Reputation ratings allow you to build up credibility for your account on Gliph. You can use them to help you make a decision as to whether you trust someone before completing a transaction with them.

You must complete a transaction using a listing in Gliph Marketplace to be able to assign reputation.

This means if a Bitcoin payment is involved, you must have a Coinbase or Blockchain.info wallet attached and use Deal Flow to make the payment.

If you already completed a transaction in Gliph Marketplace, you should already have received  an email allowing you to rate the other person or people you’ve interacted with. Transactions completed outside Gliph Marketplace will not offer a chance to set Reputation.

Gliph Profiles continue to become more useful, showing off information about another user’s Marketplace listings, Groups and Channels in common, whether they have a Bitcoin Wallet attached and now the reputation. This information is in addition to the personal data they’ve chosen to share publicly or privately with you.

This is a screen capture of the current live view of Cory’s Gliph Profile.

We’re excited to see Gliph identity coming into its own with so much useful information!

We’ll be monitoring Gliph reputation to prevent abuse and we plan to increase the depth of information available over time. If you haven’t, get a move on with listing something for sale in Gliph Marketplace to begin establishing your reputation today!

Check out Alex’s available Gliph Marketplace items here.

Alex sells physical Dogecoin and Bitcoin coins he makes by hand. After learning a little about his process we realized what a great story Alex has about why he uses Cryptocurrency and the view of crypto and tech in Romania. Below you’ll find a written interview with Alex along with photos of his process in creating physical Dogecoin.

Please tell us a little about yourself
I am an 17 year old guy, who’s passion is technology and sports. I am from Bucharest, the capital of Romania , a city that I hate and love at the same time.

My parents started 15 years ago in a jewelry factory. Today my father works on film props like swords, engraving and jewelry. [Ed note: Bucharest is a fairly common film location]

How did you get into bitcoin / cryptocurrency? What is your favorite part about bitcoin
My first encounter with cryptocurrency was one year ago, when a friend of mine, (a Reddit user like myself), found that “Dogecoin” thing that was at that time almost a joke. I didnt believe it until I downloaded the wallet. I love cryptocurrencys because it’s anonymous, it’s fast and easy. Everybody can use it!

And the Dogecoin community, its amazing, great people looking for fun! To the moon! Unfortunately, I created a sub on reddit for Romanian users of DOGE but it was a fail: nobody is using it.

What is the overall view towards crypto / identity and technology in greater Romania?
Romania is far from being a modern country: it is the poorest country in the European Union. After the revolution in 1989, Romania made one step forward, and 2 backward. Why? First of all, the education system is poorly founded.

Our politicians are stealing millions and going to jail and everybody is getting brainwashed at the TV by shows that promote all kinds of negative behavior. The Romanian church is contributing to Romania’s downfall, first, by naming even electronic ID cards “the devils eye”. They are building an 400,000,000 Euro cathedral in Bucharest. My school has a few 2005 computers, while hospitals are failing sick people who are going without meds.

What led you to making your dogecoin mold / creating physical Dogecoins?
After I found about it, I kept collecting free Doge from faucets, but that wasn’t enough. I wanted more, so I figured a way to take advantage of the community needs, and my resources. That’s how my physical coin was born. I was skeptical at first, but the community loved my coins and I made my Dogecoins that I spent supporting the community, like buying Steam games with it, donating and tipping.

Making a Physical Coin
We asked Alex to take us through the creation of a physical Dogecoin, and he supplied the following photo overview.

The mold and the Tin

This is the latex mold is built around a specific set of designs. Molten tin poured into the center of the top mold which has channels out to each design. The Dogecoin occupies a spot on the right, amongst shapes used for jewelry designs.

 After the tin has cooled, the foundation of the coin has been laid.

Polishing

The coin has rough edges after being removed from the mold.

The edges are polished smooth with this rotating.

Here is the smoothed out, but unpolished tin coin.

This tumbler polishes the coin.

Here’s the polished coin, ready for plating!

This is the galvanic bath where coins get plating.

This blue bath is for plating with Copper.

We want to thank Alex for taking the time to share his maker process and for his personal contributions to the growing cryptocurrency community. We’re also glad to have his custom work available in Gliph Marketplace.

]]> https://blog.gli.ph/2015/03/05/seller-spotlight-physical-dogecoin-making-by-alex/feed/ 0 https://blog.gli.ph/2015/03/03/3-cool-items-in-gliph-marketplace-for-under-10/ https://blog.gli.ph/2015/03/03/3-cool-items-in-gliph-marketplace-for-under-10/#comments Tue, 03 Mar 2015 15:26:49 +0000 https://blog.gli.ph/?p=1407 We’ve seen quite a variety of new items show up in Gliph Marketplace over the past week, and wanted to draw your attention a few lower cost items available.

Handmade Wood Beard Combs from Ukraine
New Marketplace seller Yarik has listed two types of handmade wood combs from Ukraine. The combs are made out of Bass wood and Beechwood, which is sourced from the Carpathian Mountains in eastern Europe. 

• “The Wave” Beard Comb – $8 USD in Bitcoin
• The Lunar Beard Comb – $7 USD in Bitcoin

Cat Lovers Nail Decals
New Marketplace seller Angela Dufour of New Brunswick, Canada has listed a few different slide-on nail decals in the Marketplace. These ship for free and are easy to apply.

• Cat Lovers Nail Decals – $6.99 USD in Bitcoin
• Rainbow Nail Art – $6.99 USD in Bitcoin
• Tiger Stripe / Zebra Stripe Nail Art – $6.99 USD in Bitcoin

Handmade Physical Dogecoins
Wow. Much coin. These coins are hand made in Romania and are made out of tin and plated with copper. They are perfect for fans of the only cryptocurrency to have sponsored the Jamaica Bobsled Olympics Team.

• Small Copper Dogecoin – $5 USD in Bitcoin
• Small Copper Bitcoin – $5 USD in Bitcoin

You can now browse all Gliph Marketplace listings on Desktop web here.

Updated Activity Sidebar
The Activity Sidebar (left side of the web app) now shows both recent conversations and the listings you’re actively engaged with in Gliph Marketplace.

You can also Create a Listing or add People or a a Connection or Group from the sidebar.

If you click Marketplace, you’ll be taken to Marketplace Home, which lets you view current deals and past deals you’ve engaged with in Gliph Marketplace.

Buy and Sell using your Laptop or Desktop Computer
You can now create, browse and purchase items from Gliph Marketplace using your laptop or desktop computer. You can take photos and start your listing using the Gliph app for iPhone or Android then finish editing the draft and publish it from your PC.

[Create Listing Screenshot]

When someone has responded to your listing, you can chat with them using the desktop web app. This means you can easily handle the sale of your items whether you’re sitting in front of your computer or on the go.

[Deal Flow Screenshot]

The same goes with buying from Gliph Marketplace. You can browse listings, start interacting with a seller and even complete payment in just a few steps all from the new Gliph desktop web app.

1. Log into your Blockchain.info wallet using a web browser.
2. Click Account Settings.
3. In the sidebar on the left, choose IP Restrictions.
4. Check the Checkbox for “Enable API Access”
5. In the form field for IP Address Whitelist, add Gliph’s IP address: 45.55.165.14.
6. Hit enter and you’re done!

Here is what that page looks like once you’ve performed these steps:

Connecting your Blockchain Wallet allows you to send and receive Bitcoin on Gliph. It also allows you to both buy and sell on Gliph Marketplace.

While both of these events impact people in the Bitcoin community in different ways, none of them got our team down more than a quote in an article about the Gliph Marketplace published yesterday.

In an article titled, Gliph Uses In-App Messaging, Bitcoin to Take On Craigslist, a quote was used that suggested the only reason we have been focused on Bitcoin is because investors like it. This quote was at best taken of the context it was used and simply can not be further from the truth. We’ve asked for it to be retracted.

Gliph’s roots are in protecting the privacy and communications of its users. We reached the idea of integrating Bitcoin because it provides private, secure and frictionless payments. We came to this conclusion long before Apple Pay existed and before the first dollar of investment from Bitcoin supporters went into the company.

We built Gliph Marketplace to specifically leverage Bitcoin, and believe that the global impact of having a great way to perform P2P transactions using the currency will be large. We believe this is particularly true in countries like the Philippines, where many people are unbanked or do not have access to traditional payment systems.

We also acknowledge that the Bitcoin currency is still in the early adopter days, and in some regions may not be as popular for general transactions as quickly as other digital payment methods.

For example, in the United States, Apple Pay has significant adoption advantages over Bitcoin. It has major retailers accepting it, along with direct integration into popular Apple products using Touch ID. As a result, Apple Pay is likely to gain traction in regular transactions more quickly than Bitcoin.

But Apple Pay’s potential does not minimize our belief in Bitcoin. We believe in Bitcoin. Not as a way to gain investment, but as something that is important to the world. We believe it will impact many lives and help rebalance global financial systems. We believe our products can make it easier to use and more common way to perform Bitcoin-based transactions.

Gliph’s CEO and co-founder has spoken out about the promise of Bitcoin and its impact regularly. Here are few videos that better express how and why we believe in Bitcoin:

• On the Future of Bitcoin (Interview given at Bitcoin 2013, first US Tradeshow for Bitcoin, May 2013)
• How Bitcoin is Being Used (Lecture given at Draper University of Heroes, February 2014)
• Privacy, Identity, and Innovation and Bitcoin (Panel given at Pii2014, December 2014)

Finally, given how early Bitcoin is, we believe Bitcoin users, builders and supporters are courageous and intrepid. We appreciate all of our Bitcoin users who have taken the time to try Gliph and provide feedback on how it can be improved.

We’ll keep listening and enthusiastically advocating for Bitcoin.

Today marks an important expansion of Gliph with the release of Gliph Marketplace: a new way to buy and sell locally using cash and the Bitcoin digital currency.

Our team has brought together secure messaging, transaction workflow and digital payments into an awesome new P2P transaction experience we call Deal Flow.

• Deal Flow helps you stay focused on completing a deal by integrating messaging and useful push notifications into the buying and selling experience. Gliph Marketplace has privacy built-in eliminating the distraction of “burner” phone numbers and “email gateways.”
• Deal Flow saves you time with intuitive listing status updates. For example, when someone is ready to buy something from you, the status moves from “Q&A” to “Offer Submitted.” Deal status updates ensure you have the most recent information so you can make the best decision with your time.
• Deal Flow earns you money faster by making digital payments an integrated part of the Gliph Marketplace experience. Once you’ve accepted an offer, paying for the item using Bitcoin is handled in a single tap.

You can view a complete video demo of Gliph Marketplace and Deal Flow here:

Gliph Marketplace Deal Flow on Android

Initial Release
Gliph Marketplace and Deal Flow are initially available on Gliph’s Android and mobile web applications. Desktop Web and iPhone versions are coming soon.

While waiting for the iOS update, iPhone users may visit https://gli.ph/m in mobile Safari to start using Gliph marketplace now.

Items available in Gliph Marketplace (like this Playstation 4) may be viewed on the Desktop Web right now.

Becoming a Seller in Gliph Marketplace
At the onset of Gliph Marketplace, our team is personally interviewing and approving every seller on the platform. You can apply to become a seller using this form.

We’re also reviewing each new listing prior to publishing in Gliph Marketplace because:

1. We want to make improvements on Gliph Marketplace as quickly as possible. We can gather feedback and respond to it faster by limiting how many sellers are using the system at first.
2. Gliph Marketplace is not a dark market. It is intended to be well-lit and safe place to buy and sell stuff. Especially at the beginning, we want to make sure people’s first experiences are good ones.

One of the results of this will limit the selection of items available in the Marketplace at first. So if you don’t see something you like nearby please be patient. :)

We are planning to approve new sellers regularly.  At first, we are focused on people in the San Francisco, New York City and Portland, Oregon regions. However, we’re looking for people who are knowledgeable about Bitcoin and are happy to accept it as an alternative to cash so please apply regardless of your location. We encourage you to apply.

Conclusion
We are very excited to be bringing this product to market today. It represents a culmination of creative ideas, privacy, technology and embrace of Bitcoin that our entire team is proud of.

We acknowledge we have a lot left to do and over the coming weeks we will be working hard to bring the remaining clients online, add or improve features and find and fix issues. Thank you for your support and feedback! Hit us up at username ‘support’ or at our support email address support at gli.ph.

Since some of the most positive aspects of decentralization are obvious to Bitcoin users, we wanted to address why Gliph Marketplace, though Bitcoin-enabled, is not decentralized:

1. We believe Gliph Marketplace is needed now. In the United States, peer-to-peer transactions are dominated by a single organization. Building something that can transcend the current paradigm means first focusing on the user experience, not on the challenging technical underpinnings of a well-performing decentralized system.
2. We believe there is already a good effort to build a decentralized marketplace at Open Bazaar. A community already exists to support the Open Bazaar project, and we believe there are good reasons for it to exist.
3. We believe Gliph Marketplace serves a missed community of people who are looking for a well-lit marketplace that seamlessly integrates Bitcoin for payments. This community has just as much potential to grow as Dark Markets have shown for illegal items.

How and When will Decentralization Come to Gliph?
In the expanse of time, we believe many services will benefit from being decentralized. One particular area we’re keeping an eye on is the concept of decentralized identity.

Decentralized identity would mean that information about the users in a system would no longer be stored at Gliph exclusively, but rather an open environment that any company or service can use. One Name is an example of an early effort to build out a decentralized identity service.

In the future, we may look to allow our users to migrate their identities and accumulated reputation to a decentralized identity service.

Open Dialog
We intend to keep an open dialog with Gliph’s users and the greater cryptocurrency community about the evolution of the Gliph Platform and opportunities for decentralization. You can send us your thoughts and comments to support at gli.ph.

Steps to do this using either the Gliph Mobile Web, Android or iPhone app:

1. In the Menu, tap Settings.
2. Under Bitcoin, tap Detach Wallet.
3. In the Menu, tap Bitcoin.
4. Choose Attach your Coinbase Wallet.

Steps to do this on the Gliph Desktop Web app:

1. In the Dropdown Menu, click Account Settings.
2. Under Bitcoin, click Detach Wallet.
3. In the Dropdown Menu, click Bitcoin.
4. Follow the steps to attach your Coinbase Wallet.

You can tell if your Coinbase wallet is attached properly by visiting Bitcoin from the menu. An indicator your wallet is not attached properly is that it says NaN as the current balance. It should show your current balance.

Why is this necessary?
We made some changes recently that may have invalidated some Coinbase wallet credentials. This means you may be able to receive Bitcoin over Gliph, but your account may not be able to send Bitcoin until you follow the steps above.

If you have any questions, or need additional help, please contact Support at username ‘support’ or send us an email at support at gli.ph.

With the holiday near, we thought it might be helpful to provide tools for communicating the potential of Bitcoin with your friends and family.

The following tips are meant to help an experienced Bitcoin person have a more thoughtful discussion with loved ones about the technology. While these tips are focused on Thanksgiving, they may also be useful to people around the globe at any holiday gathering.

0. Don’t Let Bitcoin Gobble up the Holiday
While this guide is meant to help you introduce Bitcoin around Thanksgiving, remember that this holiday is an unusual opportunity to share in the lives of your close and extended family.

1. Downplay Your Enthusiasm and Expertise for Bitcoin
No matter what the idea is, people need time to adjust to new information. Even if your family knows you to be a Bitcoin enthusiast, and you read /r/bitcoin every day, downplaying your expertise (and belief Bitcoin’s importance) will allow everyone to join in the feeling of wonder over the course of discussion.

2. Listen First
The topic of Bitcoin commonly receives a bi-polar response. Some praise Bitcoin and others are starkly concerned. More common than either of these reactions is confusion. The word “Bitcoin” is known to many, but most people know almost nothing about it.

When someone asks for your opinion on Bitcoin, begin by asking how they feel about it. If you take some time to understand what they know, including misperceptions, it will allow you to respond in a way that gives you the best opportunity to be understood.

3. Avoid the Details
Given how quickly discussions can change, focus on Bitcoin’s high-level points first. (For example, see the Why section of the Bitcoin wiki) If you lead off with Side Chains, Smart Contracts or the recent pivoting of the Bitcoin Foundation you’re going to hear “pass the cranberry sauce” before you can share important basics.

4. Dispel Falsehoods, but Own Up to Bitcoin’s Faults
Many people believe that Bitcoin is only good for purchasing illegal items and serving as plunder of hackers. The media loves to report on the Silk Road, so this may be a loved one’s only exposure to the currency. The best thing you can do is to agree with what is true. For example, few would argue that illegal activity was not important to the establishment of market value for Bitcoin.

By showing a reasonable regard for the reality of Bitcoin’s (sometimes) dark past, you are in a more authoritative position to discuss the technology’s future.

One way to handle this subject is to remind your conversant partner that the Internet itself has provided the tools for revolution against autocracies, but it is also still used to steal the personal and financial information of millions.

5. Put Bitcoin in a Global Context
In some western countries, financial tools like credit cards are commonplace. Most people in the United States do not worry about the price of milk changing drastically week to week. However, not everyone is aware that the Argentine peso has suffered from hyperinflation, replacement and devaluation repeatedly over the past few decades.

It also may be useful to remind someone that many adults around the world do not have bank accounts (50%). Smartphone adoption is growing quickly. Half of all people around the globe are expected to be using them by 2019. In many parts of the world, payments using Bitcoin or its technology offer the potential of allowing people to leapfrog traditional banking the way mobile phones have landlines.

People who can not rely on their government to create a stable banking system anytime soon may be able to rely on Bitcoin in the meantime.

6. Acknowledge that Bitcoin is not a Sure Thing
By acknowledging that Bitcoin is not guaranteed to “work” you leave open the potential for learning. Not everything humans set out to do succeeds at first. Just ask Franz Reichelt.

By leaving open the possibility Bitcoin itself may not work, it may allow new people to more thoughtfully consider why it just might.

Resources to Share
We recommend you share the following resources with newcomers to Bitcoin:

1. Current Price – Preev.com. People are most often astonished by Bitcoin’s “high” value and sometimes-volatile price swings. Looking up the current price is an easy and fun thing for someone new to the technology.

2. Current News – Coindesk.com. Easy to consume and regularly updated with Bitcoin-specific news, Coindesk is quickly becoming the “TechCrunch of Bitcoin.” No matter your feelings about the site, it is a good place to start for a beginner interested in the currency.

3. “How do I get some?” – Coinbase.com is another common question once people have learned enough to want to play around with the technology. We believe Coinbase offers the best possible first experience for creating, filling and maintaining a Bitcoin wallet today.

Conclusion
In closing, the entire Gliph team would like to share our thanks for all of the support provided by the Bitcoin community in 2014. Thank you, and Happy Thanksgiving!