GBSB - a new way to GET and SPEND bitcoins

[mrkent]

We are developing a new service that matches BTC spenders and BTC buyers through online retailers (starting with just Amazon).

Spenders: Bitcoin user who want to purchase items from major online retailers using bitcoins at a DISCOUNT.
1. Enter URLs of their amazon wishlist (e.g. http://amzn.com/w/32ARMOSOZDQYV).
2. Fund account with sufficient bitcoins.
3. This creates an semi-anonymous "spend order," with which buyers will be matched with.

Buyers: Users who would like to acquire bitcoins easily, using credit card, at a reasonable premium.
1. Enter in $ amount of how much BTC to acquire, creating a "buy order."
2. GBSB matches the buy order with a spend order.
3. Buyer receives the URL to the wishlist, and makes the purchase for Spender (no personal info is shared with buyer)

After Spender receives the item, he confirms with GBSB, which releases the bitcoins to the Buyer. This essentially makes us a streamlined escrow service.

Currently, we'd like to get a small group of both buyers and spenders to test our service, and provide feedback about the usability of this service. As an incentive, early adopting Spenders will receive a discount on amazon purchases of 5%, and Buyers will only pay a 5% premium. Buyers must have Amazon Prime.

[vlaoou321]

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[btcusr]

Awesome.

[Pale Phoenix]

Neat idea!

Do you think it's necessary to offer a discount to BTC sellers since this service allows them to use their coins somewhat anonymously without any conversion / transfer fees?

Anyway, I have a Prime membership and am a bit of an Amazon junky, so I'd be happy to help you test.

[mrkent]

Neat idea!

Do you think it's necessary to offer a discount to BTC sellers since this service allows them to use their coins somewhat anonymously without any conversion / transfer fees?

Anyway, I have a Prime membership and am a bit of an Amazon junky, so I'd be happy to help you test.

I wouldn't say necessary but,
1. getting bitcoins is quite a bit of work
2. Getting it usually has some fee associated
3. Things should be cheaper in bitcoin since no cc fees and fraud to deal with
4. It would being more people into bitcoin.
    a. For example, people who came in during the bubble and since left, can use their gox account to acquire bitcoins at a 0.6% fee, and spend it at amazon for a net 4.4% discount.
    b. Slickdeals users often go out of their way to get the best deal possible. Hot deal posts often often say "oh btw, use x service for a 3% extra cash back." Now they can say, "oh btw, save 5% if you pay in bitcoin." Furthermore, this deal went front page few days ago. SD is a diverse community and definitely there are those who thinks something is wrong with fiat. People here might also be interested: http://slickdeals.net/f/6066316-5x-2013-1oz-Silver-Eagles-for-134-shipped-via-eBay-26-per-coin? 

Regardless, these fees are adjustable so we'd just adjust them according to supply and demand of either side.

[nii236]

Why do buyers need Amazon Prime? That automatically prevents non-Americans (like myself and many others) from using this service.

[mrkent]

Why do buyers need Amazon Prime? That automatically prevents non-Americans (like myself and many others) from using this service.

We are just beta testing with prime only, as it helps speed/smooth things up. We will expand to other services and countries.

The other main reason for prime, is because for the buyer side, we want to target those who want the most painless acquisition channel. The goal is for the buyer to spend no more than 10-15 minutes on this site, use credit card, and receive his coins in 2-3 days. That cannot be done as of now.

[nii236]

Have you looked into any possible violations of Amazon's Terms and Conditions? The idea you have is pretty brilliant, and I look forward to when you start rolling out to other countries (Australia)!

What about chargebacks?

[mrkent]

Have you looked into any possible violations of Amazon's Terms and Conditions? The idea you have is pretty brilliant, and I look forward to when you start rolling out to other countries (Australia)!

What about chargebacks?

Haven't seen any obvious violations.
Fraud (chargeback) is handled by Amazon, not us. From the spender's perspective, the item will be in his possession long before any chargebacks occur. That doesn't mean we will be completely negligent and allow rampant stolen cc usage. We will enforce some verification process, feedback, and optional verification for better rates.

[Pale Phoenix]

I wouldn't say necessary but,
1. getting bitcoins is quite a bit of work
2. Getting it usually has some fee associated
3. Things should be cheaper in bitcoin since no cc fees and fraud to deal with
4. It would being more people into bitcoin.
    a. For example, people who came in during the bubble and since left, can use their gox account to acquire bitcoins at a 0.6% fee, and spend it at amazon for a net 4.4% discount.
    b. Slickdeals users often go out of their way to get the best deal possible. Hot deal posts often often say "oh btw, use x service for a 3% extra cash back." Now they can say, "oh btw, save 5% if you pay in bitcoin." Furthermore, this deal went front page few days ago. SD is a diverse community and definitely there are those who thinks something is wrong with fiat. People here might also be interested: http://slickdeals.net/f/6066316-5x-2013-1oz-Silver-Eagles-for-134-shipped-via-eBay-26-per-coin? 

That makes sense, and I see where it could potentially drive BTC adoption in these "deal" communities. Looking forward to testing!

[CurbsideProphet]

What if there's no exact match, which I'm assuming would make up the bulk of the order list.  For example:

I want to acquire $150 worth of BTC.

Spender X wants an item that's $45, Spender Y wants an item that's $100, and Spender Z wants an item that's $55.

Would the system:

Accept Spender Y's transaction, shipping him the item but leaving me with only $100 of the BTC I wanted to purchase, or;

Accept Spender X and Y's transactions, shipping the items but leaving me with only $145 BTC, or;

Accept Spender Y and Z transactions, shipping the items but now leaving a $5 BTC debt on my account?

[mrkent]

What if there's no exact match, which I'm assuming would make up the bulk of the order list.

To start, we'll just match something close. It would be difficult to find an exact match down to the cent in any scenario.

In terms of how to get a large buy order filled with many small ones, I think user feedback will help us eventually decide.
Different ways include:
1. Just list the highest valued wishlist available and force buyer to create several buy orders. (Currently what we have in mind)
2. Give buyer a list of spend orders to choose from (privacy might be an issue if a buyer can browse many spenders wishlists without committing to buy anything)
3. Match a buy order up with multiple spend orders (may be problematic in case of disputes)

Appreciate the questions you guys are asking as it allows me to rehash these things.

[mrkent]

Accept Spender Y and Z transactions, shipping the items but now leaving a $5 BTC debt on my account?

No you'd pay for both items, which is $155, and you'd get that much in BTC. There's no way to pay for $150 when buying $155 on amazon.

[tronsom]

We are developing a new service that matches BTC spenders and BTC buyers through online retailers (starting with just Amazon).

Spenders: Bitcoin user who want to purchase items from major online retailers using bitcoins at a DISCOUNT.
1. Enter URLs of their amazon wishlist (e.g. http://amzn.com/w/32ARMOSOZDQYV).
2. Fund account with sufficient bitcoins.
3. This creates an semi-anonymous "spend order," with which buyers will be matched with.

Buyers: Users who would like to acquire bitcoins easily, using credit card, at a reasonable premium.
1. Enter in $ amount of how much BTC to acquire, creating a "buy order."
2. GBSB matches the buy order with a spend order.
3. Buyer receives the URL to the wishlist, and makes the purchase for Spender (no personal info is shared with buyer)

After Spender receives the item, he confirms with GBSB, which releases the bitcoins to the Buyer. This essentially makes us a streamlined escrow service.

Currently, we'd like to get a small group of both buyers and spenders to test our service, and provide feedback about the usability of this service. As an incentive, early adopting Spenders will receive a discount on amazon purchases of 5%, and Buyers will only pay a 5% premium. Buyers must have Amazon Prime.

I have an amazon prime account and would like to participate in the test. Let me know if you are still looking for testers.

[greBit]

This is a cool idea. So you can finally buy Bitcoins with a credit card!

[mrkent]

I have an amazon prime account and would like to participate in the test. Let me know if you are still looking for testers.

Definitely. Watch this thread as I'll be posting invite codes here.

[Sukrim]

Are you limiting this to amazon.com or do you also want to operate on amazon.de and amazon.co.uk?

[mrkent]

Are you limiting this to amazon.com or do you also want to operate on amazon.de and amazon.co.uk?

No reason why not to expand to as many countries/services that has a similar wish list function. But first things first and that's to work out the kinks for .com

[Elwar]

Quite cool...I had this idea a while back and wondered why nobody was doing it.

Interesting enough, BitSpend got blocked from buying from Amazon for doing a pass through from Bitcoin to Amazon purchases.

This may be a good solution having it more decentralized.

You could easily do what BitSpend does in a p2p way like this for all websites. Just cut the profit with the buyers.

I would help test but I do not have a prime account. And I cannot think of anything I need on Amazon very soon.

[mrkent]

Quite cool...I had this idea a while back and wondered why nobody was doing it.

Interesting enough, BitSpend got blocked from buying from Amazon for doing a pass through from Bitcoin to Amazon purchases.

This may be a good solution having it more decentralized.

You could easily do what BitSpend does in a p2p way like this for all websites. Just cut the profit with the buyers.

I would help test but I do not have a prime account. And I cannot think of anything I need on Amazon very soon.

You point out many of the same things I've considered.
Prime accounts are abused when buying from shared wishlists.

Definitely looking for several amazon junkies to test from the Spender side. The price of items hopefully in the range of $25-$50 during testing.