Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: yutiro00 on January 14, 2013, 04:17 pm

Title: Vendors prices in line wtih bitcoin fluctuation?
Post by: yutiro00 on January 14, 2013, 04:17 pm
1st post. Sorry if its been discussed. It just seems that bitcoin prices keep going up, they never seem to go down. Was just wondering if vendors adjust there prices in view of this?
Title: Re: Vendors prices in line wtih bitcoin fluctuation?
Post by: eddiethegun on January 14, 2013, 04:57 pm
Yeah. Most listings are pegged to the USD (this is an option when creating an item listing) so the BTC price is dynamic -- it fluctuates with the exchange rate.
Title: Re: Vendors prices in line wtih bitcoin fluctuation?
Post by: Duckman on January 14, 2013, 05:06 pm
Yeah. Most listings are pegged to the USD (this is an option when creating an item listing) so the BTC price is dynamic -- it fluctuates with the exchange rate.

There currencies, other than USD, in the world....

Title: Re: Vendors prices in line wtih bitcoin fluctuation?
Post by: SelfSovereignty on January 14, 2013, 05:16 pm
Of course there are currencies other than USD.  But English is the most common language the world over, and most English speaking countries use USD.  We also seem to have an enormous influence on the world's economy (I find this very odd and don't know why, but the fact remains, USD seems to be a big deal to people even outisde of America).  So if you're going to implement one basic currency option before you get around (maybe soon, maybe never) to doing the rest... USD is the logical choice.

Edit: I'm sorry, when I say "use USD," what I mean is that it's not totally useless there.
Title: Re: Vendors prices in line wtih bitcoin fluctuation?
Post by: Duckman on January 14, 2013, 05:30 pm
Of course there are currencies other than USD.  But English is the most common language the world over, and most English speaking countries use USD.  We also seem to have an enormous influence on the world's economy (I find this very odd and don't know why, but the fact remains, USD seems to be a big deal to people even outisde of America).  So if you're going to implement one basic currency option before you get around (maybe soon, maybe never) to doing the rest... USD is the logical choice.

Edit: I'm sorry, when I say "use USD," what I mean is that it's not totally useless there.

There is no reason why other currencies haven't been implemented yet.

Its not even like the developers have their hands full because new features are very few and far between.

I could understand that if we were seeing new features every week or two, that the developers were simply working their way through a list and that other currencies were pretty low on that list. 

However most of the time the developers of SR dont really do anything.

The site is up and running, they are making money and they just aren't all that bothered.
Title: Re: Vendors prices in line wtih bitcoin fluctuation?
Post by: SelfSovereignty on January 14, 2013, 05:39 pm
I agree for the most part, but... well just take it from somebody who does work with computers for a living: SR is a very odd mix of things that obviously were implemented with tender loving care and the main goal being a good end product... yet also coupled with some things that are just a fucking mess and poorly designed and that nobody seems to fix or tidy up.

I mean I've just ended up not knowing wtf to think about the site development.  Some of it speaks very well of the people behind it.  Some of it speaks rather poorly.  But I think the most likely answer is that it's the best work of somebody with very little experience and very little desire to learn more than is necessary.  Given that, adding any new feature could be a major undertaking, because you aren't just adding a feature -- you're going back to the beginning almost to learn everything involved with not only the feature, but breaking that feature.  If you don't know very well what you're doing, you're likely going to fuck up badly and write bugs or holes into your products.

SR can't afford to ever make that mistake.  So features are few and far between.  I mean if you've never programmed or made websites before, and you have to take an entire 3 month course equivalent just to know you aren't writing in security holes... it's gonna suck to do, you're not gonna want to do it, and you're gonna put it off a lot.  Ya know.  Seems reasonable to me, I don't know.
Title: Re: Vendors prices in line wtih bitcoin fluctuation?
Post by: yutiro00 on January 14, 2013, 07:31 pm
Yeah. Most listings are pegged to the USD (this is an option when creating an item listing) so the BTC price is dynamic -- it fluctuates with the exchange rate.

Thanks. Thats just what I was after.
Title: Re: Vendors prices in line wtih bitcoin fluctuation?
Post by: pPharm on January 14, 2013, 09:23 pm
I think the reason for only using USD as opposed to the Euro or any other currency is that USD/BTC is the only market that is liquid enough to keep an accurate price. Illiquid markets can have prices jump around more easily which would cause a little bit of havok if 2 hours after getting coins sent in you need another chunk of BTC for something due to a drastic, short term change in price of BTC/Currency X. A few outlier sales in USD/BTC won't cause this unless they're huge, and even then.