Topic: [SOLD] 100 BTC for $1365 USD paid by bank wire to US account - page 2. (Read 1523 times)

I think you know this already, but I'll point it out for anyone who hasn't thought it through...

If this transaction occurs as you've offered it, it will be because you have a significant reputation allowing others to send the bitcoin while maintaining a reasonable belief that they will receive the $1365 transfer.  Clearly, without such a reputation, there would be a significant reluctance to send bitcoin directly to the person making the offer.  Escrow would substantially reduce the reluctance, but only if both parties could agree on a trustworthy third party.  There is opportunity for collusion between one party of the transaction and the escrow facilitator.

If I had the 100 Bitcoins, I'd have taken you up on this offer already.  Unless the mtGox exchange rate increases significantly I suspect that someone will take up your offer before the deadline (especially if the mtGox rate decreases at all creating an arbitrage opportunity).

I assume that if someone skips rule 1, then you will still honor rule 4?

I assume that if someone ignores rule 5, that you will contact them to obtain a refund address and send back the coins received?

Please note: this offer has been claimed and, as explained, is no longer valid.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

This offer is an experiment, just to see how the community will react to it.
Nevertheless, it is real.

December 11, 2012.

I, Mike Caldwell, hereby offer to buy 100 Bitcoins for $1365 US Dollars, paid by US bank wire to
a US bank account within 2 business days, to the first person who accepts it by sending me the Bitcoins
as described below.

The Bitcoin address for this transaction is: 1A9XvW47SbJQjdyyxNKwGZfUfeec34j5nM
See activity: http://blockchain.info/address/1A9XvW47SbJQjdyyxNKwGZfUfeec34j5nM
As long as there is no activity on this address that indicates someone else has accepted it,
and as long it has not expired as explained below, my offer is valid and unclaimed.

To accept this offer, send 100 bitcoins, but first:

1. Please check the address to ensure that the offer has not already been claimed.
2. You must be able to prove you are the owner of the Bitcoin address(es) that sent the payment.
Either you need to be able to sign messages with it, or move an arbitrary number of coins sent to it
upon request.
3. You must be able to accept a US (domestic) wire to a US bank account.  I will cover my costs to
send the wire, you must cover any costs you incur in receiving it.
4. The first person who pays the above address (as determined by the BlockChain.info first-seen
timestamp) is the person whose Bitcoins I am buying.  If more than one person accepts the offer,
I reserve the right to choose to either give a refund or to perform the same transaction with the
additional parties.
5. This offer is for 100 bitcoins at a fixed price.  Any payment that is not 100 BTC in a single transaction
will not be deemed an acceptance of this offer.
6. This offer unconditionally expires at 18:00 UTC on December 13, 2012 if not accepted before then.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.17 (MingW32)

iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJQyB1HAAoJEFou6PHxF1ojCeIH/RQgdLvgmzXhljz8yOvwxGTG
Wx8DfpX8Lq8emGWjIK87+u96ZBUipQL9rJZ0lRY7PKCEWycaRu9fmkwmq+XPc+Vd
sLf32pXay1DzKAa2aPXYH2I7gLlQu6/VqOZyCiBuVZtvX+7F5xdaDpurU9MfN1pZ
JCgITq9MVoSUb23JKWYv5ZDRRRw+i/hXUjo4Iz3wdQfuO8vz4vN/OESssP2ehBy9
ubwjyv3q4ULXgPuzRdWkFKRqZJL9eCVA/+mJNpGj7fjmFN6ff40xK2i/UhUjzzzo
GZpCq+Ad5fBClugyyTjc0jdM4G9tPNV4iB8/knGJYDq8KDjWqUvXWPmO+/Ld8sY=
=SYmV
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Please note: this offer has been claimed and, as explained, is no longer valid.

Safety first.  Always verify the PGP signature before accepting any offer that says "accept this by sending me bitcoins".

Anyway, what I hope to learn, and topics I'm interested in generating discussion about, by making an offer like this:

1. Will this offer get accepted before it expires, and if so, how long will it take?  (the offered price equals MtGox Last at the time of making the offer)
2. Is this really a viable way for me to exchange bitcoins?  (By all accounts, I'm a well-known and trusted member of the community)
3. Is this really a viable way for others to exchange bitcoins? (Including others who aren't well-known)
4. What do others see as the biggest risk to me and others by transacting in this way?
5. If this is a way that works for me but not others due to disparity in reputation, to what extent would it be different if an escrow function were involved?  (I am presently working on an escrow-related idea.  For the purposes of this topic, let's assume this means two parties to a transaction could nominate a third party and give him the ability to reliably control which of the two will get the bitcoins in the event of a dispute, leaving the bitcoins unspendable in the meantime.  This escrow would be done with crypto so the agent will never handle the bitcoins and can never touch or take the bitcoins.  Also the two parties can always release bitcoins to each other without any assistance from the escrow agent, so the escrow agent disappearing is not a problem, and the only bad thing the escrow agent could ever really do would be to release the funds the wrong way.)