Bitcoin Forum

I am a software engineer and fairly early adopter of Bitcoin. I have also recently quit my job.

I have a fairly large amount of Bitcoin that I would like to invest into bettering the Bitcoin community.

What is a product or service the industry is lacking or that can be done better?

I would love to get it up and running.

Send me BTC lost on Gox :)
One option lol

Bail out those who lost btc on gox. That would be helpful.

All my BTC were on gox. And some fiat. I quit my job too recently and was planning on starting a new life with the money. My girlfriend of 6 years left me a week before christmas and I've just been waiting for gox to sort it out. All of a sudden I'm back to square one. Am currently sleeping on floor at my brothers house. I had been living off the BTC I can access but they're all gone now.
Check my post from recent months. Things have been shit lately.

If you fancy donating anything to help me get back on my feet then feel free. I would appreciate it an awful lot.

/sobstory

Sorry to hear about your situation, but unfortunately by "a fairly large amount" I do not mean 744,000 BTC

lol, great response.  I don't think OP was looking to be a bailout.  Baling out members who lost money with
Gox does not help improve a product or service within the bitcoin community.  I don't have a suggestion
but I love where your head is at and appreciate your efforts.  Best of luck.

you could help support the future of crypto by supporting some of the better altcoins that would work much better for small transactions

there is so many things that the comunaty needs but one of the more important ones is clearing up the scams

( To be clear I am the dev of ADT and I am not trying to get your money before people say it )

We should pool resources and open a run of the mill, super boring traditional bank in the US. I've heard from a friend in the financial industry ballpark that one can do this for roughly $5 million.

Why you ask?

Try to guess.

You could try to set up an exchange that doesn't require access to the private keys of users' bitcoin addresses, or a decentralised exchange.

It's a shame that your post attracted so many beggars. Unfortunately this happens when you mention you are bitcoin-rich. It might be a good idea not to mention that in public as it may draw worse attention than beggars.

Have some bitcoin atms put in your local area.

Enable the change.. positive contributions to press awareness and abc faqs for merchants to help them understand their options. If you have shed loads to spare, then throw to kick-starters and look to angel investing and help support the more far out riskier ventures cover whatever they are lacking.. put people together and act as catalyst.

Help me with my Open Source Bitcoin Exchange!

I need a coder to be able to keep it running! It is a fork of the very first version of Bitcoin-Central.net and I need to make it better, for my business to continue its operations plus, give a better open source exchange back to the community.

Take a look!

https://bitbucket.org/tmartinx/bitfication

Can you code in Ruby on Rails?!

Cheers!
Thiago

Helping the Bitcoin community is more than just investing in Bitcoin projects. It extends to improving the adoption of Bitcoins as a form of payment, and the associated works people in those areas are able and willing to provide in exchange for payment in Bitcoins. There are many options available - but increasing the adoption of Bitcoins as a currency is one of the best methods of helping the community.

What you do, to a degree, is dependent on where you are located and the legal frameworks afforded by that location. You're in essence offering venture capital to the Bitcoin community. Protecting yourself and your assets should be your first concern, followed by investing in something you believe in and are willing to support. Trusting anyone else to manage it will almost always result in disaster.

To a degree, that means retaining operating control of both the project and your funds. Anyone who isn't willing to cede that is most likely going to screw you over. Likewise, anyone who can't provide you with a sound business plan or a currently working product is likely to fail.

Visit some of the Venture Capital forums and sites. See what people are looking for, and in turn what they're providing in return for investment versus the risk involved.

A software engineer but you do not have any ideas for Bitcoin?

Software engineers are more or less just workers...... They're not in any position that requires vision....

Just because someone is capable of carrying out a worthwhile task doesnt mean they can easily come up with one.

Dont put someone down who is trying to better this community. Instead lift them up and help them get to a better place.


EDIT: To me OP is saying bitcoin has enriched my life now i want to enrich bitcoin!

I invite you to notice that, A 21st century money of the Singularity, Bitcoin, needs a 21st century libertarian marketplace.....

P2P auctions using bitcoin. Have a blockchain record all financial transactions just like bitcoin, it is distributed so no central server nor company.
1. buyer pays and bitcoin enters into a wallet controlled by the computer program and not controlled by any person. private keys held by computer and not a person.
2. buyer's bitcoins are in escrow in the computer system.
3. seller sends stuff.
4. when buyer receives stuff, buyer hits a button to release the bitcoins to seller. buyer cannot get the bitcoins back.

If seller cheats buyer, buyer will not press button to release bitcoins to seller.

If buyer doesn't hit the button to release the bitcoins, buyer cannot get a refund so buyer cannot cheat the seller.

system is free to use. there are no auction fees.

bitcoins trapped in the system from buyers who have paid but not released the bitcoins to the seller, will be distributed to the "miners" after 30 days. The "miners" get the bitcoins for running the distributed central serverless network auction program for everyone to use for free.  :)

All auction items are found with a simple search engine. There are no complicated menu trees and employees. The entire system is automated. System is encrpyted just like bitcoin so miners will not be liable for any crazy stuff people put on there since they do not know what is on there.

I am a sucky computer programmer or else I would've done this already. I invite you to hire some programmers to do this.

Many thanks,
 ;D

code proof of concept exchange that keeps individual balances in individual dual sig addrs on the blockchain.  seller signs txn when he puts coins on the order book.  usd held in bank of course but represented by a separate blockchain or colored coins.  PM me if you want.

Without a vision,they usually just are at average.
Okay then let's see what the engineer can do for bitcoin.

That would help the ppl who lost money, but how would it help the BTC community?

LOL you think Steve Job is a Computer Engineer?

The OP is asking for ideas... not HOW to do something. But What to do

Well bitcoin atm's is nice idea that would require a lot of money,btc and skill to push any further in diferent coutrys. You can try that ;)

The Bitcoin meshnet situation is fairly bleak, for no apparent reason.  Is McAfee still on the case?  No telling.

Integrate Bitcoin with something like CJDNS, so that it's easy to setup a secure mesh network and pay-by-the-hour for bandwidth.  Sell packaged routers.

IMHO Noblecoin.

Transparency and openness in spades..... just read their page and see what you all think..

:)

Steve Jobs was my student.
Idea #1, contribute and work on the bitcoin core.

Are you looking to donate or invest?

You could contact the various core bitcoin developers and find out what needs to be done the most and provide bounties for the completion of those things.

And as others have said, there can't be enough bitcoin vending machines at this stage.

There are many bitcoin business in need of funding and investment groups.  There ways to support bitcoin are endless.  We need bitcoin insurance, as well as trustable web-wallet providers.  We need better exchanges with larger banking partners all over the world.  We need more bitcoin banks like Neo and Bee.  

re-invent a bitmit/ebay style site.

It seems most people here are either quasi-begging or looking for someone to support a technical idea or project - which is not a bad thing but there are already a lot of angel investors for projects around the scene.

Those sort of investors are largely looking to make a return, but you have stated that you want to invest in bettering the Bitcoin community - which is commendable.

I don't know what amount of coin you have behind you but my suggestion would be to look for opportunities in the public media space to show how Bitcoin can be used to help people and change lives.

I'll give you an example:

Most current affairs shows have regular spots about people down on their luck. I would suggest contacting the current affairs show about one of these spots that feels right to you and tell the show that you are contacting them with an offer to fully help whoever you decide to go with. The only catch is you have to pay the donation directly to them in Bitcoin. I'm sure you can choose to remain anonymous if you want, and just be honest with them about your reasons - tell them this is about showing that Bitcoin isn't just a gimmick and can be used to help people instantly. They might even want to film the transaction being received by the person in need. Either way, this is a good opportunity to help someone and generate good press for Bitcoin at the same time. You may even be able to take this a step further and contact a Bitcoin accepting company like Overstock.Com and see if they are prepared to be involved if the person you help needs to make purchases with the Bitcoin.

Ultimately it's your BTC and your choice what you want to do with it but I feel the best thing we can do is show the public just how powerful it can be and have a real life benefit to people.

Thoughts?

You left out option 3: buyer is an asshole and doesn't release the funds because - what difference does it make?

Would happen a lot

I am glad you agree with me. That's 2 votes!  ;D


I didn't leave that option out. That's the "miners' fees" remember? Also, once you have a couple transactions under your belt, your feedback rating would make you more trustworthy than someone with a lower feedback rating. So, the seller could opt to refuse large dollar amount sales to newbies as a condition of the auction. Another condition of the auction set by the seller could be a discount for those with a very good feedback rating. Feedback ratings are weighted with more weight given to high dollar amount sales that have closed successfully. With this discount in place, there would be a great incentive to not use throwaway profiles just to be an "asshole" as there is no financial incentive to be an "asshole" since the money goes to the miners and not the "asshole" buyer. The financial incentive is on being a good buyer to keep a high feedback rating for said discounts.

What does bailing out people do for Bitcoin?

The train gotta leave the station with or without some people.

That's easy. The biggest thing this community needs is easier coin usage. This includes everything from acquiring to dealing with coins. The #1 biggest priority in that is simple and secure coin storage, with easy retrieval to be spent. Lack of this really fueled this MtGox loss, because people used them as a storage wallet.

The two best efforts so far in that area IMO are bitcoinarmory.com (https://bitcoinarmory.com/) and bitcointrezor.com (http://www.bitcointrezor.com/). Both are in early stages and working to improve. While these are a huge leap forward, I still don't see either as perfect for the average user who struggles with technology. I don't have the exact answer. It's something I constantly think about myself, but the more people trying to solve usability problems elegantly, I think, the better.

1. Become the greatest email provider
2. Make new Wallet software
3. Implement this https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=487060.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=487060.0)

ahhh Just Hodl and call it a day...

I would like more merchant APIs myself to increase usability worldwide

Ok, for real this time:

Write an android/ios native client for Bitmessage! (https://bitmessage.org/)

That would be FANTASTIC!!

glass (optical) and ... medical specialist.
ah ... you can build a home for senior (very valuable).

Just wondering..how many btc are we actually talking about?
They'd just serve the community, or are you looking to get a return?

Make a BTC Exchange on your country !

I would appreciate a site that functions like ebay but uses bitcoin/alts instead.

I pay 10% in fees to ebay and then another percentage through Paypal AND Paypal takes days to get funds into my account (my small amount may not be much in interest but the amounts they're holding?)

A way to put your skills to profitable use.
Trading goods for goods could be less cumbersome in relation to regulations.

Or figure out what it is that would make your everyday work a pleasure.

Wishing you much luck.

Yes but people would do it, if it goes to the miners or the sellers it doesn't go back to the buyer, so they don't  care.

You'd end up with everyone insisting on finalisation before they shipped anything to newbies and it'd be scam city.

Like silk road

Yup, we have 3 votes now for my idea of a decentralized automated p2p auction site with no owner and no central server.

To MrPiggles, yes, there would be the occasional bad buyer who would opt not to press the payment release button just like there is the occasional diner who doesn't tip the waitress. However, the vast majority of diners tip the waitress. Perhaps you are reflecting on what you would do, not what most buyers would do. Also, silk road was not scam city because the system did not work. The system did work. I've never used it, but didn't Charlie Shrem said in an email of his, "Wow, silk road really does work!" The reason why it was a scam is because, again, of simple economics. If the OPERATORS of Silk Road (not the sellers) honestly continued to run the website, they would eventually get busted. This means zero profits and jail time. The US Government has UNLIMITED RESOURCES so if they want to find you, they WILL find you. Being able to print unlimited amounts of fiat is being able to have unlimited power, at least until you have runaway inflation and the whole house of cards fall down. However, faking a hacked website and taking off with everyone's coins has a 100% chance of success. Therefore, the conclusion that it is or will be a scam by the OPERATORS is a 100% certainty unless they are not motivated by economic factors.

The economic motivator for the buyer would be to release the coins to the seller after receipt of merchandise because;
1. buyer doesn't get the coins back. It goes to the miners.
2. buyer will get a discount on his next purchase if he builds up a positive feedback history.
Again, unless the buyer is not motivated by economics, then this system should work.


I invite you to notice that, A 21st century money of the Singularity, Bitcoin, needs a 21st century libertarian marketplace.....

P2P auctions using bitcoin. Have a blockchain record all financial transactions just like bitcoin, it is distributed so no central server nor company.
1. buyer pays and bitcoin enters into a wallet controlled by the computer program and not controlled by any person. private keys held by computer and not a person.
2. buyer's bitcoins are in escrow in the computer system.
3. seller sends stuff.
4. when buyer receives stuff, buyer hits a button to release the bitcoins to seller. buyer cannot get the bitcoins back.

If seller cheats buyer, buyer will not press button to release bitcoins to seller.

If buyer doesn't hit the button to release the bitcoins, buyer cannot get a refund so buyer cannot cheat the seller.

system is free to use. there are no auction fees.

bitcoins trapped in the system from buyers who have paid but not released the bitcoins to the seller, will be distributed to the "miners" after 30 days. The "miners" get the bitcoins for running the distributed central serverless network auction program for everyone to use for free.  Smiley

All auction items are found with a simple search engine. There are no complicated menu trees and employees. The entire system is automated. System is encrpyted just like bitcoin so miners will not be liable for any crazy stuff people put on there since they do not know what is on there.

PM sent.  You should work with the devs man.

Nice, I disagree so you imply I'm dishonest.

Slightest disagreement, slightly slow shipping, whatever reason, they don't release the funds, it makes zero difference to them. They're out either way.

Feedback isn't enough of an incentive to stop people doing it.

Look at eBay.

It's not anonymous, ask any seller how often they have scam attempts, feedback extortion, paypal chargebacks, now make it anonymous....

You could write a replacement network for Bitcoin.

The existing one sucks - it's about the most inefficient design possible in terms of bandwidth usage. It wasn't such a big deal when Bitcoin was still a proof of concept but it will need to be fixed if Bitcoin is to scale at all.

Do this with me ...

http://www.tigermuaythai.com

team up with a local business man (maybe somebody that owns some gas stations) that has a lot of product movement and will be willing to accept bitcoin.  right now bitcoin is based on speculation, but the long term path of success or failure will depend on it being able to be safely used on a daily basis by regular people. 

So you want to be part of the Bitcoin Marketplace, do you (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=113409.0)?

Most software engineers do have vision, they tend to be problem solvers.

Your best bet is to start using your many bitcoins on a daily basis. You will likely run into some problems in doing so. Solve those problems with software.

If you have another skill or passion, combine it with software and bitcoins.

Software engineer? you can help out with the site's securities (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50617.0). Well if you do indeed have a large amount of bitcoins then you can build a local exchange for bitcoins or even an international one  :)

Bro who is the sexy fox on your avatar?

No, not implying you are dishonest. And we don't even disagree. Anything is possible. This whole bitcoin thing is an experiment just like this proposed auction/exchange software. Nobody really knows what's going to happen as we are not psychics.

I have travelled extensively and some cultures don't tip. The salary for the waiters are included in the price of the check in many cultures. I actually never tipped until I travelled to North America. Now, I tip everywhere, even in places where people generally don't tip. I just tip less in those places and more in places like North America.

You have a guess. I have a guess. Your guess is as good as mine, but it will be fun participating in this Bitcoin experiment. I wouldn't advise betting your life savings on a socioeconomic techno experiment. That would be most unwise and it probably wouldn't be much fun losing your life savings.

Don't get Goxed and have fun!
Cheers,
 ;)

Check out the algorithm used by NashX.com. . . It may work better than what you've proposed.

Whatever you are going to do I wish best luck!
The thread that you've made already helps our community as it is inspire confidence in a better future thanks to people like you

Going on with an exchange will require a lot more effort then just a thought local exchange is ok but when we talk about International exchange its quite a heavy task, IMHO if anyone wants to contribute towards btc just expand it in places not yet popular, Some guy shared an idea of Installing an BTC atm in your locality that too is a Good Idea

i'm just like you, except i didn't quit my day job.  don't want any gaps in my resume if i DO choose to go back to work, etc..

The Bitcoin convention is coming up, my suggestion to you would be to attend since you have the financial means to travel to Amsterdam and the time since you quit your job.  Talk to people there and find what interests you most.

I'm certainly no expert in coding, but since the system has now proven its resiliency, and it obviously has fungibility, could you not work on a way to make the system more fluid?

What I mean is, we all know the strength of the system is in its application to low cost, high traffic transactions for retailers thanks to the virtually non-existant processing costs for retailers. Yet retailers aren't yet really taking up the system in floods. So if you could work with a designer to create a card or some variety that you could load up with bitcoin and then swipe instantly to do quick transactions, that could be a great start to really pumping up the numbers of retailers joining the cause. It would have to be convenient and with low costs for the retailer.

I was, at first going to say smartphones QR codes for the transactual mechanism, but I have an iphone, so i'm shit out of luck there :)

Point is, if you invent the mechanism in partnership with others, it could really take off and help the bitcoin community in general. Everyone always talks about how much VISA earn, but no one thinks of how much the subcontracted manufacturer of the physical cards makes.

2 cents flipped in.

you could become a policeman/woman or join the army

How does that help the bitcoin community bro? :)

Build an e-book store or associate yourself with a store that have e-books in their offer. Make the books available in BTC. After that advertise the book store here on bitcointalk. Would be refreshing to see some ads other than gambling ones. I bet that you'll have success with those ads at lower rates than the sites advertising now.

That actually sounds like a real good idea :) I'd definitely buy some.
So far there are no shops to offer ebooks for btc or are there?

Thank you for reaching out to help with Bitcoin projects! I think I have a viable and potentially very lucrative project that can help Bitcoin grow exponentially and do great things in the world of entertainment. Check your pm.

1)  Without a doubt, fund development of a fully decentralized, trustless exchange, and hire Andreas Antonopoulos to consult on it from beginning to end.

2)  Contact Gavin, lead programmer, and ask him how you can fund programming efforts to address Bitcoins biggest needs right now, such as "more than 7 transactions per second".  Expedite the "to do" list that isn't getting done.  So much seems to be pending, and very little progress on Bitcoin development.  If you need to contact him directly, let me know, I can get the info.

3)  Buy several hundred ATM's and get them installed around the country.  Lamasu ones are cheapest at $5,000.   The more of these there are, in high profile locations, the more Bitcoin will grow in acceptance and name recognition.

4)  Take a huge chunk of your Bitcoins and have thousands of paper wallets created with $1 worth on them.  Hand them out to 100,000 people and make sure the press knows about it.  Or do an air drop from a plane over a stadium full of people.  Like Auroracoin is doing over Icleand soon.  And make sure the media is all over it.

5)  Hire a large group of intelligent people to comment on every single Bitcoin article there is in the media, as soon as it goes live, so their comments are at the top, correcting misinformation, and addressing the nonsense posted by others.  I still believe the comments section has more sway over public opinion than the article itself sometimes.

6)  Hire people to go every homeless person in every city and get them set up with donation QR code signs of their own, so they can begin holding them at street corners.  You may also need to provide a method by which they can cash in their donations of course.  The hundreds of thousands of people seeing Bitcoin QR codes on every street corner will not only get Bitcoin's name out there, but it will show that Bitcoin can be used for helping people as well.  Seans outpost may be a good place to start for resources and suggestions.  They're doing a microcosm version of this, but I envision tens of thousands of QR code signs being handed out to homeless people around the country/world.  Free marketing for Bitcoin and quite a beautiful way to improve its reputation.

7)  Expedite the remittances market revolution.   Don't give Western Union time to "incorporate" Bitcoin.  Do it yourself.  Establish a company providing remittance services for people sending money home to family and friends, for a micro-fraction of the cost that Western Union charges.   Obviously Bitcoin can already do this, but there is no easy way for poor people with few resources to take advantage of it.  Set up a service that addresses their needs, and markets itself as the alternative to western union.  Keep the fees as close to zero as possible.  Bitcoin is assured to be a replacement for WU.  You could be the first to get that ball really rolling.

8 )  Contact the companies currently working to replace the text-SMS-money-sending services in Africa with Bitcoin.  There are two companies I am aware of, and I am certain they could use funding and assistance.  Getting the Africa market would be huge.

The Bitcoin system should be viewed as an entirely new, uncharted world of innovation and entrepreneurism.  Imagine the current financial system with nobody providing products and services for it yet.  That's what Bitcoin is.  Anything you can possibly think of under the sun, hasn't been done yet.  And can be done.  Someone just created a company offering insurance services for Bitcoin holdings. Lloyds of London is doing something similar with another company.  What other big money making services are there in the financial world right now that could be duplicated for Bitcoin?  The world is your oyster.  With nearly everything, you'll be the first to do it.

Software, or a service.   Another great suggestion.  Immerse yourself in trying to live entirely on Bitcoin.  You will quickly see a "need" that must be met.  Probably many.  Successful endeavours always "meet a need" that isn't being met. 

-B-

Actually seems there are some. Just google ebook bitcoin. Sadly some of them are selling a not very peaceful content. I discovered that are threads about the subject on bitcointalk - for example here  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=181816.0;all). I'll do a bit of more searching but until now I didn't find any bestsellers you can buy for bitcoin on ebookstores I browsed.

Well, i can give you list of things to do with bitcoins and make about 50% ROI profit monthly, all this can be achieved easily as long as you are willing to invest your bitcoins to bettering the btcoin community.

First thing you should think of

Starting a bitcoin Supermarket like Seven Eleven around the places you stay, people shop with bitcoins and also purchase and sell bitcoins there, this will be a big boost in the bitcoin community. I did not charge you for this idea, i have many more so, if you will work with me i will give you marketing advice and plans full well written and documented with your budget amount willing to spend on the project, the location and the how to get a license to operate the business successfully for the time being, you will still accept cash in the sales too, but put up the widely sign to show its just mainly for bitcoin users and people can pick up directly from you..

For now i have a Rich very partner  who will buy anything for anybody in exchange for bitcoin even if its $100k or more for a very a decent profit, i talked him into the idea and proposed the plan on how to convert and cash the capital leaving the profit in bitcoins with time he will have enough bitcoins and so will i as we work on this together.

PM me if you need any business ideas, i am a business man and any type of business i don't care about the nature i will guide you down the road and give you the connects to people who's dealing.
 

Guys it is obvious that OP doesn't give a damn about our opinions and just posted this for fun

There are a lot of bitcoin startups looking for funding I believe?
You can also help with expertise as well and effectively be a Business Angel :)

join GIMPs

http://www.mersenne.org/

All of BittBurger's suggestions were good, but this one is particularly good and likely to work.  People love free stuff.  You hand them something worth money that has easy instructions on it about how to redeem it (set up a wallet) and they will do it.  After they set up the wallet there should be links right there to spend the bitcoins or buy more bitcoins.  Probably should make it $5 instead of $1 though.  Less people, but more likely to follow through.  And yes the press will eat up a story like that.  I can see the footage now: busy people going about their day, receiving the free bitcoins and smiling with curiosity.  Perfect PR.

I'm not sure how much a "fairly large amount of Bitcoin" means and giving some of them for free probable could be a  good ideea if wisely managed, but
seems to me the best idea (much better than mine). At worst you can write some excellent tutorials after that experience. At best you can significantly help the BTC community. Thank you BittBurger. I don't know if vnvizow is right, but for me your post was enlightening.
.

How would that contribute to bitcoin? Could it be used somehow to strengthen cryptography?

Where are you located? I'm a developer too (Python).. let's make a BTC eBay! :D