just see a need in the community and would like to see it addressed in an ethical way.  

[grifferz]

If someone were to start an organization to rate merchants and certify them as a trusted crypto currency business based on clear publicly stated criteria would you as a business be interested in providing potential customers with peace of mind and would you as a consumer be more likely to do business with someone that has been vetted by an impartial and transparent organization?

The problem with your proposal is that most of the entities that lost/stole customer funds would rate out as trustworthy right up until when they're not.

IMHO the correct solution will be advances in the technology and, in some cases, regulation. i.e. greater decentralisation, multi-sig, things like that.

Existing established businesses that have been selling things online for years and only recently started also selling things for bitcoins do not really suffer from these problems. It's very new bedroom currency exchanges — written in PHP by people who should not be trusted to operate blogs about cats — that are getting exploited left right and centre.

[Bit_Happy]

Yes there needs to be automated daily/hourly audits.
Otherwise it's just blind trust.

[Massimo80]

currency exchanges — written in PHP by people who should not be trusted to operate blogs about cats

^^^^^^^^^^ This. Utterly, completely, definitely THIS.

[Ron~Popeil]

If someone were to start an organization to rate merchants and certify them as a trusted crypto currency business based on clear publicly stated criteria would you as a business be interested in providing potential customers with peace of mind and would you as a consumer be more likely to do business with someone that has been vetted by an impartial and transparent organization?

The problem with your proposal is that most of the entities that lost/stole customer funds would rate out as trustworthy right up until when they're not.

IMHO the correct solution will be advances in the technology and, in some cases, regulation. i.e. greater decentralisation, multi-sig, things like that.

Existing established businesses that have been selling things online for years and only recently started also selling things for bitcoins do not really suffer from these problems. It's very new bedroom currency exchanges — written in PHP by people who should not be trusted to operate blogs about cats — that are getting exploited left right and centre.

Good points and there are issues that would have to be addressed. Maybe for exchanges in order to be certified they would have to provide ongoing proof of security measures and cold wallet storage etc. There are definite issues that would have to be worked out and I agree that a lot of things will be worked out organically as the economy matures, but in the mean time maybe a way of helping people sort out the good stewards from the bad ones would be helpful.      

[Ron~Popeil]

Yes there needs to be automated daily/hourly audits.
Otherwise it's just blind trust.

We should be working toward eliminating the need for trust rather than building trust for sure. Realistically speaking the exchanges will go extinct naturally over time which is a good thing. The colored coins idea is intriguing to say the least.

[Ron~Popeil]

currency exchanges — written in PHP by people who should not be trusted to operate blogs about cats

^^^^^^^^^^ This. Utterly, completely, definitely THIS.

Yeah it would take some pretty savvy tech people to evaluate the inner workings of the exchanges. I don't gamble but I would not bet a satoshi that even a single exchange would be willing to subject themselves to such scrutiny. Letting the general public know how vulnerable they truly are would be very bad for business.

[jbrnt]

A rating agency would be advantageous, better than nothing.

Before the popularity of bitcoins, anyone want to do online business would start with PayPal. It has some sort of rating system and chargebacks, consumers may not have confidence in the seller or business, but had confidence in the payment environment. Mostly because one can link an account to a person, via the bank or the credit card.

With bitcoin, you have nothing; addresses are disposable, no refunds, cannot prove ownership. Most crypto businesses only have websites, owners are identified only by usernames. They do not disclose street address or phone numbers.

Would a rating agency make a difference?

[5thStreetResearch]

If someone widely known and well trusted in the company were to establish a site that highlighted fraudulent companies that would help to protect some people from getting burnt.  Making a push for bitcoin business owners to become more public and involved in the community would also help.

[Welsh]

I only trust companies I have experience in dealing with, if they are transparent then all the better, however like many reviewer or a 'trust agency' they can be bought. And, to be honest I like to question what makes that reviewer a expert. It's always nice to have reviews to look at and to see past deals with previous customers but, that shouldn't affect anybodies judgement on that particular company.

To be honest, I wouldn't use this 'trust agency' because it may taint my view on that particular company.  I'm sure the majority would love to have a look at the different evaluations of organisations and companies, but I being myself wouldn't trust the judgement of another person, because like I previously stated people can be bought to make a company look good and I think it's just another thing for businesses to manipulate. Other businesses may take advantage of this to beat their competitors.

Always nice to see things like this so the customers do have something to look at and consider, I guess it's their decision whether or not they use your review in their decision making process. If sufficient evidence is supplied to outline those companies which are breaking any laws, rules or terms then I would be interested as long as their source is legitimate and is public information that any body and everybody can access.