Bitcoin Forum

Hi all,

I'm running an event next month where one part will involve giving out small amounts of Bitcoin (we have 50e which we will be mostly using just to show people what Bitcoin looks like, how the blockchain works, etc.).

How should I go about this? I wanted to do it using the Bitcoin Core mobile app until someone pointed out not everyone will have a smartphone or, more importantly, not everyone likes to download apps they are not used to, i.e. it won't be like when Ver hands out Bitcoin to a room of people that are very tech-savvy.

So what are my options?

Physical coins? Similarly, create whole bunch of .01btc wallet, then print out private address in a paper, you can use iPhone to import it, or in October, manually enter it. All you do in event is to hand out papers.

Not the best, but this is what I can think of.

printed wallets with small amounts seems to be the solution.

Here is how IBM did it. At a conference, or whatever, they asked participants to download a weather app. Then this happened.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LIX1ot9peI

Awesome!

Thanks guys, that is what I was thinking. Not elegant, but might be fun to show how bitcoin can be physical.

Ah man, that is sweet.

There is few things you could do in my opinion :

1. http://opendime.com/ (It may cost you a lot since there is several people , so It's not really recommended)
2. Make them download Mycelium and give you their receiving addresses then you send them .
3. Print Paper wallets and give for those who can't do number #2 (for those who don't have Smartphones) .

You could give out the QR codes of the private keys printed out on business cards individually to every participant and tell them to load the wallet at home via the wallet they choose to use. At the event you could run a PowerPoint presentation or a video explaining how to do Bitcoin transactions and you could demonstrate the process to some volunteers.

Thanks everyone. I'm going to do a little presentation of how it works on powerpoint and then at the end I'll had out the private keys in QR code. Cheers!

I have to agree with you on that my friend... the best way for people to get the hang of Bitcoin, is to give them a limited amount {not too small} to experiment with. I attended a companies showcase a

while ago and they had something similar. { They had a treasure hunt, with discount vouchers for the products that was on show, and the discounts was 1 per person.. ranging from 1% to 100%

discount on the items. { Biggest discount was $ 1000, so it was well worth it} Damn.. IBM did a very good job with their Bitcoin Rain...  ;D

OP make it easy... people should not have to type QR Codes ... get one of the QR scanners for mobile Apps to make things easier.

i think the best option is printing paper wallets (private key, QR code, address) with the amount of bitcoin inside of each address and give away those to the participants with walkthrough on how to use the coins (sweeping) on the back.

I agree, I think this is the best way.  Plus it really engages the people into bitcoin, because if they want to use the paper wallet then they have to learn how to install an e-wallet and how to use private keys and etc. etc., it will make it much more of a learning experience.  Sounds fun, wish I could go to an event where people give btc away!

i think print paper wallet is the best solution to show people how easy use bitcoin, how safe using bitcoin.

good plan to do this all,i just suggest you to make link with some sathosi on satoshimines,and let people open that link and keep that amount of satoshi on their wallet,or if people have no wallet,you can spread coinbase refferal there ;D

yeah, if it has a nice design then it can be very effective.

also the important effect of this is people will feel better if they hold something physical in their hands and be told this is worth $$$

Oh sick. People are so happy and developers proud of theirs work. That's how a good company must work! ;)

Oh, for sure, I'll do be including some kind of scamming demonstration to in order to give off that live vibe.

Ha the Coinbase angle might be a good incentive for us all to put these events on: gain referrals + spread Bitcoin. Win win.

You can simply ask them to create an online wallet account and collect everyone's bitcoin address.Now send small amount to them while they are online.They would be surprised to see how quick bitcoin is

Yes!  I think that this will be the most effective strategy.  Get them all hyped up and motivated with an inspiring motivational presentation and then send them home with an incentive to submerge themselves into the technology deeper.  I would give out various quantities too, so that they'll have to look to see what their award might be. I'd let them know that the hand out is a double blind lottery within a certain range of "prizes."  Sounds like so much fun!  I wish I could make it rain too....LOL....Good luck!

Print out the private keys and give them on paper to people around there.

Or print out A3 size paper QR codes with private keys, raise it up in your hands, and the first guy that takes the coins from there gets it.

It creates incentive, and interest from people.

That's great idea, but I think most people are interested in watching videos than watching a presentation. it will make them sleepy, you know. I suggest you make interesting video then.

very clever . by giving rewards to the participants will make the participants find out what it bitcoin. good idea . very good to implement.

Since they aren't techy people, I would advise to setup a booth at the event with a single laptop and internet connection shouldn't be a problem, specially in events if your part of the team that hosts the event. You have to demonstrate how easy it's to send from A to B to them using your laptop. Presentation is everything when it comes to introducing something new to those that never experience these types of cases. All you have to do is, how they should create a wallet and how you will send them some funds (make sure you don't complicate things, use the simplest form).

Make sure to print a small tutorial on the back of paper wallets on how they can transfer these coins to their wallets which they should make.

Also, keep back up of the paper wallets with you and in about 6 months time, check if any of the coins are unclaimed, then you can have them back for you don't want them to go to waste. Or keep track of which key was given to whom and maybe contact them again to ask them why they didn't use their bitcoins.

Well you could print out small paper wallets and hand out the money but that is all that i can think of or you can convert the bitcoin to your currency and hand out the money but that may take to much trouble

^^ i was thinking about this to... If you force them to download a wallet on their smartphone, and transfer funds directly to them, i guess at least 25-30% of them will never touch the app again. In 6 months time, at least halve of those apps will be removed from their phones, and those coins will be lost forever.

If you print out paper wallets, it'll take more effort from the receiver. He'll only install the app + sweep the paper wallet at home when he's really interested, so maybe the ammount of coins being lost is not that high.

Print a clear TOS at the back of the paper wallet, indicate that any unclaimed funds will be swept onto your own wallet again after 3 months... that way you'll have some more funds to give away at your next demonstration :)

Put it on changetip?
Even if people won't get interested by the idea of signing up an account or downloading an app for bitcoin, changetip is also available and useful for another currency like USD (I'm not sure about EUR, but I think its also available). So, you can tell them that even if they're not interested at btc after they're got introduced into the system, they still can use changetip for other purpose.

We live in a digital Age, and you guys want to print pieces of paper with numbers on it, to introduce this great new technology to people? Download some tutorials on Bitcoin and burn this on a CD.
Use some label printer and print the Bitcoin address and Priivate key on the CD and hand it out to people at the event. People have a short attention span, and will forget most that was said, by the time they get home.
After a month, if the coins are still there and not moved to another address, you just sweep those addresses and those coins will not be lost on people who are not interested in the technology. Just tell them, that they have 1 month to move the gift or it will be reclaimed. ^smile^

I think giving them in vouchers in closed envelopes with the private key being in QR format would be best, There is a strong possibility some of these people will ditch it so try to explain this is money and can be exchanged to at least encourage them to think a little bit about it.

I think this will only be a waste of bitcoin in vain because most people don't know about bitcoin
instead of using bitcoin to giveaway better using bitcoin for bazar costs or for promote
it would be more helpful for bitcoin to growing users. compared with giveaway?

i once saw a topic here about a TV show giving away free bitcoins in form of a QR code which you had to scan in order to claim it, that idea sounded so cool to me maybe you can use a similar method also.

The thing is if it's 'too bothersome' they wouldn't consider even if there are incentives. So yeah, they have a paper QR, then what? Believe me, people are so damn lazy.

Although a bitcoin themed lunch looks good, I mean it's free food. Everyone likes food incentives.

Physical bitcoins are one of the ways.
If you are in Japan, satori coins are small denomination coins which could fit into your plans.

http://www.coinfox.info/news/5069-satori-coin-physical-bitcoins-released-in-japan

I think it was on a Turkish TV show or something but I may be wrong.

Print out a paper of a QR Code of a private key, this is the best and easiest way to do that.
And don't forget to give them a link to download a Bitcoin Wallet

Anyone mentioned prypto scratch cards (https://prypto.com) yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u54pBXwxWrQ

its very good idea if you will make giveaway to participant in some event,i wish i can follow your step to introducing bitcoin in big event or family gathering,but maybe i will not make giveaway,its not good for me and my wallet.

Maybe paper wallets,  but if its a very small amount you'd spend a lot in fees. :(

Woa, i dont know about this at all. This seems like so so so fun. I would be glad to attend an event like that. Make new friends, work out, and get free money. Really very good way of advertise of what you want too.

I like that, a good spin.

So much advice, I am very grateful for it all.

Just wanted to note that the reason not to go full digital is that some people don't like to download anything (paranoia) or have what they don't understand flying into their phones or laptops. Hence the paper option is a gentle approach. The idea is that they then go home and explore  :)

Thats great effort bro. Congrats from my side.

its good way,introduce bitcoin with doing giveaway in public event is great idea,maybe you should use simple method to run that giveaway,how if you make papper wallet contains some bitcoin,and spread it to people,and if people come to your stand,tell them how its work.

Cheers, I will do a writeup on how it goes. Maybe if it works it could follow a cryptoparty model.

Yep, that's the plan for the moment  :)

how to create a voucher in physical form? we know now is the online voucher where they have to register on a website then redeem the voucher. I thought it was pretty confusing for a layperson or someone who does not know bitcoin
I think it gives a giveaway to the public event would be a waste of money

Thats a very good idea. When we give bitcoins to the Youth in such an events for free, it will definable help us in the growth and sustainability of the currency. Promoting in every way possible should be the target of yourself.

You can show them through presentation.
Another option is showing them a video that contains transaction process.
Also to gain trust of people, you should take some of your acquaintances with you.More people will bring more trust.

Yes, that seems to make sense, just do not make it too difficult. I would search YouTube and Google for the best educational material. {If they do it, it might take them ages to browse through the

bad stuff to get to the best information} and then use social media and apps to push these links to them and then have a easy online questionnaire. Once they worked through this material, they

can browse to the  questionnaire and when they answered all of them 100%, they will get rewarded with a Bitcoin address and private key with some coins to their email address.

You have them signup with their email address for this Q&A to make sure only the people who attended the event, will benefit from the "Rain"

It is great idea.. you must make the most people trust with bitcoin and then they will become interesting to use bitcoin .

you can try another plan like this :
try to create some poster about how bitcoin works,and what bitcoin is,and give to all people who come to event,i think its more effective and low cost beside to make giveaway.

you should make them the same size as a dollar bill mostly because they can easily place it in their pocket/wallet alongside the rest of their money, no message can be stronger than this visual trick.

on the front you can print bitcoin logo, the QR code, the amount, address and private keys
and on the back you should print instructions on how to use it with some links to wallets especially simple online wallet services like coinbase.

i think it would be a really great idea to write some private keys on the paper money we have, too bad its not allowed in my country

besides that i think it would be great if someone gave me such thing, also it would be a really interesting idea to hook people to bitcoin

At the event you could run a PowerPoint presentation or a video explaining how to do Bitcoin transactions and you could demonstrate the process to some volunteers.                                                           

How to give away Bitcoin at a public event?

we can do a giveaways to the public through their bank acount.
or they can also use paper wallet too.

We haven't heard from you how it went? But if you are going to make again a giveaway in bitcoin at a public event i would go like this by sitting in a table, giving away bitcoin stickers and saying that you are giving away xx dollars for everyone, and giving them a brochure about the procedure how to create a bitcoin wallet, adding private key of the address that you give to them etc.

SIDE NOTE: You guys are reminding me of a funny thing that happened a few years back. A reporter on some morning show was doing a thing on bitcoin and she had been given a paper wallet for the story. She opened it up and proudly showed the QR code to the camera. Look, this is worth $100, she exclaimed! Of course she was showing the QR for the private key and some quick thinker scanned it and moved the BTC immediately. She seemed very confused about how someone just robed her.

Turkish version was 5 TRY (which was around 2$ back then)
For vid: http://www.bitcoinhaber.net/2016/02/bloomberg-bitcoin.html

To give each one Bitcoins, you can also use QR codes.
You show participants how to see their Bitcoin address in QR Codes, and you just have to send them the Bitcoins.

LOL, I think that is actually a different one. I thought what I saw was in English.
Her neyse, Türkiye'de Bitcoin görmek güzel. Ben Galata'da bir daire tutmak için kullanılır.

Printed wallet with the amount that you want might be the answer to your problem

You can make some paper wallet which is already filled with bitcoin course, and you can print that paper wallet and give to your audience. I think this is the best way. hehe Thank you

my idea, you introduce people how to using bitcoin wallet, then after it, you send the small amount of bitcoin to each people who install bitcoin wallet on their smartphone, then introduce him how to use it by topup mobile phone.

so? What would I dare task in the event you? I'll have to bitcoin,
easy ever earn bitcoin? How do you increase the bitcoin?

We're still waiting for you to drink tea together.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=29863.msg392086#msg392086 ::)