appreciate that.  i'm not happy it took that long, either, but the longer i am in this particular industry, the more i see all of the places where things can and do go wrong.

again, the reason i stick my name on businesses i am a part of is specifically to put my reputation on the line.  i regret putting my name on all of the various bitcoin businesses i've been a part of (i'm an anarchist, but i've learned in the past 2 years that most of us are scammers), but i will continue to promote bitcoin and get beyond these messes, although i am now no longer a privacy advocate and don't work with anonymous vendors, lol.

i also will never, ever, ever invest in businesses where the other partners/owners do not put their names on the line as well.  lessons: learned.

alright, here's the update.

1. i found two tickets from you on the 7bucktees site help desk under the coinsmiths category.  i swear that i did not get there.  this was 100% my fault, i had set up notifications incorrectly.  that has been corrected.  i was wrong, i can't seem to fix notifications for that category, so i am passing it off to my web developer.  but it will be corrected.

2. i made a paypal "friends and family" transfer of $14 to your paypal account, as mentioned in your help desk ticket.

3. i would offer to have your item produced, but i repossessed that laser machine from coinsmiths with one of the other partners, and then him and i split paths just this week, so i have no laser machine and doubt i will purchase one until spring.  i will inquire with others if i can have the item made elsewhere and shipped to you.

4. i'll issue i have issued you a $14 store credit to 7bucktees.  you are welcome to use it, dispose of it, give it away. 

sorry for the runaround.  it's not my way, and it won't become my way.  i just need something better for tracking problems, and the current methods aren't it.  that's why i am starting to at least give out my (google voice) phone number to new customers, and i am hopeful that i can at least be "in the know" when problems happen, which they will because the shop is 100% custom products.

chris, i logged into 7bucktees and i have no orders with your last name.  was it placed under a different last name?


nevermind, i re-read your post and see this is a coinsmiths order issue.  that's a totally separate business from 7bucktees.  i am invested in 5 print shops (and 2 more i'm investing in before 2015 in other states).  the equipment for coinsmiths was repossessed (by me, since I bought it) from the other "partners" recently and I moved it to 7bucktees to get them to either fulfill orders or to help with refunds.  i'm not sure why we dropped the ball here at all because i thought i set up a good help desk ticketing system.

unfortunately, while poking around the back end of my help desk plugin, i just noticed that the coinsmiths category on the site notifies...no one.   and there are 7 open tickets there, derp.

give me a few hours to see wtf i did wrong and i will come up with something positive as best as i can.  a refund, for sure (paypal is easier for me but if you want btc i can work to make it happen).  your order printed, for sure.  a store credit as well.

i really have faith in the process we have, i just have to learn from these mistakes so i can refine it better and better.  my teams this year have put 10,000 shirts on customers' bodies.  probably 5% of those are bitcoin purchases.  even so, when we have a 2% failure rate, that's 50-200 unhappy customers.  and that's where we fail, because i have no experience in customer relationships at this magnitude.

i am sorry, personally, and i want to fix this however i can.  not because you posted here, but because i'm serious about my drive to have a relationship with everyone i sell to, and not just be an anonymous internet vendor with a fancy domain name.

hey chris, i'm sorry for the lack of response.  no excuses.

7bucktees is just the tiniest sliver of what i do.  it isn't even a profitable venture for me, just something i've done to help friends get work, or to train out of work people in some new skills.

i'm nowhere close to the shop but i can be later today.  do you have my cell #?  i've been passing it on to customers lately when orders are made, just so they can ping me if someone at the other end screws up.  if not, PM me here and i can pass it on to you and make right on this order.

for a small shop, we do a LOT of orders.  what's worse is that i do a lot of firings also (2 people this week alone due to incompetence).  there's a reason i put my name on my businesses, though -- someone, in the end, has to be accountable.  that person is me.

Oh, I found the QR code, oops.

Here's the blockchain transfer: https://blockchain.info/tx/65958d456b2a2b160f0eb09e446b1851e40785ddba4af932b5976eca540e3a87

Looks like the Android blockchain app doesn't apply a fee, derp.  If it doesn't go through I'll resend it with a fee.  Never sent coin from blockchain app before.

Update: 2 confirmations, so all is good.

According to the Sean's Outpost Donation Log coinSMITHS.com is going to donate $60.80, and I am going to double that match to a total of $182.40

I need a QR code for Sean's Outpost please, and I will send the donation now on behalf of coinSMITHS.com

Works for me.

I'll be donating the BTC definitely before the end of the week.  We are still getting some orders for the "To The Moon" shirts, so if I can get a few more orders, I can donate quite a bit more BTC.  Plus I need to get to my offline wallet PC and transfer the fundage into my hot wallet, and I'm not back home til Wednesday night.

What kind of signs do you need made?  Material, size, etc?  We do signs as well and I might be able to convince my sign guy (he works for me) to volunteer some time.

I'm the founder and lead amateur designer over at 7bucktees and we've had quite a year of growth, profit and lessons learned.  When I started that site, I didn't do it to make a profit, I did it to troll and mock non-believers and learn a new industry for myself.

I've rolled the profits from that site into a new startup that has been going through about 5 months of alpha testing, two name changes, and is now ready to exit the alpha test stage.  That site is called coinSMITHS, an "open source" creative market website, similar to RedBubble or Zazzle or the rest.

Where we will differ is 4-fold:

1. We're offering very high commissions, starting at 33% and going all the way up to 70%, on each sale
2. All commissions will be paid in BTC, regardless of how the order was paid for (paypal, BTC, LTC maybe?)
3. We are open-sourcing our books nearly completely
4. True bitcoin-to-bitcoin wholesale supply chain/acquisitions of materials

The reason for this site's existence is to bring together 4 completely different markets:

1. artists internationally who can't easily transact with the mainstream creative markets
2. newcomers to bitcoin who aren't familiar with entrepreneurship and need a good taste of what it takes to run a business, profit-and-loss, etc
3. fulfillment companies nationally and internationally who want additional business
4. Expand the infrastructure of bitcoin employees to the international scope -- customer service agents, etc.

The first point is easy to comprehend: there are a lot of artists out there who aren't capable of selling on the big sites, and even the big artists might want to get paid in BTC.  The second point is about bringing an education to those interested in running a business for BTC or fiat.  Our books will be very open, posted on Google Docs for all to see and inquire about.  The last point is a "future project" -- I want to allow print shops to engage in bidding on zip codes and item types, and when the order is booked, the cheapest shop to the customer can have that order.  That's a big work in progress, and I don't expect it to happen any time soon, but it's a long-term goal.

In terms of commissions, we'll be doing something unique with our site: active vendors (those getting at least a sale a month) will be also sharing a "commission pool".  The commission pool is 5% of sales, plus 33% of sales from any designs originating from me or the website (designs without vendors/artists).  If someone comes and buys a Bitcoin Accepted Here wooden sign, 33% of that purchase goes into the commission pool to be shared with ALL active vendors equally.  As long as your product or products are selling, you'll qualify for your personal commissions (33%-66%) plus an equal portion of the commission pool.  All paid in BTC.

In terms of the bitcoin-to-bitcoin wholesale acquisitions of materials item, I have already negotiated with 2 of my Chinese suppliers to accept bitcoin as payment.  This is huge for me, although it's only a tiny portion of the materials we use on a weekly basis (less than 5% of my wholesale cost).  In 3 weeks, I head to India to talk to my cotton suppliers.  If I can get bitcoin into the supply chain on cotton goods, that's 25% of my wholesale cost.  In spring 2014, I am traveling to Western Europe to talk to a Baltic birch wholesaler for the same purpose -- bitcoin wholesale supply chain to the States.

I'm hoping there are people here who might be interested in some aspect of this site -- if you're an artist, sign up (I'm giving away the first 25-50 vendor accounts for free during the beta kick-off).  If you're a customer, order something.  If you're a wholesale supplier of hard goods, talk to me.

TL;DR -- I want to make bitcoin a business reality, from start to finish, and I want to disclose everything I do and earn openly.

I'm in for sure.

I'm already matching 100% a sales donation from one of my websites (see audit here) for some reddit-inspired t-shirt orders.  Happy to kick it up another 100% from the current marker for a total matched donation of 300%.  As for right now, the current site donation is $36.90 x my original match = $73.80 x my new match would = $147.60.  If any more sales come through before the donation deadline, I'll keep the meter climbing.

My previous site isn't my focus right now, I'm debuting a new site that I'd like to use as the sponsor.

Edit/addition: I'll also throw in 1-2 dozen long sleeve shirts to clothe the guests, printed with the Sean's Outpost logo for sure, and my logo somewhere discrete if acceptable.  That's another $120-$240 worth of donations, depending on what I can get in time to print and ship.

You can get more names from http://talkingbitcoin.com

The OP has no understanding of basic economics.

The value of any currency isn't "set" except by supply and demand.

100 years ago, you could buy a candy bar for $0.01.  Today that same candy bar is $1.00.  We didn't NEED to make the price more expensive, and it isn't more expensive at all, because the value of the US dollar has fallen 99x in 100 years.  So today's $1.00 is EQUAL to $0.01 from 100 years ago.

BTC will operate in the opposite fashion if it becomes widely used.  What costs 1BTC today might only cost 0.01BTC in 10 years, but the VALUE will be identical.

Regulations are fine for official business -- and probably even necessary.

But Bitcoin operates like cash does: it can be transacted legally ("white market") or illegally ("black market").

Bitcoin regulations will only cover the white market transactions.

Actually, I am working on a side project at one of my businesses that will be 100% BTC funded.

What we're doing is offering to buy used but in good condition white cotton (bedsheets or old shirts, whatever), launder them by hand (no fiat), cut them down by hand (no fiat), re-sew them into new shirts, print on them and have them ready for pickup.

I'll pay my labor guy in BTC (he already approved), and we'll only buy the cotton with BTC from locals via word of mouth and craigslist.

I think I can keep the entire chain in BTC, especially since we're working on our own ink manufacturing, too.

Of course there are fiat-bought tools that are in the mix, but these were puchased for cash long before BTC arrived on the scene.

How about one starting at US$7 or BTC? http://www.7bucktees.com/shop/bitcoin-the-honey-badger-of-money/

16 different colors.  Sizes Small through 5XL.

International shipping available.

Also: stickers coming in about 15 minutes.

Long time lurker, just signed up.

My credentials:

1. I own 2 ecommerce sites that accept Bitcoin and sell actual physical goods.

2. I use Bitcoin locally as a form of compensation when going out for dinner or drinks with friends and someone else pays.

3. I accept Bitcoin and have collected it for my business consulting operation.

4. I'm always looking for new entrepreneurial ideas and think BTC opens up markets I've never had access to before (International, etc).

Right -- a large stack of BTC is "demanding" dollars.  There is a much smaller stack of dollars "demanding" BTC.

When more individuals find ways to buy just 0.1 BTC a week efficiently, the sheer volume of small buy-trades should more than make up the power of a few large sellers. Which is good for buyers, sellers and holders.

The one area that few people in this particular debate topic focus on is the "left hand" of mining...

In mining, you need processing/calculating power, of course.  But that's not the full equation.  It's "how much power do we have" for "how much energy we put out."  The only reason ASICs are superior to GPU or even CPU mining is because of their speed PER kilowatt-hour.  You could theoretically have millions of CPUs still mining, but the power requirements make no financial sense.

The next step isn't about faster-than-ASIC, it's about less-power-than-ASIC.

I think instead of counting on faster and faster hashrates, you'll find more ASIC miners who switch to solar or wind energy for "free" energy.

To me, that will be where bitcoin mining finds its most profitable path -- no energy costs, high output.

I run two websites that accept BTC for payment for actual products.  We get, on average, about 1 purchase a day (only in our second month) via BTC.

I've used my BTC to purchase a cocktail at a bar (know the owner, showed him how it works), and also used it to get an electrical circuit run at my production warehouse (posted on Craigslist want ad, found 2 electricians interested in bartering for BTC).

Haven't used it for a purchase online though.  Yet.

Not much to see here -- there is lower demand to buy, and a higher demand to sell, so naturally the price goes down.

I figure if more individuals find easier ways to acquire BTC for their wallets, it may balance off the few wealthy individuals who are liquidating.

I am dedicated to BTC for the long haul, and I've proven that because I sell real, actual goods for BTC.  As more people spend it with me, I will even put a job ad out to hire a part timer for BTC payment -- again as proof of my dedication.

The more people that dedicate themselves to using it as a currency instead of an investment, the more powerful the long tail will be against the few wealthy.