An idea to get bitcoin into every country - kick paypal and liberty reserve out

[Anonymous]

This is issue I face while trying to setup an Australian bitcoin market - I need to buy coins through liberty reserve, bank wires,or paypal. Naturally this means bitcoins I sell would come with an inherent major price disadvantage to other currencies. Why would someone choose to pay a 7% premium ? Its not a rational decision imo. However if the price is no more than paypal to buy coins with a bank transfer or local money order we would have something potent and potentially a threat to existing systems.

Maybe to bootstrap worldwide takeup of bitcoins people with large amounts of them could stake agents in di fferent countries and those agents could keep a ledger of trades and settle up when they reach an amount that is economically viable using bank wires - a million dollar wire tranfer for $50 is trivial. As long as the eventual cost to consumers wasnt more than paypal it would work exceptionally well. This is how the big guys do it which is why they can lock new players out of the market. If you have to use these middlemen you've already lost the game. Why are we making paypal and liberty reserve rich at the expense of bitcoin ??

I am happy making a 1% margin while paying a bitcoin supplier a 2% premium and (maybe) a clearing house .5% as it means the middlemen are then the miners and the clearing house can vet agents for the miners to ensure they are trusted and identifiable.  I have no problem sharing my business info and contact information to such a clearing house or directly to a miner using a contract.

It seems everyone is pulling in different directions rather than an organised approach such as this. Im not arguing for any sort of force here just pointing out the issue as I see it. Bitcoinusa is a step in the right direction with getting proper documentation however they still have to source coins as well. I would even be happy if they were the first clearing house as they have most of the infrastructure already .

britcoin.co.uk could be agents for euro and the pound
bitcoin.com.au for australia
bitcoinusa or bitcoinmarket for  usa
btcex for russia
<insert china and india here>

and so on...
all they need is a clearing house of coins at market prices . Importantly this doesn't prevent new agents from opening.

[1714807182]

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[kiba]

What ya need to do is get into a town together and create the first bitcoin town!

[Anonymous]

What ya need to do is get into a town together and create the first bitcoin town!

No what we need is to kick paypal and liberty reserve out of the middlemen position.

[genjix]

The source code + artwork to Britcoin has been release under the AGPL3 by me:
http://gitorious.org/intersango/master/trees/master

I actively encourage people to use it to setup their own exchanges. Pay me and I'll do it for you.

[Anonymous]

The source code + artwork to Britcoin has been release under the AGPL3 by me:
http://gitorious.org/intersango/master/trees/master

I actively encourage people to use it to setup their own exchanges. Pay me and I'll do it for you.

Its not setting up the exchange that's the problem. Its the lack of wholesalers offering bitcoin supplies.

Imagine if you are a local store selling coke and the only way you can get your stock is through a big box department store rather than from the same supplier the big box retailer uses. You are already at a competitive disadvantage. Thats why they have a difference between wholesalers and retailers.


Maybe I just need to win the lotto and have millions of dollars to buy all the coins and sell for a loss at market rates  - or rupert murdoch will come along and start an aussie bitcoin market   

Im not complaining about the situation just sharing the difficulty I am facing. Ive turned a few people away because I have to charge 6-7% to get coins for them. They hear that and head for the hills....

[gigabytecoin]

Just because you are creating an australian exchange does not mean that the exchange must be based inside australia.

Why not create your own bank/financial institution in a less regulated banking market? Then you can charge whatever rate you'd like for bank transfers.

[Anonymous]

Just because you are creating an australian exchange does not mean that the exchange must be based inside australia.

Why not create your own bank/financial institution in a less regulated banking market? Then you can charge whatever rate you'd like for bank transfers.

lol @ create your own bank.

The bank transfers are not an issue and neither is the banking market. Actually the best idea would be to source bitcoins locally but thats not possible.

Unless someone has $100 000 to invest in mining hardware to generate coins its a no-go .

I am not the only one who has pointed out the obvious.

[bitcoinex]

btcex for russia
<insert china and india here>

Propose to Chineese people

[ryepdx]

You're right. Kicking out the middlemen and making it easier to buy bitcoins would be a great boost for bitcoins. Perhaps we should pool our resources on this one.

[TiagoTiago]

Isn't it a bit of a chicken or egg situation regarding making more people use bitcoin somewhere? (need to have more traders accepting for people to wanna use it, gotta have more people using it for traders to start accepting it)

[Anonymous]

Isn't it a bit of a chicken or egg situation regarding making more people use bitcoin somewhere? (need to have more traders accepting for people to wanna use it, gotta have more people using it for traders to start accepting it)

Yes but where do they get the coins from to buy the goods and services ?

Once you have a steady and reliable supply you can then more easily convince merchants their is a demand to sell their goods in bitcoins.

[abstraction]

What ya need to do is get into a town together and create the first bitcoin town!

working on it already

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

What ya need to do is get into a town together and create the first bitcoin town!

No what we need is to kick paypal and liberty reserve out of the middlemen position.

That can only happen in one scenario: when you can buy stuff for bitcoin, or exchange bitcoin for another currencies easily in every country.
I don't see that happening any other way.

Hopefully, when we reach critical mass, large business will start accepting bitcoin widely in different countries.

[TiagoTiago]

Perhaps some games arcade place could hold BTC as their internal tokens, and offer the option of both buying tokens with regular money and Bitcoin, and also extracting one's tokens to arbitrary  bitcoin address. Sounds like the type of thing that could set the ball rolling...

[marcus_of_augustus]

Yes but where do they get the coins from to buy the goods and services ?

Ultimately, coins come from miners. Maybe we just need a central repository with a list of trusted miners (and traders) and their locales who are willing to sell coins for the cost of local (non-international) bank transfer, or a cash face-to-face transaction.

Bitcoin-otc is kind of like this but it is such a mish-mash of competing trades that actual BTC offers get lost in the mix. Maybe just a separate page on OTC that is reserved for BTC to cash/local transfer offers only.

[Sultan]

Most of the BTC miners are in America, hardly any in any other countries, thus, naturally, there won't be many people selling BitCoins in other countries.

Only way to get the BitCoins into your country is to buy them or mine them.

So the best way to do this is to have a currency exchange very much like mtGox, where people's supply and demand will automatically set the price.

That is all you can do at the moment, considering that there is other way.

As for the first BitCoin town, that would help things ALOT because the villagers would work for themselves, earning and spending BitCoin. That would definitely bootstrap the BitCoin economy.

[Anonymous]

Most of the BTC miners are in America, hardly any in any other countries, thus, naturally, there won't be many people selling BitCoins in other countries.

Only way to get the BitCoins into your country is to buy them or mine them.

So the best way to do this is to have a currency exchange very much like mtGox, where people's supply and demand will automatically set the price.

That is all you can do at the moment, considering that there is other way.

As for the first BitCoin town, that would help things ALOT because the villagers would work for themselves, earning and spending BitCoin. That would definitely bootstrap the BitCoin economy.

Where would the first bitcoin town be located ?

Maybe in New Hampshire ? The free state project ? There is a splinter called the free town project http://freetownproject.com/

The town could then secede and recognise bitcoin as its official currency.

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

I think that creating bitcoin-only town somewhere would get us a lot of media coverage / PR / fame.

When we get enough people, somebody could start an initiative like this somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Its as easy as setting up a pledge drive.

Maybe a list of contenders for the town could be drawn up and a poll created. I really think NH is the way to go on this. Live free or die and all . 

[MrAnderson]

Erm use bank transfer? 

It has that option now. Unless they added that option after your post?