Silk Road forums

The way hedging works is that you and a vendor agree on a price in USD for the transaction. So, if you're buying a $5.00 item when BTC is worth $1.00, you commit 5 BTC.

When you finalize or cancel, the vendor (or you, for a cancellation) receives an equal amount of BTC to whatever the equivalent price is in USD. If BTC had risen to be worth $5.00, then when you finalized the vendor would only get 1 BTC and SR would keep the difference. If BTC had fallen to be worth $0.50, then the vendor would have gotten 10 BTC and SR would have covered the difference.

Make sense?

Hedging basically guarantees that you will get a fixed amount of USD when the transaction is finalized or cancelled based off the current average price on Mt. Gox, regardless of fluctuations during the duration of the transaction.

^^ This. 

There's not a lot you can do other than to report the vendor using the "Report this vendor" link on their profile.  Unfortunately, if they've scammed you, there's no way to get your money back because these transactions don't happen in the escrow system and therefore are not supported by SR.

I will pass this along to DPR.

Are you asking about an order you've received and finalized on?  If so, you don't receive money back for changes in BTC on successful orders.  Otherwise, what if the rate went the other way - would you want more btc taken out of your wallet?  I wouldn't think so. 

Unless there's something I'm missing?  Escrow hedging only affects buyers in cases of cancellation or refund, I believe.

Thanks for the link!

What was the username?  "Silk Road" ?

SR can ban the vendor as long as he is reported as a scammer by using the "report this vendor" link on his profile.

Once there is enough proof that he has, indeed, scammed people, he will be banned.

Did you stay in escrow?  If so, you will be able to take it to resolution and ask for a refund.  If, however, you finalized early, there is nothing SR Support can do.