I just discovered Bitmit is closing down

[MakeBelieve]

I'm trying to figure out why they are closing and selling. They were selling ad spaces for like $50 each.

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[HalfPriceDigital]

I'm trying to figure out why they are closing and selling. They were selling ad spaces for like $50 each.

My guess is that they ran into regulatory problems.  Running an escrow service requires certain licenses.  All the bitcoin auction sites offering escrow without a license are putting themselves at risk, and since they are holding their customs' BTC in escrow, also putting their customers at risk.  Not having an escrow license is probably the reason that a lot of the BTC auction sites are shady (i.e. they don't have a company address or registration number and they register their domains by proxy.)

The problem with these shady auction sites and not knowing who owns them is that they could run off with all the money in escrow and no one would even know who they are.

[Duetschpire]

I'm trying to figure out why they are closing and selling. They were selling ad spaces for like $50 each.

My guess is that they ran into regulatory problems.  Running an escrow service requires certain licenses.  All the bitcoin auction sites offering escrow without a license are putting themselves at risk, and since they are holding their customs' BTC in escrow, also putting their customers at risk.  Not having an escrow license is probably the reason that a lot of the BTC auction sites are shady (i.e. they don't have a company address or registration number and they register their domains by proxy.)

The problem with these shady auction sites and not knowing who owns them is that they could run off with all the money in escrow and no one would even know who they are.

We're currently working on registering a business name and getting the proper licensing for escrow as well

Now that most features are public, we can focus on the legal side of things.. But here in Australia regulations are just as bad as the US, so wish us luck guys

[Duetschpire]

I'm sorry to hear that!! Bitmit has been an inspiration to every one who uses bitcoin for purchases..

cryptothrift is another platform very similar to Bitmit, we only charge TX fee and 1% on escrow is used... We do not hold funds, as soon as payment clears, funds get sent, and as soon as item is marked as "received" escrow funds get released..

cryptothrift also support LTC

Check it out

I have registered with cryptothrift and listed some silver bars.  The site looks great!

https://cryptothrift.com/?a_action=user_profile&post_author=446

We're glad you like the site! Please let us know if you have any suggestions or features you'd like to see!

Welcome aboard

[ajw7989]

I'm trying to figure out why they are closing and selling. They were selling ad spaces for like $50 each.

i think it was more of a regulation thing then income and profit

[UncleBobs]

I'm trying to figure out why they are closing and selling. They were selling ad spaces for like $50 each.

i think it was more of a regulation thing then income and profit

Why are we left guessing?  That is really what made me so mad about this.  They never gave any warning of any problems, and just out of the blue announce they are shutting down.  An an auction site is an ecosystem, it's just very bad form to collapse it in two weeks and disappear with barely an apology to their users.

[UncleBobs]

We're glad you like the site! Please let us know if you have any suggestions or features you'd like to see!

Welcome aboard

I hope it works for me.  The biggest problem for this kind of site seems to me to be the very speculative and volatile BTC price.  With a more stable price sites like yours could become huge, and without knowing the regulatory issues in Australia, I think it can only be an advantage to be located outside of the US.

[CoinsForTech]

Sad to see bitmit go. We only did a couple of sales there, but found the website itself was a fantastic community of bitcoin users from around the world.

Did not know about CryptoThrift and will look into it.

[HalfPriceDigital]

...The biggest problem for this kind of site seems to me to be the very speculative and volatile BTC price...

On halfpricedigital.com you can list items for sale in USD, but you pay with BTC.  The conversion to BTC is done at the time you pay, so you never have to worry about the volatile price of BTC.

[slu2]

I have been selling on bitmit since 2011.  Sad to lose this community resource, I made over 110 bitcoin from selling on bitmit.

I have bought from but not sold on CryptoThrift, but it does have an awesome amount of potential.

Good going on the legit escrow and such.  Can't wait to see how it evolves.   I have a bunch of silver coins that I am interested in selling. 

[finbar]

ebay bought it 

Really? How do you know?

[findbyplace]

That would be my guess also, if someone offered them $$$ for it and not knowing the future of biocoin, than way not. I just checked on some of these how much is my site worth, and the value of bitmit was around $250K

[Frankdog98]

I know I can't believe the bitmit is gone! I used to sell all kinds of stuff on there!

I got wind that a new BTC auction site just launched

www.distractedpuppy.com suppossedly literally just opened

I looked around a little looks like a beta but looks promising! Maybe there is hope 

[Grinder]

Unfortunately none of the sites launched so far comes close to Bitmit. Even when they actually do have some content they don't realize that they need both buy now and auction functionality, they have a crappy search, and/or they have way too general categories so you end up having to click though 50+ pages of completely irrelevant stuff.

[CAMTRONNNNN]

This really needs to happen.
I know of no currently operating auction site that I could comfortably call my home.

If there are any developments in this matter lets be sure to keep each other appraised by posting here.

"BTCitbay" is my .002

[Duetschpire]

Unfortunately none of the sites launched so far comes close to Bitmit. Even when they actually do have some content they don't realize that they need both buy now and auction functionality, they have a crappy search, and/or they have way too general categories so you end up having to click though 50+ pages of completely irrelevant stuff.

We do admin at cryptothrift.com we had a really bad search functionality/filter options. This is our main focus at this stage, we've added more filters to the search and we're building the search function/relevancy from the ground up. We have it searching all (Title, description, tags, categories, etc...) and search by a single word. This has proven to be wrong as if you searched for the term (Bitcoin T-Shirt) for example, it would search for the term "Bitcoin" and the term "t-shirt", so users would end up with 100's of items which are not related just because the term "Bitcoin" exists in them.

This should be done by Monday and we hope you will find it a much better home for crypto auctions and marketplace.

[CAMTRONNNNN]

Unfortunately none of the sites launched so far comes close to Bitmit. Even when they actually do have some content they don't realize that they need both buy now and auction functionality, they have a crappy search, and/or they have way too general categories so you end up having to click though 50+ pages of completely irrelevant stuff.

We do admin at cryptothrift.com we had a really bad search functionality/filter options. This is our main focus at this stage, we've added more filters to the search and we're building the search function/relevancy from the ground up. We have it searching all (Title, description, tags, categories, etc...) and search by a single word. This has proven to be wrong as if you searched for the term (Bitcoin T-Shirt) for example, it would search for the term "Bitcoin" and the term "t-shirt", so users would end up with 100's of items which are not related just because the term "Bitcoin" exists in them.

This should be done by Monday and we hope you will find it a much better home for crypto auctions and marketplace.

You guys need to do a lot more than filter frequency tweaking...
I recommend ebay over thrift and that says it all coming from someone who knows how much eBay+PayPal+fees on both sides= sucks > cryptothrift. The problem is you can't be trusted and you have no volume.

[Duetschpire]

Unfortunately none of the sites launched so far comes close to Bitmit. Even when they actually do have some content they don't realize that they need both buy now and auction functionality, they have a crappy search, and/or they have way too general categories so you end up having to click though 50+ pages of completely irrelevant stuff.

We do admin at cryptothrift.com we had a really bad search functionality/filter options. This is our main focus at this stage, we've added more filters to the search and we're building the search function/relevancy from the ground up. We have it searching all (Title, description, tags, categories, etc...) and search by a single word. This has proven to be wrong as if you searched for the term (Bitcoin T-Shirt) for example, it would search for the term "Bitcoin" and the term "t-shirt", so users would end up with 100's of items which are not related just because the term "Bitcoin" exists in them.

This should be done by Monday and we hope you will find it a much better home for crypto auctions and marketplace.

You guys need to do a lot more than filter frequency tweaking...
I recommend ebay over thrift and that says it all coming from someone who knows how much eBay+PayPal+fees on both sides= sucks > cryptothrift. The problem is you can't be trusted and you have no volume.

Re Trust, our meeting with our tax agent and accountant is end of March, we will be operating as a proper company on Australian land (yes, it did take a while to find someone who didn't say "What's that again? Bit...? Can you spell it for me?". So we will have an official contact (Phone and P.O Box) as well as an Australian Business Number alongside public liability insurance.

Regarding volume.. Yes, we do understand the the ^^ "Trust" plays a big role in that, so we're hoping the volume will increase as the trust does. In saying so, we have been seeing an tremendous increase in traffic.

I am personally happy to verify my personal details with any reputable person in the Bitcoin community. Australian Bitcoin Association members know me by person as I attend the weekly meeting and monthly events and they know that I'm the person operating cryptothrift.com.


Daily visitors for the past month:

[CAMTRONNNNN]

I applaud you for all your efforts in becoming fully compliant and transparent. :thumbsup:

If I was part of a legitimate team I would be pleased too. I wish you the best successes.

My criticism my have came off as pointless and sharp, perhaps it was one, but not both.
It's only the most shredded contestants that are gonna cut even an etch in this mountain.

GL; etc;BTCtc