Bitcoin for gold in the mail. Orderbook and escrow service. Very strong rep.

[Anon136]

The pitch:

I will be offering the ability to acquire bitcoins simply, cheaply and without the need to interface with the banking system.

The following will be all one need do in order to acquire bitcoin via my service: Purchase a 1/10th ounce coin or bar from your local coin shop; Use this thread to fill a buy order; Wait for confirmation that the buyer has delivered the requisite bitcoin into my escrow account; Send the 1/10th ounce coin standard post to my po-box; Wait for the bitcoins to be released to the address of your choice.

Gold is so value dense that postage will be a mere 49 cents. Unfortunately there is the extra step of driving down to the coin shop but one must do what one must in-order avoid men in black masks crashing through their windows at night.


The details:

I will run a public order-book on a google drive spreadsheet. Interested parties may place bids, asks or market orders for 1/10th of an ounce of 999 fine gold. Orders will be placed via replies in this thread and processed in the order they are received. When an order is matched payment will be requested from the bitcoin seller. If bitcoin payment is delivered than the gold seller will be notified and asked to send a letter to my po box containing details of his order and a 1/10th ounce gold coin or bar. When the gold arrives at my po box I will forward it to the bitcoin seller and release the bitcoins to the gold seller. If the gold seller does not uphold his end of the arrangement, the bitcoins will be returned, and you may place another order as you see fit. The violator will be banned from using the service until they make restitution to the other party for the time they wasted. Low reputation individuals may be required to post a small bond. Probably just a couple of dollars worth of bitcoin. This is basically an anti spam measure and wont be enacted unless fake bids and asks become a problem.

As for my fee, that will come in time but not until after the project has been successfully bootstrapped.

Gold senders will be required to take a few basic precautions against theft from postal employees. To do this, take a stack of several sheets of paper, fold the stack in thirds, and tape the gold well to the inside of the bundle. Place this bundle inside of the envelope rather than leaving the gold loose and tumbling around. The thicker the stack the better.

You may begin placing orders or alternatively discussion will be welcome in this thread as well. Things you would like to see. Problems you may anticipate. Even just a post to let me know if this is the sort of thing you would be interested in. All non troll comments welcome. If you are interested in seeing this project succeed than this thread will require many bumps .

My reputation thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=381041

The orderbook: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f2yoPzfcluSlBD3HSSTWg3x_8bthAFq0C5oDM9TmmDo/edit?usp=sharing


FAQ:

What about fake gold? - I have a pretty good amount of experience dealing in gold and silver. I am unaware of any 1/10th ounce fake gold products. Nevertheless I will be using digital calipers and a scale to ensure that the dimensions and weight conform to specifications. The risk of receiving a fake product at this point approaches 0.

[Anon136]

What about fake gold?

I have a pretty good amount of experience dealing in gold and silver. I am unaware of any 1/10th ounce fake gold products. Nevertheless I will be using digital calipers and a scale to ensure that the dimensions and weight conform to specifications. The risk of receiving a fake product at this point approaches 0.

Ill make the first entry in the faq. Thanks for the question

[Anon136]

Sorry about deleting your comment xetsr. I realized I needed to claim a few of these top reply spots for myself.

off to bed for the night. will check back in the morning.

[allwelder]

Anon136 is alive again.

[Anon136]

Anon136 is alive again.

Hey buddy! Long time no see. How are things? Thoughts on the idea?

[Mickeyb]

Hello Anon136,

This is a very interesting service. I wish you luck and that it goes better than you silver selling service. I guess this will work only in the US, right? If so I won't be able to check it out, unfortunately.

For everybody else that are not familiar with Anon136 (there are not many on this forum), if you are interested by his new gold service, I encourage you to try it. Anon is a great guy, I know him since a long time from his involvement in the NXT community and he's 100% legit!

Good luck Anon!

[Anon136]

Hello Anon136,

This is a very interesting service. I wish you luck and that it goes better than you silver selling service. I guess this will work only in the US, right? If so I won't be able to check it out, unfortunately.

For everybody else that are not familiar with Anon136 (there are not many on this forum), if you are interested by his new gold service, I encourage you to try it. Anon is a great guy, I know him since a long time from his involvement in the NXT community and he's 100% legit!

Good luck Anon!

Thanks for the kind words mickey. Yes unfortunately it will be USA only. It would just take too long for packages to arrive from other parts of the world. There would be too much variance in what sort of time buyers could expect it to take for the letter to arrive.

[Brangdon]

It sounds like you will know the postal address of the person selling bitcoins, but have no knowledge of the person selling gold. What is your position on "know your customer" and money laundering laws?

[Anon136]

It sounds like you will know the postal address of the person selling bitcoins, but have no knowledge of the person selling gold. What is your position on "know your customer" and money laundering laws?

I wont be handling any money, at-least as far as the US government is concerned. http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Virtual-Currency-Guidance

But this does bring up one good point. Perhaps I wont be able to accept gold coins with face value denominations. That could be very restrictive.

[Cipa]

Hello Anon136,

This is a very interesting service. I wish you luck and that it goes better than you silver selling service. I guess this will work only in the US, right? If so I won't be able to check it out, unfortunately.

For everybody else that are not familiar with Anon136 (there are not many on this forum), if you are interested by his new gold service, I encourage you to try it. Anon is a great guy, I know him since a long time from his involvement in the NXT community and he's 100% legit!

Good luck Anon!

Thanks for the kind words mickey. Yes unfortunately it will be USA only. It would just take too long for packages to arrive from other parts of the world. There would be too much variance in what sort of time buyers could expect it to take for the letter to arrive.

Cool service you have here. Some trusted member could start something similar in the EU. Good luck with sales

[Anon136]

1/10th ounce gold eagle says "5 dollars" on it. Craaaaaap. That would almost certainly be used as a justification to slap me with transmitting money without a money transmitter license or at the very least KYC requirements.

Could still use bars like this.



But that's pretty restrictive.

I think im going to have to switch to a gram standard rather than troy ounce. Maybe 5 gram resolution with the option to use either 5 1 gram or 1 5 gram bar.

[PilotofBTC]

People could buy/sell Canadian Maple leafs. Not legal tender in the US.

Also, aren't there already gold dealers that accept BTC for buy/sell of gold bullion and coin? I'm not sure why I would use your service over theirs? Is the idea that you have no KYC requirements?

[Anon136]

People could buy/sell Canadian Maple leafs. Not legal tender in the US.

Also, aren't there already gold dealers that accept BTC for buy/sell of gold bullion and coin? I'm not sure why I would use your service over theirs? Is the idea that you have no KYC requirements?

There are definitely some advantages to going that route to be sure. But I like to think there are also some unique advantages to this approach as well. When you go to a website like that you have one seller and one price on one item, take it or leave it.

I am hoping instead to build a vibrant market with many competing buyers and sellers and price discovery. It is reasonable to expect that under these circumstances you may be able to get a much better deal than you could on a website like that. But I see mostly the trade off will be simple off the grid OTC purchases of bitcoins on the seller side, and very competitive prices on gold for gold on the buyers side. Each can have their interests met through the exchange in a way that would be difficult if they were forced to trust each other.

Also yes. No KYC requirements. No licenses. No red tape. No government bullshit of any kind. Just simple beautiful peer2peer exchange.

[PilotofBTC]

OK well I'll give it a try.

WTB 1/10 oz Gold Canadian Maple Leaf or Gold American Eagle for $95 USD worth of BTC.

Order good for 3 days.

(I assume payer pays shipping?)

[Anon136]

OK well I'll give it a try.

WTB 1/10 oz Gold Canadian Maple Leaf or Gold American Eagle for $95 USD worth of BTC.

Order good for 3 days.

(I assume payer pays shipping?)

Just factor shipping into your ask.

Also buyer doesnt get to choose what type of gold. The reason it has to be this way is I want to build a market and inorder to have a market the good has to be homogeneous. Which means if I allow buyers to specify the type of gold, than i have to break it up into different orderbooks for different products. Which means liquidity gets cut in half or thirds or quarters ect... Sorry, if this is deal breaking let me know and ill pull it down.

[Anon136]

Cmon guys I need orders or else this thing is going to die. Even just place an order that you dont think will fill just so I have something to put on the spreadsheet.

Its a network problem. This service is of no use at all to the early adopters but maybe will be someday. So I need altruists to step forward.

[PilotofBTC]

OK well I'll give it a try.

WTB 1/10 oz Gold Canadian Maple Leaf or Gold American Eagle for $95 USD worth of BTC.

Order good for 3 days.

(I assume payer pays shipping?)

Just factor shipping into your ask.

Also buyer doesnt get to choose what type of gold. The reason it has to be this way is I want to build a market and inorder to have a market the good has to be homogeneous. Which means if I allow buyers to specify the type of gold, than i have to break it up into different orderbooks for different products. Which means liquidity gets cut in half or thirds or quarters ect... Sorry, if this is deal breaking let me know and ill pull it down.

Gold coins from countries (Us, Canada, Aus) have a premium over spot, however, a third party round or bar doesn't possibly have as high of a premium. But, I guess for 1/10 oz it's not too much of a variance. So, that's fine.

So, my price includes shipping to me right?

[Anon136]

So, my price includes shipping to me right?

Sure. If you want to send me 59 cents I wont object but otherwise It's a pretty inconsequential amount to pay to get this thing started.

Remember the seller will be sending the XAU to me and ill be forwarding it to you. In order to prevent anyone from needing to trust anyone (except me).

[PilotofBTC]

So, my price includes shipping to me right?

Sure. If you want to send me 59 cents I wont object but otherwise It's a pretty inconsequential amount to pay to get this thing started.

Remember the seller will be sending the XAU to me and ill be forwarding it to you. In order to prevent anyone from needing to trust anyone (except me).

Right, so I guess I don't get how that would normally work.

The seller sends you the gold so they are paying for a stamp. Then, you forward it, sending him the bitcoin. Are you expecting me to send an extra $.60 cents to you, or are you going to deduct the money from the BTC you send the other party?

I guess I'm not sure how you normally expect it to work. I would guess any normal fee you charge would cover the small amount of postage.

[Anon136]

So, my price includes shipping to me right?

Sure. If you want to send me 59 cents I wont object but otherwise It's a pretty inconsequential amount to pay to get this thing started.

Remember the seller will be sending the XAU to me and ill be forwarding it to you. In order to prevent anyone from needing to trust anyone (except me).

I would guess any normal fee you charge would cover the small amount of postage.

You got it. Until such a time as I decide to charge a fee, ill just comp the postage.