Hello! I recently took to these forums with the intention of being apart of this online community, learning more about peoples outlook on Bitcoin (biased and unbiased) and also to stimulate the Bitcoin economy.
Welcome.
Since joining, I've been met with a surprisingly large amount of resistance when it comes to trade. I've been hit with negative feedback from a user that I have never even interacted with (which is an interesting flaw in the 'trust' system, but whatever) and I've had users heckle several different posts our mine because I'm a new user and because apparently there has been many scammers on this site in the last few months.
Get used to it. The feedback the person left you is just an opinion and I would still trade with you if the circumstances are right. The feedback is without a reference which makes it pretty useless for those that care to read what it was all about. That red -6 might scare people away, true. On the other hand refusing escrow or any other form of security for the other party screams scam. A new account is easy to get, it will get easier once your account is more established.
I feel like I just walked into Salem and the witch hunt is ON. Just like Salem, this method of burning (flaming) a witch (supposedly me) to see if they'll survive is an old though process. Rarely is it confirmation of witchcraft.
Obviously, I'm facetious. But seriously. I don't feel like I deserve half the slack I've received since getting here, but hey! That's the internet!
Not only is this the Internet, but consider this the Internet of the 90's. The attitude towards trusting others is pretty similar.
I do, however, want to change some of your minds;
I doubt you will, but you are welcome to try.
I'd like to hold a discussion on safe trade options available for Bitcoin. Everybody is screaming "Escrow, escrow!" at once, but escrow services can be just as unreliable as any 1 person on the internet! Lots of the services I've been recommended are no longer conducting business because of to many issues with customer information security and transactions not getting where they need to. Additionally, services like these reinstate one of the main principles we rejected by simply using Bitcoin -- not having a third-party governing your money when you want to make transactions.
There are different kinds of escrow. E.g. multi-sig or ricardian contracts[1]. Yes they also require a 3rd party, but you do not have to full trust said 3rd party.
To the people that have read my other posts, I can't use escrow. My company hasn't found a single company that we can give 100% of our trust to not lose or steal ours customer and company information/currency. Honestly, I don't trust them either.
TL;DR: Ruling out escrow services, what are some safe ways to trade items for Bitcoin? How often to do you use them? And considering my company did adapt an escrow service for our business, which one would you personally choose and why?
Since you are dealing in high value items its probably best to invest some time into multi signature escrow. There are plenty reputable people here. If you do not want to use escrow what could you offer to make your customer feel safe? After all (just some perspective) you are basically asking someone to give >400$ in cash to an anonymous stranger with a mask on that promisses to give you some hardware. Well you are not even physically close to the other person so its even worse.
[1]
https://github.com/OpenBazaar/OpenBazaar/wiki/Contracts-and-Listings
