Businesses needed in the Bitcoin community

[halfawake]

If there's any service or business that the Bitcoin community needs and does not yet have, what would it be?

[Abdussamad]

Chinese food outlets. Indian food outlets. Thai food outlets.

[Chet]

More of the business offering stocks and bonds in btc exchanges. I need places to invest my btc.

[Abdussamad]

Banks! Actual banks!

[Chet]

Banks! Actual banks!

agreed but we need investment opportunities for banks to work .... (I assume you want some interest on your savings account)

[halfawake]

Chinese food outlets. Indian food outlets. Thai food outlets.

...Banks! Actual banks!

Oh, I agree - food of all kinds.  If you're willing to use services like BitSpend, I imagine you could get basically any kind of online product.  But food is still difficult with bitcoin because most restaurants do not accept bitcoin yet.

As far as banks, isn't the whole point of bitcoin to bypass the banking system entirely?  What do you envision a bitcoin bank would do anyway?  Not sure how loans would work in the bitcoin world.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

Banks! Actual banks!

agreed but we need investment opportunities for banks to work .... (I assume you want some interest on your savings account)

http://coinlenders.com/

[Chet]

Banks! Actual banks!

agreed but we need investment opportunities for banks to work .... (I assume you want some interest on your savings account)

http://coinlenders.com/

Coinlenders looks interesting but how to trust it?
I don't see anything on the site about who actually runs it.

[halfawake]

More of the business offering stocks and bonds in btc exchanges. I need places to invest my btc.

There are already several: PicoStocks.com, bitcoinstockexchange.org, and mpex.co.  I think the problem here isn't the lack of exchanges but rather lack of companies to invest in within the exchanges.  There's also TorBroker for investing in the regular stock market: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=159237.0.  I have no experience with any of these exchanges, so I can't say off the top of my head whether or not any of them is any good or not, but just thought I'd mention that they're out there.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

Coinlenders is far from a bank, it is more on the side of a fund, which you know is very regulated so I would be careful. I wouldn't put my money in to this too risky.

Yep, we warn you that it is not a bank, it is not FDIC insured, etc. However, you do get interest, and I run it.

[Chet]

More of the business offering stocks and bonds in btc exchanges. I need places to invest my btc.

There are already several: PicoStocks.com, bitcoinstockexchange.org, and mpex.co.  I think the problem here isn't the lack of exchanges but rather lack of companies to invest in within the exchanges.  There's also TorBroker for investing in the regular stock market: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=159237.0.  I have no experience with any of these exchanges, so I can't say off the top of my head whether or not any of them is any good or not, but just thought I'd mention that they're out there.

Exactly, we need more people doing IPO in btc, not really more exchanges.
I am an MPex fan myself. The difficulty of use makes me feel very secure. 

[halfawake]

I am an MPex fan myself. The difficulty of use makes me feel very secure. 

I just checked out their FAQ.  Wow, that looks horrendously un-userfriendly.  Out of the ones I've seen, http://www.bitcoinstockexchange.org/ looks the most well designed but as far as I can tell, there aren't any stocks on it aside from the exchange itself.  I haven't checked out TorBroker at all.  As far as stock trading - I'll probably just stick with the fiat world for now, personally, it's just easier.

[Chet]

I am an MPex fan myself. The difficulty of use makes me feel very secure. 

I just checked out their FAQ.  Wow, that looks horrendously un-userfriendly.  Out of the ones I've seen, http://www.bitcoinstockexchange.org/ looks the most well designed but as far as I can tell, there aren't any stocks on it aside from the exchange itself.  I haven't checked out TorBroker at all.  As far as stock trading - I'll probably just stick with the fiat world for now, personally, it's just easier.

MPex  has satoshi dice and bitbet stock - there are some easier to use exchanges built on top of it like coinbr - I just like the challenge

[Abdussamad]

As far as banks, isn't the whole point of bitcoin to bypass the banking system entirely?  What do you envision a bitcoin bank would do anyway?  Not sure how loans would work in the bitcoin world.

Well for one thing it would keep coins safe. That would be a big deal.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

The other is that it contributes to the economy instead of having coins sit there and do nothing. It allows businesses and individuals to get loans and funding, as well as paying out interest to depositors.

[halfawake]

The other is that it contributes to the economy instead of having coins sit there and do nothing. It allows businesses and individuals to get loans and funding, as well as paying out interest to depositors.

Ah, good point.  Right now, the only business I know of that does something like this is Bitcoin Starter - https://bitcoinstarter.com/ - not a bank, obviously, but the bitcoin equivalent of Kickstarter. 

[halfawake]

Coinlenders is far from a bank, it is more on the side of a fund, which you know is very regulated so I would be careful. I wouldn't put my money in to this too risky.

Yep, we warn you that it is not a bank, it is not FDIC insured, etc. However, you do get interest, and I run it.

I just checked out Coinlenders - saw mention of a 20% APR CD in your FAQ.  What's the catch?  That's like 20 times the rates regular banks are giving with CDs these days.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

The catch is that the government does not insure it.

There are bitcoin mining companies that have annual yields of 40%.

[halfawake]

The catch is that the government does not insure it.

There are bitcoin mining companies that have annual yields of 40%.

So you can make a profit even while offering a CD with a 20% APR - that's pretty impressive.  Yeah, I knew it wasn't government insured like traditional CDs, and in that sense it's not really a Certificate of Deposit since those are insured by definition.  But then, those don't offer rates anywhere near what you're offering.

[Dabs]

I just got a fiat bank loan for PHP 250,000.00 (Philippine Pesos). For 12 months, the amortization is a little more than PHP 24,000.00. That's almost 40% interest.

If I get another personal or consumer loan for less interest than what coinlenders is offering, I might put my money in bitcoins there. Risky though. But, it just might work eh.