Bitcoin Forum

Here's an idea... any takers? I'd be willing to donate a bit to this.

1) Create a few thousand instawallet.org pages/accounts. Record the URL's
2) Feed each account with, say, .01 bitcoin
3) Print cheap business cards or flyers with the instawallet URL address (one on each card)
4) Hand these out at the OccupyWallStreet protest.

The flyers/business cards should say something like "Here's free money that neither Wall St. nor the Fed can manipulate"

I think that'd be quite successful.


UPDATE:
****

DONORS - thread continued here:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45943.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45943.0)

****

I can manage 3 quite easily, is there an automated way to handle 1 and 2 though?

I actually live 3 blocks away, so I can handle 4.

I'm sure a novice programmer could make a quick script to create those pages, record the URL's in an excel file, and export as CSV. Then create a new script to send .01 btc to all those addresses, maybe all done through Instawallet to remove all transfer fees (send 100 btc to instawallet, then .01 to 10,000 Instawallet addresses)

Would we want glossy or matte, also 10k is roughly 400usd on printing cost. Ehoorves check you messages btw.

seems like a pretty good idea, maybe put a note on there telling people not to throw it away if they aren't interested because there is "real money" attached - instead give it to another protester who is interested.

Perhaps the card could also have printed a suggestion that the funds can be donated to the #OccupyWallStreet NYC General Assembly.  
 - http://nycga.cc/donate

Since the 0.01 BTC is worth only about a U.S. nickel / $0.05, these might otherwise be just discarded by many of the participants.
 
This might be sufficient motivation to the participants and they will in the process learn how bitcoins are used.  

The alternate donation method to NYC General Assembly uses WePay which requires the contributor to give up identity, so perhaps include something suggesting that friends and family can donate (relatively) anonymously to #OccupyWallStreet using bitcoin.

Additionally, I read this:
"I was trying to buy some of the art here, but they say they don’t know how to facilitate the selling of it."
- http://www.observer.com/2011/09/50-portraits-from-occupy-wall-street-slideshow/#slide44
So here's one method:
Print both the wallet's Bitcoin address for receiving Bitcoin transactions as well as the Instawallet URL for spending the funds, but make it so the card can be folded and the receiving address visible but the InstaWallet's spending URL hidden from view.
Included as well could be the suggestion to use http://bitcoinnotify.com to register that Bitcoin address.  That service will cause an email alert to be sent when funds are received (on 0/unconfirmed) to the Bitcoin addresses registered.  (for those who have email capability from their mobile but not web access to verify payment)

Please keep in mind the size of a business card is 2x3.5 and we want a readable print size.

It's a nice idea

We should also ask them to set up a bitcoin address so we can send them some donations in bitcoins

I think I can handle #1 but I can't get started on it until tomorrow morning if someone doesn't get to it before me.

Whoever is in/near New York City should go to the weekly Bitcoin Meetup on this Wednesday(tomorrow) ran by Yifu Guo one of the people behind Bitcoin Navigator, Located on 83 third ave in a dessert place called "Just Sweet" at 6pm, it usually ends at 9pm.

One of the things on this weeks agenda is that the people behind the globalrevolution livestrem has been asking how they would start accepting bitcoin payments, and one of the regular goers is trying to get them to come to this meet up to talk about bitcoins' role in #globarevolution #occupywallstreet and maybe matt(aka carbonpenguin on this forum) whom have a connection with #feedtheprotest to exchange ideas and information.

Spread the news.

Would be easier to just print up a bunch of Bitcoin cards with information on them.

I usually pay about $90 for 5000 cards.

This would be good for just about any event. I used to hand out Ron Paul cards with info at events.

Interesting

Great idea, but I would assume printing companies would charge much more when printing 1 copy of 10k designs versus printing 10k copies of 1 design (this is just my assumption as an outsider).  

Maybe we should just run a server side script that gives out X BTC per IP address. Sure some assholes will game the system, but those same assholes would be hogging/stealing the unique codes anyways. In fact using the server-side method is probably safer for the volunteers who hand out the cards. Just my 2 satoshis.

Put up a donation address already! Every 10 card given out will at least generate one more bitcoin fanatic, and it only costs 0.1 BTC + printing costs. If that's not a good investment I don't know what is.
 

I am too remote from the action to contribute organizationally, but will contribute btc if the project gains legs.

Is there any word on how long this protest will continue?

I like this idea. ;D

I don't know if this will fly down there - the protesters seem more concerned with solving their current problems and probably wouldn't like to introduce a whole new set of them.

Problem: central banking
Solution: currency without central banking

What's the issue... unless you mean that those protesters would rather enjoy the coddling and convenience of corrupt institutions instead of working to build new institutions which are not yet as convenient?

Anyone down there at the protests who complains, yet pulls money from the nearby Citi ATM and won't at least consider the opportunities presented by a peer-to-peer currency is unworthy of the change they seek.

This IS the means to the end. Bitcoin is the tool people need to fix the issue they have at hand. They just don't realize it yet.

The people I talked to down there were receptive: http://btcbusiness.net/?q=node/22

Seems like a really terrific idea in principle.

Here's a permutation:

 - hand out cards with a URL containing a simple hash which could be typed in easily.

 - when the URL is visited, a wallet is created in real-time and populated with whatever funds are deemed appropriate at the time given the funding pool size and interest (that is, what percentage of the cards seem to be being used.)

 - that web page visit could walk users through various niceties like the bitcoinnotify.com thing, options for donating the wallet funds so some organization, and whatever else.

 - if/when the simple hash URL is re-visited, the instawallet address could be re-displayed, along with current news, more funding distributed if there were any adjustments, etc.

I expect that this is more coding and system design than could be hacked out in time for this event, but maybe not, and maybe such a thing could be readied for the next significant target of opportunity.

Yea, people aren't gonna type in a complete BTC address for $0.05 USD.

Should we go for a quantity of 500 - 1000 cards and start a bounty/escrow to hold community donations toward this project? Any objection to me holding an escrow toward this and accepting community contributions?

I propose we let whatever donations collected toward this project dictate how many cards and BTC fraction deposited for each card.

What hash length should be displayed on card? 8 chars? 12 chars?

When they visit the page, generate an address, move BTC from/to account (hash), display list of charities accepting BTC donation that they can choose to send BTC directly to or they can enter their own address to transfer to?

domain suggestions?

wallstreetfail.org
wallstreetbtc.org
btcreplaceswallstreet.org
replacewallstreet.com
replacewallstreet.org
operationbitcoin.com
operationbitcoin.org

...

A buisness card is sufficent to hold a fairly complex QR, at inch and a half square you can scan a QR contatining 250 characters which would be more than enough to hold a complete hash even if only the first 8-12 characters are shown on it. perhaps both firstbits and bitpay could be of some assistance with this project?

Not everyone has the equipment necessary to scan QR codes, unfortunately. More so if they protest at anti-corporate rallies.

If it's a URL then they can redeem it at a public computer if they don't own a computer or smartphone.

i'm not saying ditch the URL i'm saying include a QR for simplicity :)
wallstreetbtc sounds good to me but i like operationbit.co.in better

Guys if you are going to have an URL for this operation you should host a shortening script just for these cards.
Ex: www.example.com/btcpromo/<some 5 digit number>, which will forward to the instawallet.
edit: never mind someone posted that already.

My bad, I misunderstood.

+1 for the hash directly. The less we rely on online wallets, the better.

This way we don't even need an escrow account to accept donations. Anyone who wants to donate simply sends themselves X BTC, and then export that private key from their wallet. This private key goes straight onto the card in the form of a QR code. 

FYI - PayPal troubles seem to be beginning for the occupation: http://feedtheprotest.com/node/219 (http://feedtheprotest.com/node/219)

Good that's to our benifit, now if we just got the local coffe shops to accept bitcoin this would be perfect ;)

There are plans for this in motion, see the meetup I mentioned, but I don't want to make too many promise unlike some one we know  ::)

even if it's a dozen people with enough funds to just cover it collecting the coins through bitpay and paying the costs out of pocket ;)

This is a really good idea. If I lived in NY or nearby, I would help with this. Too bad I'm stuck in Finland at the moment. :)

I think we need a poll to decide but if trentzb was holding the escrow you could toss in a coin at least

I like the form 'operationbitcoin'.  I don't think it should target 'wallstreet' by name since this is to nation specific.

I would suggest one level of abstraction to represent the 'campaign' so that the domain/system can be re-used.  In this case it would be something lile 'ocw'.

I prefer a hash (vs. a small set of numbers) since one of the points here is to make the system less susceptible to ass-wipes trying to game the thing by writing a program which scores free bitcoin.  The hash should be small enough to type easily, but big enough to be non-predictable.  In fact, two random words would probably suffice and be easier to type and remember.

So:

  http:  //www.operationbitcoin.org/ocw/dklw8jer

or

  http:  //www.operationbitcoin.org/ocw/bird_rock

---

As for donations, I am happy to do so without an escrow, but I would like some level of accounting and progress reports.  Ideally there would be a small group of fairly well known and respected persons coordinating in this effort, and donation can be made to any one of them.

Why not teach them to accept bitcoin? (feedtheprotest org. that is)

I'm a little confused too :P since matt aka carbonpenguin has told me he has connections to the people behind it, if it's the technical that's bothering you I'm sure Yifu Guo and his crew will love to help you if you go to the meetup on this Wednesday, he is a bright young man. Also Yifu has made a reddit post on this matter http://redd.it/ktai9

I dig this idea operationbitcoin.org/campaign/hash

Are we redirecting to Instawallet or handling locally? Do we want small amounts (pre-)scattered through hundreds of Instawallets and have to collect them up after campaign or handle within local wallet and allocate on demand?

Is someone pledging printing costs and distribution or?

My pledge at the moment is 3 BTC + domain registration (2 - 3 BTC?) + hosting + code.

It doesn't matter much to me whether I handle escrow or not, whoever is distributing funds to Instawallet is controlling funds anyway so either way someone or some few will be in control of donation funds. Other ideas?

I am for this also (assist feedtheprotest org). My 3 BTC stands either way.

I just spoke to Yifu via IRC and apparently he bought the domain bitinitiative.com awhile ago with the plan to use for the purpose of "bringing the virtual Bitcoins into the physical world." he can just use that or he's also happy to register that www.operationbitcoin.org domain and handle a lot of the stuff mentioned since he said there is similar plans in motion.

If that is the domain we want to go with, a poll might be useful here for us to decide.

He also mentioned it may be good to wait slightly until tomorrow's meet up, since he says the if global revolution people are show up we might able to coordinate better, but for now let the ideas fly  :D

The only thing _I_ can think of off hand is to ping the instawallet folk to make sure they don't mistake a the system for a DOS of some sort and are otherwise cool with things.

It would be kinda cool to me if the system could be as open-source as possible, but I've not thought things through very fully on this front...I'm supposed to be working :)  If the system presents a real-time log of funds going into the pool and being disbursed to visitors, that would be a big plus to me.

The amount that I will donate will depend a great deal on the accountability inherent in the system.  Also, the farther this thing stays away from Bruce and any of his associates, the better I will feel about it.

Perfect time and place to promote bitcoin.  They should have some reading material at the very least there.  I saw they have a Library :).

I guess the appropriate question is - is there someone who would like to step up and lead this?  Needs a dedicated leader at this point. I'll donate 3 btc to the project if it gets off the ground, and I would be happy to write the wording on the card/flyer.

Deslok and I are over in #operationbitcoin discussing. I can lead part of this project. I think at this point we just need to solicit pledges for when/if the project launches (1-2 days?).

Anyone interested in contributing BTC/assistance/other please post your pledge here.

My plan would be to get things going with the said 0.01BTC per card but with donations remaining open after getting things rolling so please don't print "1cBTC" on them. Maybe it would even be a good idea to charge them a bit randomly so people check if they got one of the three 50$ cards.

I would donate 1BTC to an escrow now but if the cards look cool without typos and if it gets media attention I would pay another 3 later.

I would also donate the other 3 only if I get some media on how the cards actually got distributed and not handed over to some kids to bulk-scan the codes for some of the "helpers".

I'll pledge 10 BTC to start.  If there is reasonable accountability, nothing 'Bold Funding'-like pops up, and nobody else comes along and does a demonstrably better job, I'll put in another 25 BTC (but I reserve the right to adjust for market fluctuation.)  I'm not very familiar with 'trentzb' and 'deslok's ravings on this forum, and expect that people will fully understand a high degree of suspicion for...well...just about anything involving Bitcoin.

I would prefer that evoorhees were a core member of this group if he/she is interested.  I have some confidence in him/her for some reason I cannot put my finger on.  (But then I has some confidence in Bruce also...) :(  I liked the general theme of the wording outlined in the OP and thought it would be effective for this purpose.

I'm happy to contribute a decent amount of Bitcoins as well.

I didn't see it mentioned,  but I don't think using Instawallet is the best idea for this.
Any Bitcoins at unclaimed URLs will be lost.

Lets make this project happen!

I just convinced the guy doing the tech work on FeedTheProtest to start accepting BTC - I'm writing the text of the post to introduce the concept as well as announce the address. Below is what I've written so far; any suggestions for revisions would be appreciated:

As our [recent experience with PayPal] has all too painfully demonstrated, relying exclusively on corporate payment processing to fund a movement that seeks to undermine corporate power is a risky proposition. As such, we at Feed the Protest have decided to begin accepting donations in Bitcoin, the anonymous open source peer-to-peer currency that was used to help fund Wikileaks when they [faced similar issues]. To learn more about how Bitcoin works, visit [We Use Coins], and, to get your hands on some, the major exchange can be found at https://mtgox.com. It is our hope that the PayPal situation will be resolved soon, but we can be certain that all Bitcoin payments will, in fact, go through. Send your Bitcoins to: [XXXXXXX]

I will also throw in a few coins once this project is finalized...

That's really well-worded. Great key points, succinct and well-toned =)

I'm also interested in this and would be happy to make a donation.

Why not have the card say "free your money etc" and include a link to bitcoin.org and a link pointing to the Bitcoin Faucet for free coins.

Then everyone donate to the faucet.. already 10btc there.

LOL that's a really good idea also =)  We're discussing it in the IRC room #operationbitcoin

Why? It would be perfectly ok to have an intermediate page (project.org/claim/your_code) where we explain that any instawallet account used in this campaign will remain legal property of the campaigners and be emptied at some point. Of course the one filling the accounts will not forget all the urls. Also it is good practice to not leave your money at instawallet waiting for the next hacker so the project page could also link to how to install and protect a local client.

i don't like the faucet as it collects email addresses. just a thought ...
sometimes new ideas are "better" as new ideas give new momentum and new people to good old ideas so I would stick with the "some money per card". If Gavin cooperates and provides us with redeem codes that you can use instead of gmail addresses, that would be an option.

I think you should promote exchangebitcions.com instead of Mt. Gox.  Not because I work for them or anything but because they are by far the easiest way to get money in and out (deposits via BOA and withdraws by ACH or Check. .  Plus they are US based.   Dealing with Mt. Gox to get money in there can be a turnoff to some.

I think that this project would be better served by trying to avoid any tie-in with any established or upcoming for-profit organization, bitcoin related or otherwise.  If/when they reference any such organization, I would be more comfortable if the label lived amongst a list of all such organization, or better yet, was simply a pointer to such a list at bitcoin.org.  (I mention this due to the specific pointer to Mt Gox in the proposed letter.  By the same token, I would prefer that instawallet be encouraged to supply links to more than just Tradehill if that service is to be leveraged for this project.)

I would like it if whoever purchases the domain name to promise that it not be sold and to put up a 'closed' static page if/when it is retired.  It is more important to me that the domain name be in escrow than any funding.

I think that any person or organization making donations (either financial or technical) should be listed if they wish to be, but that the project should not show any sign of giving preferential treatment to such an organization due to such a contribution.

These are just my suggestions.  I've no interest in or ability to make demands.  I will, of course, be more likely to contribute to the project if I feel that my contribution will not be abused at some point and will end up promoting a more healthy ecosystem.  And I do NOT feel the domination by a small number of large players contributes to this.  I'll be pissed if I contribute to this thing, it goes well, then gets gobbled up by Tradehill or Mt Gox.

a) instead of writing some external script to generate and fund all the instawallet urls, why not just ask the owners of instawallet to generate them in-house and give you the list? it would be far more efficient.

b) i was also thinking a way to get more people to redeem their links would be to have *some* of them contain 1 or 5 or maybe 10 btc.... (while most contain 0.01 btc, they could be like those instant scratch lottery tickets where you win 'up to' a certain amount... a top prize).

I've changed the exchange pointer to bitcoin.org, and the announcement is now online http://feedtheprotest.com/node/223 (http://feedtheprotest.com/node/223)

that's great!

(slight typo at the bitcoin.org link, where the preceding space is caught up in the href)

also, i took the liberty of creating this link (http://payb.tc/feedtheprotest) which anyone can verify as correct.

Okay this idea is moving forward quickly. 

We are likely not going to do a "preloaded" card with money on it... it is more elegant but time and cost issues are a problem (mostly sequential printing, lost donations, etc.)

OperationBitcoin.com or .org will be the landing page where we send people via QR code on a printed business card. Business card will be short and sweet, landing page will be more descriptive, indicating how to claim free btc, get wallet, and other resources.

I encourage any of the interested donors to join our chat. Several of us are in the IRC room #operationbitcoin

****

DONORS - thread continued here:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45943.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45943.0)

****

How long do you think this protest will last?

Not necessarily.  Keep a list of all addresses that are funded.  Give the card an expiration.  If the Instawallet funds aren't spent by a certain date and time, they get recirculated to a new Instawallet address.

I think it will last for a long time. It's been a long time coming for OccupyWallStreet imo and it's only going to spread to other cities.

This is a golden opportunity for bitcoin. People need to learn that bitcoin is a way to peacefully protest against Wall St. and gradually give the power back to the people.

#ObsoleteWallStreet

reddit up http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/ktz1b/the_occupywallstreet_bitcoin_promotion_people_on/

We need way more community marketing projects like this one! This is the one thing we've been missing that could make Bitcoin much bigger. I hope this one succeeds and starts a new trend of community marketing projects.

When's this project going live?

Agreed. This kind of stuff used to happen all the time here.  Now most people wast their effort making bold, unqualified statements.

Excellent idea, can't wait to see it launched.

Helping the organization become aware of how to use bitcoin will be vital imo for the movements success more than they realize.
If they stop the flow of donations, it can certainly have a tremendous effect to the growth and survival of the movement.

It's only a matter of time before Paypal and the banks freeze all their funds no different than Wikileaks if they haven't tried already.
This is nothing new and I'm sure many already expect it and even welcome it to fuel the movement even further.

a little offtopic, but check this out: http://www.observer.com


it will be awesome if some of those occupywallstreet stories start including a line or two about bitcoin.

(perhaps someone more organised can leave something in the comments section linking back to this bitcoin promo).

.

This could be an issue. Im getting back from lots of people, "is that feedtheprotest trustworthy?   i.e., how do we know it isn't feedthescammer?"  Is there some way they could verify what they are doing?

I will actually be heading back down to NYC from tuesday-thursday for the express purpose of (a) organizing some people on the ground to do regular updates and (b... and most exciting to me) getting the Officer Accountability Project database fleshed out. The announcement of the latter project can be found here: http://feedtheprotest.com/node/224 (http://feedtheprotest.com/node/224) and we have a few sample profiles. What I will be doing is trying to get a relatively complete catalog of the "white shirts," with the ultimate goal of creating a time-line of the behavior of each of the officers that is easily searchable (so new instances of police violence can be rapidly contextualized and compared with previous behaviors). This is the project that has been taking up most of Kevin's (the tech lead) time over the past few days, but now that we've got the back end in place it should be ready for rapid expansion when I get down there. If you want your bitcoins supporting other elements of the movement, by all means send them to where you feel most comfortable, but I believe we're doing pretty important work.

Also, as I'll be down on Wednesday, I will try to make the BTC meet-up, so long as there is not anything urgent going down in Liberty Plaza at that time. If anyone wants to get together and compare notes at any other point while I'm down there, drop a pm, and I'll send you my cell phone #...

This sounds really good. My suggestion is, from your website you need a section called "Where your donations go to" and list of these details and more, in an as organized and exact professional manner as possible. This is the primary thing you could do to encourage doner confidence.

That's an excellent suggestion - I will be seeing Kevin tomorrow and will try to flesh something out and have it up by tomorrow evening...

Nice job!

what is the status? handing out cards already?

Some humor while we wait.

#OccupySesameStreet

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsnbts831E1qc3wjlo1_500.jpg

http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/11103277076/6/tumblr_lsnbts831E1qc3wjl

http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/11103277076/3/tumblr_lsnbts831E1qc3wjl

http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/11103277076/2/tumblr_lsnbts831E1qc3wjl

I just thought of something.  Why haven't the protestors been kicked out with the usual "you don't have a permit" excuse? 

Ya, why can't they be good Kochparty Patriobots and act like the big money wants them to act?

At least the mainstream media message about what we should think of these people seems to be getting out broadly.

They are actually on private property. 

i thought ~700 people had already been arrested... what was the reason for that.

we need a short announcement about bitcoin in the context of gernal assembly and #occupy wallst so it can be presented at the general assembly mic check as soon as possible, Tonight preferably

That was because they chose to occupy a bridge.  I am just referring to the park.  Its private property, but from what I understand the owners of the park (some corporation) are losing patience.

The park is private but the terms when the purchase occurred requires they leave it open to the public.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/culture/2011/10/3608746/owners-park-center-occupy-wall-street-protests-are-losing-patience-w

excellent research...

I just want to say that it seams that this 'movement'  is perfect for bitcoin usage.  If they are really against the establishment, then the using of bitcoins is perfect.  I dont know what else I can do other then to donate to the cause. 

What is the current progress of the cause, should I be looking at a different post?

This page, specifically for donors, is more updated:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45943.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45943.0). If you really want to get involved, the team is hanging out in IRC #operationbitcoin

Simple, whomever creates the links keep a copy.  I assume this person will be honest anyway since they're probably the ones using some of their own money.  At some point in the future check each one, maybe a year?.  If there's an amount anything other the original amount, then delete that URL on your list since it had activity and someone showed interest (or if the amount is zero).  If it's still the same exact amount, reclaim it back. :)

I will donate some BTC to this project,   I'm at work and I don't have time to read the last few pages.   What is the current status as of NOW?  Also do we have a script for the automation?  I can probably help to get some cards into good hands.

Thread continued here for donors: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45943.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45943.0)
Chat with us in IRC #operationbitcoin

I guess he was more asking for a status page with a condensed overview of what was done so far. Is http://operationbitcoin.org/wallst/transparency.html up to date?

Yifu Guo as updated the main page and transparency page, click see how the project is progressing!

http://operationbitcoin.org/

http://operationbitcoin.org/wallst/transparency.html