Bitcoin Forum

A small city in Europe: What would happen if...

...you took 50000 casascius physical bitcoins and threw them all out of an airplane above the city?

You will get arrested?

is their terminal velocity enough to kill someone? i suppose this is one way to find out

You would end up killing someone.

I suspect since the cost was zero, any that were found would not be valued much.  Being that these can be redeemed at Mt. Gox, the technical among them or those already familiar with Bitcoin would find that they could offer cash below the exchange value and either make online purchases from a merchant (by arranging to send the physical bitcoins in bulk even, hoard then or profit by exchanging these at an exchange even.

Most of the coins, however, would likely be lost as these are about the size of a quarter and a small city has lots of roofs, street gutters, gardens, etc.

Because they all won't be discovered at once and plenty of willing buyers remain so the value of these as money among the residents would likely soon match that found on the exchanges.  Some will start using the coins to settle small payment amounts -- for example, used as payment to a friend who bought the beers or to give as a tip at a restaurant, for example.  A few merchants might start accepting them -- maybe even gaining an advantage by being the first and putting on some promotion that brings new customers through the door.

Whether or not this approach would cause a tipping point to be reached where the coins become a currency who knows.  It would be neat to see such an experiment play out.

Environmentalists would probably disapprove...

Choas!!! If they were dropped on Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. One look at the address and folks there may think that somebody is suggesting a name change.

  and sued?  ;p

My thoughts. Thanks.

Now for the 2 objections brought up:

1.) you might harm people and/or property: we'd have to run some experiments. The coins are not very thick, about 2mm, I would guess. They weigh about 6.7g. I doubt they could seriously harm a person, let alone kill one. Will it reach terminal velocity when dropped from 4th floor? I could make an experiment to see wether it damages a cars roof when dropped from that height.

2.) you will get sued: well, just to be safe, I'd do it anonymously, maybe using a microcopter or something to disperse the coins evenly. Any thoughts on this? One could also use a less cool method, maybe, of just driving around in a car and dropping them to the street.

It might be interesting to just leave them lying around somewhere and see the reactions of people that find them.

Yes, but like Stephen Gronick said above, the idea is to reach criticall mass for adoption as a money in the local economy.

What do you guys think would be the best size of the city and the amount of coins?

Around 50k people.

Big enough to have some sort of local media, small enough for people to pay attention if there are some things lying around. Also everybody would get one on average.  8)

  This, but I would highly suggest contacting the local 'City Council'(not sure what they call em over the pond there), just to see what local regulations are there on physical advertisements spread around. If you can actually speak with someone that seems ok with it make sure you present them a clear plan to distribute and then a follow up, clean up plan to remove any unreceived materials. Atleast thats how it would work here where I am.

  Cheers

Ithaca New York, population 30,000.

Ithaca Dollar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca_Hours (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca_Hours) (local currency)

 Awesome, except; Topic: "A small city in Europe: What would happen if..."

  And there are countless examples of small communities here in the US who have their own forms of trade medium.....

My thoughts. Was thinking 50K, too. Big enough not only for local media, but also for a sensible local economy that allows the money to flow in circles.

Do you think 1 coin per person would be about right? What happens if we put not enough or too many coins?

Good point.

That would be the "official route of distribution", openly admitting to doing it as advertisement.

I like the other possible route, "do it undercover" better, because the fact that in that case, noone knows where "these mysterious bitcoins" came from will add a lot to the local media hype and gossip talk needed to enable adoption.

In the latter, "official" case, it's just too easy for people to do away with the idea, because they smell a trap set by this "evil bitcoin company" to lure them into something bad. In the former, "undercover" case, the bitcoins can just be considered a gift from god, or aliens, or whatever "good-willing entity" the individual wishes for.

Thoughts?

Well, regardless of how many there will be some kids who figure out that they are valuable first and hunt for them, so even if you choose to distribute more coins than there are people still only a fraction of people would find them.
The only way to make sure would be to distribute them per mail, and people would just throw them away.

Also at best utilize several different distribution methods. People who wouldn't pick something up on the street would be more inclined to look at it if it is handed to them.
What I would also do is to get them for sale somewhere as soon as the effort starts so they don't get thrown away and some people don't attribute value to something they get for free.    

Ignoring the fact that they might kill someone and just floated down to the ground like feathers, they would probably be swept up and thrown in the trash as litter.

I still like my idea to do this in:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Llanfair_PG.png/800px-Llanfair_PG.png

Note the word "pool" in the English translation of the town's name.

Here's how it's pronounced: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNN3Cpnur1k

I even envision a Bitcoin convention there some day. Check out the locals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dGlKP_Pd0o