Bitcoin Forum

Seemed like a good idea to me to give some of my friends and relatives BTC as a present, no? Any interesting stories how they reacted, questions they asked?

If anyone received any, and is willing to donate to a great charity, and also get entry into a free raffle for doing so, check out my signature.  We are taking any type of alt coins, no amount too big or too small, no coin too popular or dead.

Merry Christmas!

I gave paper wallets I made to my employers and students. By far got the best reception of any gifts ever given! But we had talked about it before, so it was a piece to the puzzle so to speak.

Question/concern - can they see my wallet history now by using blockexplorer? I played with it and I know BTC very well but couldn't make a whole lot of sense from it except to confuse me LOL! Is the only way to protect my BTC financial history by using a coin mixing service and/or another wallet.

IAS

Basically, yes (as far as I understand it myself). If the transactions into the addresses you gave away all came directly from addresses only you control, they will be able to go all the way back. Any intermediate transfer through addresses containing BTC of others adds [whatever the inverse of taint is]. Obfuscation?


Mind if I ask which course it was you taught?

I teach English.

Thx for the reply.

So next time it would be a good idea to send the coins from an exchange, at least that makes it simple.
Though not a big deal to me. Not a big holder!

This morning (Christmas Day) I setup a Bitcoin wallet (Andreas Schildback's) on my mother's Galaxy Note 2 cellphone.  Then transferred 0.1 BTC to her new wallet and show her how easy its done… She was amazed at how easy it was to use (using the camera for th QR code etc.)… As she is the chairman of the board at a local bank and attends Rotary, she can't wait to show her peers how high tech she is. Haha. No more old school MC/Visa/Debit…

The ease of use of that particular wallet makes Bitcoin less daunting for the un-techies…

TC

A few online friends who showed interest got 0.2 BTC each. Cost me a solid bit but damn was it well received.

Others just got physical goods. They're happy too  ;D

Ouch. Topic moved by Blitz. oh well.

I'm surprised so many of you are pretty generous ... several "up to 10 BTC" answers.

Proof that BTC holder = master race :D

Didn't give any actual BTC, but all gifts I gave were purchased with BTC including: an i3 ivy bridge laptop, a Nexus 7 tablet, an iphone 4s, a 25 year old single malt bottle of scotch whiskey, lollyphile candy, gift cards... total around $1,350. All possible with Bitpay. Rather than confusing people who barely know how to operate a PC, I'd rather support merchants who have accepted BTC as payment for their products.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=295211.msg4145923#msg4145923

signs should be >

I actually gave out a bunch of collosus coins and infinite coins lol.
Being able to give several million of these vs 0.5 -1 btc seemed like a more exciting gift:)

They were well received and I heard the word millionaire mentioned a couple times which made me smile.

if people are giving out paper wallets, i have a feeling a lot of coins will end up being lost.

I sent a few friends paper wallets in the post. Hoping they're going to take it using BTC!

Snapcard and Bitcoin, Huge combination. got few giftcard from walmart from snapcard, but the worstpart is long time for delivering products.
orderd in 13 to get yesterday haha

Sent .01 BTC to a couple friends who already know about BTC so more of a gag gift.  Hey it could be worth big bucks one day!

Why? "< x" should be interpreted as "up to amount x", and you pick the highest one that applies to you. You know... natural language pragmatics conventions and shit.

What do you guys think about this thread:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1tp829/today_my_girlfriends_brother_gave_everyone_paper/

Do you feel like pushy evangelists?

You have to consider many factors. As I stated above it was the most well received gifts I have given. But they knew what it was. If they hadn't and I gave a Christmas day presentation, that wouldn't have been nice or well received. And somehow I think you know that. Don't simplify, group,etc.

Well i belive bitcoin would be for the majority of recipients NOT a good gift, because they simply dont understand it... When it goes up in price they might be glad, but otherwise not a good idea according to me :-).

Oh wow, so few... I expected a bigger percentage.

I happily gave some away.

Why? Judging by the poll, more than 50% of Bitcoin holders gave them as presents directly. At least some of the others bought presents with them, via Bitpay. Sounds good to me.

Bitcoins aren't exactly mainstream yet. Giving the average person a paper wallet would net the same reaction as giving them Monopoly money.

"Oh crap. I forgot my password"

Literally 5 minutes after I helped my sister set up a coinbase account, two factor authentication, and sent her a bitcoin. *facepalm* lol

Sure, keep telling yourself that.

I gave my sisters paper wallets, and their reactions ranged from very interested ("I'll have to read up on what this Bitcoin thing is") to amused (she: "I'm going to sell them later tonight". me: "sure, go ahead, but I'll laugh so hard if price is 10 times higher next christmas". she: "okay, I'll wait a bit before I sell them")

I would say it's a bit too deep into the tech pool to give as a present to the very young or elderly, but for anyone even remotely interested in tech-y stuff, it's a nice idea.

Most people treated it like a scrap of dried seaweed (uninteresting and useless), but the people who had heard of it loved it! I was surprised my father-in-law (who watches a lot of news) had never heard of it. My favorite response was from one of my nieces who said "thanks for the bit-thingy" when she was leaving :)

I wish somebody had given me BTC for Christmas... I'd be OK with that.

I remember being a kid and getting some US Bonds and not knowing what the heck they were, but being told "In ten years it will be 50 bucks." and thinking "cool." Perhaps that is often enough...

Do people really need to understand something when they are gifted it? I think most times not. It certainly is interesting to watch this unfold.

IAS

I didn't give any BTC, but I wouldn't be opposed to receiving some from people!
I wish it was a little easier to purchase some BTC, but hopefully with more and more ATMs opening up it won't be as bad.  Too much online verification required to buy and sell.