[ANN] LocalBitcoins.com - a location-based bitcoin to cash marketplace

[HostFat]

Can you add an option to give the seller the possibility to set with one is going to pay for the escrow service?
Also sometime the seller can give the possibilities to use or not the escrow, so the buyer can see both prices by switching on/off escrow service.
It will be good to see on the list which sellers/buyers ask/offer escrow service, and the difference between the 2 prices. ( or if they are egual )

[1714179515]

1714179515

[kangasbros]

Can non-registered users get rating/feedback?

What happened to the BTC price ticker (24h)?

Currently you must register if you want to use any functionality on the site - old advertisement will stay there, but to actually reply to your contacts eg. you have to merge your ad to the account-based system.

We have this philosophy "release early, release often". We will probably implement some kind of "one-click" accounts or dummy accounts, so that random visitors can contact advertisers by just filling one form. We also understand the privacy needs of our users, and will try to improve that side as well (eg. non-needed data automatically deleted).

[kangasbros]

Can you add an option to give the seller the possibility to set with one is going to pay for the escrow service?
Also sometime the seller can give the possibilities to use or not the escrow, so the buyer can see both prices by switching on/off escrow service.
It will be good to see on the list which sellers/buyers ask/offer escrow service, and the difference between the 2 prices. ( or if they are egual )

We will think about this. However currently as I see it, there are 2 groups of people visiting localbitcoins - advertisers and contacter. The advertisers (= market makers) usually buy/sell bitcoins with 5-15% premium. The contacters just want some bitcoins fast, and are willing to pay the higher than market rate.

We will try to make the process for contacters as easy, straightforward and simple as possible, because they are obviously paying for the service. This kind of addition would make the process more complicated, in my opinion. The advertisers can include the escrow fee in their pricing.

Btw, earlier you asked how to test the escrow. You can just test it with some very minimal sum, for 1 eur. Note that the escrow service works also without the SMS, you can use it with internet only as well. So if for some reason the SMS is not working, you can just walk to nearest internet cafe and check it that way. We will probably add some SMS testing service in the future.

(I think the SMS service should function well at least in 99% of cases, since we use two backends - if one fails, it will try to use the other.)

[Stephen Gornick]

During the initial sign-up process, the second page is the Edit your profile page which asks for "Sms number".  

Right now this is the only field on this form, but I could see things like maybe alternate reputation sources (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), when to contact me, etc.  

It wasn't apparent to me whether the SMS was a required field. (it isn't).  

Some sites follow the UI approach where there is a footnote with a red asterisk that describes fields with a red asterisk as being required.  But any method of indicating that this is not a required field would be helpful.

[kangasbros]

During the initial sign-up process, the second page is the Edit your profile page which asks for "Sms number". 
\
Right now this is the only field on this form, but I could see things like maybe alternate reputation sources (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), when to contact me, etc. 

It wasn't apparent to me whether the SMS was a required field. (it isn't).   

Some sites follow the UI approach where there is a footnote with a red asterisk that describes fields with a red asterisk as being required.  But any method of indicating that this is not a required field would be helpful.

Thanks again for the valuable feedback! We will try to make this better.

Just yesterday we added a basic bitcoin-otc integration. If you enable bitcoin-otc integration to your profile, you will get your bitcoin-otc feedback listen in your public profile.

More features will follow.

http://localbitcoins.blogspot.de/2012/08/now-you-can-connect-your-bitcoin-otc.html

[Stephen Gornick]

Looking forward to the LocalBitcoins mobile app.

A few months ago was a StartupBus competition, and one of the contestants was Open Wallet app:



Here's their proof of concept video:

 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoRlyPZ3zJ0

I have no idea what they were going to use to settle payment to the party acting as "ATM".  I wouldn't doubt they had no good solution ... and left it as "and magic happens here", after figuring out that PayPal wouldn't work for this.

If that was the hurdle these entrepreneurs couldn't solve, then had they considered using bitcoin as the settlement currency they might have been able to get funding, develop it and launch.

Well, ... will LocalBitcoins take it further?

Yes, an app would be great
(I would do it open source for 100BTC and actively maintain it under my Android dev. account but I can't do the iPhone part.)

A mobile version of this, at least for the map / navigation, needs to happen.

I see that functionality is available as guest / unauthenticated.   Could there be an API created so that an open source mobile app could be built for this?

[Stephen Gornick]

Just yesterday we added a basic bitcoin-otc integration. If you enable bitcoin-otc integration to your profile, you will get your bitcoin-otc feedback listen in your public profile.

I was confused by the instructions.

Now that I completed it successfully I can no longer see the instructions that I was confused by, but following is how I think the instructions could have been presented:

-----------------
Field - Bitcoin otc nick:

If you already have a #bitcoin-otc Web of Trust (WoT) nickname, enter that.  If you haven't yet registered a Bitcoin return address, you then need to register one, using these instructions: http://wiki.bitcoin-otc.com/wiki/Bitcoin_address_authentication#Change_address

If you don't already have one, create one using these instructions: http://wiki.bitcoin-otc.com/wiki/Bitcoin_address_authentication


-----------------
Field - Bitcoin otc signature:

Use bitcoin client to sign the message in bold below.  Sign it using the bitcoin address you registered with the #bitcoin-otc Web of Trust (WoT).

[Stephen Gornick]

Also, where does my profile with this info ever show for the potential trade counterparty then?

[kangasbros]

Sorry about the bug in bitcoin-otc verification, it should work now

API will come, hopefully sooner than later. We are two guys working on this (and easywallet.org) full-time.

And Stephen, thanks again for the really valuable feedback. I will add the instructions to the site ASAP.

[kangasbros]

Also, where does my profile with this info ever show for the potential trade counterparty then?

Check out your public profile, for example my public profile: https://localbitcoins.com/accounts/profile/kangasbros/

[kangasbros]

I added the instructions quickly - sorry  but this time I can't create much better presentation. I am currently at the assembly summer event, and have lots of bitcoin promotion to do. Also I'm not the frontend guy

But I hope on monday you will see some real progress.

[kangasbros]

Couple of minor additions:

- timezones. Automatically detected via your IP address by default, however if you are logged in it is a setting in your profile.

- min/max -functions for equations: http://localbitcoins.blogspot.de/2012/08/specify-your-price-with-minmax-functions.html

[paraipan]

Hi guys, love the site and started using it for trading. I have some feedback and questions here:

- is there a way to ignore or delete buy orders that you receive?

- is there a way to lock the price only for 24h not indefinitely? Imagine a transaction that takes a week to settle until we meet, the price has already changed significantly and you have no way of reflecting that on site.

- what use is of escrow feature? and related, are there any fees for using it? I see "<user> wants to buy 9.999 BTC with **** EUR" and "To fund the escrow, send exactly 10.09899 BTC to bitcoin address", there is a 10% difference, why?

Thanks

[kangasbros]

Hi guys, love the site and started using it for trading. I have some feedback and questions here:

- is there a way to ignore or delete buy orders that you receive?

- is there a way to lock the price only for 24h not indefinitely? Imagine a transaction that takes a week to settle until we meet, the price has already changed significantly and you have no way of reflecting that on site.

- what use is of escrow feature? and related, are there any fees for using it? I see "<user> wants to buy 9.999 BTC with **** EUR" and "To fund the escrow, send exactly 10.09899 BTC to bitcoin address", there is a 10% difference, why?

Thanks

- currently not, we will add this soon.

- just make a new deal if the old one is not working any more. the price is locked for each offer separately

- the fee is 1%, the advertiser always pays it. By offering the escrow service, we try to make the process much quicker and easier: no need for internet connection, and release and confirm the money transfer with the escrow.

http://localbitcoins.blogspot.de/2012/08/sms-escrow-buy-and-sell-bitcoins-with.html

[paraipan]

- currently not, we will add this soon.

Great, waiting forward to it.

- just make a new deal if the old one is not working any more. the price is locked for each offer separately

I don't get this one. Imagine a buyer that wants to hedge on the price with my bitcoins, I fund the escrow right away and then he can say we will meet in a week. I successfully locked my bitcoins in that particular sell order and at fixed price. I got this right?

- the fee is 1%, the advertiser always pays it. By offering the escrow service, we try to make the process much quicker and easier: no need for internet connection, and release and confirm the money transfer with the escrow.

http://localbitcoins.blogspot.de/2012/08/sms-escrow-buy-and-sell-bitcoins-with.html

Thanks for explaining it, nice feature btw. I see a 10% on one order and a 1% on other though.

[kangasbros]

- just make a new deal if the old one is not working any more. the price is locked for each offer separately

I don't get this one. Imagine a buyer that wants to hedge on the price with my bitcoins, I fund the escrow right away and then he can say we will meet in a week. I successfully locked my bitcoins in that particular sell order and at fixed price. I got this right?

You can just say that the maximum time for fixing price is 24h, and cancel the escrow if that time has passed. We will probably add some feature that does this automatically at some point.

IMHO local transactions work only on very short time scale - max 24 hours. The bitcoin price is too volatile for week-long price fixes, until the fee is really high.

- the fee is 1%, the advertiser always pays it. By offering the escrow service, we try to make the process much quicker and easier: no need for internet connection, and release and confirm the money transfer with the escrow.

http://localbitcoins.blogspot.de/2012/08/sms-escrow-buy-and-sell-bitcoins-with.html

Thanks for explaining it, nice feature btw. I see a 10% on one order and a 1% on other though.

Can you please send the order ID with the 10% fee to support@localbitcoins.com, and we will look at it right away (or here by message). It should not happen.

[kangasbros]

- what use is of escrow feature? and related, are there any fees for using it? I see "<user> wants to buy 9.999 BTC with **** EUR" and "To fund the escrow, send exactly 10.09899 BTC to bitcoin address", there is a 10% difference, why?

Thanks

10.09899 / 9.99900 = 1.01, so if you quoted the numbers right the fee is exactly 1%
9.99900 * 1.01 = 10.09899
10.09899 - 9.99900 = 0.09999, 10% would be more close to 1 btc

I guess the difference looks bigger because it goes from under 10 to above 10

[paraipan]

- just make a new deal if the old one is not working any more. the price is locked for each offer separately

I don't get this one. Imagine a buyer that wants to hedge on the price with my bitcoins, I fund the escrow right away and then he can say we will meet in a week. I successfully locked my bitcoins in that particular sell order and at fixed price. I got this right?

You can just say that the maximum time for fixing price is 24h, and cancel the escrow if that time has passed. We will probably add some feature that does this automatically at some point.

IMHO local transactions work only on very short time scale - max 24 hours. The bitcoin price is too volatile for week-long price fixes, until the fee is really high.

We both got that right, but in RL is not that easy. Some days can pass until both parties meet and make the transaction, because bitcoin is not very well known yet so buyers or sellers take their due diligence before making the step.

Another one on the "escrow" feature. So it's not really an escrow, but an easier way to make RL transactions without the need of a bitcoin wallet with internet connection, and you can withdraw the funds from that deposit at will. I suggest you guys rename it because is a little misleading, here is why...

As with traditional escrow, Internet escrow works by placing money in the control of an independent and licensed third party in order to protect both buyer and seller in a transaction. When both parties verify the transaction has been completed per terms set, the money is released. If at any point there is a dispute between the parties in the transaction, the process moves along to dispute resolution

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escrow

- the fee is 1%, the advertiser always pays it. By offering the escrow service, we try to make the process much quicker and easier: no need for internet connection, and release and confirm the money transfer with the escrow.

http://localbitcoins.blogspot.de/2012/08/sms-escrow-buy-and-sell-bitcoins-with.html

Thanks for explaining it, nice feature btw. I see a 10% on one order and a 1% on other though.

Can you please send the order ID with the 10% fee to support@localbitcoins.com, and we will look at it right away (or here by message). It should not happen.

Email sent, thanks

[paraipan]

- what use is of escrow feature? and related, are there any fees for using it? I see "<user> wants to buy 9.999 BTC with **** EUR" and "To fund the escrow, send exactly 10.09899 BTC to bitcoin address", there is a 10% difference, why?

Thanks

10.09899 / 9.99900 = 1.01, so if you quoted the numbers right the fee is exactly 1%
9.99900 * 1.01 = 10.09899
10.09899 - 9.99900 = 0.09999, 10% would be more close to 1 btc

I guess the difference looks bigger because it goes from under 10 to above 10

Damn, you're right, dunno what I was thinking  It's 1%, yes

[kangasbros]

Another one on the "escrow" feature. So it's not really an escrow, but an easier way to make RL transactions without the need of a bitcoin wallet with internet connection, and you can withdraw the funds from that deposit at will. I suggest you guys rename it because is a little misleading, here is why...

As with traditional escrow, Internet escrow works by placing money in the control of an independent and licensed third party in order to protect both buyer and seller in a transaction. When both parties verify the transaction has been completed per terms set, the money is released. If at any point there is a dispute between the parties in the transaction, the process moves along to dispute resolution

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escrow

Yeah, you are right. This is not escrow by the traditional definition. We should invent some other name, or maybe there exists some...