Bitcoin Forum

We've just launched http://www.blockrun.com , a play on penny auctions built on top on the blockchain.

- Each auction has its own bid address
- Auctions last for a certain number of blocks
- When blocks reach 0, each new bid extends the auction by 3 blocks
- There needs to be 3 new blocks with no transactions associated with that auction for a winner to be declared
- The highest bid wins, all other bids lose (we send winning, and losing transactions when you have been outbid)
- Winners are confirmed after 6 confirmations
- Winner creates a signed message to confirm they own the address

How it works: http://www.blockrun.com/how_it_works
FAQ: http://www.blockrun.com/faq
Auction for 5 coins: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/5-bitcoins

We're always looking to improve, so if anyone has any feedback (e.g. "this is too complicated, how does it work??), any thoughts are much appreciated ;)

So, Let's say I bid, would others see my bid?
And, how would you prove it actually is going to someone?


I have received my prize! LEGIT

Yep, it's all in the Blockchain, both bids and win/lose transactions:

Auction: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/apple-ipad-mini-16gb-wi-fi-white
Bids in blockchain: http://blockchain.info/address/1Run2pD4CCYts6MUv7V7Fps1nCqQDB72S

Perhaps we should show bid history on the auction page?

So, we added "Confirmed bids" so that users can view previous biding history on the page:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/5-bitcoins

Any other questions, or feature requests?

I like it, I'll be trying it out soon!

Why should someone bid more than 5BTC for the 5BTC auction? Does it makes sense? Not for me though.

Yeah I'm wondering this too.

Thanks TradeFortress!

@elitenoob;
Someone should NOT bid more than BTC5 to win BTC5. The idea is that the winner will get BTC5 for perhaps BTC0.5 , BTC1 or BTC3. The cumulative losing bids subsidise the the winner getting a prize for a lot less than its true value. We anticipate to be making a net loss on the first few auctions, but that's the price of getting something off the ground!

Any other questions, just ask  ;)

I think it's a pretty neat idea

For those who don't understand how penny auctions work, the markup is made through the commutative bids - so rather than paying the full price you pay a fraction of the price, but you pay per bid..


So the auction for BTC1 starts at BTC0.05 and the excrement is BTC0.01 the first bid has to be BTC0.05 (or more)

So the auction would work as so (in terms of money taken)

Bid 1 BTC0.05
Bid 2 BTC0.06
Bid 3 BTC0.10
Bid 4 BTC0.14
Bid 5 BTC0.2

END

In a normal auction you would only pay BTC0.2 for the BTC1 but in a penny auction you would pay the price of your bid as you bid

So the total made from the auction would be the total value of all bids, in the case BTC0.55, blockrun made a loss in the case, unfortunately

Again I like the idea, it's like a much less scammy version of Madbid :)

5 Bitcoins are currently about to close at BTC0.09: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/5-bitcoins

Thanks Luke, that's a great explanation!
The only slight difference is that you can increment the bids by as much as you like, you just have to beat the previous high bidder.

As the auction gets close to the end, you can also bid with a higher miners fee to help it to hopefully get accepted into a block faster.

Only 2 blocks left to win a brand new Nexus 4:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/lg-google-nexus-4-16gb

So far we have given away BTC6 for a total of BTC0.123  ;)

Holy crap 3 BTC bid for a nexus lol. Whats retail on those things?

Over $400.

I suspect the BTC3 bidder may have won BTC5 off us yesterday.

Hey,

What's stopping you from bidding higher every time? Like lets say I bid 0.5, and you bid 0.6. You'd be buying it for 0.6 from yourself & keeping all the bids below?

Maybe Iv'e misunderstood something, but yeh. I'm a little confused in that aspect. It seems like a really cool idea which I can see me getting easily addicted to ^_^

this seems plausible, now i'm having a second thought whether to bid that 1BTC or not.

And seriously, 5BTC for 0.11500001btc??  :o I could've done better but then, the top comment COULD happen

and i actually wanna see the person who won that 5btc to make a post. i mean how hard could it be?

The problem I have with this is there's currently no way to prove you're not bidding us up.

If you see that iPad Mini for example nearing the end and you're making a net loss on it, you'll add a bid which will cost you nothing and save you from having to give the iPad away.

How can you counter this claim?

There is no way to prove that it's fair. That's why I stay away from these auctions. Note that I don't claim that it's a scam.

This is what I was thinking ^^^, what is stopping them from bidding themselves up. Bitcoins transactions are anonymous and I truly don't think there is a way to prove you aren't just bidding yourself up besides saying you aren't (which isn't much proof at all).

it seems like there's something fishy going on around here, according to blockchain info

*im not quite familiar in reading blockchain stuff, but the similarity is very weird*

The highest bid [AND NOW THE WINNER] (0.7btc) Transaction ID of 5 bitcoin auction: http://blockchain.info/tx/8dc113f35bdf6277e36a0ddd2e45147925801ba64330456a510cea7dd4628c51

Winner of Nexus 4 Transaction ID: http://blockchain.info/tx/b0c7066ceccec594a548dd552c8373bf89f30f78507a35fa19e9aa0224e3c482

The first bidder of another Nexus 4 auction Transaction ID: http://blockchain.info/tx/08137d975983ef58978c1ca7b22299255357de66e3b0a83518246a971079fc95

One of the bidder of  5 Bitcoin (lose tho) Transaction ID: http://blockchain.info/tx/f678aad35e290df1816ab29e65be2b8379fa7db7abec056ad59908981f5d3945

They all have the same address: 1RhodonBkTHyna6xSBY8Bb8wJDdJoVpTL

Unfortunately there is no way that I know of to prove that we are not bidding, but we are certainly not as that would amount to a quick scam and destroy our reputation. We're in Bitcoin for the long-haul & will be releasing a few projects over the coming months, so scamming people would be very short-sighted.

I asked the BTC5 winner to post, but I think he either doesn't have an account or is a newbie as he said he couldn't. He tweeted here:
https://twitter.com/greenglue/status/336649024549560320
Auction on the chain:
http://blockchain.info/address/1Run2RUNo7bw1MB6dR2nNkdU1DNxE5Zwv

The Rhodon address is not us, it is a user who is very keen. It would be really useful for us if they posted here!

I want to congratulate you on the first auction that made a profit for you guys (the 1 BTC thing).

Thanks  :)
We are still down overall, but it takes time to get these things going.

A couple of more auctions are ending soon and we'll then be done for today:

http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/lg-google-nexus-4-16gb-1
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-2

Crapppp I sent .25 from an unsupported wallet I think...I use multibit. I sent .25 on the Nexus and it hasn't shown up as a pending bet :(
It isn't showing up on blockchain either yet :(  
I sent from 1Fy1AwqEkXesQAuuzX8LXpiR9UU4xTwDV9 and can screenshot my wallet if needed... I really need a new phone.
I sent with a fee of .0001 which isn't going to help either... darn it.

If it's not on the blockchain, then it hasn't gone through..

The reason we need you to bid from a supported wallet is so that we can verify that you own the address and send the prize to the right place.

Okay so I assume when it goes through it will be refunded if it shows up after the end of auction, correct?
Multibit transactions when small generally don't show up for some reason on the blockchain until they are confirmed for some reason.

At present that transaction does not exist, even unconfirmed so luckily it doesn't look like you have spent it.

Bids can't be refunded unless you have bid after the auction ends, otherwise it is unfair on others who are trying to win the product. If a bid goes through after the auction ends, it is automatically refunded. You can see a BTC0.8 bid that was too late was refunded on a BTC1 auction earlier:
http://blockchain.info/address/1Run22BoTPt94XbxoeLA24jxbX7sqPmjc

Okay cool it'll be refunded if it is confirmed after it ends.

this.

game theory says that penny auctions are a net loss for every bidder involved. just don't bother with them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_auction

Well, my reply got deleted when I was asking if you can provide any proof, it seems some of them bids have the same ip.

I can't stop people bidding under many different addresses.

I understand why you may think we would bid up, but this would be stupid as it would quickly become apparent that nobody ever wins. Why go to the bother of building a site & game mechanic on top of the protocol just to scam people out of a few coins? We hope that it will be profitable in the long-term and make more than a few coins. We will also be releasing more bitcoin projects, so I see my reputation as far more important than a few coins...

Hopefully someone off here will win soon and provide a little reassurance to everyone else  ;)

because it's a really good way to make money. set up a few auctions, let the first few auctions go freely. after that, start inserting your own bids whenever you don't feel that you're making enough money. since inserting your own bids costs you no money (aside for pennies in transaction fees), you can put as much shrill bids as you want. hell, you can probably create fake bidding wars and generate even more profit. and to top it all off, it will look totally legitimate. there is "someone" winning and the transaction shows up on the block chain.

Do you have any suggestions how we can prove this is not happening?

This is where Bitcoin needs some kind of identity feature in the protocol; so people could only bid from "verified" addresses.

you can't. that's why the whole penny auction concept is broken. it's free for the auctioneer to bid on his own auction, either openly or through a shrill/proxy. meanwhile, each legitimate player has to pay for each bid he makes, regardless if he wins or not. but each buyer has an incentive to bid all the way up to the market price, so the highest bid will always approach the market price. the only way this will fail is if every bidder gives up. but when that happens, the auctioneer has made insane profits, or if the price isn't high enough to pay for the goods, he can always insert a fake bid (at no cost to him, of course).



no rational person will participate in a penny auction. it's almost a guaranteed net loss for all actors.

We don't operate in this way as that would be outright theft.

If this was happening, why would we be auto-refunding late bids that didn't get confirmed on time?
http://blockchain.info/address/1Run22BoTPt94XbxoeLA24jxbX7sqPmjc

We have set up a system where we either make a profit or loss on each auction. If people want to play, then we will make money; if they don't we will end up shutting down.

I realise appreciate why there may be some trust issues at this point, but time will show that we are being honest.

That's a strawman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man). No one never accused of you of stealing the bids.

Yeah I'm done playing, no way to verify this Rhoman dude who is winning every auction isn't the owner. Of course he bids me up right before it ends.

I find it strange, that so many auctions have been won, but no verification from any of the winners. Plus I didn't say from different address, I said from the SAME ip address. Unless your connecting to a external server then I don't know what is happening.

I understand your frustration at this point, because you might be running a legit service, but you got to understand others being cautiousness and asking these questions.



Hopefully, we can have some verification soon, but hopefully SOILD evidence.

LOL:
https://i.minus.com/ibg5YKzezhdSq9.png

Rhodon seems to be cleaning us out. I might ask him to take a rest for a few days as it's better that others win too.

And we seem to be down.. There's not a lot I can do right now as about to fly from US to UK. I have pinged my co-founder, so hopefully he will sort it. I hope we are not under attack so that someone can win the auction!

Apologies for the inconvenience.

We're back: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/lg-google-nexus-4-16gb-1

Seemed to be a problem with our hosted database provider, sorry about that!

Got a war going on between a miner (hes all in with the rest of his address balance) vs. Rhoman. Lets see who wins  :D

Yeah, this is a first. We'll see what happens!

the only person who's winning in this bidding war is the site owner.

Actually we are still making a loss at this point; BTC2.385 doesn't cover the cost of a new Nexus:
http://blockchain.info/address/1Run2jPxSRmQqJviS3tErSPw2FpLJmnxf
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/lg-google-nexus-4-16gb-1

two more bids should do it

Grue, I understand people might not like these sites...I am in the middle honestly. But it is in the gambling section for a reason. The house always wins in gambling and thus if he makes money so be it. As long as someone besides the owner wins, I don't see a problem with it. However I will agree there has not been any proof that the owner isn't bidding it up or winning these auctions so only time will tell to see if anyone high in trust here can vouch and prove they won an item and rec'd it with no affiliation to the owner prior.

the problem is that penny auction sites obfuscate the house's edge and makes it really easy for the house to cheat.

Thanks KingOfSports; hopefully we can convince some winners to come back us up. I'm hoping the miner who won the last auction might consider posting once they claim and receive their prize.


We are actually more open than typical penny auction sites. They usually encourage users to buy "credits" and then bid with those. We have all bids openly displayed in the blockchain, with no credit system providing a layer of abstraction from the price.

I would love it if we could 100% prove that we are not bidding on the auctions, but there is no way I can think of; other than creating a system where people have to sign-in with facebook and bid with credits rather than sending from any address. You could then link back to people's facebook profiles, but that would spoil the fact that anyone can currently play without publicly revealing who they are.

Since we are being honest, it would be much better for us to have some way to prove that we are. If you have any suggestions on how we can be more open or prove that we are not bidding, I am all ears!

oh hey, a non-Rhodon wins an auction!

And this happened after this issue got raised up

Since bitcoin's key feature is anonymity - i guess it's quite impossible to prove that BlockRun.com ops don't bit on their own auctions.
I understand that new bitcoin services should be taken very carefully to prevent scams. This makes perfect sense to me.

At a clooser look to BlockRun.com this seems to be a serious project which is just starting to build trust.

Trust will be a key successor for this platform, so i wan't to share my thoughts and experiences:

- The website is really professional made. I doubt someone would spend so much time/money and effort to build up such a front- and backend just to scam people, get caught (maybe) and disappear again.
- This service seems to be build to generate profits on the long run. It makes perfect sense NOT to scam people - build up trust - and profit from it's existing business model.
- PennyAuctions is pure gambling but i also think thats fine and has a right to exist in the bitcoin ecosystem just like other gambling services.

yesterday i deceided to give BlockRun.com a try and bet on this auction:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/lg-google-nexus-4-16gb-1

I know it's gambling - but i really like the thrill and the fact to support new serious bitcoin startups.

So you call me the miner who has gone allin with my recent earnings and won the auction.

## Proof ##
address: 1294HsDaF8MkeW9TC5XZDtzrdsCPucu9dc
message: Hey it's me roomservice from bitcointalk.org!
signature: HIb+QA6vO9H+RgBzkw1Wse0QXp7bLYBHoXH0tJ50oHNkSpLsV25DapuL/mIDG+O8UOg6YM78OoaCNmgkpA6sjh0=
## END of Proof ##

After going through the claim process on the website, i just received a confirmation and was told to get a tracking number soon. So i don't get a product yet - but since now everything looks fine.
If you want i will keep you up to date and post a picture of proof after delivery.

Some final words:
Since i know from personal experiences how hard it is to get a bitcoin business started - i would recommend this BlockRun.com from my personal experiences just now.
My best guess is that the operator is honest, serious and really interested to build up trust and get a critical mass of customers.
I think we need more professional and well presented services like this to show what bitcoin is capable of. Making use of the blockchain for auctions is genius.

Just give it a try - if you like the thrill :)

Disclaimer: I never had any contact or relationship to BlockRun.com or the site op(s) since i discovered the project yesterday.

Not a single person who has won has posted on this thread.

This is disgusting IMO.

Because the owner of site is in a dire pinch situation already, thats why 'THEY' decided to LET you win it, rather than they go for a winning bid like always

And that's how you build up trust. Make it believable, lure some suckers (as all their previous bids will be considered OUTBID) then bam!

@ Roomservice; thanks for bidding and thanks so much for posting back here, it is much appreciated.

With regards Rhodon, I actually mailed him yesterday to ask if he could slow down for a few days to give others a chance to win. He was pretty much the first person to discover blockrun & bid, and was loving it. Asking him not to bid will damage our profit margins, but hopefully others will win as well. I can't 100% stop him from bidding and obviously some of you won't believe me, but I am telling the truth.

There's a 1 BTC auction ending soonish, hopefully one of you will get it:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-3

You should also bear in mind that not all users are coming from Bitcointalk, we have publicised the site on other channels too.

https://i.imgur.com/UWDHpwU.png
ummmm..okay

Yes, I don't know why anybody would bid so high either.
I thought it might be because they put a lower bid in earlier and wanted to scare others off with a high pending bid right at the end, but hoping the bid would not be confirmed before the auction ended (and therefore refunded). That's the only reason I can think of, other than trying to make a tiny margin.

Well, it's a sure 0.001 BTC win :D

True  ;D
Maybe somebody is happy to make a super small margin on the auction, I can't see why anyone else would bid now.

Just so everyone is clear, there was no shenanigans going on. I was the winner of the auction. My motive for winning the auction will be disclosed 7 days from now.

edit: the reason is to get the 0.5 BTC reward for testimony. (0.5 net profit for me)

I'm not sure I can take the suspense!

*thread subscribed*  ;D

Here's my testimonial:

Great site. Got my prize within 10 minutes of winning the auction! Everything couldn't have gone any smoother!

I'll even sign it:
G0Uoz59RC8ujFUvRut8e1VXK0k4Xxd4+zTMG/gHxkJ01BuxHzYrhu64OOV1TNkmxu9d8jaxiwKCI5oyiz8KtGZU=

ps. there's a good reason why I'm choosing not to disclose my motives. :-X

Thanks for bidding Grue, it's nice to see a second winner from the forum  ;D

Another BTC1 is ending soon:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-4

No bids so far, but hopefully one of you guys will win it  :)

just a small comment: your site updates its blocks way too slow. you should have some sort of push notification so incoming blocks are updated instantly.

Thanks for the feedback, we are currently polling a third-party API every 2 mins or so. Occasionally they also fall behind the general network, which is annoying.

When the auction page falls behind, it doesn't affect the auction itself as bids are either accepted by miners into a block, or not. Before a winner is declared, there needs to be 3 blocks released by the network that don't contain any bids to the auction address. If the page falls super-behind for some reason, it won't affect the outcome of the auction as we will process blocks as they come through - it's all verify-able on the blockchain  ;)

We're currently working to switch BlockRun over to our own infrastructure (so it won't be behind); but this will take a week or so.

Thanks for playing  ;D

My prediction: Grue is going to continue betting .99 BTC for each 1 BTC you put up. I see his plan and have a good idea why he's doing it.

My prediction: Grue is on Dipsy's payroll. He paid Grue to "win" the two auctions and made a tidy profit of BTC1.145. Why else would he risk 1 BTC to earn 1 BTC? Can anyone come up with a more likely story?

Nah, grue's early posts on this thread paint the opposite picture to him being on the payroll. I have no idea what he's up to either, it can't be the net profit of 0.0001 per auction :p

Nope, I would not create this kind if relationship with any bidder. The only communication I have had with Grue is after he/she won and I paid the prize.

There's another BTC1 auction ending soon:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-5

Hopefully another one of you guys will win  ;)

looks like i nabbed it :D that was exciting. just shot in claim form.

Congrats, the winner has been paid  :)

Thanks for playing, we have another BTC1 auction ending tomorrow:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-6
Here's the bid address: 1Run2yZU3szvKZmB8g1E9LH2TcfdHVff2

Damn, forgot about this one :D

You can alway subscribe to the auction by entering your email on the page. You'll then get notified of new bids.

take off your tinfoil hat. there's no conspiracy here. I have my own reasons for winning the auction.

i just won 1 btc using blockrun! thank you so much blockrun!

Thanks for playing  ;D

There's another BTC1 auction ending soon:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-6

We are also planning to put a load more stuff on soon, so keep checking back  ;)

It seems we are having problems displaying pending (unconfirmed) bids on the page.
If you need to see this for the current auction, please check unconfirmed transactions at the bid address:
http://blockchain.info/address/1Run2yZU3szvKZmB8g1E9LH2TcfdHVff2

Apologies for any inconvenience, we are working to resolve the problem.

Seems like confirmed bids as well.

Also the auction did not go into "Block Run" Mode.

The block are processing fine, it's just that pending bids are not showing on the page right now.

The blocks need to count down to 0 before entering "block run" (3 empty blocks before a winner is declared).

I am sorry, I thought it entered "block run mode" as soon as it just needed 3 more blocks.

Nope, not at the moment. That is something we could look at in future though  ;)

So, as the pending bids are not showing. For this auction:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-6

It's worth checking for any unconfirmed incoming transactions here:
http://blockchain.info/address/1Run2yZU3szvKZmB8g1E9LH2TcfdHVff2

Another BTC1 about to end for today:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-8

We've also got the pending bids working again, so you can see new bids on the page  ;)

the monstrous grue has returned with vengeance

Well his game certainly isn't doing BlockRun any harm at the moment, they made 0.909BTC profit on that one.

I don't think it was actually gure this time, although can't be 100% sure as I don't know grue's real identity.

I'm not sure if the winner is a member of the forum, but I'll ask him to post if he is.

I'm kind of bummed out that the galaxy note and ipad auctions both end near 5 am for me :(

I'm bummed out too, we put the countdown on those 2 auctions ages ago and the blocks haven't played nice for us as far as timezones go!

The best thing to do is either bid now, or sign up on the page so you get email reminders when they're close to ending:

Galaxy Note: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/samsung-galaxy-note-10-dot-1
iPad Mini: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/apple-ipad-mini-16gb-wi-fi-white

It depends on the release of blocks by miners, but estimates on closing times are:
West Coast US: 9:30pm | East Coast US: 12:30AM | UK: 5:30AM | Europe: 6:30AM

Hi, I'm the winner who secured this auction today: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-8

It was great fun and the blockrun-support solved all my problems as this was the first time for me signing a message...

its fun and you get to know the blockchain way better than you ever wanted :D

BlockRunning towards cheap tablets..

iPad Mini about to close:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/apple-ipad-mini-16gb-wi-fi-white

Galaxy Note about to close:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/samsung-galaxy-note-10-dot-1



Thanks for playing, I was happy to help  ;)

- Closing Soon -

iPad Mini:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/ipad-mini-16gb-black

1Bitcoin:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-10

Tomorrow we have a Pebble smart watch:
https://twitter.com/blockspin/status/339793867773730816

this guy is a dumbass:
https://i.minus.com/ibgs9ZAPZQYem9.png

he's paying 2.4 BTC ($312) for an iPad mini that is worth $330. One more competing bid and he's paying more than it's worth.

Ah, but BTC1.7 was the winner:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/ipad-mini-16gb-black

So they actually got a good deal  ;D

Right, but the point being made was the 1.7BTC winner had previously bid 0.7BTC as well, so his total price was 2.4? Or do I misunderstand something.

He got a "good deal" of 2.4 BTC * $130 USD/BTC = $312. He saved a whopping $17 off retail. But he had to risk 312 USD to achieve that saving. If I swooped in and put in a bid at 1.7000001 BTC, any additional bids by him would incur a net loss. Not bidding anything would incur a loss of 2.4 BTC.

tl;dr the "winner" risked over $310 to save 5% off retail.

I think there are a number of reasons why they may have bid so aggressively:

• They may have been bidding from a country where the mark-up on iPads are higher.
• They may be from a country where it is hard to exchange Bitcoins to cash easily, so happy to cash some out in another way
• They may have have bought their coins for less and happy to cash some out for a product
• They may love the "thrill" of playing BlockRun!

Closing NOW:

1 Bitcoin
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-11

Pebble Smart Watch:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/pebble-watch

We have also listed some different products due to close in the next couple of days.

Additionally, we have added a sound to the auction page:

• 1 "Ding" for when a new pending bid comes in
• 2 "Dings" when a bid gets confirmed in a block

On a desktop browser, If you keep the auction page open while navigating to your wallet; you'll hear any new bids come in  ;)

You can also now follow bid updates on twitter: http://twitter.com/block_run

We have also changed our back-end infrastructure to sit on our own node, so blocks should never be behind blockchain.info or blockexplorer.

Happy bidding!

7 days and 1.5 hours later...

I'm curious now!

sent in a bit trying to win, and somehow managed not to include transaction fee. i think i am screwed.

If a bid doesn't confirm before the end of the auction, it will be auto refunded once it eventually confirms (after the auction has ended)  ;)

1BTC bid for a 1BTC prize?  ???
http://blockchain.info/tx/4e8a9a556a90b1c7a979c0514ad2e5b463e9d914cf7ab1cb4ee85cc71f0f77b0

Also yeah, come on grue, I've had no sleep this past week cos of you ;)

The only thing I can imagine someone is doing here is adding a 1BTC bid with no transaction fee in order to scare off competitors and win with a lower second bid:
http://blockchain.info/tx/0cad5e5d168b2a97c4e77bb7479558513475a861160d9ec8ef32a15929b73a85
(unconfirmed txs get auto-refunded if confirmed after the auction has closed)

It's a risk as it could get confirmed, and then they'd pay more than BTC1 for a BTC1!

yes this 1R9T1 guy is insane. i hope i luck it out.

I agree, he's been bidding like a maniac this evening!

Hopefully you get it  ;)

.001 fee confirm in 1 block lol gg

I actually disclosed ahead of schedule. Just check the original post :P

https://i.imgur.com/Hyq5tO4.jpg

Oh. Well that was anti-climatic.

Closing now!

Micro Drone:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/micro-drone

1 Bitcoin:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-12

We now display the miners fee on pending bids; this should give an indication of how quickly a bid is likely to be accepted into a block.



Thanks grue, much appreciated. We will now pay BTC0.1 to forum winners who post back here and also give us a picture. Just ask after you claim the prize  ;)

Hi BlockRun Team, I really appreciate the work you made (and i have got the winner position! for just 0.011BTC)

Just a few points during my bidding experience that I'd hope that my two cents thought can improve the experience of other users.

1: The delay of your Bitcoin rpc server got a pretty darn great delay. You know the time of penny bids really matters. (PS: the realtime incomings is fines, the problem is on the block count)
Proof: http://imgur.com/ZYXqvdH

2: Why not put a claim button on the ended event page, the navigation now is kinda confusing.

3: If i didnt fill the countries/address it shows "The Bitcoin Address you have given is incorrect; contact support@blockrun.com". But actuallly is just caused by rejection of blanks input on the Address details.

Happy customer from 177r6JWcG6mEZRQSPMYbSq7HmtWVahtzWJ  (aka 1CasperDEhyGD81WNPo9qkaFnWxUSWmrqk)

Using the randomness of timing on Blockchian for the penny auction timer is an awesome idea. Keep it on!

EDIT:

Thanks for playing, and thanks for the feedback!

We were actually really unlucky as that auction closed...

Just as the auction was closing, we had a problem with our node that meant blocks weren't being processed by the BlockRun app :( We were frantically trying to fix it, but the miners released 4 blocks in 5 minutes (238891 - 238894) and the auction quickly closed before our page had even updated!
Your bid went through and then there were 3 super-quick blocks that meant once the app re-connected, you won  ;D

This is a good idea, we'll look into it.

Thanks, we'll update the form!

Thanks for playing, we have 2 more cool things ending tomorrow (subscribe via email on the page):

Sphero robotic ball: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/sphero
Jawbone Jambox, bluetooth speaker: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/jawbone-jamebox

We'll might put another bitcoin on there too ;)

Thx a lot. Too much luck on the super quick blocks lol.

Getting interested to blockspin.com could you reveal some of what it does. I've subscribed :)

I am good at HTML, CSS, PHP. pop me a PM if you need some help.
PS: 15 y/o coder... dont trust me too much :P

I am in Hong Kong, not in this game.

We either make a profit or loss on each auction, it all depends on how many people bid. Today we made a loss as we had problems and were unlucky with the blocks, but over the last few days we have been making a profit overall.

Overall we are still down, but we knew this would be the case when first releasing a new service.
FYI - if it ever got to the point where lots of auctions ended in one go and we couldn't cover the losses, we would refund ALL bids on these auctions; I think this would be the fairest solution. We are nowhere near this, but you have to consider these things  ;) Hopefully it'll never happen!

We're working on a few other projects, we'll be sending out a newsletter about that soon. Thanks for signing up on http://blockspin.com!

If you are 15, you should probably be careful with your Bitcoins and not risk them on games  ;)

If we have any small pieces of dev work, I'll bear you in mind!

Thanks for your warm reminder. Since i got in Bitcoin some time ago, which I got some (2 digit BTC) bitcoin left after having myself equilibrium on the fiat side. So I treat whatever i have here as a lesson fee, if I fail. I have gone thru leverage trading of BTC, dragon tales, plus some more freebies gambling here.

(One put their coins to cold wallet for a reason. Coz one does not simply spend them away)

dipsy: stop putting up bitcoin for bitcoin auctions. It's retarded because anyone can sabotage the game. All they have to do is put in a bid for 1 BTC and they'll ruin it for everyone.

Yeah, it'd be kind of pointless for them to do that; but agreed, they could do it just to screw everyone else...

We've given BTC18 away so far but perhaps we'll give the 1 coin auctions a rest for a couple of days and see how we go.

If anyone else has any feedback or feature requests, we're always looking to improve BlockRun  ;)

Question, where is the country origin of the company, like where are the prizes shipped from? Tempted to bid but don't want to wait a month for my prize  :P

We are based in the UK, but try to ship from a local Amazon (.com /.ca /.de/.co.uk/ .whatever). In the case of some things like the drone today and the Pebble smart watches, they are shipped from the UK as we source them locally but post them to the countries listed on the auction page. Where are you based?

I am based in the US, that sphero robot thing looks kind of neat, thats why I asked.

Why not let everyone bid how they like?  Sure, anyone can sabotage the game, but there's a chance that no one will sabotage the game.  People bid on that chance.

It would be interesting if a 1btc penny (bitcent?) auction was added where each bid was exactly 0.01btc (or other small amount), and each bid reset the 3 block countdown.  The last confirmed bid made when the blockrun runs out wins.  That way someone couldn't just bid 1btc and ruin it.  I could see that going for awhile if there are a few interested parties.

#1 problem with that: blockchain spam. even worse than satoshidice

#2: Why would any rational person bid on it? Sure, you have a chance of winning, but so does everyone else. It's against a rational actor's interest to enter the auction at early, because the game is all about attrition. Once a person makes his 100th bid, he's making a net loss, and everyone knows that. By entering early, he's putting himself at a disadvantage.

True, but that is how an actual penny auction works.  It is a form of gambling and playing on people not being rational.  If everyone was rational, Las Vegas and Macau wouldn't exist.

I agree with the blockchain spam issue.  The workaround would be to require the creation and funding of accounts, but I'm not sure if that is blockrun's intention.

This could be interesting and we will be looking at different models of auctions in the next few weeks to perhaps add some different variations.
Are transactions of 0.01 really considered blockchain spam if they include a fee and is above the "non-standard" level of BTC0.00005430? In the long-run, if Bitcoin's market cap is a lot higher, 0.01 could be quite a significant amount of money; so they network should surely have to cope with this.


For the moment, I think we'd like to stay away from having user accounts. I like the fact people can simply bid straight to an address and then claim.

We can ship the Sphero from Amazon.com (US) if you win. They are cool, check out the video on the page:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/sphero

grats kit, welcome to the winners circle.

- Ending now -

Sphero, Robotic Ball (current bid: BTC0.06)
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/sphero

Jawbone Jambox, bluetooth speaker (current bid: BTC0)
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/jawbone-jamebox

Remember, transactions that have a fee of "0.0" or "unknown" are less likely to go through before the auction closes.

Thanks bro, coins are good for you heh? Glad to know that you are on similar age to me, if your sig is true :P
Guess it isnt after reading your history. But anyway, glad to meet you, i play LOL too, on Taiwan server, I use swain often, Mr. Gayren
BTW seems you are fans of TradeFortress too, from the sig. You ahve tried coinlenders?


Dispy: for the chain issue, i guess if you are doing a variant on that, should probably keep the transparency that we are having now. I love your penny auction coz it is too open to be scam the ass outta guys

I am in Hong Kong, so imma hear the bidDINGS and not play it :(

More Findings, hope it helps
[quote link=http://www.blockrun.com/faq]
How much do I need to bid?
The aim of the game is to be the highest bidder when the auction ends, so you need to bid more than the current bid and ideally more than any pending bids.

The first bid on any auction must be more than 0.05BTC, but you can do any increment higher than that; i.e. you can bid 1 Satoshi higher than the previous bid.
[/quote]

lol you know me man, janome from coinchat

so many names you got....

Yeah, I agree it's best to keep all bids on the chain so people can see what's going on  :D

Sphero is about to go for only BTC0.15, these things are worth more than BTC1:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/sphero

Also, the Jambox, so I expext some bids soon:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/jawbone-jamebox

DING DING! The Sphero Robotic Ball is UP for you now for BlockRun, gettin on to real business :)

Yeah, I like the "dings" too!
If you really want to, you can also follow bid activity on twitter: https://twitter.com/block_run

We're still slightly down overall on the cumulative bids for the Sphero, I'd be content if we broke even on that one  ;)

Wish you will :） (my stupid miscalculation. Go! 15 more USD!)

Thanks  :)

The Jambox bluetooth speaker is now blockrunning and about to close:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/jawbone-jamebox

Do you have pebbles ready to ship, or are they just pre-orders?

We have the Pebbles ready to ship:
https://twitter.com/Blockspin/status/339793867773730816

Auction: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/pebble-watch-1

Pebble Smart Watch is closing now:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/pebble-watch-1

I've also just added BTC1 that will close very soon:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-13

I am in!
PS: have you figure out where to advertise, i think those fullpage IFRAME ad. will work well, with those time limit settings

We're looking into stuff and will be experimenting next week.

I can't believe the Pebble is about to go for BTC0.08, these things aren't that easy to get hold of at the moment  :o
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/pebble-watch-1

Feature: Pay your own shippings for out-of-range items

It's not so much about cost, but more the fact we need to be able to order most things from a local Amazon.
However in the case of the Pebbles; we ship them ourselves, so could probably post them to most places.

We paid over $200 per unit on the Pebbles, so still going very cheap!
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/pebble-watch-1

BTC1 is about to blockrun: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-13

grats rai

And 14Jqh4gXa8i3m9JJLVnnA7AKQCBxfxZZcC for his pebble too! Much fun to watch

i swear to god block creation is tied somehow to blockrun bids after watching that

So you mean the blockchain loves him and spped up his bids :P

PS: i got my bid on the GOD MODE of block , 3 blocks in 5 minutes

It's crazy, sometimes there are no blocks for 40 mins, and then 6 blocks in 10 mins & 2 in a minute!

It's down to probability & the miners; there's nothing we can do, but it makes it exciting sometimes.

This is what makes BlockRun Special and so much fun,exciting to play.

And it is fair too!

Haha! I won 2 items from the BlockRun.com, a micro drone and 1 btc!
This service seems quite awesome! Just needs more items and more people.

I like well-built systems that use bitcoin.

Good for ya ducky, I got my 1BTC with 0.011 by a super-fast chain, thx the chain and the site :)
I am up now and i gonna keep the UP on here up!
Imma promoting this to guys!
See mah sig and going for some coinad, i want this thing to be a big thing!

Duck name and cat face lol. I love cats

I seem to be asleep every time these end.   I'll have to stay up late one night to try to win.

Just wanna give an update on this auction:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/lg-google-nexus-4-16gb-1

After a small chat with the very friendly BlockRun.com customer service i received a tracking number for delivery. Only three days later the phone arrived as promised.

As you can see here my daughter already fell in love with Nexus 4.
http://i42.tinypic.com/2nu3nly.jpg

Good luck with your bets :)

Thanks for providing the update, much appreciated!
I'm glad your daughter loves the phone  ;D



Congratulations & thanks for playing  ;D

Micro Drone is about to close:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/micro-drone-1

We're also working to get some more stuff on there tomorrow  ;)

Thinking of some advertising, your site been cold last 2 days.  :-[

(I got some CoinURL credit, you want some traffic, toss ya some)

In terms of visitors it hasn't been cold at all, just a bit of a poor show on bids yesterday, but that's fine.

Seems today we got some late-noon (GMT+8 here, so it is late night for me....)
Thinking of the pebble...

- Ending now -

Pebble Smart Watch:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/pebble-watch-2

iPad Mini:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/ipad-mini-16gb-black-1

do not support! it is a get-rich-scheme for the supplier!

you can find the game theorie behind here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_auction

EDIT: old money counterpart is here: http://www.dealdash.com/?swoopo=1&t=swoopo

yes, and so far they are a little over breaking even by my estimates.

i think it is almost noble of them to have a down month or two for the people that find it early and then constant profit once the name is out.

if you wanna see a super profitable penny auction site, see http://www.markerbids.com guy has his own paintball channel and insane following. each cent on an auction is a dollar about.

Actually, we are still down overall but margins are on average improving. That's fine though, we knew it would take a little while to get going and have the cash to subsidise things  ;)

The Pebble's showing a bit of interest: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/pebble-watch-2

ugh i am sorry blockrun i was about to bid on the ipad.

grats to whoever won it.

That'd be me.  :)  I think I got lucky - three very quick blocks in a row, within 1 minute of each other.

its a small world after all :D now double my minecraftcc payments :3

LOL no.

Actually, this does not work like a Penny Auction. In a penny auction, you always bid a fixed amount. Here you have to pay the actual amount you are willing to pay immediately instead of bidding $1 a hundred times.

So, it works differently, and it's easier for "gamblers" to see what they spend and what they get in return.

It still falls under the umbrella of bidding fee auction or "all pay" auction.

I was watching the pebble and the ipad totally slipped my mind.  It is odd to have these auctions that go for 2500 minutes with no action, and then all the bids come in the last 40-50 minutes.  It would be nice if there were auctions ending every couple hours so there'd be more constant action, instead of 40 hours of nothing and then an hour of bidding.

Argh... too sleepy last night, slept 3AM (~3PM on America), was thinking of some biddings but zzzz......

OH! NEW 1 BTC to be bid.... in my dreams~~ slept by that time, have fun.
Thinking of what shall i try today'
Meanwhile facepalmming on how illogical people play here, good for ya dispy

Congrats, you got a super good deal!!

Closing today

Sphero (robot ball): http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/sphero-1
Tetris Light: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/tetris-light
Minecraft Wallet: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/minecraft-wallet
1 Bitcoins: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-14

The difficulty is literally about to change, so that should spice the blocks up a little bit!

Don't forget to sign up for email notifications on each auction page  ;)

Any chance you could let users post bitcoins or merchandise for bidding?

Closing Now

Pebble Smart Watch:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/pebble-watch-3

1 Bitcoin:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-16

Nexus 7 Tablet:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/nexus-7-tablet



Interesting, would you like to list your own products in an ebay-style auction, or a BlockRun type auction?

I guess he mean a service like you being an escrow man and issue his things with BlockRun Style.

Gah, block is not even walking now....

I also found a thing funny that you make the email not on the time when the n-3 block came, but you make it n-4 + 10 minutes

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/38518839.jpg
https://blockchain.info/tx/cbe4f2827e7ce62136db9f403c492d36b61b246e4a0ef05947bf978613026644

Still being curious on the irrationality on the human brain. (Or did i suppose everyone knows game theory..?)

Ah... CRAP... when i click send tx, suddenly DING..... = =, my click was like 1 seconds after the 0.16 came.... seriously - -

That's something we might look at, would anyone else be interested in creating their own listings?

I assume you mean the "blockrunning" notification emails? There is a slight delay with mailchimp sending out their mails, so we actually send it slightly earlier (<1 block)  ;)

Pebble is blockrunning and getting some interest:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/pebble-watch-3

If it were me, and I was running BlockRun, I would only allow people to list items themselves if they first sent those items to me.  That way, I could inspect them, make sure they work and are in good condition, etc.  I would also ship those items out myself.  I would charge maybe 25% of the bids for the item in exchange for this service.

I wouldn't step into the escrow world directly with a service like this.  What would be the resolution for a he-said, she-said debate between people?  He says he shipped the item, she says she received a brick.

Wait,,, what- -... my move was eaten by own TX fee..... CRAP...
Would this be rejected... i guess?
Or did i just dumps some BTC into the abyss?

The logistics involved with that would be insane and make the whole thing not worthwhile. We have thought about doing some kind of user generated auction thing, but you're right, we'd have to be very careful to stop people from scamming!

If the bid is accepted into a block before the end of the auction, it is not refunded. Due to the fact it is a peer to peer network and miners accepts some transactions before others, we can't know for sure if one bid came before another. The only thing we can be sure of is if a bid is in a block (sorry!)

Pebble is going quite cheap:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/pebble-watch-3

These watches are worth about BTC2 on the second market right now  ;D

awww... the block came after me too much this time lol.... wish i could get my 0.18 in.... imma bid on the nexus i guess (does it ship to Hong Kong if i can pay for the delivery?)

Suggestion: Reject bid by returning at the end of the game if the bid is <=Current Bid that the time the server listens the new bid.

Wishes you still have some inventory these fun stuff, imma bid on them if i have time and not tired for sleep

Yeah, some super quick blocks shut that auction fast!

I'd imagine we can probably ship to HK one way or another  ;)


We do auto-refund bids that are unconfirmed at the end of the auction. See on the Pebble, the last bid (that didn't make it) was auto-refunded once it confirmed: http://blockchain.info/address/1Run2tGcZhPZ1ndYiaWJFSRs7NAwx8o2j

I just won the Pebble Watch!!  Its going to make a great wedding present for a friend of mine.  I had a quick question though, I was winning at .16, then a block or 2 later, someone else bid the exact same amount, .16
I didnt know what the situation was with a tie, so I bid .17 and won.  So if I let that go, would I have won at .16 because I put that bid in first?

Hope i wont sleep within this 2 hours, waitin for the nexus block :P

I am still UP 0.5BTC on your site

Gratz bro. the 0.16 was my mistake, i thought the 0.002 was put into the sending but it goes to the tx fee. So there you go. (Rational bid makes the house down 1BTC on this item, cheapest sale evar! even with the stupidity i made lol, i guess you wont bid on the nexus... right? coz i will, hehe)

Its all yours

Congratulations, we'll be in touch  ;D

If your bid of .16 got accepted first, I think it would be the winning bid. If they both got accepted into the same block, I think it's pure chance which once goes to be the high bid.

Great job for bidding above, you still got a really good deal!

YAY, hope i can stay that late. It is 1:39 AM here now (HK), 11 more blocks to go! Have fun with the watch, it should make you geeky and stand out by having the pioneer of an 'iwatch' :P

Btw, wondering is someone brave enough to out-bid the 0.8995 BTC guy lol

Yeah, the Pebbles are cool; I have one myself.

We've got a few more, so will be listing them in the next few days.

That last 1 BTC went up quick  ??? 

I won the minecraft creeper wallet a couple days ago.  Looking forward to receiving it!  Thanks!!

Ya, i was going for bidding that but i am too slppey and slept without bidding, since i knw it won't be expensive anyway. most geeks here wont aim for it. But as a 15+(364/365) y/o guy. I still got my "childishness" or whatever you call it

Yeah, it looks like someone bullied it on the BTC1 in order to make 0.1.

Congrats on winning the wallet, ti's been dispatched  :D

Nexus 7 is still very cheap, and the blocks can come quick:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/nexus-7-tablet

User auctioned items would be difficult -- you'd have to act as an escrow and it might be annoying.  But user-auctioned bitcoins would be easy to handle.

Closing now:

Jawbone Jambox:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/jawbone-jamebox-1


Bitcoins for Bitcoins wasn't the service that we first envisaged, but we are thinking about different kinds of auctions, so will give it some thought  ;)

Soft things like itune giftcard would be possible, or maybe steam code or etc

True, we could do this sort of thing. We'll be looking at this shortly..

Not a criticism...
anyone suspected of botting this yet?

We've not noticed anything yet. If anything, people are getting bids in too late as the block sometimes move fast & slam an auction shut. Those late bids are then auto-refunded once confirmed.

zomg... maybe you guyz have discovered something that curtails bot activity!
[yeah, tell that to Wall Street ;D]

Since you always have to bid higher than the last person, I don't really see any feasible advantage from botting this system.

bingo

I don't see what advantage a bot would have. You should worry more about the owners bidding up their own auctions.

by owners... you mean miners, or those initiating transactions?

BlockRun.com

Nah, we don't do that. I'd rather make a loss and have to shut down the service than to basically steal money off people!
 

1 Bitcoin closing soon  ;)
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-17

Just won the 1Btc auction. Do I really have to sign up to claim my prize?

Damn, was out of the house for that one!

Yep, but if you really don't want to, post your signature of the "Winner" signed message here & I'll verify manually  ;)

Congrats on winning  ;D

Signed message: G3PG0i3ao3C4v9M5iKecTuZQVEdxrJj+H11CHpdl5u0xdGrxf0aFTRq4tIl2KZb1u56MmwzP1QPqqD9sEZ5ZzmY=

Waitaminit... aren't these guyz making enuf markup from the fokkin' penny auctions?
HOW GREEDY! :o

oH HELL nnevermind... I got this tied in with the buckets game.

Thanks, verified and paid:
http://blockchain.info/tx/7569195363c87db4482d42e106c514eb4e9a63b38f74f43c7959c19bf1c5e340

Closing Now

Pebble Smart Watch:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/pebble-watch-4

when I subscribe, does it notify me for all auctions, or just the on I sub to?  I keep missing auctions.

You get all new bids etc for just the one you subscribe to. But you should also get 1 "blockrunning" email for all auctions, unless you have unsubscribed from that one!

Ya... Tmr is a holiday for me and i guess i can stay up late and bid tonight

They're bleeding money so I'm guessing they're sticking to bitcoin for bitcoin auctions. Those always seem to be profitable. But it would be a real shame if someone bid 1 BTC with 0 tx fee a few blocks before the auction started.

Bitcoin listed for tomorrow, we'll also be putting some more products up in the coming days  ;)

Before the auction started? You don't have the address to pay in by then yet?!

Also even without a fee it will eventually confirm.

As in, before it enters "blockrun" mode. That's when the "penny auction" really starts. The whole point of 0 fee TX is to minimize the cost of the DoS operation. An attacker can place 1 BTC bids at no cost to him. If someone bids higher than 1 BTC, it will undermine the trust of the site. Since any bid higher than 1 BTC is a guaranteed net loss, it's highly likely that the bidder is the site owner.

1 Bitcoin is ending now:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-18



The only reason somebody would so this is to basically troll the auction. There is also the chance that the BTC1 wouldn't be confirmed, allowing others a chance to bid a lower amount in the hope they win. Either way, there is always a chance a user could be outbid.

But if the 1 BTC user is outbid, people will call shenanigans on the auction. Why would someone pay more than 1 BTC to get 1 BTC?

To troll the person bidding 1 BTC.

I'd almost bid 1.00000001 just to troll anyone who bid 1.

Then the whole auction turns into an expensive trollfest benefiting the site owner. Bonus: site owner bids 1 BTC just to attract trolls. :P

I thought we were over the questions of bidding on our own actions? It's not happening.

Heh, good point!

The problem is, we have no way to verify that.

Honestly though, just keep doing what you're doing.  People are obviously having a good time bidding, and winning some things, and your reputation will grow as long as no one has any reason to be suspicious.  If you're not bidding on your own auctions, then the likelihood that someone will try to claim that you are is slim.

No, that was hypothetical. Hence the "bonus".

Haven't seen a new auction in awhile.  Hope you guys aren't closing shop!

If you guys have decided to close this site, please PM me, as I'd be interested in discussing a purchase.

The last few auctions went for really cheap, I hope they didn't go under.

Seems like a cool site, I lost though lol.

Hey guys,

Nope, we haven't gone under.

And nope, nobody has been scammed. We have shipped everything to everyone and paid out all the Bitcoins; if any winners want to give me some trust rating goodness, that would be nice  :P

The last few auctions were not that profitable and were taking up time. We've also been working on some other little projects:

http://blocknotify.com
http://blockbadge.com

I've put a coin auction on there for you guys:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-20

We may also put some lower value stuff on there in the next few days:

We're also thinking about ways to change it into a slightly different service, or one that is a little more profitable for us  ;)

Good to hear!  I'll send some trust rating once the wallet arrives.

It hasn't arrived? I've just checked and it was dispatched from the UK 10 days ago, so maybe it is still in transit.

If you're the winner of the auction, I've just sent you an email  ;)

Gave you some trust.  ;)

SgtSpike, why are you everywhere I look when I do something related to bitcoins o.o

Hmmm... because I like Bitcoins?  :D

Thanks, I'm glad you're happy with the iPad  ;D

Can you add some more non-bitcoin prizes?  :)

I'll never win anything xD Just watched someone bid .2 on an auction I tried to kickstart, then have another 1.04 btc sent to their address, ready to snipe down anyone who bids after them >_<

1 Bitcoin is closing:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-20



I'll see what we can do in the next few days  ;)

To bid, or not to bid...that is the question :S

It's so tempting lol, I'm scared that if I bid the last bidder will bid me right back up xD

Thanks for getting it going  ;D

You never know, the BTC could be for something else, or they may not bid!

Someone can still more than double their money:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-20

It's tempting, but I don't want to drop $20 on something that i'll end up losing  :P But time's running out...hmmm...

dont be a pussy

I did it after reading "dont be a pussy" and I got fucked over, well that's officially the first and last time I ever try a penny auction  :'( Even put in a 4 mBTC fee, what a waste...

its gambling...  its fun.  it actually looks like your bid wont go through, and youll get it back

Yeah right, it has a 4 mBTC fee...

Least you didn't lose 0.20? hey! I'm not going to bid now it won't register...

I did lose .2 ._.

EDIT: I don't find being bidded up 30 seconds later for $20 as my idea of fun, maybe it's just not for me >_<

Not if it doesn't go through, you will be refunded. That's what is likely to happen. There's not much time left.

thats just how it works...  you were trying to outbid someone else by 0.00006666.

this is all pennies anyway.  dont gamble with what you cant afford to lose.

Explain how it wouldn't go through, though? Both mine and the person who bid me up's bids are going to be included in the next block, I don't understand why mine would be refunded  :-[

In my defense, you did call me a pussy -.-

unconfirmed transaction

You've learned a valuable lesson, bid when there is no one else on. Plus you did bump the thread making it more likely for people to bid....but it's too late now, should end in minutes and then transactions aren't going to confirm in time.

Site has earned 0.65 BTC (made a loss altogether) if those last bets confirm.

They're going to confirm, look at those fees :S It was my first time doing penny auctions, damnit -.- Shouldn't have listened to laughingbear...

cant win if you dont play

Back to the ignore list you go - i'm done talking with you  :-X

now he will never know how much I loved him

Lmao. That's brilliant.

Yeah, he loved me so much that he decided to bid BTC .25 against me, I bet. At least there's some kind of humor...

...brb while I go punch a wall

calm yourself.  thats not my bid.  I havent bid on anything in over a week

Well, at least they're going to actually profit from this auction, BTC .411 profit in fact.

EDIT: Make that BTC .811 profit, this is getting heated :o I still regret betting BTC .2, lol.

EDIT2: Holy shit, none of them got included in the final block even with a .0005 fee. That's unfortunate for the person who bid BTC .7 in total...

Bids that didn't confirm are refunded, right?

No, I don't believe so...

yes, unconfirmed bids are returned to you, give it 5 minutes or so.

They are. Only ones that are confirmed don't get refunded.


You have to wait for it to be confirmed then they will refund it right?

Spot on, they will be auto refunded once they confirm:
http://blockchain.info/address/1Run2wKvShq2ZyXNj96ksDYrA7z9s7n2p

Congrats to the winner, shame all those late bids didn't get confirmed (lol). Just goes to show, it's worth getting bids in before the final block  ;)

Now it's time to hate me everyone. I won....I was playing a psychological game right the way through this thread. Bidding very high to start and then sending more funds to the wallet...hehe.

Then stating anymore bids will more than likely not confirm....ahhahha

PS: You can ignore my message I sent you dipsy.


I'm going out for 30 odd minutes. Will it be all right if I sign the address a little later?
(Already received my late bid 1/6 confirms)

I can't believe those last two bids didn't confirm, lucky break!

Yeah it looks like they're already going out: http://blockchain.info/address/1Run2wKvShq2ZyXNj96ksDYrA7z9s7n2p

You evil plotter  :o

I was just out and not near a computer. We issue prizes manually (both Bitcoins and products).

Payment sent:

http://blockchain.info/tx/11d16c3d0991f16bc5acbf27ab03dd232d24abec3a8e3cc3ecf525e62c8d512d

Congratulations and thanks for playing BlockRun ;D

Confirmed!


Going to add a trust feedback right now. Thank you for this awesome service.

Thanks, and thanks for the rating too cp1  8)

Thanks for refunding the unconfirmed bids

No worries! Once the auction is closed, it's closed; so unconfirmed bids should be refunded.

Only bids in blocks before an auction ends count  ;)

Just received the minecraft wallet and it came in perfect condition.  Thanks dipsy & blockrun!  I definitely look forward to future product auctions.  I think I'm out of my league on the bitcoin auctions though lol!

1 Bitcoin closing now:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-21

Let's see what happens!


Thanks, glad you like it  ;D

FYI, we will be taking a break for the weekend and have more auctions next week.

Have a great weekend  ;D

Your evil plotting (fuck you, by the way ;) ) inspired me to enter into a Minecraft Gift Code contest (BitVegas') with a guess of 6969. Which I just won, and the code is worth around .2 BTC.

Lol, you made profit, I broke even, I guess that means I can go do it all over again xD

THanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k489/bearsemail/photo1_zps36a8fb2e.jpg (http://s1112.photobucket.com/user/bearsemail/media/photo1_zps36a8fb2e.jpg.html)

Cheeky $20 Amazon Voucher closing now:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/20-dollars-amazon-voucher



Your welcome  ;D

By God, I hope this bet doesn't confirm!

http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/20-dollars-amazon-voucher

I can taste victory with my 5.9 mBTC bid!

And it might not confirm - the queue position is very high...

Interesting it looks like the pending bidder is spending newly mined coins:
http://blockchain.info/address/1Ntxowic7h6ZdVgMyQNUb7nmnQTckw3ieD

These need 100 confirmations before they can be spent, hence the high queue.

It's unlikely to confirm, so still time for someone else to jump in:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/20-dollars-amazon-voucher

Well, it just confirmed, so what do I know? lol

That's really strange, actually. They shouldn't have confirmed - oh well, lol  ;) I got quite a bit more to throw there, you gotta make a profit somehow.

Scratch that; someone threw in a .01 with a .005 fee. Damn. It seems to also be funds that were originally given to them...for endorsing BlockRun.

/me gasps

Sometimes we tip players who are nice to us by posting on forums or tweeting etc..

Oh, in that case, you're epic?  :D

I might barely squeeze this bet in if the 2 bets against me don't confirm...the suspense is killing me  :o

http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/20-dollars-amazon-voucher

FYI - It looks like I won't be able to issue the prize to the winner straight away as am not near a computer now.

The voucher will be sent to the winner roughly 12 hours after the prize has been claimed  ;)

this is going so slow, it might take 12 hours to finish

Gawd damnit, I can never win these auctions  :(

1 Bitcoin ending now:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-22

Ah crap I don't have any coins available to bid right at this moment.

Nice try, 1AeE2X8zr8wPVqg1TupmhGJrDcB39dtzJD.

It looks like that one just got confirmed.  We should side bet on whether a transaction will make it into the next block!

I got an email about this one, but the link was to an auction that ended a week ago.  Whoops.

Ah shit. Thought about resending it, but figured most people will be clever enough to figure it out!

Sorry  :D

Well, he saw a higher bet come in and bet two higher amounts without a fee. Then he bet a lower amount with a fee.

Hey guys, we've mostly been working on other projects, but we're back today for another cheeky auction!

1 Bitcoin - Closing now:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-23

Yea I miss blockrun too.  I guess it wasn't getting enough visibility.

This sucks, right when I discover this amazing site, it's closed? :(