Quote from: Zangelbert Bingledack on May 23, 2013, 05:20:33 PM

Quote from: CypressXM on May 23, 2013, 03:33:21 PM

Moving fiat is the ONLY problem that matters...and it's an impossible problem atm. So let these threads die with dignity.

I can see why moving fiat P2P is hard, but why impossible?

It seems you could at least have meeting-less localbitcoins.com as long as

you can set up a fiat money transfer with unique ID that states where the money is to go
you can publicly prove you initiated the ID'd transfer (fiat money on its way, shown on bank website, etc.)
failure to initiate the transfer within a certain number of minutes/hours would also be public

If Alice wishes to purchase BTC from Bob, the process for a trustless, meeting-less trade would be:

1) Alice draws up a money transfer ID at bank, etc., and informs Bob of the details but does not actually send it yet
2) Bob puts the BTC into escrow with the P2P software, which uses an oracle to monitor the bank website for posting/cancellation of the transaction
3) If the transaction is posted (because Alice actually initiated the transfer), the oracle releases the BTC from escrow to Alice
4) If the transaction ID times out, the oracle releases the BTC back to Bob

Alice can't cheat, Bob can't cheat, Alice can't lose, Bob can't lose. The coins only move if the fiat moves. Note how the bank is unwittingly the trusted party, though it has no knowledge that it's being used as such. It depends on the bank generally disclosing the right information in a reliable manner.

If this can't work, how about cash via certified mail? Any financial service that offers public tracking records that can be checked by the recipient. If there is just one service that offers such a thing, this seems possible.

Even assuming Alice and Bob were honest and could directly send funds via bank transfer, paypal, etc with no worries.... this version of p2p exchange is fatally flawed and not a suitable replacement for Mt. Gox.

1) The transaction fees would be high.
2) Alice or Bob would have to transact with many different people unless their order sizes were identical (unlikely)
3) It would be slow as every exchange would require a bank transfer (no day trading or even weakly trading).
4) Buy/Sell spreads would be high because the exchange was so slow.

I am a little disappointed that so few people have taken time to understand or consider my approach for creating an interest-bearing crypto-USD (EUR,Gold,Etc) that has no counter party risk and would allow near-instant exchanges as frequently as one desires as well as USD-denominated transfers between users. I believe it solves all of the problems with moving fiat around in a decentralized manner. Please consider my thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=213588.0 and help me find weaknesses and ways to improve it.