Bitcoin Powered Social Pressure

[rogerver]

We have been trying for multiple months to get an EV SSL cert so we can launch some new, very exciting, and very useful features to the site, but it has been a nightmare dealing with traditional credit agencies and certificate issues, for our non traditional business.
The basic problem is this:
Bitcoin.com is owned by Saint Bitts LLC, a company based in St. Kitts and Nevis.
In order to issue an EV SSL, Digicert is requiring that Dun and Bradstreet (DUNS) list Saint Bitts' address and phone number in their public database.
The problem is that while DUNS lists phone numbers for companies in the USA, and other major countries, they don't list phone numbers at all for businesses in St. Kitts and Nevis. I'm hoping to apply a bit of social media pressure to make one of two things happen:
1. DUNS starts allowing phone numbers to be listed for businesses in St. Kitts and Nevis
or
2. Digicert makes an exception for St. Kitts businesses because DUNS doesn't list phone numbers for any of them.

To get the pressure started I sent out this tweet:

https://twitter.com/BTCTN/status/698171843618836480
I tagged all of DUNS Twitter accounts as well as Digicert in the tweet photo.

I would love the Bitcoin community's help spreading this request a bit further and wider.
Once we have the new version of FeedZeBirds launched, it will be much easier for anyone to apply extra social media pressure.

If anyone has any other ideas on how we can get an EV SSL, please help!

[rogerver]

I'm doing my part as well: /r/BTC

https://twitter.com/rogerkver/status/698178717877600260

[throughnothing]

Hey Roger, is there a reason you have to go with DigiCert? You could try looking at any of the other EV providers here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_ ... tification

I don't have much experience with EV Certificates specifically, but figured it could be worth looking at others (and possibly boycotting DigiCert if they don't provide what you want, or are not willing to change their policies).

-W

[rogerver]

We are trying to get an EV SSL for a .onion address, and Digicert is one of the only companies that will issue this.

[nandibear]

...In order to issue an EV SSL, Digicert is requiring that Dun and Bradstreet (DUNS) list Saint Bitts' address and phone number in their public database. The problem is that while DUNS lists phone numbers for companies in the USA, and other major countries, they don't list phone numbers at all for businesses in St. Kitts and Nevis. I'm hoping to apply a bit of social media pressure to make one of two things happen:
1. DUNS starts allowing phone numbers to be listed for businesses in St. Kitts and Nevis
or
2. Digicert makes an exception for St. Kitts businesses because DUNS doesn't list phone numbers for any of them...

Dun and Bradstreet is horrible place and their business credit bureau is a joke.

The only thing that they've got going for them is that their name has been around since the 19th century (the 1800s).

Are you familiar with high pressure sales tactics? Dun and Bradstreet may as well be dictionary definition.

My first run in with Dun and Bradstreet was back in 2013. I used to do research for hire and I was gathering information for a report regarding an obscure software company.

Dunn and Bradstreet indicated that they had a file on the company and even offered some of that data for free such as -

(a) current number employees

(b) current owner's name

(c) estimated revenue for 2 years previous

(d) date that the company started

I had never used Dunn and Bradstreet ( never even heard of them) and I really didn't want to. The only reason that I was even looking at their website was because it was one of the only handful of online search result which I could find for the obscure software which I was looking into.

I was able to track down the owner of the software company and was told that the software business had closed it's doors in the year 1988 (lol).

At first I was reluctant to believe what he was saying was true. I eventually ascertained that the owner was sincere.

Dun and Bradstreet on the other hand was telling me that the company started in 2010 and that they had a certain number of employees and that their estimated revenue for 2011 was some $ amount (I don't remember what it was).

Their website (Dun and Bradstreet) indicated these numbers and I also called them on the phone (and online form) to get more information about their services and I specifically asked them if they were certain that the company that I was looking into was still in business. After all, I didn't want to pay between $400 - $2000 dollars for worthless data.

The person on the phone assured me that yes the software company was indeed still in business and followed that with endless pitches of Dun and Bradstreet services.

I decided to check some of their other data listed for other businesses which I already had primary and direct knowledge of. I quickly found that this
Dun and Bradstreet was a wealth of useless and erroneous data.

Moreover, I soon started getting calls from Dun and Bradstreet almost every day. It appears that they have many employees (upwards of 5000?) and most work from their homes.

I'm not by any means an innocent person and I do want everyone to have a way (or a method) to make money (e.g. a job) but I soon gathered that many of these people who were calling me from Dun and Bradstreet from their homes were fairly young people who had been in prison in the past or who were single moms without any formal education working from home.

I'm all for felons getting jobs (and good jobs, not just some minimum wage grind in which they slowly wither away). Moreover, I'm an a fervent advocate of getting rid of the 'have you been convicted of a crime' or 'are you a felon' check boxes on job applications. It makes no sense to deny jobs to those who've been in trouble (including prison) in the past. If they can't legally make any money then don't look down your nose at them when the decide to commit another crime in order to make a living.

It appears that Dunn & Bradstreet may be preying upon these ambitious individuals who would like to a get a good job (or any job) yet are barred (by criminal record of lack of formal education) from doing so by other similar companies.

I know people who've been in similar situations... Company wants to hire them but they (the employee) soon realize that the company is essentially a 'wolf of wall street' (to put it nicely) yet somehow the job is legal. Everyone in the company know what's going on yet everyone pretends that they don't. It's a job, it's legal, the pay is good. What are the alternatives? Not many. Would anyone else out there give them a job? Probably not.

That's the reality of it.

I any event -

(1) I can't imagine it being so difficult to Dun and Bradstreet to list a non-US (St. Kitts) telephone number on their site for your business profile

(2) Have you called them?

(3) If you have called them or emailed them haven't they been trying to now contact you with all their sales pitches?

(4) Give them a few bucks ($300?) and I'm sure they'll consider putting up the St. Kitts