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Quick update and an apology
I just wanted to apologize to anyone that made a purchase on our site this morning that was subsequently cancelled. One of developers updated the code to our website late last night (2:00 am here in California) while the rest of us were sleeping. It wasn't until this morning that we realized he had enabled an automatic pricing feature that wasn't fully tested yet. As a result, we were offering to sell bitcoins at a loss this morning for about 4 hours.
I would love to have fulfilled those orders, and it would have been a customer service win of the first order, but it also would have meant that we took a loss of about $2,000. Honestly it was a tough choice, and our customer service rep really resisted when I told her that we would have to cancel those orders. I hope the members of this community can sympathize with the challenges of pricing our products in dollars, in an environment where the selling price of bitcoins varies by as much as $100 depending on where you buy.
We're interested in making things right with our customers, so feel free to shoot me a PM if you got stung by this error on our part and I'll happily send you a discount code for future purchases.
Thanks
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That's good news. Is it also possible to buy unloaded coins? I'm into collecting coins, so I'd rather just have the coin  We won't be selling the unloaded coins ourselves, but a number of them have been redeemed so I wouldn't be surprised if you see unloaded coins on eBay soon. |
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this is beyond too beautiful! i wish the price was back when btc rate is US$100  The price of bitcoin was just about $100 when we first started selling these. Don't forget that you can pay in bitcoins too, so if you have around 1.35 BTC, you can trade that in and get a coin  We've got a really nice design for the 0.1 BTC coin that will be coming out soon which will be in the $50 range. I can't rush the artists and engravers, but we're really looking forward to offering some less expensive coins. |
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i already Order my first Titan Coin, Love it. The customer service guy was really patience with me. Helping me getting all of my Question Answer. i got this Coin with 2-Factor Auth. Planning to get Order 9 more before 2015. Scenario Case #01 let say 20 years from now i lost The physical Coin from some tragic but i know the COIN ID, my email address and password that i register the coin with, would i still be able to redeem the value of the Coin? Scenario Case #02 lets say the person who operate the Titan die from a misfortunate event, what would happen to my BTC in Cold Storage? or the Cold storages was Sabotage somehow? Scenario Case #03 lets say its year 2045, now the value of BTC is insanely high. unbelievable and unpredictable from anyone wildest dream. and the person who have access to the Cold storage decided to cash out the all the Coin for himself? me and everyone else who brought Titan Coin, just got rob.  sorry for being Paranoid, $$$$ doesnt grow on Trees Hi Cnblue, Glad you like the coin! In Scenario #1, If I understand correctly, you're describing a case where you only have the coin ID and registration info but not the redemption code underneath the hologram. This is information that could be gotten by an identity thief who had access to your email as a result of a compromised password. You will need the redemption code underneath the hologram in order to redeem the coin (it's one of the two forms of authentication). In scenario #2 and 3, you bring up a number of questions that involve a failure on our end. While we have done a lot to ensure that our system has redundant backups and fail-safe contingencies, there will always be some trust required on the part of our customers with the current setup. We don't intend to keep it this way. The simplest answer to your questions is that in the near future we will be updating the way we handle 2-factor authentication to address your concerns. The current website is a stepping stone to a larger, fully decentralized solution in which the bitcoin network itself will track ownership of coins. There's no reason to apologize for being paranoid. Bitcoin has seen plenty of scams and failures so we appreciate customers like you bringing up important issues. We did consider these issues when starting out and chose our current solution very deliberately after weighing the pros and cons. We really, really like bitcoin and we're working to perfect our physical bitcoins and better address the issues you mentioned for the sake of a stronger bitcoin ecosystem. |
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Got 2 in. Love em. Great customer service guys!
You're awesome, Steven. |
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Got mine a while ago (numbers 199 and 200!) I had a problem funding one if the coins and used the Contact Us page on their website. My problem was fixed within 5 minutes of sending the email. Really ecstatic at the great customer service and on top of that, the coins look amazing Great to hear, btway! |
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i got my two coins, they look awesome thanks Thanks Chaang! |
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Any idea when the silver/gold coins will be available?
I'm happy to give an update. We'll be officially listing the Titan One silver edition on our website November 30th. We've sent the final design revisions off to the engraver and purchased 1,000 ounces of silver today (prices were down a few percent so we took advantage). We have some resellers that are pre-purchasing now to get lower edition numbers so I'll go ahead and open up pre-sales to forum members here as well. I don't have pictures yet, but those of you that know how we operate will trust me when I say that we won't deliver anything short of exceptional. The 2013 silver edition of the Titan One is limited to just a single production run of 1,000 pieces and they will be selling for 1.85 BTC per coin. The silver Titan One coins are slightly larger (39mm diameter). We felt that a 1 oz coin at the current diameter looked just a little too thick. These coins are going to be minted at a "proof" grade quality. The dies have to be re-polished often to maintain a high mirror finish and the coins are individually pressed so it does take a bit more time. It's worth it though, as they come out looking absolutely spectacular. Emailing sales@titanbtc.com is best, as I've already botched one order that was placed here (sorry Phil), but if you don't mind working with me directly, feel free to PM. |
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Jesus... just what we need. More extremism associated with an innovative, new technology (Bitcoin) that people don't understand. Great way to gain acceptance from the masses.
Please stop making a revolutionary/Libertarian association with Bitcoin. I know the intentions are good, but it's not the way to "sell" the technology to people. It scares normal people away with ease. Ask any salesman.
EDIT: I say this as an experienced salesman. This is NOT the way to present Bitcoin to people, to gain acceptance (unless they've already expressed their Libertarian viewpoint to you in private).
I think you're wrong to say that principle applies equally in all situations. With the timing and the prevailing world trends, John McAfee was right. Bitcoin is gunpowder. I bet individual-rights oriented political types were big gunpowder fans when it became popularised, and gunpowder sort of rules the world, even to this today. Just saying  I think what Man Hands was reacting to was the fact that he WANTS bitcoin to spread, and he feels that the video is positioning bitcoin as a solution championed by extremists. Coming from a product creation/launch background myself, I agree that the pain points that bitcoin solves are widely experienced. Hence it deserves to reach an equally wide audience. That kind of reach requires a positioning of the bitcoin solution in a way that everyday people can communicate to each other as the idea spreads. A corollary might be the civil rights movement. While it was a long process with many punctuating events that made people question their beliefs, the movement didn't truly reach the momentum required for change until Martin Luther King Jr. provided a message and vision that everyone, from both ideological sides, could agree with. Bitcoin definitely has the power to spread on its own, but everyday I fight people's misconceptions about what its for and what it does. To that end, I agree with Man Hands. While there's certainly a place for this type of video, we need more messages that aim to discuss the positive and universal benefits of bitcoin. |
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Price fluctuations have been a bit crazy the last few days! We price the coins based on fixed margin above the spot value of BTC, so if you're sending us payment directly for an order you PM'ed to me...please contact me beforehand to make sure you're not paying too much. Thanks!
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Love them. Will deffo buy some for my next meet up.
Awesome. I've had some great feedback from people just learning about bitcoin. It's a great tool to bring new users to the community. I definitely think that physical bitcoins are a gateway to full-blown mainstream adoption. If you'll do some photo documentation of the meetup, I'll cut you you a discount. Email me at tim@titanbtc.com to make it happen. |
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UPDATE: I think I forgot to mention on the forum that "private key included" coins are now available on the website. There's a dropdown on the product page to select which version you want. http://www.titanbtc.com/product/titan-one/ Great news. I like the idea of removing a company from cashing my BTC out. I do like the security that adds, but the fully "decentralized" approach is a nice option. Appreciated - You listened to customers, IAS Thank you for saying thank you. I think the ultimate form of physical BTC will be one that the network can track ownership of. We're working on it, but in the meantime, you guys should get what you want. |
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No, I am serious. I have grave concerns here about giving some guy named "Bruno" my hard earned money on the promise that he knows how to make an itty bitty pizza. I demand proof that "Bruno" is a master pizza chef and not just some putz that collects wood off barns or something like that.
Can you imagine giving this guy all your money and then sitting around starving at home waiting for your pizza and you find out that Bruno is really a carpenter that can never deliver on his promises of the perfect micro pizza?
You people fall for everything. You never think or check things out. I expect most of you still buy sea monkeys thinking that the next batch will be better.
I have NEVER been disappointed with my sea monkey purchases. Plainly stated...every batch has been an under sea marvel. With that said, put me down for a pizza pre-order OP. Don't worry about delivering it though, as I intend to sell my spot in the pizza purchase queue on eBay before it ever arrives. |
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Tim,
Are the QR codes printed on the outside of the coin hologram? (As opposed to being under the tamper-proof hologram).
I have not registered my coins yet but from what I understand the QR code is required to transfer registration? So it would be best to keep this secret?
The QR code is the titian coin internal identifier so (evidently) only they know what coin (and priv/pub key) that qrcode and code underneath links to. That's pretty much right on. The address associated with the outputs of each coin funding transaction is shown on the Coin ID page. If you look at it in the blockchain, you'll see the transaction and when the coin was funded. Currently, we don't include the public key on the Coin ID page, but I would consider doing so if the community think that has value. You're right that the QR-codes and redemption codes are linked internally to our wallet system. The private keys are encrypted and kept in cold storage until a user redeems a coin. We just look up the address (the same one you see on the Coin ID page) and execute a raw transaction to send a coin from that address. The raw transactions are signed (using the private key recovered from cold storage) in an offline system and then brought back online to broadcast. |
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Tim,
Are the QR codes printed on the outside of the coin hologram? (As opposed to being under the tamper-proof hologram).
I have not registered my coins yet but from what I understand the QR code is required to transfer registration? So it would be best to keep this secret?
We limit the exposure of the QR codes ourselves but mainly for the sake of customers. The QR code is thermally printed into one of the hologram layers. You DO need to know the coin ID in order to register it or transfer registration, but the QR code will take you to the same page as you will see by entering in the coin ID on the verify page on our website. The combination of coin ID + registration email + password is required to transfer coin registration, so as long as one of those 3 is secure, you shouldn't have to worry. If you're reselling the coin, we recommend you DO show the buyer either the QR code or the Coin ID so that they can see that the coin is currently funded and authentic. |
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Phinnaeus, you're one of the most interesting people on this forum BY FAR. Do you have a blog or something that I can send people to as inspiration?
Also, can I get a certificate of authenticity with this pizza? I'm concerned about preserving the collectible status. What would shipping be to the Los Angeles area?
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UPDATE: I think I forgot to mention on the forum that "private key included" coins are now available on the website. There's a dropdown on the product page to select which version you want. http://www.titanbtc.com/product/titan-one/ thanks for the option. i don't think it will be as great a problem as you think. for sales. You're right. The private key offering isn't really a "sales" ploy. I rolled it out mainly because this forum asked for it. It's a pretty trivial addition to our manufacturing process to do it, so I don't mind. Outside of the bitcoin community, people seem to prefer the 2-factor authentication version. |
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EDIT: This thread is intended for brainstorming about new ways to do Physical bitcoins. I've started a separate thread for questions about http://www.TitanBtc.com in the Marketplace section. -- Physical bitcoins are absolutely the BEST way to introduce people to the concept of bitcoins. I've personally recruited dozens, if not hundreds, of people to the bitcoin community and by far the most effective tool in winning someone over is simply handing them a physical coin. There's just no replacement for feeling the weight of bitcoin in your hand. The problem with the current implementation of physical bitcoins is that they are really wallets (or a way to access a wallet) in a pretty package. In other words, while they are a great way to introduce people to the concept, they don't add much value. If I transfer the bitcoin from my physical coin to my smartphone wallet, I still have the same value in my wallet, but now I have a gold (colored) coin that looks pretty, but doesn't have much in it. I was thinking about an alternative, and I went back to the idea of bitcoin being analogous to gold (except that you can't melt it down). So instead of coin, how about paper? When banks where first created, the bankers held gold for their customers, and issued gold certificates. These certificates could be redeemed at any time at the bank for real gold, so (assuming the bank is dependable) they were used for exchange, and thus paper money was created. Since we're talking about different levels here, let's take the original banking concept and substitute bitcoin for gold, and (metal) coin for paper. Now let's create the "Bank of Bitcoin", and have it issue (metal) coins in various denomination (1 BTC, 0.25 BTC, 0.1 BTC, .05 BTC, .01 BTC, etc.) The metal coins would not have a Bitcoin address associated with them, but could be redeemed at a bank branch for bitcoin. Or, they could be used to buy things from others without having to have access to a device. The problems with this idea are that the Bank of Bitcoin would have to develop trust that these coins will always be redeemable. It would also have to adhere to banking regulations. For these reasons it would probably have to start as a subsidiary of an established bank. On second thought, I don't think the Bitcoin community is ready for this. Great feedback. I think paper physical bitcoins are great, and I don't think they've been done right yet. There are ways for the bitcoin network itself to serve as the "central bank of bitcoin" and that's basically what I'm working on. Using the blockchain to handle physical to digital exchange/ redemption addresses a lot of problems. I'd love to hear more ideas from people that KNOW the bitcoin protocol inside and out on how we can make that happen. |
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UPDATE: I think I forgot to mention on the forum that "private key included" coins are now available on the website. There's a dropdown on the product page to select which version you want. http://www.titanbtc.com/product/titan-one/
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Nice looking coins. I just don't like that qr-code with the website over it. When will you have the coins similar to casascius?
We won't be copying Mike's design for the Casascius coins' holograms as the QR code is necessary for now, but we're looking at implementing NFC chips on the coins which would let us have a nicer design on the holograms. We'll bump that one in the list of future improvements. Thanks for the feedback, 4ner. |
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