Tradebitcoin.com Public Beta

[jesmurf]

Hi everyone!

I was wanting to get everyone's opinion on a new site I'm putting together. A few months ago I purchased some bitcoins via a well known seller. I grew really frustrated when my order took over a month to process! It was no fault of the seller apparently, it was "lost in the mail" for a while. I was really elated when it finally came in and I got my Bitcoins (and now they're worth three times as much as I purchased them for.) But the whole process got me thinking about the process of getting Bitcoins.

In an ideal world we could just go down to the local grocery store and buy a Bitcoin card at the check-out. Then take that card home and get our bitcoins by redeeming the card. This will be how it will work someday - hopefully. The problem we have as a community is bootstrapping local distribution so we can buy locally. It's very nearly a chicken-or-the-egg problem. You can't have widespread acceptance without an easy way to buy currency and you can't buy currency until you have widespread acceptance.

This problem got me thinking. What if we trade with each-other locally - for profit. I live in a technologically savvy University town. I'm willing to bet that there is at least one fellow Bitcoin user in town who already has Bitcoins. If not, well I bet there is someone who wants to be. I have a stock of ~1000 Bitcoins, I'd be willing to sell them to someone locally - for the same price per-transaction I would pay using Western Union or Moneygram. Would you consider meeting someone in a public place on a convenient schedule for you for $20 per-transaction? I know I would.

At the moment we have no way to meet fellow Bitcoin users. So I started a Rails project and spent some free time and I came up with http://tradebitcoin.com.

It's not finished, it definitely still needs some work. What do you guys think?

- Jonathan

(Oh and if you like the idea please donate! I'm trying to move the project to better hosting. 1PG188S8VUbiYjuf4vHiVeZA61d5MJ3ivd)

UPDATE: The map issue is fixed now. I'll try and get Google account login working. Thanks guys for all the help!

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[BitterTea]

Cool idea, and I'd be interested in being a local trader, but I had problems signing up using Google account authentication.

[jesmurf]

Thanks for letting me know! It's been a while since I tested sign-in with Google Accounts specifically (I have tried Twitter and Facebook.) I know you can add a google account after you sign up using the ordinary sign up method.
http://tradebitcoin.com/users/sign_up

I'll get on fixing it asap!

[error]

Hm, signed in, but I'm stuck on the additional info screen; it just won't go away! But it doesn't tell me what fields (if any) I was supposed to fill in or what was wrong.

[jesmurf]

Well, you can fill in the fields you want to. Whatever you find applicable. Just put the data in that you want to and click "Save". I didn't want to make anything mandatory. You should get a "profile updated" message in the lower right corner with an explanation. If not, can you tell me.

What operating system are you using?
What browser / version?
What happened when the error occurred.

If anyone finds an error and you have time, please call my office: 1 (573) 418-6487
I can work out the problem on the phone. Or send me a message on here.

[BitterTea]

Thanks for letting me know! It's been a while since I tested sign-in with Google Accounts specifically (I have tried Twitter and Facebook.) I know you can add a google account after you sign up using the ordinary sign up method.
http://tradebitcoin.com/users/sign_up

I'll get on fixing it asap!

The Google sign in link takes me to this page: http://tradebitcoin.com/auth/google_apps

Which asks for the Google apps domain. What do I enter for a regular Google account? I tried http://google.com and it gave me the "We're sorry, but something went wrong." error message.

[theGECK]

I'm signed in! I can search for my address, see my marker, but when I click on it it goes to Jonathan Jeffus.

Feature request: Ability to link the forum handle from this forum to the trader account - that way people could vet each other based on what they know from this board.

[jesmurf]

BitterTea: Yeah I should fix that. If it's a GMail account then you enter 'gmail.com' for the domain. If it's a Google Apps account then you enter your domain name.

[theGECK]

Now it's redirecting me to BitterTea when I click on my marker on the map.

[jesmurf]

theGECK: Oooh, I see what you mean. Don't let this bother anyone else signing up, it only affects search. I'll have it fixed in a jiffy.

[theGECK]

If I add Facebook to my profile, what will Trade Bitcoin post to my wall? It wants that permission.

[jesmurf]

theGECK: We won't post anything it's only for authentication, check out our privacy policy.

http://tradebitcoin.com/privacy_policy

[Txyru]

When I try to click on myself it goes to another user in Saint Louis.

[error]

Ah, I think my problem may have something to do with having maxmind.com blocked.

[kseistrup]

Sign up via OpenID failed.  The site says you've been notified.

Cheers,

[BitterTea]

A few things...

1) Password reset does not work for me (get the same generic error message)
2) The main font on the site hurts my eyes
3) I'm seeing the same issue as theGECK - markers appear in the right place but link to the wrong one
4) I get the same error using http://gmail.com as the Google app domain
5) I really like the logo

[bitdragon]

Once logged in and placed my marker, I can only see myself on the map? Am I do something silly?

When not signed in and I click on my marker, I get taken to Brad in Canada.

Very promising though;)

[jesmurf]

BitterTea: Thanks for your suggestions! I've changed the font back to Times/serif, I also disabled Google Apps and OpenID authentication until I can figure out why it worked in development but not in production.

I should have the map issue fixed next. Thanks everyone for the suggestions so far.

theGECK: I really like that idea! I'm not sure how we could verify that forum members were who they say they are. I could add a link to their forum profile? Then you could message them on this forum and ask? Is this a good idea?

[comboy]

By default it seems to put my location based on IP on the map. Which may be very misleading. I don't want to share it, and I don't seem to be able to put marker elsewhere.

Idea is very nice.

[jesmurf]

comboy: If you set a different address on your profile then it will use that address. It just selects the location based on your I.P. address by default. Ideally we should be using the location where you want to meet. So for example, you could find the address for your local Starbucks and use that.

That kind of suggestion is what we need though. I'd really like the site to be super-obvious and easy to use.