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Topic: Ideas for Bitcoin businesses (Read 1063 times)

hero member
Activity: 630
Merit: 500
Posts: 69
July 30, 2011, 02:12:20 PM
#7
These are just the ideas that I can come up with off the top of my head. Bitcoin is the biggest opportunity for startups since the WWW.
If only it was attracting more trustworthy people Sad
full member
Activity: 156
Merit: 102
July 30, 2011, 02:06:35 PM
#6
Just Buy Bitcoins - A simple online store that accepts credit card payments for bitcoins. They sell at 10% or so above market value. They only sell one bitcoin at a time to limit their exposure to charge back fraud.

Bitcoin Vault - A secure bitcoin wallet service. They place an emphasis on security. Amongst other things, they limit daily withdrawals to prevent people from stealing all of your bitcoins. You manually set your own daily withdrawal limit.

The Bitcoin Device - A smartphone designed to be your bitcoin wallet. It only has bitcoin software running on it. You buy it and it already has all bitcoin software installed on it. This idea was outlined here: https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=28923.msg363976

Question-answering AI - Like Google, but much smarter. And it doesn't just gives you links, but gives you the information you're looking for with references. Since answering your questions it computationally intense, it charges a small bitcoin fee per question. Make this and you will be rich.

Bitcoin File Storage - Store any file of any size. To retrieve them, you pay with bitcoins.

Bitcoin Paycheck Services - A service that allows people to set up recurring payments for their employees. You deposit your bitcoins and have them paid out to your employees on a recurring schedule. It could automatically calculate values based on exchange rates.

Job/Employee Connection Services - We really need some sort of global way of connecting people who want to work with people who want to pay for work. By having people pay for this service with bitcoins, it could actually be global. You would need some kind of reputation system, and you could build in the Bitcoin Paycheck Services like I just described.

BitFunder - A service for funding small projects (business, charities, research, or other) with bitcoins. I am developing this with a friend of mine. See http://astrohacker.com/ahc/bit-fund-funding-for-authenticated-bitcoin-projects http://astrohacker.com/ahc/bit-fund-adding-accountability-to-bitcoin-donations

These are just the ideas that I can come up with off the top of my head. Bitcoin is the biggest opportunity for startups since the WWW.
hero member
Activity: 742
Merit: 500
July 30, 2011, 11:20:40 AM
#5
Very cool !!

Won't your merchants save fees if they withdraw their money less frequently?
Do you have a POS system? I think you need to accept deposits for that.

Congratulations, I think your business model will be very successful.
Good luck


Not really, the fees cover our 2000 man-hours of development and all the automation we've built, and all the new features we're adding.  We want to pay everyone once per day, there's no reason for people to accumulate balances with us.  it just invites hackers.

We aren't planning a POS system yet, but we do have some cool tricks.  Try the checkout process on any of the 3 merchants I made in this thread:

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=33004.0

once you get to the invoice you will see you are presented with 2 payment options (PC or mobile)
legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1002
July 30, 2011, 11:11:47 AM
#4
3) Payments manager
   There's a lot of concern with the instability of the bitcoin price and how many people reject to use it for that reason.
   Merchants that don't want to hold bitcoins can hire your services. You help them to set bitcoin prices syncronized with the spot price of bitcoins in exchanges.
   When you receive a bitcoin payment, you can either sell them automatically using the various exchanges or hold them and use options to warranty you stay solvent.
   The merchants don't have to cash out their sells instantly. They can do it from time to time to save in banks fees.
   They can also make bitcoin payments from your web, even if their funds are not denominated in btc.
   Bitcoiners can also deposit funds to pay merchants that don't trust bitcoin but trust you, even if they don't want to have btc prices and payments.
   You can establish a POS payment system too or participate in the Account Hub project (is it still alive?).
   
Critiques are welcomed too.


jtimon checkout out https://bit-pay.com and watch the video.  We do everything you suggest here except offer the wallet service.  We prefer to payout our merchants every day in BTC or USD, to whatever wallet or bank account they specify.

Very cool !!

Won't your merchants save fees if they withdraw their money less frequently?
Do you have a POS system? I think you need to accept deposits for that.

Congratulations, I think your business model will be very successful.
Good luck
hero member
Activity: 742
Merit: 500
July 30, 2011, 10:28:28 AM
#3
3) Payments manager
   There's a lot of concern with the instability of the bitcoin price and how many people reject to use it for that reason.
   Merchants that don't want to hold bitcoins can hire your services. You help them to set bitcoin prices syncronized with the spot price of bitcoins in exchanges.
   When you receive a bitcoin payment, you can either sell them automatically using the various exchanges or hold them and use options to warranty you stay solvent.
   The merchants don't have to cash out their sells instantly. They can do it from time to time to save in banks fees.
   They can also make bitcoin payments from your web, even if their funds are not denominated in btc.
   Bitcoiners can also deposit funds to pay merchants that don't trust bitcoin but trust you, even if they don't want to have btc prices and payments.
   You can establish a POS payment system too or participate in the Account Hub project (is it still alive?).
   
Critiques are welcomed too.


jtimon checkout out https://bit-pay.com and watch the video.  We do everything you suggest here except offer the wallet service.  We prefer to payout our merchants every day in BTC or USD, to whatever wallet or bank account they specify.

legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1002
July 30, 2011, 10:25:10 AM
#2
Admins. Should it be moved to "Project Development"?
legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1002
July 29, 2011, 07:14:21 AM
#1
Here's some ideas for Bitcoin businesses. Feel free to use them or share more ideas. If you get rich with one of them, I will be happy to accept your donations.
I wanted to start some of these business but since I won't have the time soon, I prefer that someone else develops them.

1) Ripple Proxy node
   To increase Ripple liquidity, your company can act as a router. You accept bitcoin deposits from your clients, and extend them Ripple IOUs for the same amount they deposit. Then anyone can redeem your IOUs to you for the equivalent funds in reserve.
   As you redeem your debts almost instantly, many nodes will trust you and you will become a highly connected node. It's useful to have IOUs from a highly connected node and that's why your clients deposit funds.
   You rely on withdrawal fees. Your clients want increase their Ripple liquidity.

2) Custom lottery
   There are a few bitcoin lotteries, double or nothing bets and the like, but there's no unified place to play them all.
   It would work like this: the customer chooses the ticket price and the probability. If there's already a draw like that, he joins it.
   If not, a new draw is created. Note that different ticket prices could be combined by the system within the same draw if the probability is the same.
   The harder to win, the more you get. The draw creator can set a limit Date/block number. If there's not enough participants in the draw when the block number/date is reached, the system sends back all the money.
   Participants don't have to log in. When a draw is created, a new address for the escrow is created by the system and is shown in the column target address of the "all draws" table.
   Users can search for draws with different filters. They just send their bitcoins to the indicated address. If the sent payment is not equal to the ticket price, the payment is sent back by the system.
   The algorithm should be known and depend on the hash of the next block when all the funds for the draw are there.

3) Payments manager
   There's a lot of concern with the instability of the bitcoin price and how many people reject to use it for that reason.
   Merchants that don't want to hold bitcoins can hire your services. You help them to set bitcoin prices syncronized with the spot price of bitcoins in exchanges.
   When you receive a bitcoin payment, you can either sell them automatically using the various exchanges or hold them and use options to warranty you stay solvent.
   The merchants don't have to cash out their sells instantly. They can do it from time to time to save in banks fees.
   They can also make bitcoin payments from your web, even if their funds are not denominated in btc.
   Bitcoiners can also deposit funds to pay merchants that don't trust bitcoin but trust you, even if they don't want to have btc prices and payments.
   You can establish a POS payment system too or participate in the Account Hub project (is it still alive?).
   
Critiques are welcomed too.
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