Bitcoin Forum

Just thought I would post this image of my newly homemade 1000 BTC gold bar.

This is a 1-of-a-kind bar I did with some laser equipment I recently acquired.  It looks really sweet!  I'm not selling it, though I can probably be talked into making some if there's any serious interest from those of you who happen to have 1000 BTC lying around and want it in the form of a bar.  It is a derivative of the 100 BTC bar I actually have been selling.

I lasered the denomination both into the bar, and into the hologram.  The laser seems to give the hologram a neat glittery effect.

https://en.bitcoin.it/w/images/en/thumb/2/2f/1000_btc_gold_bar.jpg/645px-1000_btc_gold_bar.jpg

The bitcoins on the bar are real: http://blockexplorer.com/address/1AVLk3NSP7djqjPdRNff3CzVMqobk4imup

Is that 100% real gold? :D

Real gold plated.  And the bitcoins are 100% real.

I would do a solid gold coin or gold bar if provided the coin or bar in the right dimensions.  The mint doing my silver coins would also probably do gold coins but I would have to do them in a quantity that made economic sense... which is probably going to be unlikely.  I suppose I could do it if I merely intended to hold the gold, but that would be a lot of gold.

Sweet.

very cool man, but I prefer and only can afford your 0.01 BTC bar

Very nice! I'm practically drooling.

How many ounces of gold is this?

It's gold plated.

Likely in the micrograms. 

how much would this cost? (in BTC)

I am already selling a blank collector's bar on my website.  All this is, is the blank bar, with a lasered-on denomination and hologram.

Buy my bar, and I will add a hologram and any denomination you want.  However, you will need to send me the BTC equal to the denomination and I will pre-load it, as it counts as a valid bar and I can't have them floating around unloaded.  (I reserve the right to charge for the lasering, but at this point, I will do it for free with purchase of the bar).

(While I am at it, I can laser just about anything else - for example, if a 50 BTC bar were gifted from bosses to employees for Christmas, it could say "50 BTC from all of us at..." and a company logo).

Now you can use Paypal or a CC to buy it!

http://www.memorydealers.com/1000-casascius-bitcoins-gold-bar.html (http://www.memorydealers.com/1000-casascius-bitcoins-gold-bar.html)

I just realised that you're essentially selling Bitcoins for as low as a third of the price currently being asked on the exchanges.

I'm surprised people aren't buying them purely to sell the Bitcoins on the exchanges - pretty be damned!

How did you determine this?  It looks to me like he is charging a 13.5% markup over the price on the exchanges.

I just want to say that casascius and memory dealers are my favorite bitcoin persons! :3

Casascius I think you have enough different items to offer a whole kit of your coins, minus the 1000 bar of course.

Im guessing you have a laser etcher now too ?  the old mouse wheel should be turning good now.. :)


Love your products brother...

I just got word that the bar you see in the picture has just been bought through MemoryDealers.  Which means it's time to whip up more.

My mistake.  I just realised that your website only denotes prices in Bitcoins and not in $.

you should've made it with 10x the gold of the 100BTC bar.

It has an appeal for being cheap: it's a plausible way for someone to buy 1000 BTC for credit card but still be buying a tangible good, for the lowest possible premium.

Increasing the gold content would drive up the price.

I am getting more inquiries about the 1000 BTC gold coin idea.  I discussed it with the factory who did my silver coins.  I might seriously be able to do it for $200 over spot price (of both BTC and gold), on a fully-refundable-deposit pre-order basis.  It costs a lot to do a small run of custom gold coins, but at that price, it's also not ridiculous given the total price of the item.

really cool looking! i love the silver rounds too! are you going to offer any dummy silver rounds (ie no code)

This gold bar was opened already: http://www.uberbills.com/casascius/?address=1AVLk3NSP7djqjPdRNff3CzVMqobk4imup
Looks like the guy just paid a big premium to just get the bitcoins inside.

The link shows 0 BTC balance, am I missing something?

Hey Mike,
What laser equipment do you have?

You need to make it stackable. That would be awesome.

Its a flat rectangle, what part of it isnt stackable ?

I love the look of that gold bar  *whistles*
 
I wish I had 1000 to toss around :)
 
Shit you might as well make a 10k one and a 100k one.. just don't load them until you get a serious buyer.
 
The 100k one, should you ever do it, should be solid gold :)   [edit:  I mean like one of those solid-gold bars like you see on TV of Fort Knox]

Maybe because it's an 'easy' way to get bitcoins with a CC (or stolen CC)?
 
I can't think of why else you'd pay a premium like that just to open and use them right away after buying such a cool item... the bar itself I'd think (this early in the game) should sit around as a cool talking piece.
 
It's my guess, who knows. :)

As a proud owner of a dozen original casascius coins, I'd like to say you're moving in a great direction. Could you laser engrave a private key into a gold card (securely)? That would be the most permanent offline wallet.

Anyhow, great job once again!

If I engrave into metal, that deforms the metal.  The engravings can be read simply by aiming any sort of radiation at the coin that the metal reflects and that the covering lets through, and then looking at the reflection.  This is why I went with plain ink.

First i know this is about that 1000BTC Bar, but i'd hope it would apply to it too.

Casascius, is there anyway to give you a private key / public key to use to make a coin, 1BTC.  I'd like to use a Vanity address  ::)

Wow man, very nice!

You should make one of solid gold, because soon the value of those 1000 bitcoins will be more than the value of the solid gold by at least 100x

He won't give you a hologram because you could "cheat".  You can buy blank coins and make your own public key / private key sticker.  Given it would only be used for you there is no need for a hologram likely an Avery label would work fine.  Just get one the right size.

Casascius could offer that as a service - he could generate a special vanity address according your mask for you for a premium.

Yeah that would be interesting & secure.

I don't do vanity addresses with holograms, sorry.

If I am in the process of generating a batch of addresses, I'd allow selection of the addresses from my batch.  Remember, these use 30-character Minikey, which there is no way to vanitygen quickly like full keys (other than for selecting maybe three or four characters).  It is difficult to fit 51 characters in the space allotted on my coins.

The way I do these, is I format a blank hard drive, install a fresh OS, securely generate a large number of addresses, print them, and then trash the drive.  I believe it's reckless to do anything less.  Then I laser cut the circles and put them in jars according to what kind of coin they'll go on.

Once the laser circles are cut and put in jars, it's practically impossible to find a specific circle, the jars are full of circles mixed as randomly as a bingo ball machine (but with thousands of balls!).  (One repurposed Nutella jar I use for 1BTC circles seems to hold about 12,000 circles).  If I know to pick a circle out before I cut them and mix them, that would be different.  But now it's too late, I have enough private keys to last me a long time and I have no plans to generate new ones any time soon.

I love these things ._.

rocket science :)
i love it ...

Can the guy return the bar back to you for a reload

Yes, about $5 plus BTC.

I guess i forgot that it'd be far less secure if i gave away the physical coin =P

Good to know all of that, thanks =D