Gliph Marketplace
For the first time, you can now create, browse and purchase items from Gliph Marketplace from the Gliph iPhone app.

• Join the Open Gliph Marketplace Chat Group
• View Animated Gif of iPhone App and Gliph Marketplace

Using cash or Bitcoin to complete a P2P transaction has never been easier! You can chat directly with a buyer or seller, make an offer or leave a deal with ease. Push notifications keep you informed of deal progress.

If you want to pay or be paid in Bitcoin for a listing, just connect your Coinbase or Blockchain.info wallet to your Gliph Account. (Use Bitcoin in the menu)

Updated Activity View
Gliph for iOS 2.0 includes an updated color set and improves the usability of the app. By default, the app is brighter to look at, and +People button has been added to clarify how to add friends or create Groups.

The updated Activity view makes it easy to see items you’re buying or selling in Gliph Marketplace. Listings you’re actively working with are shown right above your conversations. Once you’ve completed or left a deal, these are moved back out of the activity view.

Dark Color Mode
In Settings you can now enable a “Dark Mode” which turns the title bar black across the entire app.

This subtle change to the look of the app may be attractive if you want to keep a low profile and aren’t big on the new brighter default look of Gliph.

Note, you will need to restart the app after changing this setting for it to take effect.

More to Come

This is Gliph’s 40th release for iOS, on a steady three year run of development for the Gliph iPhone application. While the app has evolved quite a bit, this particular release marks a big step forward for the app!

This is the first version of our iOS app with Gliph Marketplace. We have a variety of improvements planned that fill out this important new part of Gliph. As always, we appreciate your support and feedback. Please send a message to Support with comments!

And if you missed it, today we released Gliph Marketplace for Desktop Web.

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.

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.

We’re excited about improving peer-to-peer transactions and providing a great platform for identity. In following this passion, we’ve iterated on Gliph by adding new features and changing the way the system works.

Some of the additions were in response to insights along the way. For example when we learned that  the majority of Craigslist deals were handled via email and lacked privacy, we built Cloaked Email to make that a better experience. Later, we realized Bitcoin would be a a fantastic way to close transactions and built in simple Bitcoin transfer into Gliph secure messaging.

We’ve learned a lot about email and believe communication can be faster and better than that. GliphMe‘s secure and private instant channel is the first of our efforts here.

Adding these capabilities over time caused a build-up of technical debt. And like any debt, it can not be ignored. But unlike some debt, it wasn’t the type of thing that could be paid off slowly over time. As a result, this re-factor was focused on two areas of the Gliph platform:

the backend application and the iOS application. On the backend, we re-worked the API which now allows us to build the Android, iPhone and web clients more consistently. On the iPhone client, we’ve changed how data flows internally. To get very specific, we’ve moved to reactive programming, making Gliph more event-driven and providing us a more responsive user experience to work with.

Because you can only make so many major changes at once, we did not focus on updating the Android app to leverage the new API during this project. However, now that the backend is completed, documented and working, we will be tackling this as well. We’ll announce the release of the iOS app as soon as it has been approved.

This release will have few outward facing changes on the web, Android or iPhone. However, it did involve a great deal of effort from our team and has set the Gliph platform for a solid march forward.

Please join me in congratulating the Gliph engineering group on completing this challenging and important development cycle. Say hello on Twitter.

Schroder built the machine from scratch, integrating components that would handle Bitcoin’s specific requirements, offer solid uptime and work within the national standards for dispensing fuel commercially.

From a distance, Schroder’s fuel pump looks like one you would find at a mom and pop style gas station; the size is a bit shorter than what you’d normally see at a 76 station today. But the small-town sentiment ends when you walk up to the machine.

The digital display on the front shows the current milli-Bitcoin-based market-rate for fuel at the time of purchase. Getting a fill-up is easy if you have a Bitcoin wallet app that can scan QR codes, (though this may be a hurdle for some folks). Once you’ve deposited Bitcoin and begun fueling, you’ll get real-time fueling status just like you would on any other pump.

This commercially-viable Bitcoin fuel pump is actually Schroder’s second attempt at integrating a Bitcoin payment-controlled liquid dispensing system. His first pump was intended to be mobile: it used a wireless internet connection and mounted to the back of a pickup truck.

The display on the front of the fuel pump allows the receiving wallet address to be scanned using a QR code.

Schroder’s mobile project demonstrated the potential to deliver fuel or other valuable liquids to rural areas. For example, a driver could supply cooking oil to remote villages in a nation that has ubiquitous internet connectivity but lacks a reliable banking system. This (perhaps unusual) scenario today may become a more frequent occurrence if Google and Facebook are successful in delivering internet access across the globe before basic services.

A video screenshot shows the real-time readout of the pump as Andy fills up his car.

As he says in his self-produced demo video, his new pump “doesn’t accept cash, doesn’t accept credit cards, just Bitcoin.” But in an email exchange, he acknowledged the need to meet some market realities, such as accepting credit cards alongside Bitcoin: “You need backwards compatibility in order for anyone to want to use your product (particularly a large expensive piece of industrial equipment that takes up prime store real estate).”

A video screenshot from Andy Schroder’s first Project, a mobile Bitcoin payment-enabled liquid dispensor.

Schroder has a variety of improvements planned for his newest fuel pump including compatibility with Biodisel (B100) fuel, offering a built-in Wi-Fi access point and alternatives to QR codes.

And while he sees some additional considerations that stand in the way of mass adoption of the Bitcoin fuel pump in its current state, Schroder believes this version is ready for a pilot today. If you’re an owner of an independent, privately owned fuel station in the greater-Cincinnati area for and interested in a  test run, Schroder wants to hear from you.

In the video demo of his mobile project, Schroder describes the value of his work with a powerful point: “I think it is one step towards anchoring the purchasing power of Bitcoin to a range of physical commodities that are consumed by society regularly.”

Taking Bitcoin mainstream will require the community to ease Bitcoin into the devices people interact with every day, so Andy Schroder’s fuel pump seems like a great place to start.

Kudos to Andy for his continued work to research, design and implement real-world demonstrations of Bitcoin. You can learn learn more about Andy’s work and get in contact by visiting his Bitcoin Fluid Dispenser project page.

Bitcoin Updates

• We were asked by Apple to remove the ability to send Bitcoin from the iOS app. We fought to keep it in but it was not possible. You can read more about what happened in a special blog entry we wrote about mobile apps in the App Store and Google Play.You can still create wallets, view balances and receive Bitcoin in the Gliph app for iOS send Bitcoin using Gliph on iPhone, using the same interface as before. Just visit https://gli.ph/m when you need to send Bitcoin, and continue using the app for normal push notifications and messaging.
• We removed the option to create or attach a wallet from european wallet provider BIPS, which has decided to shutter its consumer-facing Bitcoin wallet service in the wake of a security breach.
• Usually, there is cool news about Bitcoin and Gliph but not in this release. Hang with us, we are in it to win it with Bitcoin. This is just the pre-season. Gliph’s implementation of Bitcoin will come back harder, faster and stronger no matter the platform.

Miscellaneous Updates

We’ve made a raft of improvements across the Gliph iOS app:

• You can now log into Gliph for iOS using your email address on your account. (Previously you were required to log in using your Gliph username)

• You can now delete all messages in a conversation from the activity view. That’s right, just swipe a conversation to the right and choose Delete Messages. Learn more about permanent message deletion on Gliph.

• You now tap the information button in the title bar to view connection settings and choose a tag for a connection.

Design Updates for iOS 7

Apple made bold choices with design themes in iOS 7. In the new Gliph app for iOS, we’ve sought to embrace them. Design geeks read on!

“Deference” means to use interface that is simple and does not compete with the content for your attention. For Gliph, that meant a bunch of visual changes and a few user interface updates.

The first thing you’ll notice is the title menu coloring now extends through the status bar of the phone. The buttons have lost their glossy look, becoming simpler renderings of their function. Navigation buttons have been standardized to iOS 7’s chevron and descriptive text pairing.

We’ve removed the old “Recent Activity” table header from the Activity View, and flattened the bezel around the tag filter bar at the top of the view. Our sense is that these changes to the Activity view make your conversations stand out much better. With less UI adornment competing for your attention your brain can relax and focus on the tasks at hand: communication and transactions.

The Conversation View has a variety of visual tweaks. First and foremost, we added a new Information Button to the title bar that takes you to the Gliph View. The Gliph View is where you edit the Tag of the person you’re writing with, change what you’re sharing with them and make other changes related to that particular conversation partner. Previously, you tapped on the center of the Conversation View title bar to get to Gliph View. We think this change makes this important screen much more discoverable and gets rid of the old bubbly look.

While we’ve made strides toward “flat” UI, we have kept some aspects of the texture found in previous versions of Gliph. We wanted to do a design that riffed on Apple’s suggested themes but preserved Gliph’s identity. We will continue to tweak it, but hope you like the new look and feel of Gliph!

We love feedback!

Much of our refinement of Gliph over time has come through feedback from our users. Some of the updates from today are in direct response to requests from people like you. Please feel free to offer new feedback to the Support Gliph.

We have an iOS demo video up if you’re hungry to see how it works.  Also a step-by-step guide to setting it up for Android and for iOS. But this is more than just a new feature for us and we wanted to go into detail as to why we’re adding Bitcoin to the Gliph platform.

Over the past several months the Gliph team has been fascinated by Bitcoin. Bitcoin brings privacy to payments that is unavailable with traditional banking. The software behind Bitcoin is open source and has sustained great scrutiny. The currency itself is distributed, and transfers can take place with little or no fees at all. We love that no one company or government controls Bitcoin, and that even its creator(s) are shrouded in anonymity.

We believe Bitcoin and the ideas behind it have the power to change the world.

But when our team began using Bitcoin every day, we noticed some rough patches. Getting started can be confusing. If you were able to get a wallet set up, it was easy to get stuck asking “what next?” If you wanted to send Bitcoin to a friend, you had to awkwardly copy and paste long wallet addresses into tiny form fields. Existing solutions, even from biggest players, felt too technical and took the fun out of using this amazing new currency.

We began thinking about important questions around financial privacy. Who you give your money to and why is a some of the most private information you have. Although Bitcoin can be used to provide reasonable anonymity to the people transferring funds, folks still need a way to securely discuss their transactions. We noticed that using insecure channels like email to communicate about a Bitcoin transfer could lead to compromising the privacy of a transaction as a whole.

Finally, we noticed that Bitcoin offers very little in the way of an identity to associate with your wallet. One of Bitcoin’s strengths is that transfers are permanent. However, since anyone can have a Bitcoin account and there are no chargebacks, you need to be confident about who you are sending money to.

We realized the Gliph platform could play an important role in solving all of these problems. Today’s release is the start of some major steps from Gliph to improve the Bitcoin experience.

1. We are making it extremely easy to send Bitcoin with other Gliph users.
2. We are providing a secure environment to discuss transactions that end in Bitcoin payments.
3. We are pairing identity with Bitcoin wallet addresses.

These are our goals and today’s release marks the start of our journey toward accomplishing them. We are very excited and hope you’ll join us in making Gliph the best way to send Bitcoin online.

We’re proud to also announce today that Gliph has a new group of partners to help us achieve these goals. You can read about our new partnership with Boost VC in this blog entry.

As always, you can find Gliph on Twitter at @gli_ph and contact support at support@gli.ph.

If you haven’t, you may also want to read about why we added Bitcoin or how to use Bitcoin with the updated Gliph Android app.

Getting Started with Bitcoin on Gliph’s iOS Application
Step 1: You need a Coinbase account. Coinbase is a web-based Bitcoin wallet that you use to keep your Bitcoin in. When you send Bitcoin on Gliph, the actual transfers are done between Coinbase wallets seamlessly in the background.

We highly recommend you register with Coinbase using a Gliph Cloaked Email address. Currently, Coinbase reveals your email address to other users when you send money using their system. Use Cloaked Email to protect your privacy!

Step 2: You need to connect your Gliph account to your Coinbase account. We call this “attaching” your wallet to your Gliph account. To do this you need to tap on the menu button and then choose the Bitcoin option. If you don’t see the Bitcoin option, you may need force-close and restart your app. From then on, it should appear for you.

Attaching your Bitcoin wallet is fairly straight forward. Enter your Coinbase account details and hit the Authorize button. This should refresh and show your Bitcoin wallet right there in the app.

Step 3: You are ready to start sending Bitcoin! You can send Bitcoin with any connection on Gliph that also has their Bitcoin wallet set up. It helps if one of you has Bitcoin in your wallets to send, so we recommend you either use Coinbase’s ACH transfer or transfer Bitcoin in from another wallet to get going.

Here’s how to send Bitcoin: in the Conversation View, tap the arrow button to reveal a new option, “Attach Coins.”  This reveals a new dialog that lets you attach Bitcoin to the message.

Once you’ve chosen how much Bitcoin to attach, you can tap in an accompanying message, add a photo or just hit send and the Bitcoin will be transferred to your connection.

Don’t forget that we also offer this same feature on the mobile web, which is accessible from any modern browser at https://gli.ph/m.

Beginning late June, Gliph’s founders (Rob and Nick) will relocate to Boost’s provided housing and office space in San Mateo, California. There we will join a group of startups specifically focused on the Bitcoin digital currency. The team will be working throughout the summer to refine the Gliph experience and further integrate Bitcoin into Gliph’s digital identity platform.

We chose Boost because founders Adam Draper and Brayton Williams have shown themselves to be early advocates for the Bitcoin currency. They’ve also put together a stellar program for startups that is a great fit for Gliph’s stage as a company.

As if this wasn’t exciting enough, this past Tuesday, Boost announced an additional $50k in funding for Bitcoin companies in Gliph’s class. The money comes from a collection of Silicon Valley based investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, angel investor Ben Davenport (founder of group messaging client, Beluga), and Rothenberg Ventures and the Bitcoin Opportunity Fund.

Gliph is typically headquartered in Portland, Oregon and previously raised a round from the Portland Seed Fund. We are grateful for the support of PSF and the Portland community.

We hope you are as excited about this important step as we are. A heartfelt thank you to our most loyal supporters who helped Gliph get to the point it is today.

Bitcoin burning a hole in your e-wallet? With a growing number of craigslist sellers stating they’ll trade in Bitcoin, we thought we’d share a fun snapshot of what you can buy on craigslist with Bitcoin in Portland, on Monday, April 8th, 2013. Prices calculated at current $184 / 1 BTC.

Many cities on Craigslist have stuff for sale in exchange for Bitcoin. At the time of our snapshot it appeared Los Angeles has the largest number of different sellers. Austin is distinguished in that it is the only city selling not one, but two different types of fertilized chicken eggs available in exchange for Bitcoin:

• Los Angeles (Lakers tickets)
• Austin (Chicken Eggs)
• Seattle (1995 Ford Mustang)
• New York (Chess sets)
• San Francisco (Infant swing)

Update: Hello Digg and other folks. Gliph is a technology startup based in Portland, Oregon. If this is your first time hearing about Gliph, welcome!

Gliph is a digital identity platform that lets you send secure messages and complete transactions with people.  You can download our iPhone or Android app. We also have a great mobile web application.  You can follow the company on twitter @gli_ph.

Something awesome you can do right now with Gliph is protect your email address from spammers and scammers using Cloaked Email. Try it out!