Topic: Is there a need for more manual escrow support on the Group Buys Forum? (Read 4329 times)

You are the man Dave! My man Dave is a former Network Engineer himself having terminated a few cables in a different life. Thank you for the endorsement! If you guys haven't noticed, he plants trees in the Amazon for goodness sake. If that's not a definition of a good person, I don't know what is.

Let's hope HashFast delivers...well...fast.

I'm just providing escrow, and escrow coordination services here. You can't hold me responsible for the mfg. slipping on delivery dates but maybe in this new position, I *will* be able to go to mfgs. that say they don't give refunds, and maybe make them reconsider their position when every single Group Buyer is mad at them and says they'll never buy from them again. Just saying. Buyers should have rights is all.

Ok, I've laid the bait.  

I've laid out what I propose to help do here.

I intend to be an Expediter/Coordinator for Group Buys on this forum. I know that sometimes speed is of the essence when pre-ordering. I intend to be the grease that lubricates the wheels that help to keep things moving. I intend to act as a spam filter for this board, by helping to weed out fraudulent GBCs and to help improve the quality of Group Buys even listed in the first place, by coaching/mentoring GBCs *before* they get started with the Group Buy, in order to greatly improve their chances of success. I intend to help Group Buyers feel confident about taking part in Escrows I'm involved with, in this crazy, crazy Wild West economy where risks abound everywhere and every cockroach wants your hard earned money and BTC.

Doing this also adds new competition to the marketplace, meaning everyone has to keep on their toes as new value is added to this marketplace with innovative ideas and innovative forms of risk management that are beneficial to *ALL* stakeholders involved. As I said, I'm willing to risk my job and freedom to help facilitate this, because as someone who's been watching new technologies take off, I feel that I can offer unique value to this forum with my expertise and experience and I see so much promise in both this forum and our larger BTC as a whole.

==========================================================================

Here are my Services and Fees I'm offering below. Escrow fees and collateral to be paid up front, because this form of Group Buy transaction can sometimes allow for PayPal for BTC purchased shares of miners when set up in this way:




Escrow Protection of Group Buys: I am willing to offer my job and my freedom to help you, a well intentioned Group Buy Coordinator, perform a Group Buy on this forum as an Escrow Service for the purposes of facilitating reduced risk Group Buys for ASIC hardware. This will include - at this point - ASIC chips, cases for manufacturer specific ASIC mining rigs such as BitFury, mass quantities of fans and Power Supply Units direct from a manufacturer, for as well as Escrow protection for traditional (haha!) ASIC Bitcoin Mining machines Group Buys.

If someone wants to facilitate an order of 500 PSUs or case fans to get a wholesale discount, and ship them out to Group Buyers with a small markup, well, now they have an easy way to do it! Variety and competition will have been added to the market helping to result in lower prices for all, and we all win!

In this transaction, I agree, in my own free time and using my own purchased resources, to help facilitate your Group Buy by:

1) Vetting your ID and background with your permission on behalf of the Group Buyers.

We may check LinkedIn, we may check Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. We could even contact a colleague on LinkedIn if you have a profile (which would help your cause tremendously), to help keep people honest, and if the Group Buy is large enough to warrant it.[/b]

2) Securing a collateral or deposit from the Group Buy Coordinator for providing a public bond against fraudulent behavior from you, the Group Buyer Coordinator.

Buyers will more readily trust a Group Buy from new or relatively new GBC attempting to organize a Group Buy if they see that the GBC seems to be risking his job/freedom as well as sufficient collateral to NOT be that douchebag that scams and steals from others via the interwebs. Seriously. Don't be that d-bag. When fraud is almost nonexistent on this forum, Group Buyers will feel more secure about their transactions and the Group Buys economy, as a *whole* will grow in both size and variety.

My fee for this transaction is 2.2% of the proposed value of the Group Buy. For example, if you're trying to raise 50BTC in funds, my fee is 1.1 BTC, paid in BTCup front.

Escrow+ Services: Escrow+, or Escrow Plus, is a new service I'm offering just for the Group Buys forum. This is the premium package: my coach and mentoring before you even get started. I'll help clean up writing (yes, I know, I make mistakes too grammar Nazi   ) and help you figure out if your Group Buy idea is a *good* idea.

Escrow Plus services cost 2.3% of the proposed value of the Group Buy, meaning I'm offering you everything above except with my coaching and mentoring before the Group Buy starts to help you greatly improve your odds of success for only 0.1 BTC! I may not be able to offer such low rates for mentoring/coaching in the future but for now these are my rates.

When you pay for my Escrow+ Services:
 
- You're getting the full attention of a world class IT Specialist skills that many of this country's top rocket scientists and research engineers in a variety of projects have relied on for about 10 years for their IT related needs. I've supervised and worked on the the e-infrastructure of 6 different world class Hawaii based research labs on 3 different islands, including supervising the electronics of a premier rocket test facility for missions with 6, 7 and 8 figure budgets.

- Someone who was once Mensa qualified as a child FWIW (142 on the Stanford-Binet scale, big whoop) and offered the opportunity to jump up a grade (declined).

- My knowledge of technology, electronics, and networking.

My first PC used was a TRS-80 and my first PC was a Commodore-64. I've read WIRED from the start & keep up with tech changes, and changes in the ASIC marketplace daily. I was the first national internet football champ. I was a beta tester for the first Instant Messaging program (ICQ), a beta tester for Gmail, and have been involved in CAD/3-D printing, even fixing the 3-D printer for the Kauai Robotics High School team. I'm an IT specialist in every sense of the word.
 
- My knowledge and respect for world history, foreign countries, and my fellow man/woman

I read The Economist, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, Reddit, and Kotaku on a daily basis, among other sites. I have approx. 80% of a US History degree in addition to an IT degree which allows me to not only better understand technology, but also technology's role in cataclysmic changes throughout history, such as the one we're seeing now with the rise of the worldwide Bitcoin Economy.

- My understanding of designing and developing Information Technologies from scratch from low TRL numbers

- My deep understanding of fraudulent behavior, scams, and phishing attempts

- My nearly 30 years worth of sales skills which were honed by learning/selling/teaching skills since I was a teenager

- My understanding of the current and near term market values of various technologies, which has allowed me, a rank noob to have reached ROI on my BTC related investments in only a month (even with a huge ASX Projects brain fart) thanks to arbitrage.  

- a huge respect for Karma and the rest of my brothers and sisters living under my flag and other flags.

If your good idea seems to be worthy of my limited time & efforts, you agree that I will vet you to check that you appear to be a good intentioned Group Buy Coordinator that appears to bring innovation, value, and variety to the Group Buys forum. I will only take a few Group Buys at a time under escrow because I do owe it to my family to also spend time with them too.  

This is my offer of services to the Group Buy forum. I hope it can provide liquidity to the overall BTC economy and quality to the Group Buys forum. I intend to follow up on Canary's comment about an automated web site, but for now, it'll be manual escrow support. Also, since this is a new service, the Introductory Price will be 10% off the listed prices above.

Since I want to encourage the world's youth to explore safe opportunities on a worldwide digital marketplace, if you're a student you'll get a Student Discount (but you might have to prove to me that you appear to be an adult in High School or College). Please PM me for Student Discount rates.

Cheers!
DZ

P.S. This last post will be posted up separately in a different thread.

Looks like you are on to something here!
I like how you handled your last GB and it seems that John K could use some backup.
Congrats on your first client!  I am sure you will get more soon.

Keep it up!

I mentioned that I specialize in crafting Win/Win deals.

The art of the sale is such, that a *successful* transaction is one where both the buyer and seller are pleased with the results and both feel like they received good value.

When you have me be your GBEC, you're not just getting a world class IT Specialist, you're also getting the benefit of about 30 years of selling experience having started out as a teen by selling magic tricks in my father's old magic shop, Kauai Magic. You think selling Bitcoin Mining machines that mine digital gold is hard? Try learning a bunch of magic tricks then learn how to sell those magic tricks to other kids. Then you have to teach *them* afterwards. That'll teach patience.

Here's an example of a Win/Win deal I crafted:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-Butterfly-Labs-5GH-s-Jalapeno-Bitcoin-Miner-PREORDERS-Cert-ETA-Late-Sept-/130962790801?hash=item1e7dfd9991

Yes, an ebay BFL preorder. I ordered with them for my first pre-order before I knew how many issues they were facing. Eventually coming to my senses I realized that I was stuck with the preorder that would likely arrive obsolete but I wanted to free up those funds without going to war against BFL/PP. Knowing I had an item, a BFL preorder, that some people were willing to pay extra money for to jump ahead in the queue, I wrote up this preorder agreement.

Please note how it's written. It's written in such a way that I'm covered and the buyer is covered; if BFL doesn't ship in late Sept., and the buyer seeks a refund in Oct/Nov, all I have to do is have AMEX do a chargeback and I refund the buyer with my BFL refund. If BFL ships, he wins & I wins. If they don't ship & he goes for a refund, he loses ~$100 (I charged a 15% restock fee for this) and I lose ~$100. I think that these are the types of deals that do well in this new BTC economy.

You can look at many of life's situations and see it as: "the glass is half full" or "the glass is half empty". Since attitude affects your altitude in life, I try to choose a "half full" mentality where we can attempt to make lemonade out of lemons.

So for this transaction its either Win/Win or Lose/Lose, there's no real Win/Lose option on this transaction...except that I turned a negative (a BFL refund) into a net positive that could earn me an extra $100, but at least it allowed me to free up funds for what I see are more promising mfgs.

In the planning stages, for my Escrow+ Services, this is the kind of deal making and thought process I will walk you through so that we can create a Win/Win Group Buy where everyone feels much better protected against scams & fraudulent behavior.

Update: Alright! I have my first client! Thank you to BeepBeep2 for allowing me to serve as your Group Buy Escrow Coordinator. I'm happy and proud that I can help you, from what I've seen in our PMs you seem to have the right intentions and believe in the BTC economy. I've already been giving mentoring services for free to him & have done my best to try to guide and mentor him the right way, just like my mentors helped guide me the right way.

Hey firstimeuser,

Welcome to this thread and thanks for joining my new co-op, "The little co-op that could."

Yes, there's landmines that abound everywhere in Group Buys. My goal in starting this thread is to offer new services and to discuss ways and means in which we can make this Group Buy forum an easier, more welcoming place to use for both buyers and sellers, where scams and illegal behavior are reduced to almost nil.

I think being a lifelong surfer who's had multiple close calls does give me an advantage over non-surfers when dealing with high pressure situations and making quick decisions in a split second when dealing with literally hundreds of variables such as tide, water depth, wind, how the wave is behaving and breaking, and even other surfers in the way. Surfers use a lifetime of ocean knowledge to judge water conditions and safety. In Heavy Water, we have to be able to instantly be able to make split decisions that could litterally kill us or maim us for life (which does show up in the thread below):

I once wrote 4 years ago:

"I'm fascinated by life & death decisions & the little circumstances that could mean all the difference in the world. I have a theory that your average surfer (not your beginner or dabbler) has better survival mechanisms than your average person. We know what it's like to deal with an ocean that can & will kill you. 'Er once noted that every wave rider has to conquer 3 fears simultaneously: Fear of Big Waves, Being Eaten Alive & Drowning. To those I would add that the fear of serious injury & paralysis must also be overcome, or at least, dealt with for every avid wave rider. For these reasons, I think we're better equipped to deal with emergencies."

http://forum.surfermag.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1544549&page=0&fpart=all&vc=1 (NSFW: language, morbid reality)

I believe that I'll be able to tell very quickly who has good intentions and who doesn't. Besides, I'll be controlling the ordering/shipping details, so even if some scammer still makes it past my BS filter, they still have to deal with the group being comfortable with the host/colo site & I will make it a requirement that new GBCs *must* have collateral held in escrow for miner payouts.

==========

My goal is to make it so that doing an escrow Group Buy here will have *greatly* reduced risks for GBCs thinking about how to handle buyer risk, and Group Buyers who are concerned about losing their shirt to a scammy GBC and want to minimize risks with escrow/coordination services, when possible. I hope to build up enough trust here that I can be a "go to" person to help you plan your GB, address buyer concerns, and set up a separate escrow wallet for your GB from which I will both order equipment from and have equipment shipped to a group approved (majority decision) hosting or colocation site.

I would go to GBCs and you know.. talk
btw
It's a dangerous business, I think..

Thank you! I'm not quite finished setting the bait   but... thanks! Please do keep me in mind if you're thinking about organizing a GB. Know that I would treat your funds & your GB like I would treat my own mother: with kid gloves.

Good luck with your new service. I'll keep you in mind in the future

Canary!

Welcome and hello! I'm DZ & I'm looooong on BTC. John K. is holding my AM shares as collateral for a few months on this GB at the moment. Which, BTW, is a very good free tip and approach for any would be Group Buy Coordinator (GBC).

I will take the liberty to just shorten the term to GBC. I'm here because every conduit of B2B and B2C sales need some methods and ways to reduce pain for both buyers and sellers. I intend to offer services tailored especially for GBCs such as yourself, and would be GBCs with good intent.
Thank you for chiming in, your input and advice is very much appreciated. I will take your words under very serious advisement. I intend to carve out my own niche as a Group Buy Escrow Coordinator, or GBEC, for short. This Escrow+ Services I'm offering would include coaching the promising GBC prospects to polish their pitch and help address concerns that buyers would have. I used to tutor English/Math in college, so patient teaching comes easy for me. Once the escrow has begun, I would have to then switch from coach that hopes they do well to non-biased arbiter-mode. Yes, I wish you well but I have to do what's best for the Group Buyers if you mess up or try to scam others.

It shouldn't surprise you by now that I'm already offering this service for free in private to a promising yet impatient young lad that's ambitious, perhaps too ambitious and aggressive. But he seems to be passionate and seems to have a good heart.

1. About the fact of who's attempting a GB: I'm doing my best to sell my package of services I'm literally developing on the fly. However, when all is said and done, whether I work as a trusted agent of John or strike out on my own, GBCs and new GBCs will have to convince *me* that their proposal is a sound plan; that it will be worth my time & effort to escrow and help shepherd their project to completion. A quick background check of the person will be necessary. I may go on LinkedIn to check: length of membership on site, endorsements (if any), and professional contacts (if any). I hate to say it because I don't want to muzzle free speech, but even their posting history could play a role.

Fortunately, I'm a speed reader (and typist) who once read Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising in a 24 hour period. It helps when you've had as many various tech. certifications I've earned over the years in a huge array of different Information Technologies necessary to keep a Research lab functional.

Scammers will try to game the system. It's what they do because they're the human version of cockroaches that don't seem to realize that if they spent *half* the amount of energy that they spent scamming people & instead applied that to trying to get a real job, they'd probably make twice the money without the risk of jail time! Take for instance this member: fracta15.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/wts-butterfly-labs-60ghs-asic-miner-in-hand-and-ready-to-ship-267600

I helped chase him away from Coingig after contacting Kenneth Metral, a very friendly and helpful Admin at [email protected] and I've made comments warning other people in two of his threads when I saw him trying to scam people. I then followed up with leaving multiple comments at BTC Classifieds, esp. when he set up 3 sock puppet accounts to try to pimp his rating (since I trashed it). I found out a vulnerability in BTC Classified's trust system, be it as it may, has a weakness built-in that allows a scammer to cover their evil tracks by simply burying the criticism with fake accounts. He countered my multiple warnings there by creating a veritable platoon of sock puppets all created on the same day somehow that claimed he magically had delivered his so-called goods to them...even though many of them have been there 0, 2, or 6 days, much too short in many cases for a shipment to have arrived.
 
http://www.bitcoinclassifieds.net/profile/3900/

So getting back to any potential GBC scammers (because this has sadly happened on this forum before). Essentially, I'd be taking a risk on the GBC on new transactions, and they would have to prove to me that they're worthy of trust, can take criticism, provide value to the community, and can put up resources/valuables that will *make* them behave.

So yes, GBCs I work with will have to be vetted and I'm willing to be the one that helps vet them to assure the community that they appear to be who they say they are and that *someone* here knows their real ID & address if something goes awry for whatever reason.

2. Web portal for GB escrow? Brilliant! Thank you for the tip! I'll be sure to compensate you properly if something comes of it. That is invaluable advice from someone in your unique position as a reseller & GBC. Since BTC is open source, and the spirit of it is meant to be open source, would anyone with some programming experience be interested in working with me on this as a side project? [Doesn't hurt that many great ideas started as side projects ]

I could def. kludge something together simple & sweet (but still relatively secure) for now to get started but there are some serious security concerns to just jumping into offering this .com-type of services; you wouldn't want to have everyone's private gripes be easily hackable or reachable. That aint' right and it would also kill all or most potential future business IMO.

Thanks to a long & healthy IT career helping everyone from rocket scientists & DARPA engineers from MIT-LL, Sandia, NASA JPL, Stanford, & on Mauna Kea, I'm fortunate to know some programmers but am open to working with programmers here that actively support the BTC economy. If no one steps up, I'm also fortunate that a friend and former colleague of mine (who left me an endorsement on LinkedIn) happens to have been an early Oracle employee; like number 5 or 6. He does owe me a few favors since I give him free IT support.

A+ for effort...
It depends on who's selling/organizing a group buy...

Create a simple, fool proof, no nonsense escrow.com-ish system for btc instead...

More to follow but I mentioned on Page 5 of my GB thread in OT comments that I won the first National Internet American Football Championship in 1997 well before there was a Madden champ. Here's my proof:

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll87/SurfSkateKauai/IMG_1861R.jpg
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll87/SurfSkateKauai/IMG_1862R.jpg
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll87/SurfSkateKauai/IMG_1865-2.jpg

So why should you trust me? That's a great question you should be asking even with all the links I've shown you. I *could* still be a scammer!

Well, remember how I said John K. of John K. Escrow Services has vetted my ID & has done a background check of his own? If I were to defraud someone or a group in a deal, any deal, all you (and any other people involved) need to do is send your evidence to John K. at:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/john-john-k-31288

Collateral: Wait a sec... I'm the one that's offering manual escrow support but here I am talking about collateral? Yes, in any trade or group buy on this forum I help arrange, my collateral will be the best collateral of all: MY JOB. MY FREEDOM.

If I, personally, were to defraud you or a group, John being a man of integrity would have no choice but to turn over his findings to the relevant national and international authorities. He knows my real ID, my real address, & phone number. If this were to happen from THIS account, *I* would be fully co-operating with any and all authorities to get my damn account back and clear my name. Let's be clear. I love my job. It's already a dream job because I'm paid well to just be myself & I can work from home - on Kauai no less! - if I'm not feeling well. I also like being able to feed the kids, pay for gas, etc., etc.. not only would my freedom be taken away, I could never work again in the Aerospace industry, which would pretty much devastate me.

I've already let John know about my intentions and that I have no intentions to replace him. Instead, I'd prefer to help him. I hope to do grunt work for him to help facilitate things in a non-sensitive manner - at this time - so that he can better manage his time. If he's not interested, well, we live in a capitalist society with free will & I do have the gumption to put my okole & rep on the line to help this forum & our BTC economy grow & thrive. If you insist, I'll even put a negotiable bond up with John K., or your choice of escrow service, that I'll behave on my end of the deal; at least, while I try to establish myself here as a Group Buy facilitator/expediter/arbiter.

I plan to offer my services for this to Group Buy Coordinators and would-be Group Buy Coordinators with good intentions and a war chest of some sort, for collateral & to facilitate/expedite things.

I'm an ambitious man. For crying out loud, at one point I worked as a student intern at a rocket test facility killing wasps with cans of RAID when I was bored and had nothing left to do, to gladly taking on more responsibility and becoming a Sr. E-Tech of the same historic facility where most of our country's most important BMDS testing occurs in a span of just a few short years.

Telemetry data, video, and launch/abort commands are sent on a copper/fiber MAN that I designed/installed/and supervised the installation of, with the help of other technicians, interns, and other specialists like heavy equipment operators & electricians. Even though it spans hundreds of acres, it's small for a rocket test facility but it's been instrumental in validating our AEGIS BMDS, and other elements of it, which has far ranging geopolitical effects. Some of the most cutting edge T&E in BMDS occurs there. At KTF I also learned to work really well with small technical teams and served as a technical liaison to the rest of PMRF for various e-infrastructure services.  During Launch Countdowns sometimes I would have to troubleshoot problems with various e-resources along with our launch partners so that Program Managers who manage billions of dollars worth of programs would stop complaining to me about IT resources for launch ops or telemetry data they may need to do, so that they can do their job that they flew thousands of miles across the ocean to do (but, hey, no pressure, right?).

=========

Over 5 years ago, I then went on to be a successful and still successful Network Engineer with a "design" hat - among many other hats - where I get to design RAID arrays and other fun stuff like high speed NASes, long range P2P wireless field networks, mesh networks, etc., etc.. I'm also an honorable man, not perfect, but I try my best to remember that what you put out comes back to you, and that any harm caused to others tends to rebound back 10000X-fold.

I intend to offer tailored services just for the GB Forum...well, at least for now, I did admit I'm an ambitious man (don't worry though, I don't take myself too seriously).  

(more info to follow)  

From working with him, I really like John K. & I'm not trying to replace him (and couldn't hope to try to replace him). I just hope to provide additional value and services to this particular Group Buys forum in the form of manual escrow support for Pre-order Group Buys of ASIC hardware so people don't have to struggle to set up or finish an Escrowed pre-order Group Buy if/when John is too busy.

As you can see from my first Group Buy I ever coordinated (link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=274055.0;all )which just concluded & is awaiting John to arrange payment, I tried to go above & beyond for my fellow miners, even sticking my neck out for others, and denying myself a larger share of our co-op's miner by floating 6 shares for 3 other people that were paid via PayPal (normally a huge no-no but chargebacks weren't a real issue in this particular transaction with payouts not due till November/December (if there's delays)). Fraud on my part as the BTC buyer via PayPal ruins the GB, loses the collateral, loses upfront fees already paid, in addition to probably losing at...well..life. That's the kind of risk any GBC must *have* to take on behalf of their Group Buyers, to take part in an Escrowed Group Buy and any possible BTC for PayPal related transactions for a Group Buy.

Here's the public statement of ownership on the blockchain transaction in question which accounts for 4 out of 6 PayPal purchased BTC shares for 3 other people):

https://blockchain.info/address/1C5R7t1XdVPxUBFUnBWJnRPx7ZMZBgnv7L

This risky *but escrowed* PayPal for BTC coin still had risks involved but the fact that the GBC (me, in this case) had BTC (as well as my job/freedom) on the line as collateral if something fraudulent happened, helped to mitigate risk. Nothing happened. In this case. Keep in mind the individual transactions were less then the BTC bond in question so that if something fraudulent *did* happen on the part of a dishonest GBC, that buyer would be reimbursed for his troubles and every other buyer would get reimbursed, the scammer would be gone, and life would go on, no harm, no foul - except for a slight hit on the GBEC's reputation for letting someone past his BS detector & vetting process.

In this way, a PayPal *for* BTC transaction *does* become possible under these limited circumstances. This is because a chargeback on the BTC buyer doesn't do them any good for shares on a miner that's two or more months from arriving! Besides, if they were to try a fraudulent chargeback even after 45-60 days+, they'd be cut off from deposits immediately, they'd be cut off from resale shares of our mining rigs, have their reputation here ruined, and have their shares quickly gobbled up by other co-op owners who have had time to replenish their war chests! Win for all!

If you look at my posting history here, on Reddit, or on the SurferMag BB (user: KauaiDKer) I think and hope that you'll find someone that comes across as friendly and helpful to nearly all. Some examples (This is really me. I haven't had some sort of strange, long term plan to fool the rest of the world so I could one day steal strangers Bitcoins):


http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1jr7ql/help_with_bitcoin/cbhp2sj
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1jzv99/77_btc_wheres_mikey_from_the_life_cereal/
http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMining/comments/1jqwu0/2k_to_invest_need_help/cbhpqe2
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1jcdjl/thailand_has_become_the_first_country_to_ban/cbdlnsz (telling off someone that called 50K BTC using redditors "dumb". I don't argue very much online but sometimes you have to stand up for things you believe in.)
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1jcdjl/thailand_has_become_the_first_country_to_ban/cbdmkxp
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ka8kp/iama_99_year_old_woman_who_helped_her_mother_make/cbn16qb

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2885657 (Gotta learn somehow, I guess)
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2861926
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2859428
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2887477
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2880927
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2880206 (Long on BTC, Short on PP)
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2900463
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2899836
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2920769
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/aug-2013-asic-miner-survey-how-are-you-approaching-this-gold-rush-272565 (went to various forums & invited ASIC/GPU/FPGA miners, mining speculators, and Group Buyers to have balance in this Aug. 2013 miner's poll)
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/logic-of-a-group-buy-and-escrow-protection-for-noobs-274722 (Logic of Group Buys and Escrow protection (for noobs))

- If you haven't seen my GB thread for a HashFast or Cointerra Miner, I've already had my ID, background, & LinkedIn profile vetted by John K. in preparation for my first Group Buy. I'm a former Senior Electronics Technician of a rocket test facility and a current IT Network Engineer at a world class R&D lab working on a number of cutting edge technologies that are still at the "lab" or "early field prototype" stage. It's not something I brag about in casual conversation: "Hey Tom! Nice shirt! Reminds me of that time when I was launching rockets and..."

Here's some pics and stories from my old job:

http://forum.surfermag.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1373159
http://forum.surfermag.com/forum/showthreaded.php?Number=1373957&page=0
http://s286.photobucket.com/user/SurfSkateKauai/library/?sort=3&page=1

- Me & the missus have a perfect rating of 160 (so far) at ebay for over 10 years with me in the role of her IT buyer/reseller:

http://myworld.ebay.com/rainbowlady03

- Lastly: Karma. I'm a strong believer in it. What we sow, we reap no matter what culture you come from.

I promise that in any arbitration I'll side with the person or group that has the strongest evidence and the least scammy behavior. I work hard to come up with deals that are Win/Win for everyone as I truly believe that as one 99 year old British vet said recently on Reddit, might be paraphrasing: "We're all the same people just separated by different flags."

Please leave your thoughts & feedback below. I feel that this is a niche where I can provide value and service to others. Since I am new to this, if you do decide to have me be your GB Escrow Coordinator, I will offer my rates at a 10% discount for a limited time. I promise to be responsive & to get back to you within 12-24 hours unless I'm deathly ill or incapacitated.

Just putting this out as a feeler. I really don't need to go around stealing people's BTC when I get paid an engineer's salary just to be myself. If I get no responses in a couple of weeks, I'll shelve it. However, if anyone's interested I promise to treat your Group Buy, the people involved, and the funds involved, with all the integrity they deserve.

Cheers!
DZ

John K. is a busy man. He's helped put BTC escrow on the map and every BTC escrow service owes a debt to him. We're lucky to have him!

Alas, he's but one man and there's all kinds of BTC deals going on all over this new digital marketplace. I'm exploring the option of providing my own escrow services just for Group Buys. Please PM me if you're interested in having me coordinate an escrow for your Group Buy. I find the nature & dynamic of GBs to be fascinating and a completely logical response for some wily miners to hedge their bets against runaway network difficulty and to spread/hedge their purchases with strong bets among various manufacturers and Group Buys.

I promised my miner's co-op that I wouldn't consider coordinating other Group Buys to focus on ours, but that shouldn't stop me from trying to help others coordinate their Group Buys - as long as it doesn't detract from my job as GB Coordinator / Miner Admin for the co-op. Of which, I've offered co-admin rights to the other largest share owner in the co-op in the unfortunate event that I'm hurt or incapacitated so that the show, or in this case, the miner payments, can go on.

Since I'm a man of many hats, and I'm a natural at organizing projects, online and offline, being a Group Buy Escrow Coordinator sounds like something I'd like to try and it seems like a niche I can fill that would be beneficial here.

Please read below if you'd like to have me escrow a Group Buy for you. This would involve having me serve as a neutral 3rd party and arbiter that would handle all requisition funds in an escrow wallet for the group, as well as ordering and shipping details to a group approved hosting or colocation facility.