The blog entry about the latest transaction posted below. You can read about it here:
http://www.projectbitcoin.com/1/post/2014/01/goodbye-wallets.htmlIf you have anything special you'd like to sell for .2726 btc, let's talk!
Goodbye Wallets If I could have decided how Project Bitcoin would begin, it would have launched to worldwide fanfare and media attention, and I would be transacting each day with people from across the world.
Of course that's not how things have gone!
When I launched the project, the first public comment I received was, in short, "This is bullshit". We've had a grand total of... zero... media outlets report on the project. And buying and selling the first two special items hasn't been as easy as snapping my fingers (which is also hard for me!)
But here's the crazy thing: Project Bitcoin is moving.
What the project has lacked in mass appeal so far (we still have time for it to build), it seems to have made up for in appeal to the more and more of the right people. To explain what I mean, I want to tell you the story of my last transaction:
As you may know from previous posts, for the project's third transaction, I was honored to sell Bruno and Martin's four hand-tooled, bitcoin themed wallets. I needed more than the 150 mBTC I paid for them (which was an amazing deal)! But fo 3 days, I received.... zero offers on the wallets.
Then something strange happened: Someone shared Project Bitcoin in a post on Reddit, and the post made it to the front page of the 90,000 person Bitcoin "subreddit", with a number of people offering their compliments and support.
What was strange about the post's popularity was that I'd shared that same link with the same audience twelve days before, and I'd left with my tail between my legs and people calling me names. How had support so quickly developed in a place where there was once rancor?
I don't know (and I'd prefer to be grateful than analyze!)...
What I do know is that more than 1,000 new people were introduced to Project Bitcoin, and five of them made offers on the wallets!
There was only one problem: Every offer came from from the United States.
While our rules don't prohibit multiple transactions from the same country, my hope has been to have every transaction occur across borders (e.g. If I buy something from someone in the US, I must sell it to someone in another country).
So I waited...
14 or so hours after I received my first offer, Eduardo wrote to me from Brazil, inquiring about purchasing the wallets.
Like Jonathan and Bruno, Eduardo has devoted a big part of the last few years to sharing bitcoin with the world. He is a computer scientist by trade, but felt called to create and run a podcast in Portuguese called Papo Bitcoin that talks about the latest in bitcoin news and trends.
Eduardo made an extremely generous offer of 330 mBTC (including the almost 60 mBTC cost of shipping). I felt really grateful for the deal - after shipping. Shipping excluded, that's 272 mBTC remaining, or an 80% increase in value since I sold the coin to Jonathan!
The only problem: two people in the US were offering more than double that, and a big intention of Project Bitcoin is getting to that house fast. That was now rubbing up against the other intention of making only international transactions. I didn't know what to do?
I took a walk with my wife and asked for her thoughts. She told me a story from just before she was born: She lived in a one room house without warm water and with just one lightbulb. Her father had been saving for years to make a huge upgrade to their living situation. On the day he went to the bank to take out his savings... the bank defaulted. He lost everything. He went back to N.'s mother utterly defeated. Her father is a miner and farmer in Peru. He'd... slaved... for years for that money. N.'s mom's responded with firmness: "It's just money. It means nothing. What matters is that we have our dignity. There's nothing to think about."
Now my 24 year old wife repeated those same words to me. I smiled, reminded about the dignity of this project. Yes... a house would be an amazing end to this project. But that house only has a chance if this project keeps its dignity; if it succeeds in telling an international story of bitcoin transactions... if it promotes the wonderful work of the people I come into contact with. Every transaction must satisfy those requirements, otherwise it's a transaction that simply can't be done.
I accepted the super-generous offer from Eduardo. I hope he enjoys the four custom hand-tooled leather bitcoin wallets - he deserves them! He's the only person in the whole world outside the US who made an offer on those wallets, and I appreciate his huge contribution to this project and to our unfolding story. I also hope you take the time to visit his podcast on bitcoin. If you're like me, it'll be a good practice tool for learning portuguese!
So now we have completed three transactions with three people who all happened to be serious contributors to the bitcoin community. Already, Project Bitcoin has made transactions that have seen their way through Peru, England, the United States, and Brazil. Now I am the owner of .2726 bitcoin (what was left after paying for shipping) that I can use to make my next purchase. The only question is: what will that next purchase be?
