Bitcoin Forum

I am going to print out paper wallets worth few bucks each and post them on bulletin boards on campus. Please share any specific ideas. Currently I'm planning to write something along the lines of:
=====
Free Money

This barcode contains bitcoins: decentralized, open-source digital currency.
First come first serve.
=====

What other information would be useful? A list of mobile and online wallets? Exchanges?

You should also make write on top in what range those bitcoins included may be, like:

I think you should link to a post explaining how to get more bitcoins, but you should not promote the use of exchanges to transform bitcoins into fiat, as it would defeat the purpose.

To avoid disappointment, have someone write TAKEN when they have emptied the key. Also make sure they sweep it.

Great idea :)

I would give instructions on how to redeem the private key and maybe mention weusecoins.com

Also, don't put them all out at once or one or two people might swipe them all! Posting them gradually could also help build more excitement.

+1

Don't mention the exchange rate, as the ultimate goal of bitcoins is to be used for themselves, as a real alternative currency.

Maybe something like this will work (combining other's suggestions)

That's a really good idea. Posting them one a week on random campus bulletin boards. Also if they were redeemable somewhere on campus that would be huge because students are often broke and cheap. Redeemable for beer would be probably be well received.

Another thing could be to make an expiration date on those offers, such as: those bitcoins must be used before [put an ISO date here] or they will be reclaimed and redistributed.

To do that, you can either keep a copy of the private key (which is somewhat dangerous if your machine gets hacked) and get the coins back at the given date if they are still at the given address, or (better) generate the transaction to send it to one of your offline wallets without broadcasting it, then broadcast it when the expiration date arrives (it will fail if the coins have been spent).

This way, you don't have to be afraid that someone could toss the paper away (or not activate the address on the board) and the coins are lost forever.

this sounds like fun, Ill be doing this too.  ;)

Make bitcoin redeemable for instant noodles and pizza pops.

A link to a tutorial...it's kinda a lot of work to redeem a private key with the Satoshi client. Maybe a link to blockchain.info?

You might link or refer to this in some way: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Private_key

I dont use cash often

but when i do

I write "Sick of this? Use bitcoin" on the bills

lol

+1

If the purpose is to make bitcoin more public and to give people an incentive to find out how it works, this is a great way to do this, because everyone likes free money. Thumbs up!

I've been doing that for months now. "Bitcoin is better."

This time I'd like to motivate those interested to actually try it out, but devil is in the details. That is why I started this thread to get specific ideas on how to make the process friendly and interesting for the non-initiated. Would you please give it a shot?

I'm putting something together  ;)

how about this:

print the key and then cut it into a puzzle,
on the back of the paper, print some directions or hints where other parts might be,

that way, people will start asking about it, chat about it,
maybe even trade parts, if you make money large enough,
it will be fun

and if you want to help btc economy,
you can send me

that much I am short to place an order for some casascius coins :)

This is just a waste of bitcoins.. Most of them will get thrown away and wasted by people that don't understand what to do with them or think it's a scam etc.

I think the best method of promotion would be promotion via media, like the video at www.weusecoins.com and www.screwbanks.net

A few things come to mind:

1. Keep a copy of the key and if it's not claimed after X days then take it back.

2. Don't have a checkbox to show taken as that just stops anyone from bothering. Even if they're disappointed it's better they explore how to get them as that increases knowledge.

3. Make sure they know they have to spend them before someone else and not use that address further. It'll be a counterproductive if they imported that key into a wallet and let it sit such that someday more of their own money ends up on that address and someone else with the key steals it.

Actually just creating this "sweepstakes" ticket is an exercise in trying to optimize explaining Bitcoin attractively such that someone would even bother.

The idea of a game is good...

How about you post sudoku puzzles that when solved have a 81 digit number that seeds a key?
That way only the ones who take it and solve it and plug it into bitaddress.org get the key. It raises the entry level bar but also is more of a challenge and so makes more sense to people as a winning.

You can generate bulk sudoku pdf or SVG puzzles with this google code project here,

http://code.google.com/p/sudo2svg/

You could also put these online in blogs/craigs list etc. It's the Bitcoin Sudoku Challenge... can you figure it out and WIN?

I think this would be attractive to those who like puzzles and nerdy stuff like crosswords etc but who aren't yet involved in Bitcoin or even programming stuff.

SOLVE a Sudoku for cash - get free Bitcoin.

+1

5% (if you're lucky) of passersby will stop to look at your flyer.

25% of those 5% might care.

1% of those 25% of 5% will know what to do with a private key.

My certainty of these statistics is at about an 80% confidence level, raising the absurdity of this idea by about 47%.

But in all seriousness, while an idea like this would be cool for us, you're going to likely end up wasting Bitcoins and time.  You'd be better off standing on the street handing out Casascius coins.

Mind if I steal this idea for Buried Keys? You are of cour se welcome to use mine. Right now I have crossword and trivia.
[edit] meh, it looks like they have Sudoku solvers online.

Not at all. I think it's cool but won't do anything with it.
BTW My avatar to the left already solves to a key...

I could see printing puzzles and on the back have instructions maybe.

The qqwing program is very good for solving and generating puzzles. You would want the --one-line option as it generates an 81 digit number.

The google project above has code to generate PDFs or SVG images in bulk. The SVG option is ideal as it uses a template and inserts the sudoku. So you could create a simple SVG graphic of the puzzle with instructions and then generate in bulk while storing the solved one-line seed in a file for creating the key/address and sending coins to it.

But also if you use the PDF output then it's just a conversion of the SVG. So by creating an SVG template you can get ready-to-print PDF output. Anyway, it's easy to adapt as all open source.

I'll ask that you make this very obvious. For instance, use one of those "tear off" strips that people write phone numbers on, or have some scratch-off Bitcoin bills specially made up.

We really don't need people to think you're Bitcoins can disappear on you!

I wish my camera didn't suck the shit out of batteries

Anyway I made a poster that looks something like this

http://s17.postimage.org/5bxk70n33/Untitled.png

they can pull out 1 of the bitcoin paper wallets, ( neatly hidden in the crafty pouch :D, all they see is a piece of paper sticking out of the pouch with the bitcoin logo on it )
It has a bitcoin 101 intro / how to redeem the PK on the back of each bitcoin

the paper wallets reads:

-1

worst case people see this and think "what the hell is bitcoin" and move along.

most likely they will not bother to redeem the PK, but they Might, and if they do they now have a mtgox account ( a big first step into becoming a bitcoiner ) Also it exposes them to paper wallets a must know in the bitcoin world.

and if they dont redeem the PK... i will! so i wont lose any bitcoin from doing this if your right.

short of running through a mall naked yelling "I love  Bitcoin! ", this a cheep and effective way for raising awareness.

This is a good point, I'll definitely take it into account. On the other hand, I think it's fine if they realize that simply the coins are gone as someone has taken them already. No scratch-off stuff.

I cant wait to see if anyone takes the free paper wallets off the bulletin board near my place. :D

I agree that's a worst case scenario.  I'm just suggesting that handing someone a gift in person might be a better way of generating interest.  I like the generosity of the idea though, and I'd like to hear the results.  Try it.

yes I've had the same feeling behind this idea for a long time.

but i always wanted to try it.

I could see newspapers putting puzzles in them that when solved will award the prize to the first person who claims it. Or maybe as an advert for some business related to Bitcoin. But in that case I think the prize would need to be bigger than 10 cents.

If you saw a puzzle (sudoku, crossword etc) in an advert that said "Solve this, and do this to instantly claim your $100 prize". Would you bother? Given how pricey ads are the prize isn't much more and it could be an effective gimmick - but only if it relates to you business. Let's say you were trying to gain local publicity about a new international money transfer service.

By making it a puzzle/game you are enticing people into finding out what this stuff is about. Something they may normally just ignore as technical jargon becomes a game to figure out.

As an aside, I do think it'd be interesting to leave some btc private keys around to get a feeling for the level of bitcoin adoption. If they don't get redeemed, you can be sure people don't know what bitcoin is. Just be discrete about it; maybe a qr code with the letters btc.

Allow me to be blunt: while it sounds cool, this idea is a waste of time and an example of old-fashioned reasoning.

This is year 2012, people.

Bitcoin is the exact kind of thing that can spread virally, like wildfire, without any marketing
campaign - provided that a killer app emerges and that it becomes a little bit more user-friendly.

You want to raise awareness by the most difficult means possible?  You think the average person will go through all that is necessary to redeem a private key and spend it or exchange it and then say "yeah this totally beats the ease of the paper in my wallet that everybody already accepts"??

At least just link to a pre-funded instawallet account or something.

Also, keep in mind that being pushy makes normal people think they're being scammed, especially when every bitcoin user stands to gain from increased adoption. It's like advocating gold.

no they must be presented with a real bitcoin paper wallet, and should be directed to go to mtgox to redeem it
the idea is to get people to 1) learn about bitcoin 2) join bitcoin
its not about spoon feeding them some bitcoins
its about rewarding new people interested in bitcoin, and hoping to get them involved

Voorhees (at least) had the same idea a year (at least) ago.  Worked on it some but as far as I know it went nowhere.

I wanted to have two pools:

 1) distributed samples which were picked up and 'registered' by interested new users.

 2) funding pools by interested rich folk.

Basically things would be dynamic such that the samples (probably Instawallets) which ended up being active (which I suspected would be a small percentage) were funded over a period of time (but primarily on-demand when initial use was detected.) The main goal...or mine anyway...was to get people using Bitcoin a bit, transfering them around, and generally learning the ropes, and a big part of that was getting them to _good_ info and wouldn't be ripped off or taken advantage of by all the sharks in these waters.

A further refinement was that funders maintained their control of the funds (their portion of the funding pool) and could withdraw their support or add to it depending on their perception of the direction of the campaign.

I didn't expect the implementation would be terribly challenging, and it was important to me that the new user need not give up any info that was not necessary (which would be effectively zilch.)  This as opposed to registering a username and password to some system in order to claim funds or something.  There were some differences of opinion on some of these things.  More than anything though I came to the conclusion that Bitcoin was not right for most people at that time.  I still hold that opinion but my contention is weakening as time goes by.

Yes. We are educating the market. Selling Bitcoin to people is like going back in time 1000 years and selling people on the idea of radio. They would consider it evil magic and label you a witch. It's not going to be easy to market Bitcoin until we have "magical" devices that look shiny.

This is a brilliant idea, but it could be a treasure hunt - the easy to find QR codes should draw people into something more involved. They could link to a website that provides a clue to the next location leading them closer to the bounty.
There could be a process that encourages people not only to search but also to contribute bitcoins and leave clues for others - it could expand beyond the campus and to the wider world..

OMG That is brilliant!

I started to play a game long ago, can't remember the name of it, but it was soon after the Internet started taking off. This game came from a traditional computer game maker, a riddle/treasure hunt game, but the exciting thing about it was it adding an "online experience".

There was a real world prize, maybe like $100-500K or something, and you could talk with other players online and see how far they had gotten. I never had the chance to follow through more than the entry screens of that game, but I always thought it or something like it had HUGE potential. People love things like mysteries, riddles (really tough ones!), and scavenger hunts. They also love interacting with one another online, so merging these things can exponentially increase the fun.

If something like this could be created using Bitcoin the resulting word-of-mouth (best form of advertising) viral marketing could propel Bitcoin forward by leaps and bounds.

Let me think more on this...

I *love* this idea.  Combined with the new bitcoin bills that actually look like money (people would assign value to them just by looking) this is great.

What would be 100% better would be a site like WhatIsBtc.com that you could print on the back of the bill, think of it as an analogy for WheresGeorge.com.  The site would educate from a zero-knowledge to having setup a wallet and imported the bill, then what to do next.

It reminds me of Geohashing, a similar sport to Geocaching >> http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashing/Main_Page

Thanks to all who commented so far. Lots of idea were thrown around, from "don't waste your time" to puzzles to geocashing. I'll get to it this weekend, most likely with a simple QR code, brief explanations, and pointers to a few Web sites.

Geohashing looks fun :D

There are lots of ways to potentially set something up. In that treasure hunt game, as I recall, most everything - gameplay, riddles, etc. - was contained in the game, and you could talk with others online. However, I do think there may have been some real world components too. For example, extra clues might reference a structure in front of some museum, or maybe something found in the largest library in Los Angeles. Teams formed with an understanding to split the prize. It got to be a pretty popular thing.


I liked your original idea, but thought it fairly small scale, with marginal effectiveness. However, you may have given inspiration for something much larger. You (or anyone) can of course continue taking any actions you want, but I'm thinking we collectively might also explore a larger game based project, and maybe pool a prize of several thousand dollars to add some kick.

could this idea be commercialized and bootstrapped via bitcoin merchant support? customers could follow qr codes and urls that link to a bitcoin market place/set up your first wallet site.

Wow, it certainly could! Ala Gowalla (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gowalla) or flash mobs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob).

Kill two birds with one stone. Businesses would jump onboard for the obvious business promotion and potential side sales, so we get new Bitcoin businesses signed up, and it adds another fun dimension to the game for players  :D

For reference, here's a couple of threads related to a problem along similar lines:

  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45881.0
  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45943.0

and if it will do you any good, here's a link to some code I hacked out which takes lists of 'hashes' and forms them into sheets with 10 business-card sized things each to be printed.

  https://github.com/tvghub/tvghub/tree/master/proj/bitcmp/trunk/print/pub

I had some thoughts along the lines to develop a system which one could run multiple 'campaigns' either educational or commercial.  The 'hash lists' would form the communications between the back-end machinery (where people go if the scan the QR or tap in the deliberately short URL) and the material handed out.  This would facilitate dynamic value adjustments.  And, again, avoid any need for a user to give any information about themselves.

I've lost interest in such a thing for the time being.  The code was just hacked out enough to successfully get a few card sheets printed off then abandoned, but it might have some ideas you can use.

Can I have a sample? I want to assure the quality of your product :)