On 04/27/2014 12:04 AM, Robert Jakob wrote:
>
> So, let's say hypothetically the open-source community works out all
> the bugs and the software is rock-solid and unhackable. The TradeNet
> is competing with well established companies with loyal venders and a
> pretty hard-core customer base. Inherently the consumer doesn't like
> change unless you give them a good reason. Such as, better price,
> superior product, convenience, better customer service, etc... So
> let's say you're the consumer and you want to buy a toaster, but you
> don't feel like going to the store and you don't need it right now.
> So you go online, you have several options: Ebay, Amazon, Overstock,
> Craigslist, BestBuy, Sears, and the TradeNet. Let's say you already
> have your assets in bitcoin. So we won't even factor in time to
> convert fiat to bitcoin. So you decide to buy your toaster using
> bitcoin from TradeNet. It's maybe delivered a week later. You plug
> it in and nothing happens. Now you have to contact the vender, but
> the vender get's hundreds of emails, ships thousands of products per
> week, they're just not able to respond to your defective toaster
> problem. You have very little recourse. You can post negative
> feedback, but you won't be able to get your money back. Ultimately,
> you've wasted your time and money on a defective toaster and that's
> not even malicious.

For some thoughts on how buyers and sellers could mitigate the risk of
unsatisfactory transactions of that kind, I recommend Justus Ranvier's
whitepaper on Lex Cryptographia:

http://bitcoinism.blogspot.com/2013/12/lex-cryptographia.html

One way is through the surety bonds described in the whitepaper.

> So you just have to ask, what is the advantage of using TradeNet? No
> taxes, anonymity, and it's unregulated.

I agree that one of the competitive advantages will be a lack of taxes,
in the not-so-near future when this becomes feasible and scalable.
Remove the taxes that take place at virtually every step of production,
and stuff gets cheap REAL fast. This is especially true when parties are
forced to compete in a coercion-less, global market, rather than being
co-opted by organized criminals after state prohibition.

-Kristov