BitWasp - Free Open-source PHP Bitcoin Marketplace

[fbueller]

Hi folks, writing today to draw attention to a project of mine called BitWasp. We've recently undergone a recode, and more recently got bit of attention since the Silk Road was shut down.

The Project:
I'm writing BitWasp so that anyone can setup their own bitcoin marketplace. Hopefully by providing software that is straightforward to set up, and can accept bitcoin out of the box, without any 3rd party providers, people might be more open to accepting bitcoin in their business.

Feature list: http://bit-wasp.org/index.php/topic,4.msg4.html#msg4

Forums to discuss our project are here: bit-wasp.org
A test site running our code is here: test.bit-wasp.org
Our code is on github: source code
Our bitcoin address is 19EkDTAaGWySZv1QsWxyWwYMZpo7jpvPYe for those in the position to make a donation.

That's just the start. At this moment, my time is pretty much devoted to getting this project off the ground.
I'd love to hear any feedback or suggestions.

[1713243871]

1713243871

[1713243871]

1713243871

[Viriatto]

Anyone is free to copy, modify, publish, use, compile, sell, or
distribute this software, either in source code form or as a compiled
binary, for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, and by any
means.

Gotta love freedom projects, going to hammer this toy and help you on github, Cheers.

[fbueller]

Haha, don't you love our unrestrictive licence? Fire away. Even if you fork your own and develop from here on out you're probably doing everyone a favour! Pop onto our forums, say hello!

[KenKaniff]

.

[fbueller]

We're a while before a stable release, but would anyone on here be interested in donating BTC to go towards bounties? We're thinking of setting up a test site running on the main bitcoin network with some coin in the wallet. The goal might be to exploit that, and people get a set figure or maybe a % of the bitcoins we have available for bounties. (The wallet would being stolen would be proof, but realistically the coins in that wouldn't match the bounty)

The more we're able to fight off the better, and the amount of funds at stake would determine the effort people are prepared to put in. The longer the offer of a $10K BTC for hacking BitWasp stands, the better it looks on us. Even better if that were 100K! We obviously haven't anything near that right now, but all the same, I'd love to get chatting to people who would want to pen-test BitWasp.

So anyone on here interested in funding/participating in a crowd sourced hackathon of BitWasp?

[KenKaniff]

.

[Ford]

thanks for this!

im working a marketplace site, so will have a good look through your code to see if any is of use to me (although in all honesty your code may be too advanced/nice for me to understand fully).
If i use anything i will be sure to at least credit you for it! (if you are happy for me to pinch snippets that is?)

Best Regards
Ford

[defaced]

Looks good man!

[inform]

Yeah Thanx
Hope this be greath

[fbueller]

Wow I'm delighted with the responses! As I said, we have forums to chat about the project here: http://bitwasp.tk

Feature list is here: http://bitwasp.tk/index.php?topic=4.0

@KenKaniff : I think you understand our intentions perfectly. So far (similar to bitcoin) we've mainly only attracted people who want to set up a marketplace for illegitimate purposes, but I feel if I had the guidance of the community (instead of people asking for specific features that would suit them..) it would go in a way better direction, and really really benefit from it. Please check out the test site, and lemme know if you have any questions about features. Pretty much everything worth mentioning is up here: http://bitwasp.tk/index.php?topic=4.0

@Ford, you are free to copy whatever you want from our code. The more derivatives we have, honestly, the better. It can't just be BitWasp, there needs to be a variety of options. Competition will determine who stands out, and will motivate people to keep on top of work.

[fbueller]

Hey folks, I'm wondering what might be the best way to draw attention to our project? Casual posting on forums hasn't really had it take off. I think it has the capacity to go viral, given enough interest. I really think the interest is there, it's just rooting it out.

Really the success of this project relies on people finding out about it. We've been thinking offering bounties for bugs would draw in some developers and testers. These people are either interested in technology or bitcoins already. At a more suitable stage, I think trying to try introduce businesses to the project might be a successful route.

So, what would you suggest for promoting a project like this? What sort of features would you need to see before you'd consider setting up a site like this?

[daybyter]

Publishing a bot for it? (=> lots of trades ?)

[Ford]

Wow I'm delighted with the responses! As I said, we have forums to chat about the project here: http://bitwasp.tk

Feature list is here: http://bitwasp.tk/index.php?topic=4.0

@KenKaniff : I think you understand our intentions perfectly. So far (similar to bitcoin) we've mainly only attracted people who want to set up a marketplace for illegitimate purposes, but I feel if I had the guidance of the community (instead of people asking for specific features that would suit them..) it would go in a way better direction, and really really benefit from it. Please check out the test site, and lemme know if you have any questions about features. Pretty much everything worth mentioning is up here: http://bitwasp.tk/index.php?topic=4.0

@Ford, you are free to copy whatever you want from our code. The more derivatives we have, honestly, the better. It can't just be BitWasp, there needs to be a variety of options. Competition will determine who stands out, and will motivate people to keep on top of work.

I have registered on your forum and am looking forward to keeping an eye on your code to see if there is anything i could use for what im working on (i wont be treading on your toes though!)

[Ford]

I have spent that past few hours looking through the code of bitwasp.
Unfortunately for me, the code is too advanced for me to fully understand, but it is BLOODY nicely done!! seems very elegant, organised and pretty to look at (from my geeky side  ). Someone has put a lot if time, thought, effort and love into this!
This kind of quality can only help bitcoin, and i love the spirit being in-keeping with bitcoin and that the code is totally free to do with as "we" please.

@fbueller
from what i have been seeing, there is not really a big merchant demand, or more to the point, interest for bitcoin only merchant services just yet, but i think i share your views that there should be and i truly believe there will be! This will be generated with projects like yours (and hopefully my kind of related project), as people pick up on them, and more merchants/people realise there is much {legal} money to be made.

While all/most members here are big fans and supporters of bitcoin, i don't think there are many "merchants" amongst us, which may explain why "Casual posting on forums hasn't really had it take off", there basically is not many of us around yet.

So, what would you suggest for promoting a project like this?

a user friendly website aimed at non techies, explaining what you "site/system in a box" can do, although this may be something you feel you are not ready for yet.

I will have a think on ideas to help you "root out the interest", and post back (or on your forum) if i come up with any killer ideas for you.

Best Regards
Ford


PS would you guys or girls be based anywhere near the UK (England)? i would love to mean up and talk boring bitcoin/business ideas and php code 

[fbueller]

Thanks! I recoded it recently so it became much cleaner than the previous attempt.

I can appreciate most of the members here could find their own solution, instead of relying on something which literally does everything for them. I guess I need to try encourage new people to start looking at bitcoin. I know some people who provide merchant services, where they're giving a big chunk of their profit to a payment processor. That might be a nice way to entice people to consider BTC.

I guess in the early days of the web people would have tried to get set up on Ebay before realizing they might be better doing things for themselves. At least I'll be ready for when that happens!

I think a site to explain everything to non-techies would be a good call. Just explain how BTC can make sense for businesses, never mind going into details about RSA/GPG, etc. I wouldnt be ready, indeed. I'm still ironing out some of the main features so it'd be best to wait until we know what we're offering!

I'm in Ireland unfortunately!

[dewdeded]

What's the status here? Alpha or Beta foreseable?

[fbueller]

Not yet alpha. I'll be finalizing a list of features & timeline for the alpha in the next few days!

[Twipple]

I'm going to PM you, with a proposition

[crazy_rabbit]

Very cool, I especially like the auto-scrubbing of EXIF data. Very smart.

[crazy_rabbit]

Donated. Good luck!