Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: Rush Limbo on March 07, 2012, 08:29 pm
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Hi Gang!
Been reading few posts on here about vendors requiring early finalization, and was interested in the reasons people/vendors ask for it. Basically it comes down to 3 issues: untrusted/new buyers, bitcoin price fluctuation, and cash flow.
I think I came up with a solution for the bitcoin fluctuation / early finalization problem, hear me out please...
We all know bitcoin prices are very hectic. We all know you can buy bitcoins today, hold on to them for 10 days, and be at a huge loss, or gain if you're lucky. We know vendors are affraid of loosing money because of this, example: vendor sells 10 bitcoin worth of product, for $5 / bitcoin. Product arrives 10 days later, and the price of bitcoin falls to $2.50 / bitcoin. Seller is at a %50 loss. This sucks!
Enter DOLLAR escrow:
I believe mtgox and other exchanges offer API's for trading right? Perhaps the Silk Road engine could, the moment an order is placed sell the bitcoins for current market value (mtgox already has this feature) and hold dollars in escrow (perhaps a designated mtgox account) instead of bitcoins. Then, process of finalization would use the funds to purchase bitcoins at current market value, and send the bitcoins to the vendor's account. Basically converting bitcoins to a more stable currency for the duration of escrow.
Has this already been done? Developers, can this be done easily?
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an option to hedge the listing is already offered for a small fee. this pegs the value against the dollar value rather than btc amount
still the money is in escrow and doesnt solve the cash flow or scammer problem...
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Silk Road already does this.
Most vendors already hedge their orders. You can see when you order something whether or not it is hedged and what currency it is hedged under.
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Aha! Good, i wasn't aware of this being in place!