Bitcoin ideas and investments

[techhead]

I've been following Bitcoin for a while now, but I think I'm ready to finally start getting involved.

I'm a big fan of freedom and not having a bunch of people I don't know trying to tell me what I can and can not do.  I think that Bitcoin fits pretty well within that mantra.

I understand that Bitcoin is very much like the Wild West, rife with fraud and buyer beware, etc.  And I've got to say that is part of the appeal in some strange way.  I like the idea of people getting to learn from their own mistakes, of the community building creative ways to protect itself, etc.  and not some suits laying down laws to protect us from ourselves.

Bitcoin has no borders and doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of a single government.  This must have been sort of what it felt like when the "New World" was new.

Anyway, I digress.  I'm excited.  Where should I start?

I'm a web developer and would definitely like to build something Bitcoin related.  What do you feel is Bitcoin's missing link?

Also, I'd like to make some money and quit my day job  Anyone want to suggest their favorite Bitcoin investments?

[droledabin]

I understand that Bitcoin is very much like the Wild West, rife with fraud and buyer beware, etc.
[...]
Anyone want to suggest their favorite Bitcoin investments?

Dear glory investor of western country,

i is big trustable man from Nigeria and i got plenty business proposals for you in my best country of World, China! You can trust me! I double your investment. 100% win-win situation. Pay to: 1Md3gPUqxpz9QwkghabV2S55wzCbeSrsTu

Thank you

[techhead]

Haha.

See if you can fall for that, you've got no business on a computer.

[Stephen Gornick]

What do you feel is Bitcoin's missing link?

One thing that would be useful is a way people can redeem private keys to a destination address of their choosing.

It is a simple process.

One field is for the input of the private key (which can be scanned using a QR code).

A second field is for the Bitcoin address where the funds are to be sent (also could be a QR code scan).  (or SMS or e-mail address and send the bitcoins that way, or through Coinapult's API maybe?).

So the web app (which works well from a mobile as well) gets these two pieces of information, applies a small handling fee, and broadcasts the spend transaction.  (Use bitcoind v0.7 which lets you create and send a raw transaction)

Easy peazy.    Access EasyWallet.org from a mobile to see a mobile-enabled web site that does 90% of the UI for this:
 - http://www.EasyWallet.org

But nobody has done this yet for redeeming private keys.

There are reasons people wouldn't want to use this, as that private key is now compromised (as you have a copy of it), so a person would never want to use this for an address that they might receive additional funds at in the future.   But for something like a paper bitcoin from BitAddress.org, there is currently no easy way for someone to use that and redeem it and have the funds sent elsewhere.

You could even add features from there that make it even more useful.  For instance, let the user enter how much they want to redeem, and then ask for an additional address for where to send the change.   Or redeem multiple private keys at once, etc.  There are all kinds of uses for a stite (and/or mobile app) that does this.

[ShireSilver]

I'm a web developer and would definitely like to build something Bitcoin related.  What do you feel is Bitcoin's missing link?

Recurring payments.

[drcoinflip]

Recurring payments.

As there is no central authorithy and only the client has private keys for the coins only the client could do this.
However it would have to run at the time the payment should occour.


On my wishlist:
"virtual invoice" which can be viewed and payed in your client