Friendly Man In The Middle

[eerygarden]

Man In The Middle (MITM) are quite commonly known scams. https://saltandpepperlbc.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/scams-103-man-in-the-middle-mitm-triangle-3rd-party/

But as the release of Open Bazaar draws closer it has got me thinking about the possibilities of how it may be used to bring the likes of amazon and ebay purchases to bitcoin users. I have read that gift cards can be purchased with bitcoins but that is another topic. So what if we had a friendly man in the middle?

What I mean by this is what if I, you, or any other Tom, Dick or Harry took a product listing off of amazon and loaded it as available in their Open Bazaar store without actually being in possession of the product. Presumably you would peg the price to the fiat price of the product with shipping plus a mark up. Now I know that demand for making purchases on amazon is pretty highly desired, and also that people don't really want to pay a higher rate. But humans tend to be profit seekers, so what can you do? Stick with me.

So lets say you receive an order and payment through Open Bazaar. For this instance lets say direct payment has been received up front, although other methods such as escrow are possible, each will have their own pros and cons. So... you have your bitcoins and your order. You could then simply place your order at amazon with fiat and put the shipping address to the address specified by the buyer, thus offering amazon products to bitcoin users.

Potential headaches can occur. If the buyer wants to refund or replace his item this will be a pain. There could be an all sales are final "policy" but this will probably deter buyers wanting to purchase a lot of products, especially electrical items.

It seems that trust is pretty big issue. But what do you think? Can such an organisation work? Please, share your thoughts.

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[valkir]

I like the idea. I do think it is possible. Some person want to use more bitcoin and are ok to paid a little bit more to do so.

So why not. Just do a As-Is transaction and this should work.

 

[BillyBobZorton]

I don't think it's a really viable business. I don't think the average Joe is going to care about giving their credentials out to buy some videogame, smartphone or ipad off Amazon or whatever he's buying. If I got right, the point would be to pay a bit more for increased anonymity, but I don't think most people care unless they are buying weed or something.

[valkir]

I dont think its about anonymity but more about using bitcoin.
Miners like myself will like to use it to buy stuff with bitcoin. 

[eerygarden]

I don't think it's a really viable business. I don't think the average Joe is going to care about giving their credentials out to buy some videogame, smartphone or ipad off Amazon or whatever he's buying. If I got right, the point would be to pay a bit more for increased anonymity, but I don't think most people care unless they are buying weed or something.

I was thinking more along the lines of fanboys who just want to spend their bitcoin instead of fiat. Perhaps those who have obtained bitcoins at a lower value than they are valued today (if there is anybody like that still out there). I agree with you that this idea does nothing for anonymity purposes.

As more spending of bitcoin occurs we will approach the widely discussed problem of block size limit to find that action must be taken and something will inevitably be done. I kinda impatiently want to see what solution comes up.

[odolvlobo]

Man In The Middle (MITM) are quite commonly known scams. https://saltandpepperlbc.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/scams-103-man-in-the-middle-mitm-triangle-3rd-party/

Your scheme is basically a version of Purse.io's business model, except that they are completely open about it and they charge a fee.

But I don't see how the Localbitcoins MITM scam is related.

[eerygarden]

Man In The Middle (MITM) are quite commonly known scams. https://saltandpepperlbc.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/scams-103-man-in-the-middle-mitm-triangle-3rd-party/

Your scheme is basically a version of Purse.io's business model, except that they are completely open about it and they charge a fee.

But I don't see how the Localbitcoins MITM scam is related.

Well first off it's just an idea, not a scheme. Also, I am completely open about it also. I will check out purse.io. Thank you.

The MITM scam isn't related, I just thought coining the service as "friendly man in the middle" fit quite nicely.

Edit: I checked out the video on purse.io. It's similar but purchases are done with gift cards at a loss to the gift card holder. I will look deeper in to it. I can't find any information on how purse.io handle refunds/returns.

[thejaytiesto]

I dont think its about anonymity but more about using bitcoin.
Miners like myself will like to use it to buy stuff with bitcoin. 

Well, buying with Bitcoin should have an incentive, if it's not anonymity then it should be lower prices, but the thing is I don't see how this method would lead to lower prices when shopping, might as well buy it directly with fiat by converting to fiat.

[eerygarden]

I dont think its about anonymity but more about using bitcoin.
Miners like myself will like to use it to buy stuff with bitcoin. 

Well, buying with Bitcoin should have an incentive, if it's not anonymity then it should be lower prices, but the thing is I don't see how this method would lead to lower prices when shopping, might as well buy it directly with fiat by converting to fiat.

It's a fair point and I personally wouldn't want to pay over the odds using bitcoin except if perhaps it was my first purchase using bitcoin and I just wanted to try it out. But perhaps there are some users out there who obtained their bitcoin at a lower price than todays value and they would like to spend it. But I totally get your point. For new users it's not very enticing to pay maybe 1.5% margin sending money and paying an exchange for bitcoins and then another markup on top of that for making your amazon purchases. It makes no sense.

[dothebeats]

I like the idea, but it seems that the general public don't care about anonymity, just a smooth and safe transaction and as long as they receive what they bought from these stores. Anonymity is not an issue for them, but trust is one, for sure.