Bitcoin Forum

Previously, I set up a very simple system for letting someone do a giveaway without creating a link between your forum account and your mailing address, but this particular giveaway either hasn't happened yet or it completely fell through (not sure), so the system was never used. In case anyone else ever wants to do a private giveaway, you can do it like this:

 1. PM me with a list of all user IDs eligible to receive something in the giveaway, or an exact set of conditions which users must meet in order to be eligible (eg. "any user who joined before <x time> with merit above <y> and activity above <z>").
 2. I will create a URL like https://bitcointalk.org/giveaway.php?id=123 for you (note: 404 currently). Everyone who wants to receive something in the giveaway has to go to that URL and get a giveaway code.
 3. They send the giveaway code to you along with their mailing address, and you'll verify the code at another bitcointalk.org page. You also have to keep a list of already-used codes so that people can't reuse them. You should publish some out-of-band way of accepting codes, such as an email address or a Google Forms form: if you only accept codes via forum PM, then people have to create throwaway accounts to PM you, which is annoying. You absolutely must not send someone an item without a code, even if they PM you from an account you can see is eligible for the giveaway, since otherwise someone could also send you their code anonymously and end up getting 2 items.

This breaks the link between recipients' forum accounts and their addresses: bitcointalk.org doesn't know the address sent to the giveaway operator, and the giveaway operator can't tell from the giveaway code which user they're talking to, only that they're eligible for the giveaway. In order to identify someone, data from both bitcointalk.org and the giveaway operator would have to be combined. Codes will be completely deleted from the bitcointalk.org server & all backups after about 6 months. Note however that the giveaway operator will have a list of addresses, and they will know that all of those addresses belong to people on the list of eligible people, so if there are only a few dozen recipients and a few hundred eligible users, it's very far from "anonymous". (There are some more fancy things that I could've done to make the whole thing a bit better. Blind signing could be used to make it secure even if bitcointalk.org was compromised, for example. But it's a pretty niche feature, so I just wanted to whip something together quickly.)

I'm not sure that anyone will ask to set up this sort of giveaway, but I wanted to mention the possibility. If more than a few people ask me to set these up, I'll probably make it so that anyone can set them up themselves.

Sounds interesting , completly ignored the existence of such feature.

Not sure if I understood well but would be good for doing airdrops if I did understand well.
On the other hand seems a unnecesary hassle to see you going thru for airdrops since most are dishonest.

Nobody's seen such a giveaway, so you wouldn't have known about it. I set it up previously for a giveaway that someone was going to do, but which never happened (yet?).

Would you consider allowing a random contest to be performed this way? For example, there will be only one item being shipped chosen from all entrants. If only one person is receiving an item, there is no reason for everyone to send their shipping address, and choosing out of unpublished codes can lead to possible claims of not actually giving anything away.

It could work like this, anyone eligible can claim a code until a deadline, a random function could be used to choose which code is the winner and the winning code could be published so whoever has that code can send their address to receive the item.

Another request would be to publish the number of eligible accounts that meet the criteria so anyone considering to participate can decide if they want to have their address associated with that small number of accounts.

Sounds like a nice system for the Collectibles section. Would it also be possible to make the giveaway accessible to anyone, limiting the giveaway to the first [insert random amount] people, preferable with a rank above Full Member (or a different prefered rank)?

If this is some kind of steps, I think it is better to explain it with pictures. So, it will be easier to understand the steps to do private giveaways. To be honest, I still don't understand enough about this. Why there is a private giveaway? And what are the major differences between common giveaways? Is this really needed for us, sir?

For point 1, is this way effective enough sir? I mean that you will be a bit busy to receive lots of PMs by implementing this step. I think it will be better to post on a special thread of "private giveaway eligible users". Although this looks like to be less of privacy, it seems to be more effective. Then, the next step can be planned to have more private ways. So overall, it is still private in the end.

IMO, CMIIW..

How about making a giveaways section? Then we members can go through the list instead of manually finding each one.

Theymos hinted that there haven't been lots of interests in such private giveaways, and possibly he/she is not expecting applications which will be more then he can handle. If it does become so, I'm guessing there would be a contingency plan to cover for it.

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This feature would surely improve privacy on the forum if it is utilized. I have once mentally declined participation in a contest cause it could potentially compromise my identity and location on the forum.

@Theymos:

I'll bite the bullet :)
I'll create a giveaway for a cheap bitcoin keychain from aliexpress (i'll try to dropship it) in a locked topic and accept users that have a valid giveaway code via email, once the slots are filled i'll unlock the topic, post a full list of giveaway codes next to a slot (0-f) and a future block for which the last character of the hash will determine the winner.

Could you create a private giveaway for me, anybody equal to or above full member without negative trust from DT1 can enter.

PS: this is the first time i ever try to dropship something... Fingers crossed

EDIT: added "equal to or", the previous description wasn't clear enough...

This is okay but will you be able to find time to set up this theymos? What if someone asked you to and the giveaway is so huge volume of participants? Anyway maybe this is possible.

This isnt bad idea but is it that redundant for games and round section? We already have section for giveaway. Maybe just post there.

I love to join mate @mocacinno. Hope this will push through. First legit giveaway done in forum without censorship.

I'd like to try that as well and see how it works. Just to make sure I understand you completely: you allow >= Full Member, or strictly > Full Member?

>= Full member...

I'll update my post right away, i should have been more clearly when i wrote down the specs :)

Thx for making things crystal clear now :) Looking forward for the thread.

I'm still confused as in the mailing address as well people have lockers and have to specify the recipient's name on the gift so that the right person would receive it. If no name and just address is mentioned, how will it work? It will be an anonymous package then.

The sender has to have an address so he knows where to send the package. What Theymos's idear actually does is break the link between the bitcointalk account of the receiver and the physical address of the receiver that's being sent to the sender.

In my case, i'll receive an address from the winner, i know this address belongs to one of the thousands of accounts that are >= full member without negative trust from DT1, but i have no idear what the bitcointalk username of the winner is, so i cannot link him/her to any posts he/she made on bitcointalk.

If we want separate sections for different giveaways, then their purposes would be invalid.  It's worth noting that there's a games & round section already that handles public giveaways. Theymos is just bringing more awareness that there's a private giveaway feature that giveaway organizers can utilize should they need the giveaway to be conducted privately.  Every other giveaways can done from the games & round section.

I got what is Theymos's idea but sending a package with just an address and not a name when the package/gift you are receiving is expensive is risky. I wouldn't take a chance of not sending my name and just an address as if it's not sent because it has no name, I would need to submit ID and all to prove that package belongs to me. I don't know how it works in other countries but here in India, they check the name and then the address when it's at the post office/courier.

You should send your name aswell, so the sender will know your name + address (i always assume your full address includes your name anyways, that's why i didn't really get your question the first time). The thing the sender does not know is which bitcointalk account the name + address belongs to.

You could use your real name with your real address. That information is probably not very secret anyone for someone who knows your address.

I've never bought anything physical nor joined any physical giveaways because of privacy concerns. Even with this newly changed system I don't think I'll join.

This is a great feature theymos, the only thing I don't like about it is that we have to bother you for creating the giveaway. I personally have done in the past lot of giveaways in the Spanish section, and I didn't know we have a tool for this. The giveaways i have done are close to $10 so, i don't think this tool works for small giveaways. It could be a waste of time and resources.

I will add a couple of threads of my giveaways and i would like to know if I should use this tool to make more giveaways in the future.

Giveaways made by me the past year:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5126071.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5117693.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5104776.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5083430.0

This will be an excellent feature for those that might need another way to drum up publicity for their name/brand.

Those are possible under the current framework. For limited numbers, you can just stop accepting codes after a while. For random winners:
 1. Have people send you a Bitcoin address along with their code instead of their mailing address. Also have them save a copy of their code just in case.
 2. Every time you receive a code, publish a hash of it.
 3. Choose a winner from the public list of hashes using an acceptable method. The winner should contact you with a signed message using the Bitcoin address you negotiated before. As a fallback, they can also just give you their code again, since only they should have it, though I'd be uneasy using this as the primary method of authentication.

I think that this feature is very niche. Maybe I'm wrong, but I expect to get on average fewer than 1 giveaway-creation request per month. So I don't want to create a big, complicated system for it.

Here's the first trial: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5226618

Let's see if this works  ;D

Thank you Theymos for taking the time to mock this up! As I was reading it, I had LoyceV in mind.  I've had several giveaways that I wanted them to be a part of, which they surely deserve more than most. I guess there is really nothing more then that can be done,

@LoyceV ... I wonder if where you live there is some sort of service that you could get packages dropped off and held to be picked up (through prior arrangment) under an alias?  Surely something like this exists? Just a thought. Would like a service like this for myself.

I will likely do another giveaway for Iasenko and the SpamBusters soon and will definetly want to use this. Thanks again.

Thanks :D

I don't think that's possible. Some shops allow packages to be delivered and picked up, but they always want to know who you are. I guess it would be too easy to abuse for ordering illegal stuff if uses an alias.
I can think of a way in which someone burries a package on the beach, and sends me GPS-coordinates, but that looks like a fiat ransom payment delivery.

Can theymos work with the requirement "any user who posted in topic 4720640 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4720640.0)?

@theymos

Similar question.. Is it possible to filter by: User has received at least 5 merits in the Portuguese board in the last 30 days?