Using social credit to facilitate true p2p Bitcoin exchange
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Loading ...Someone (Mr. X) just posted on our Facebook group:
“This is a gentlemen’s agreement between me and Mr. Y that I owe him this amount of bitcoins, and he owes me that amount of ILS.”
Mr. Y then answered to this post by saying he agree.
This simple protocol is based on the concept of social credit. People care what people think about them, and wouldn’t want anyone to claim they are cheaters. This sort of protocol could easily be automated into a distributed exchange like Localbitcoins. All it requires is Facebook/Twitter integration, and thus the ability to prove that a certain real person is committing to an exchange with certain terms.
You can often validate in Facebook that a profile you’re trading with is indeed a real person, simply by checking your mutual connections. This is not a 100% guarantee of course, but it’s a good way to set the price in advance for a short while, until a proper meeting where the different currencies can be exchanged.
Eyal B:
Interesting concept.
7/11/13, 9:58And how is non-repudiation handled in this case, particularly claims by the recipient for not having received the goods?
ripper234:
The idea is that is something goes wrong in the deal, the reputation of both parties suffer, because it’s difficult to prove who is at fault.
Since reputation is so important today, parties have little incentive to cheat in such a system.
7/11/13, 11:24