By the end of 2018, cryptocurrency will be the predominant payment method on Craigslist.
Earlier this year, around April, I went shopping around Craigslist for a Fender Stratocaster. I was in Boulder, CO and I happened to find the perfect American made Cherryburst strat that I always wanted.
As some of you may remember, the gold rush on Ethereum was just beginning. I had made some interesting gains and was excited to cash in a little bit and get a nice guitar.
I remember going out on a limb to try and convince the original owner to accept Ethereum or Bitcoin in exchange for the guitar. While he had heard about it, he was reluctant and I ended up actually using cash.
But in August, I had another hobby coming along, I wanted to buy kiteboarding gear. This time was different. I found a guy who had some gear I wanted, and when presented with the option to accept ETH for the gear, I was in luck. The guy had just opened a Coinbase account a few weeks before and let me walk him through the process.
Fast forward to present day, Craigslist has added a "Cryptocurrency OK" filter to their search tool. A surprising number of people are accepting cryptocurrency in exchange for surprisingly big transactions, including cars and everything else you might find on good ol' Craigslist.
Here's a screenshot of the new filter that must have appeared somewhat recently.
To me this seems fitting.
Buying and selling used goods is a process currently fraught with PayPal and ATM transaction fees, as well as the dangers of carrying cash. Cryptocurrencies solve those problems.
There's also some totally new possibilities. Me and my business partners have been throwing around ideas about "escrowing everything". What if to indicate serious intent before a purchase, a buyer posted the value of the item in a smart contract that both parties had to sign in order to reach a deal. This way there's no chance of someone showing up who isn't a serious buyer.
Anyway, by the end of 2018, I anticipate the advantages of using cryptocurrency in the buying and selling of used goods will quickly eat up marketshare in that space.
Do you agree?
I think craigslist is a way to buy and sell under the radar to avoid taxes. I think it is a stretch that the majority of craigslist sales will be cryptocurrency by the end of 2018.
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I can see that point of view, but I'm also wondering.. is the progress in this space linear or exponential? If it's linear... we should expect such a transition to take a few years or more. If it's exponential... then it's going to feel like nothing is happening for a while, and then we're going to notice the landscape is different very fast.
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It is exponential. I have been tracking it, but the shear quantity of people in this world with stored value in currency is hard to rationalize. Cryptocurrency doesn't even scratch the surface yet compared to that stored value. It could be possible though. I've been trying to get people to get on board with cryptocurrency, but no-one wants to do it. Even when I show them how easy it is to grow value. The reality is that most people only ever want to know how to spend money. It is a little too unstable for them to get involved. Also, it is a bit of a learning curve. What is really needed is a simple alternate currency that doesn't fluctuate on a simple app that is easy to use.
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Yeah, I think it's something like that, too. There's also power in the informality of small businesses in this space. For instance, Airbnb will have a hard time taking the risk on accepting unregulated currencies, but cryptocribs.com is basically a protocol.. they aren't really getting in the middle of the transaction and exposing themselves to all the vulnerabilities that a corporation is, so they can play in the unregulated waters a little easier.
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Cool, thanks!
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