Bitcoin Forum

I support A digital currency can be used for purchasing bitcoin. http://ideas.mintchipchallenge.com/submissions/6739-a-digital-currency-can-be-used-for-purchasing-bitcoin?r=36437 via @ChallengePost

Ironically, one of the leading ideas for the use of MintChip in the MintChip Challenge is to purchase bitcoin with it since it’s irreversible.

Voted..  :)
Winning - 92 votes so far!

A digital currency can be used for Quickly and easily paying for your morning coffee fix. Streamlining your order and getting you on your way faster. (31 votes)

A digital currency can be used for allowing groups to easily split purchases. For example, you could order pizza, then use an app to have everyone pay equally (26 votes)

A digital currency can be used for quick pay transactions like bus fairs, taxis, parking meters, convenience stores and pay@pump gas stations (19 votes)

A digital currency can be used for micro-payments for digital goods. We could easily pay citizen journalists and musicians for the work they post online. (17 votes)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/04/12/mintchip-misses-the-point-of-digital-currency/

BTW i do not see anything about bitcoin on the first page of this mintchip ideas page http://ideas.mintchipchallenge.com/ so bitcoin either fell dramatically from the top spot, or the mintchip moderators removed it by force(please note: i did zero due diligence on this one (I'm drinking)). also suspect is that the comment count on all ideas now shows as 0 (on google chrome at least) what up wit dat?

never mind all i had to do was use the dropdown menu (I'm drinking) and make the appropriate selection. bitcoin is still the most popular idea with 96 votes, with an idea for digital currency being "able to be used to buy coffee" with 31 votes. So bitcoin presently enjoys a significant margin of winningness.

PS: just checked out some of the comments for the brilliant "buy coffee" 31 votes, second place idea. It would seem there is considerable controversy over some alleged internet forum voter fraud (check for yourself http://ideas.mintchipchallenge.com/submissions/6784-a-digital-currency-can-be-used-for-quickly-and-easily-paying-for-your-morning-coffee-fix-streamlining-your-order-and-getting-you-on-your-way-faster? )  I will be following this topic closely and tweeting any updates, as I know this matter is of little importance to anyone.   

Holy crap there was actually what is IMO a very good idea on there that had nothing to do with bitcoin. as follows:

"A digital currency can be used for aggregating loose change. Change counting machines could load up your MintChip rather than print a slip that you need to exchange"

If someone built one that issued btc for loose change (and kept a little spread as profit) that would be an awesome way for people to get into bitcoin with practically zero investment of their money (scrap change) or time (the machine is right in front of them). It could issue a little qr code that they scan with their phone and installs a light weight smart phone wallet that contains their balance.

I would use it.

4. Winner Selection: The twenty-five (25) Submissions that receive the most verified and confirmed votes will be declared finalists (the “Finalists”). The Finalists will then have their Submissions judged on the following three criteria:

a. Quality of the idea;
b. Feasibility of implementation; and
c. Potential impact on MintChip offerings and electronic payment technology.

5. The ten (10) Finalists whose Submissions score the highest by the judging panel will become potential winner of a Top 10 Prize (as defined in greater details hereinafter).

4. Winner Selection: The twenty-five (25) Submissions that receive the most verified and confirmed votes will be declared finalists (the “Finalists”). The Finalists will then have their Submissions judged on the following three criteria:

a. Quality of the idea;
b. Feasibility of implementation; and
c. Potential impact on MintChip offerings and electronic payment technology.

5. The ten (10) Finalists whose Submissions score the highest by the judging panel will become potential winner of a Top 10 Prize (as defined in greater details hereinafter).

2 months to go!

Thanks for supporting the MintChip Ideas Challenge! Enter an idea for how you would use a digital currency (http://ideas.mintchipchallenge.com/), and you'll be in the running for great recognition and $2,550 in prizes (http://ideas.mintchipchallenge.com/#sidebar-prizes).

What to do between now and the August 1 deadline:

Enter more ideas

Did you know that participants can contribute more than one submission? Keep the ideas coming!

Vote for your favorites daily

Browse 285+ submitted ideas so far, and vote daily until August 1 (http://ideas.mintchipchallenge.com/). You can vote once per day per submission, and for as many submissions as you'd like. Your vote will help determine the 25 finalists, from which a panel of Royal Canadian Mint judges will select 10 winners.*

Spread the word about MintChip

Know someone who might have a great idea for the future of currency? Send a personal email, add a link in your email signature/chat status, and spread the word via your social networks. 

We look forward to seeing your innovative ideas!

- - -

*Note: We will be fully investigating all votes before determining the finalists. Just because a vote appears on the site does not mean it is an eligible vote. We check votes via a wide variety of criteria and are confident that any bad votes won't be counted. If you want to make sure we notice fraudulent votes, email us at support@challengepost.com with the subject "Bad MintChip Ideas Votes" and include a link to the submission in question.

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Sorry for the bump but I just received the following e-mail from challengepost.com that reminds us that are still a few months to go untill they chose a winner. Hope that bitcoin (http://ideas.mintchipchallenge.com/submissions/6739-a-digital-currency-can-be-used-for-purchasing-bitcoin) wins  :)

voted 137. buying bitcoins has a strong lead. :)

It was that when I voted.  Maybe you can vote all you want... they just don't record more than one vote per person.   ;)

Voted.

If the entire Bitcoin community votes, this would be amazing!

I haven't cast the vote yet. It's sure tempting to promote Bitcoin through this challenge, but then again Bitcoin already does everything MintChip might be doing, and much more. Oh, whatever. Let them be. I decided. Going to vote.

Bitcoin is not a good digital currency for buying Bitcoin, for obvious reasons.

Maybe. Can you explain your point?

I hope you're not serious.

If you are, please explain to me how you can purchase BTC for BTC, and who will sell you the BTC. Also make sure to include the current price of BTC, in BTC of course.

Don't be so sure, there could be cases where you buy BTC with BTC

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=94712.0

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=94712.msg1047556#msg1047556

https://www.casascius.com/

Yes

Mixing, Laundry. That's exactly what buying BTC with BTC is. And people do that already.

Are you seriously developing or did you just get it for collect-ability?

I developed a working web based payment app but I'm not sure I'll be submitting.  While I'm using their interesting technology, I'm using some by own design and logic and by submitting you agree to license all your work to them for free in perpetuity.   Not sure I'm interested in that.  However some of their authentication and security methods were interesting and I'd like to port some of it to a Bitcoin payment device

No, it isn't. Neither is collecting coins, expect in rare situations.

If I need 100 BTC, laundering is not going to help me. Unless I happen to have a block in high demand, neither is selling my block. What will help me is some CAD.

BTC is a useless commodity for buying BTC.

You AGREED to the terms and they sent you a kit. I am a professional programmer and I very interested in SUBMITTING something but I can't because all the kits where snatched up within a couple of days of announcement.

If you are not going to submit anything I will gladly take it off your hands for you so that I can contribute while you just sit on your hands.

1. I didn't say I wasn't going to submit.  I'm putting the final touches on it this week and I'll be giving the terms another read.  Winning some gold might be nice but relinquishing ip may not be worth it.
2.  It a REALLY buggy api.  I'm have no ideas of your skills but even Zhou probably couldn't bank out an app in 4 days.

MagicalTux was writing a wrapper but I'm not sure he ever got it working.  I stopped following it.
https://github.com/MagicalTux/mintchip/blob/master/php/MintChipMessage.class.php

What languages do you develop in?

PHP, JavaScript, ASP, C#, Ruby, Ruby on Rails

Don't mind me please. I am just in a pissy mood I guess.

No problem.  Yes, the whole mint chip challenge was kind of strange.  I saw it on twitter so I signed up the day is was announced.  When I got the package in the mail I had no idea what is was becuase I wasn't notified.  There were were a bunch of pissed off guys bitching on the VERY S P A R S E mint chips challenge community board about not getting a slot.  
http://mintchipchallenge.com/forum_topics

There were even a bunch of pissed off Canadians where were not happy that the Canadian mint was sponsoring the challange and there were no spots for them.  

Did you check out the boards?  I know there were other developers looking to join teams and other contestants who were looking for partners.  

Problem was that shortly after the api was released some security guys identified some serious flaws and it also became evident how raw the api was, so I think a lot of people lost interest.  The was also a lot of mistrust from the decentralized currency community because the whole schema was controlled by the mint.  The Mint Chip is no bitcoin.

They basically had this idea, wrote some methods and wrappers and threw it in the wild.  I'm really curious to see what some of the others come up with.  I say the mintchip will not be ready for prime time for another three years if they even continue to develop it.  

Who knows there may even be a round two of the contest.  Sign up for their twitter feed.

wow, #2 has 110 votes now.. the last few days seems to be a dash towards the finish line.

2 days until mintchip will reveal the winner of the challenge. I wonder if it will be used to buy bitcoin as per voters asked for  ;D

Is it just me or they updated the website to hide the number of votes for each ideas?
http://ideas.mintchipchallenge.com

Can they be embarrassed that the most popular idea was "A digital currency can be used for purchasing bitcoin".

There are 10 winners and non of them is related with Bitcoin.... Why i'm not surprised?  ::)

http://ideas.mintchipchallenge.com/

WTF!!!!! Can anyone get a WaybackMachine photo or other proof of this scandal? I might be able to spin it into a news story...

I don't think it's evidence of "fiat currency conspiracy" - excluding Bitcoin from their contest is a legitimate business decision they have the freedom to make as a private company.

I don't think it's evidence of "fiat currency conspiracy" - excluding Bitcoin from their contest is a legitimate business decision they have the freedom to make as a private company.

I bet Visa would reject as a winning suggestion that their card is a great way to build credit so you could apply for an American Express, if they ran a similar poll.

7. The Sponsor and/or the Administrator may, at their sole discretion, at any time, remove the Submissions or any part thereof that: ... f. are in bad taste;

8. Additionally, Submissions will not be accepted if, at the sole discretion of the Sponsor and/or the Administrator, they: ... h. disparage the Sponsor.

...Selected by a panel of Royal Canadian Mint judges from 25 finalists determined by public voting.

If you think this is just some misunderstanding, or if you are surprised by this development, you are completely naive.

Except that the Canadian Mint is not a private company.  Its capital base is 100% taxpayer funded.  The government owns it.

"The Mint is a for-profit Crown Corporation

MintChip's Barbara Streisand Moment

 We just had to blog about this!!  (http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/9/24/mintchips-barbara-streisand-moment.html)

MintChip's Barbara Streisand Moment

 We just had to blog about this!!  (http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/9/24/mintchips-barbara-streisand-moment.html)

Dont worry the bitcoincard will blow away the mintchip  :)

+1 waiting forward for that

And I am not even saying anything about the problem of electromagnetic interference...

Wow.... their video (http://vimeo.com/40711689) is simply... mind blowing.

However, as much as i want them to succeed, i don't really believe they can. They aim extremely high with all that advanced technology that is supposed to fit into such small card...
And I am not even saying anything about the problem of electromagnetic interference...

Who's behind that card??
Simply awesome!

Wow.... their video (http://vimeo.com/40711689) is simply... mind blowing.

However, as much as i want them to succeed, i don't really believe they can. They aim extremely high with all that advanced technology that is supposed to fit into such small card...
And I am not even saying anything about the problem of electromagnetic interference...

A number of us have seen the card prototypes. The claims they make from a technological standpoint are legitimate. We describe the adventure here (http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/6/19/our-discovery-in-vienna-the-bitcoin-card.html) (also in another BitInstant blog post, ironically :)