More anonymous than cash. Can Bitcoin be used over the web safely?

[neofelis]

As a recent victim of Bitcoin fraud, I realized too late that sending Bitcoin to an address is the equivalent of sending cash in the mail to someone you don't know.  You need total trust on the part of the recipient that they'll deliver what they promise.

It seems to me that there needs to be a completely unbiased website that evaluates the trustworthiness of every Bitcoin merchandiser and publishes the results. Sort of like a Better Business Bureau.

For a face to face exchange, Bitcoin remains ideal though.

Any thoughts?

[DannyHamilton]

Any thoughts?

Trusted escrow service?

[Bit_Happy]

Completely unbiased isn't always easy to achieve.
The core idea is great, people need a way to judge before paying, and honest sites need a way to build/display their good reputation.

[frankenmint]

Any thoughts?

Trusted escrow service?

or a multi-sig enabled address if something can be mass marketed appropriately

Don't download ANY tools/widgets of any kind. I'm taking it you were burned by the dogecoin ticker? 

[ChuckBuck]

As a recent victim of Bitcoin fraud, I realized too late that sending Bitcoin to an address is the equivalent of sending cash in the mail to someone you don't know.  You need total trust on the part of the recipient that they'll deliver what they promise.

It seems to me that there needs to be a completely unbiased website that evaluates the trustworthiness of every Bitcoin merchandiser and publishes the results. Sort of like a Better Business Bureau.

For a face to face exchange, Bitcoin remains ideal though.

Any thoughts?

What was the website and what did you try to purchase?

[LostDutchman]

Completely unbiased isn't always easy to achieve.
The core idea is great, people need a way to judge before paying, and honest sites need a way to build/display their good reputation.

Common sense won't work?

My $.02.

[Peter882]

Always try to use escrow and be careful with too-good-to-be-true deals.

[TTM]

Bitcoin is NOT anonymous than cash. Bitcoin transaction can be traced.

You can hand a dollar bill to a random guy you never met. Nobody know that transaction. However your Bitcoin transactions stay forever on public blockchain.

[b!z]

Don't send your money to shady strangers on the Internet.

[gagalady]

Deal with trustworthy sites only , don't send money to strangers that will 99% result in stolen money.

[LostDutchman]

Deal with trustworthy sites only , don't send money to strangers that will 99% result in stolen money.

Seems to me as though the utility of Bitcoin is dropping fast due to scamming and theft.

My $.02.

[Lethn]

Bitcoin is NOT anonymous than cash. Bitcoin transaction can be traced.

You can hand a dollar bill to a random guy you never met. Nobody know that transaction. However your Bitcoin transactions stay forever on public blockchain.

This is correct, a better way to describe this is Bitcoin transactions transmit your location, but when you make a transaction your personal information isn't attached like with fiat money, it's a lot like posting an email address or posting on a forum except your sending money from one location to another.

[DannyHamilton]

a better way to describe this is Bitcoin transactions transmit your location

Bitcoin transactions do not contain any information about your location.

Depending on the wallet you are using, when you send a bitcoin transaction you generally send it only to the peers that you are directly connected to.  You also generally send any transaction that you receive from any one connected peer to any other connected peers.  In general use, there is no way for a peer that is connected directly to your wallet to know if the transaction that they just received from your IP address was created by you, or is just being relayed by you.

Depending on how you've configured your wallet and what wallet you are using, there are a few attacks that a determined entity can use to figure out which transactions are being sent from your IP address.  These attacks require the entity to be connected directly to your wallet as a peer at the time that you broadcast the transaction.  If you are concerned about this possibility, then there are steps you can take to prevent any entity from knowing which transactions are coming from your IP address.

[CoinDiver]

Escrow is the solution. More infrastructure is needed before we will see mass adoption... but it will come in stages. We need adoption before people will invest in infrastructure, and infrastructure before well see adoption. The bubbles are the obvious sign of adoption, less obvious is the massive (relative) efforts to build infrastructure that precede (and support) each major increase. We will see bitcoin payment services that include escrow. No different than paypal does. The payment service will hold your account negative if needed. The cash I pull out of my paypal account is as reversible as bitcoin.

[DannyHamilton]

Can someone explain to me how escrow work ? I'm meeting up with a guy on here to buy my very first bitcoin today but have been contacted by members from out of state making offers with escrow. Would anyone like to guide me through that whole process?

• Find an escrow provider that you both feel you can trust.
• Seller sends bitcoins to escrow provider.
• Everyone waits until the transaction to the escrow provider is confirmed.
• Send the money to the bitcoin seller with a non-reversible payment method (such as cash deposit into a bank account, or mailed cash, or Western Union, etc)
• Bitcoin seller informs escrow provider when they've received the cash.
• Escrow provider sends the bitcoins to you.

It is very important to choose a trustworthy and reliable escrow provider.  The bitcoin seller is trusting the escrow provider to send the bitcoins back to them if you fail to send payment.  You are trusting the escrow provider to send the bitcoins to you once the bitcoin seller receives the payment.

Note that there is an opportunity here for the bitcoin seller to lie and claim that they never received the payment, even if you sent it.  You are both then trusting the escrow provider to listen to what both of you have to say about what happened and make a fair decision about what to do with the escrow funds.  There are steps you can take to increase the likelihood that you will be fairly compensated in a dispute.

A few recommendations on ways to increase likelihood of being compensated (various additional costs associated):

• Make sure that your payment method includes a tracking number that you can use to prove delivery
• Agree to ship some item of value instead of cash, and insure the shipment
• Send payment directly to the escrow provider, so they can confirm payment and amount.  They can then release the bitcoins to you, and forward the payment on to the seller.

[yayayo]

1. Bitcoin is less anonymous than cash.
2. Unbiasedness doesn't exist in reality.

Bitcoin gives you more monetary freedom. With more freedom comes more responsibility for your own actions. Act accordingly: Check first, if a seller has a trustworthy background. Don't send coins first or use escrow if you have any reason to not trust the other party.

ya.ya.yo!