Biz idea for the taking: a Bitcoin Trustmark service

[BTCLuke]

Forgive me if this has been done already, but I can't find any mention of it.

Most Libertarians I talk to instinctively know that what free markets desperately need is a trustmark service, kind of like the BBB or at least like a simple Consumer Reports magazine.

This would be a great business for someone who's ready to make it their fulltime job. A travel budget and a simple website/graphics design would be your only startup costs. Perhaps a little bit of an advertising budget if you want to scale fast. (Need cash? Use BitcoinStarter or Coinfunder to start this biz up!)

The main purpose of this business would be to check out & provide accreditation for other bitcoin-based businesses, so bitcoin consumers can know that said business doesn't run off with their coins.

Start out with the big guys like Bitpay and Mt.Gox, manually review them for free in person and pay special attention to their finances and safety procedures. Publish your accreditation criteria on your website and put a form on it for all bitcoin businesses to ask for accreditation themselves. Once they've passed and you can show on your website how safe this business is to do business with, you give them a cute little badge for their website that shows consumers that they are accredited by your company.

After you've bagged a few big names, start charging all other bitcoin-based businesses what you need to keep your business running. A couple different levels of service (1 time and annual) would help them decide to pay you easier.

Your success will depend on assuring consumers that you have thought of all the ways that each business out there can harm them, and show why in each instance you've accredited, that they are safe.

I would do it myself, but I've already got a business to run... But the bitcoin community desperately needs this service, as witnessed by the recent bitcoin companies that flit off into the night, taking trust in the whole bitcoin community away with them.

Possible names:

• Cointrust
• Bittrust
• BitVerify
• Accredicoin
• Coinsafe

Get your mark, get set.... GO!



P.S... Don't worry about competition reading this post... There is room for competing trustmark services in this market, and different countries and languages all have room for a dominant bitcoin trustmark service too.

[hiima]

This is a good idea, this concept would give buyers a safer transaction with bitcoins.
If anybody starts this, I would love to be a part of it.

[BTCLuke]

I hope the reason this post has sank so much is because everyone is picking up the idea and running with it... 

[BTCLuke]

I'm having more and more of these ideas all the time, so I've decided to start posting them on my blog.

This idea is shared here:

How about a bitcoin biz trustmark service? - Bitcoinfinger

[Welsh]

I've thought about this before too, but getting funding is hard. Starting this up would have no profit margins, and I'm currently financially capable of running a site like this. Otherwise I WOULD of done this a long time ago. The site owner would be risking a lot of BTC to review each site, that's the one problem about it.

[BTCLuke]

The site owner would be risking a lot of BTC to review each site, that's the one problem about it.

Perhaps there is a way to skip the travel budget at first...

Let's say he offers two levels of membership (to the customers) The lower tier allows them to see certain data on the company, while the higher tier allows them to see ALL data on the company.

He could then start up by only offering the lower teir, and it just so happens that the info available to the lower teir is info gleaned from methods where he doesn't have to visit the office of each company!

A videocast of the company's owner doing a short interview would be free to gather and yet at the same time, very compelling to the customers of the trustmark service.

Then, later down the road when the travel budget has arrived, he can go to the offices and build up the content for the higher-tier service, and start offering that tier of service to his customers for 10x the price!

[Welsh]

The site owner would be risking a lot of BTC to review each site, that's the one problem about it.

Perhaps there is a way to skip the travel budget at first...

Let's say he offers two levels of membership (to the customers) The lower tier allows them to see certain data on the company, while the higher tier allows them to see ALL data on the company.

He could then start up by only offering the lower teir, and it just so happens that the info available to the lower teir is info gleaned from methods where he doesn't have to visit the office of each company!

A videocast of the company's owner doing a short interview would be free to gather and yet at the same time, very compelling to the customers of the trustmark service.

Then, later down the road when the travel budget has arrived, he can go to the offices and build up the content for the higher-tier service, and start offering that tier of service to his customers for 10x the price!

That's a good idea, certainly better than the idea I had in mind. Depends if people would be interested in tiers though.

[BTCLuke]

We don't need a service to do this, you do this by the trust of the person running it. I know I wouldn't open up my books to anyone, or how I handle security.

Um, how do you know when to trust new people then?  

Like the BBB, consumer reports, Amazon reviews, youtube reviews, etc... Reviews simply build trust, and if you trust a single source like this trustmark service to give good reviews about everyone its' reviewing, then it's doubly helpful.

This is a major theme among us libertarians... We want a world where the government (if it exists at all) stays the hell out of consumer issues and we can use review services to replace government "protection" (rackets) like the FDA and corruptable crap departments like that.

I thought with so many bitcoiners being libertarians, this service would appeal to tons of folks here.

[BTCLuke]

I don't know maybe this is a forum and people post in the thread.

Perhaps every last consumer on the planet doesn't read this forum tho?

[BTCLuke]

I don't know maybe this is a forum and people post in the thread.

Perhaps every last consumer on the planet doesn't read this forum tho?

Reddit and this forum pretty much covers the entire community.

And what about the rest of humanity we're trying to reach here?

Sheesh...

Maybe you should go back and re-read the OP. It's not just a simple review service; it's a trustmark... A badge to put on merchant sites like the BBB.

[r3wt]

you bastard, you stole my idea! i mentioned this weeks ago. a bitcoin better business bureau.

[moltenmich]

This is an excellent idea. I agree it would require a good amount of funding to provide a level of information that would be worth paying for. But it could start as a "consumer report lite". Set it up kind of like yelp but for crypto services. Perhaps you could even set it up, so that people vote on which companies they want an in depth report on, by donating btc to a specific address. Once that companies address fills up, those funds are used to conduct research/investigate.

If anyone is serious about this idea I would love to design the site/branding. I am not a developer though.

[Welsh]

Basically, even though this is a forum. It can be hard to scroll down the thread and find good feedback and bad feedback. With this it would be easier to search and find. IT would be clear to anyone who is looking for the certain company.

Thing is with the forum, people normally take bullshit if I'm quite honest, if people buy something and are not satisfied or break it, they call out the owner has a scammer. So not all information on a forum is accurate, least with this it would try to eliminate that.

I think you should do it, it's a good idea. But, don't do it on you're self. It's always good to have others to help on such a project.

[kakobrekla]

It has already been done.

[BTCLuke]

you bastard, you stole my idea! i mentioned this weeks ago. a bitcoin better business bureau.

A few weeks, eh? Go look at the date on the OP of this thread...

I know what it is, but you want people to open their books,

That would be an optional level of service.

why should I show you anything? Why should I show you my security?

Well, if I were running the trustmark service, and I had built up sufficient trustworthiness to you, then it should be a blessing for you to only show one person your books and security and have that one person relay your trustworthiness and security to the world for you.

And if that still doesn't appeal to you, then hey, no need to use it. Just don't be mad when your competition does.

Are we going to the versign days where people just put the badge and people never double checked. It is a bad idea, and reviews are kinda played out.

I can see why you'd compare this to verisign, but there is a major difference here...

Verisign was a simple badge that contacted the owner of any website to verify that their site was theirs. It was all about identity theft, and eventually it made more sense for them to simply sell SSL certificates, as they do today.

This isn't about identity theft at all... This is about making sure the business isn't going to fly away in the dark of night with your bitcoins! -Kinda the opposite, actually.

I never would have had this idea without seeing the multitude of businesses go under (purposefully or by hack) in our community. Think about Bizzes like Bitcoinica, Instawallet, and GLSBE... If they'd have applied for a rating by this service, then they'd likely have failed any competent test and the public would be better off for not having invested in them.

It has already been done.

Seriously?

There is a world of difference between the WoT and a trustmark service. Please go re-read the OP.

[BTCLuke]

So what security certificates do you have?

Jesus you're getting annoying.

I ain't offering crap. The OP was an IDEA GIVEN AWAY. -He who picks it up and runs with it can offer whatever they want.

Also GLSBE wasn't ever hacked it was shutdown by the service's lawyers recommend and he then just ran with some funds not all.

Perfect example then. If the person running the trustmark service actually creates a great service, then he'd see that coming and report it in his product.

rep doesn't come via an unknown and unrepped person, so maybe you should start working on that

Are you high?

Whomever wants to create this service would obviously have to build trust. I laid out some ideas to do so in the OP.

Also I never trust someone that gets rep only from someone else, and I think most people are in that camp.

And how would you suggest to build rep then?

Third, you never heard of trade secrets. Are you going to have a lawyer so you can sign an NDA of what you see?

1. Standard NDAs should be fine. You can download them on the web these days.
2. The business would want to make the trustmark service sign those anyway, so naturally they'll supply them.
3. But of course as it grows a lawyer on staff would be ideal.

I think this is just another way to take money from newbies by offering them a promise and a hope.

That tells me that you're most likely someone who wants to run a scam... Of course you wouldn't like to see consumers get protection from ppl like you!

It was proposed as a way for someone to build a legit business that offers a very valuable service to the community. Could someone turn it into yet another scam? Of course they could... But someone might not and that would be awesome.

[cbeast]

http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2011/12/bitcoin-better-business-bureau-is-no.html

[BTCLuke]

http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2011/12/bitcoin-better-business-bureau-is-no.html

Interesting bit of trivia there, thanks.

How is this annoying this debating, so if someone made this it would be better, and can see the flaws. This is good in my opinion.

It's annoying because I didn't come for a debate. I came to give away a free idea.

Every hear the expression "never look a gift horse in the mouth?" -You don't look gift horses in the mouth because it's really annoying to the giver.

It's additionally annoying because you keep asking how _I_ plan to do things and solve such problems when I've repeatedly spelled out to you that it's not for me to do so. _I_ gave the idea away.

How will they know if a person will run, or if a service isn't legal in a particular country?

A. By the amount of investment/infrastructure tying them to the business. Also lack of anonymity.
B. Lawyers, usually.

By working open source your first couple of programs, add to the forum. I am starting a company soon, that I know when I started wouldn't have worked cause I had no rep, but now I have rep and one of the most trusted people here on the forum. You don't get rep in a day it takes time.

It won't be instant of course, there is always going to be growth time. However, this is a two-way street we're talking about...

Not everything is about the speed gains of which the company can gain trust.

The other half of the service is to the customers or public at large to protect them from shady bizzes. -For those who have very low ratings or fail outright, and can't receive the trustmark.

If a new or old company sees its' competition with the trustmark and it knows that it can pass the criteria, it will want to get the trustmark too, so that it can capture more sales from the general public.