[ANN] BitcoinLocator

[BitcoinLocator]

Announcing: www.bitcoinlocator.com

bitcoinlocator beta is now live.  bitcoinlocator is a free web app to help people connect to the bitcoin economy.

• As a merchant use bitcoinlocator to advertise goods and services in your area.
• As a bitcoin user shout out your location so that everyone can see the bitcoin market around them.
• With bitcoin anyone can be an exchange, use bitcoinlocator to decentralize exchanges!
• Advertise users groups and meetups.

And this is just the beginning.

This is an early beta so expect there to be a few issues, but we're on top of it and we'll be working around the clock to make fixes and start rolling out the other great features we have planned.

To add a location create an account, and use the button at the bottom of the map. You can even create your account using Twitter, Facebook, OpenID, or Gmail too!

During the beta you only have 1 location and locations stop showing after a week, but can be deleted at any time. Edit the location to extend the time another week, so come back often to update your location. (Edit: Locations have been extended to 6 weeks now.) The map will try to automatically find your location if you give it permission, and will place the new location where your pin is currently located when you create or edit it.  You can enter an address or drag the pin to a different location to create a bitcoinlocation in a place other then your current position.  If you don't give google maps permission to find your location, just drag your pin.

Click on a bitcoinlocation pin to get more info, and click on the address to be taken to google maps for directions.

If you are a bitcoin user we encourage you to shout it out on bitcoinlocator so that people and businesses can see how much interest there is in bitcoin.

If you are a business then this is the perfect way for people to find you.

More information about the different types of bitcoinlocations is here:  http://www.bitcoinlocator.com/about.htm

Decentralized Exchanges

After recent events with online exchanges it's become even more clear that a decentralized currency needs decentralized exchanges.  With bitcoin anyone can be an exchange.  If you're willing to buy or sell bitcoins, you can be an exchange on bitcoinlocator.  People in your area will be able to find you.

bitcoinlocator allows you to advertise bitcoin exchanges for the top 20 currencies, buying, selling or both.  You can do this just to help the bitcoin economy, or you can do it to make money.  Information on how to be an exchange for profit is here: http://www.bitcoinlocator.com/exchange.htm

Spread the word

Another thing you can do to help the bitcoin economy is host users groups in your area.  Be active and help answer questions, connect with other bitcoin users in your area, and have fun.  Use a group location to advertise these events.

If you have questions or comments please post them here.  We'd love to hear your thoughts, and fix any bugs you find.

The site is currently optimized for firefox and safari (including iPhone, and iPad), and works well on standards compliant web browsers.  Internet Explorer works but doesn't look as nice.  1 BTC bounty to the first person who can fix our CSS to make us look just as good in IE.

A big shout out to Zaise for the design of our great logo:
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=11221.0

and another shout out to youspots for help with the google maps code.



Privacy:

bitcoinlocator uses SSL even before login to help keep your location information secure.  Information about your location is completely derived in your browser using the Google Maps API, and not sent to bitcoinlocator unless you create a location.  If you are concerned about broadcasting your exact position, just move your pin a little.  You'll still get the benefits of supporting bitcoin in your area without disclosing your exact position.  (We may send 'bounds' information to the server to optimize pin placement in the area of the map you are viewing, but this is not your exact position, and we do not store this data or associate it with any specific user).  If you delete your bitcoinlocation, the information is permanently removed from the database.

Passwords are optional when using one of the supported open authentication services, but when we do save your password it is stored in the database as a hash using bcrypt, and contains both salt and pepper. This means that even a compromise of our actual user database would not be enough information to get your password.

You can create an account without an email, although email will be useful for some of the features we have planned as well as password recovery.

[error]

Nice so far. Do you have plans for mobile apps?

[BitcoinLocator]

Nice so far. Do you have plans for mobile apps?

Yes.  The site works now on mobile browsers, and we're planning free mobile apps soon.

[Bitcoin Swami]

Nice site

[ripper234]

Nice site

Indeed, this is a great step for true decentralization.
Although I had no plans to buy or sell BTC in the near future, I'll sign up as an exchange just to help spread the word. It's a bit difficult to buy Bitcoin right now in Israel.

[ripper234]

Nice site

Indeed, this is a great step for true decentralization.
Although I had no plans to buy or sell BTC in the near future, I'll sign up as an exchange just to help spread the word. It's a bit difficult to buy Bitcoin right now in Israel.

I setup an exchange, but I can't seem to move it afterwards (editing the location doesn't work).

[BitcoinLocator]

To change positions, first go to the address (or drag your pin) on the main map, then hit edit location, you should see the new position in the location form, and then you can save it.

[Zaise]

Wonderful work with the site! I love the idea. Best of luck with it.
And thanks for the shoutout, I had a fun time designing the logo for you.

[ripper234]

To change positions, first go to the address (or drag your pin) on the main map, then hit edit location, you should see the new position in the location form, and then you can save it.

The maps have very weird coverage in Israel. I tried putting an address in Tel Aviv (largest city in Israel), but it doesn't recognize any of the streets.
Some streets in a few other cities in Israel are recognized.

Also, can you please allow to write a free-form expression for the currency exchange? I'd like to exchange BTC for the local currency ILS, and it's not one of the top currencies listed (I did write it in the description, but the title still shows USD)

[BitcoinLocator]

The maps have very weird coverage in Israel. I tried putting an address in Tel Aviv (largest city in Israel), but it doesn't recognize any of the streets.
Some streets in a few other cities in Israel are recognized.

Also, can you please allow to write a free-form expression for the currency exchange? I'd like to exchange BTC for the local currency ILS, and it's not one of the top currencies listed (I did write it in the description, but the title still shows USD)

I'm so sorry.  This is very strange. Our maps are based on the google maps API.  Do you see the same issue if you go to google maps?

Free-form currency expressions are difficult, we are also having currency pins designed specifically for each currency for example.  However, I will simply add ILS as soon as I can to address the missing currency issue.  Can you point me to an accurate example of the currency symbol?

Thanks, this is exactly the kind of information that is really helpful!

[ripper234]

The maps have very weird coverage in Israel. I tried putting an address in Tel Aviv (largest city in Israel), but it doesn't recognize any of the streets.
Some streets in a few other cities in Israel are recognized.

Also, can you please allow to write a free-form expression for the currency exchange? I'd like to exchange BTC for the local currency ILS, and it's not one of the top currencies listed (I did write it in the description, but the title still shows USD)

I'm so sorry.  This is very strange. Our maps are based on the google maps API.  Do you see the same issue if you go to google maps?

Free-form currency expressions are difficult, we are also having currency pins designed specifically for each currency for example.  However, I will simply add ILS as soon as I can to address the missing currency issue.  Can you point me to an accurate example of the currency symbol?

Thanks, this is exactly the kind of information that is really helpful!

See this article for the currency symbol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekel_sign, thanks for adding it!

We do have excellent coverage of Israel and Tel Aviv on Google maps, not sure why it doesn't show on your API calls. I'll try to find this out.

[BitcoinLocator]

See this article for the currency symbol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekel_sign, thanks for adding it!

We do have excellent coverage of Israel and Tel Aviv on Google maps, not sure why it doesn't show on your API calls. I'll try to find this out.

Awesome, much appreciated! We'll look into it too. Ping me if you find anything before we do.

Thanks

[ripper234]

See this article for the currency symbol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekel_sign, thanks for adding it!

We do have excellent coverage of Israel and Tel Aviv on Google maps, not sure why it doesn't show on your API calls. I'll try to find this out.

Awesome, much appreciated! We'll look into it too. Ping me if you find anything before we do.

Thanks

The problem is quite old and tracked on this ticket.
The only workaround I can think of for now is switching to Open Street Maps, but it might not be worth it for a small country such as Israel. Too bad for us

[BitcoinLocator]

We do have excellent coverage of Israel and Tel Aviv on Google maps, not sure why it doesn't show on your API calls. I'll try to find this out.

The problem is quite old and tracked on this ticket.
The only workaround I can think of for now is switching to Open Street Maps, but it might not be worth it for a small country such as Israel. Too bad for us

We are already looking into Open Street Maps as a backup to the google maps API.  Along with massively distributed exchanges, it just seems like open source, and open standards are the right way to go for a distributed currency.

[ripper234]

We are already looking into Open Street Maps as a backup to the google maps API.  Along with massively distributed exchanges, it just seems like open source, and open standards are the right way to go for a distributed currency.

Excellent news, looking forward to it.

[koin]

> Your location will remain posted for 1 week, or until you delete it.

why only one week?

[Mike Hearn]

The OpenID logins don't seem to work properly? I clicked the G logo to use my google account, but I ended up being asked to create a username and password anyway. Also (at least in Chrome) the links don't have underlines or change when you hover over them in any way, so it's not clear they're links.

Great idea though. I'd like to register but having to update every week seems a bit much. I am usually around my home city, if somebody wants to buy coins from me, that is all the info needed.

[Tril]

Clicking on pins often takes a long time to load.
After loading, most pins have two nested vertical scroll bars, and I need to scroll down the inner one to see the horizontal scroll bar.
You misspelled "losing" in "avoid loosing the entire transaction amount" on http://www.bitcoinlocator.com/exchange.htm

[brandon@sourcewerks]

Nice!  A mobile app to boot would be nice too.

[BitcoinLocator]

The OpenID logins don't seem to work properly? I clicked the G logo to use my google account, but I ended up being asked to create a username and password anyway. Also (at least in Chrome) the links don't have underlines or change when you hover over them in any way, so it's not clear they're links.

Great idea though. I'd like to register but having to update every week seems a bit much. I am usually around my home city, if somebody wants to buy coins from me, that is all the info needed.

We require a username and some remote authorization providers don't give one.  We just deployed a change so that if a username is available it will show up in the dialogue. When using a remote authorization the password is always optional. 

We also made links last for 6 weeks now.  This is just for the beta.  We'd love to get input as to the best length of time.  On the one hand you don't want to have to update it too often, on the other we don't what a bunch of pins on the map for people who've moved on, or aren't using the service anymore.

We'll look into making the links a little more clear.

Thanks for your input!