Timbo, thank you!

Please feel free to add as many (all of them) as you want.

I personally like the slate-grey design a lot too, and I know you had many more. Obviously more designs gives a better chance for winning, which I think it appropriate and in line with the goals of the project (having a broad variety)

Thanks!

Policy clarification:

I see some designers will be submitting multiple designs. That's GREAT and I want to encourage it.

However, in the service of fairness, I will be awarding each of the two bounties to a different designer. What this means, is if one designer wins 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place for their designs, then the bounty will go to the 1st and 5th designs (two different designers).

I am open to alternative suggestions.

ONE DAY to go.

As I promised in the beginning of this project, the choice of the bounty design will be open to the community at large. I will advertise for the vote here and on reddit.

I will be using an online voting service to handle the public vote. You can see the design submissions here:

http://tricider.com/brainstorming/poxx

If you are a designer and want to participate in the vote, please submit your design by going to the link above, "Add Idea", upload an image and description with your name/nickname.

By submitting your design you agree for it to be released under CC-BY-SA, upon payment of the bounty. Any designs not paid will remain the property of the designers, though I would encourage sharing regardless.

Submissions must be complete and final before end of day Sunday. If it still says "Sunday" in whatever timezone, you can submit.

On Monday I will post the link more broadly and ask for votes. When the vote ends, the winning design gets 2.5BTC. The second design gets 2.5 BTC. I pick one for production and this bounty is over.

I reserve the right to revise, extend or cancel the vote if I see manipulation, double voting or other problems. I reserve the right to select a different design for the print production run that I will be paying for, though it is highly unlikely.

Thank you for your participation and amazing support for this project.

Any comments, suggestions or objections, you have ONE day to raise them before this policy is considered final.

Andreas

Preliminary liquids report:

Worst damage is done on water soaked, inkjet printed, no sticker, folded over. The background colors bleed into the QR black ink and become a soup.

Least damage is on the water-soaked, laser printed, sticker covered, unfolded notes. They seem completely unaltered (haven't scratched the sticker off yet).

The biggest problem seems to be the color ink from inkjets, especially if two printed faces are touching and get wet (either double-side printing on inkjet or folded notes).

I think that the combination of pre-printed backgrounds, thicker paper, and stickers will eliminate the water problem almost entirely. If the users can use laser instead of inkjet for the QR's the problem drops to zero.

I have applied water to the another set of notes, now the ink has had time to dry, to see if it makes a difference.

Tomorrow I will properly tabulate the results. At this point I think we have about a 5% failure rate (QR is likely unreadable, or difficult to scan) across the entire sample.

The great light,  liquids and transparency experiment (v.2.0) has begun.

This is all on regular 80mg bright white color laser/copier paper. Cheap and thin. Not the kind of paper we will use for the print production, but the kind most users have at home.

Here's the first set of photos, as a high-res album:

http://imgur.com/a/KOOH6#0


Light Test


The photos were taken from a very close distance, with the notes pinned to a lightbox (CFD light).

As you can see, the security sticker is absolutely opaque, no possible way to see through.












The comparison to the sharpie (black marker pen) is quite interesting. In normal light and with the naked eye, the sharpie was obscuring the QR code and was opaque, no chance of seeing the QR. On the lightbox, the difference in color and shading is so big that the sharpie ink seems almost transparent.










Now looking at the reverse side, we see that the inkjet printer's ink has saturated the paper, and bled through to the other side. Even though the security sticker does not let light through, the ink is reflected from the camera flash, through the paper. With very little image re-touching it would be scannable.










On the laser, there is no visible code.












Conclusion of light test: My opinion on these results is that with a security pattern on the back, a sticker on the QR and thicker paper, we will be able to solve the compromise-with-light problem. The security stickers work exactly as advertised and are light-proof.

Liquid Test


The test involved adding 2 cc of liquid (applied with a syringe, for volume consistency), on each note.

I tested notes with and without the security stickers.
I tested three liquids: 2 cc Water, 2 cc vinegar (acid), 4 cc sports drink (red color dye)
I tested three arrangements: Liquid on the front, liquid on the back, liquid on the front and folded

Here you can see the test-grid, about a minute after I finished applying the liquids from left to right. The left side is completely saturated, the right side is beginning to soak.







Finally, I have kept several sets of "control" notes with and without stickers. Tomorrow I will add water to some, to see if there is a difference in the result if the ink has had time to be fully absorbed, or the sticker has had time to fully bond with the paper.

This will result in 42 combinations (30 now, 12 more tomorrow). I will photograph each note, scan the QRs (or try to) and tabulate and analyze the results, in a couple of days.

Let's see how the various combinations hold up!

I did not mean to sound dismissive, quite the opposite. I think your idea of printing it in front and covering with a printable coating is very good and could be less expensive than the back-printed idea. Your design is fine.

I was aiming to encourage more discussion and research on this. Apologies if it came off sounding otherwise!

Our beloved template designer Acorn, has also made a background security pattern that is very cool, using the BTC symbol repeated in different angles. I was planning on printing that on the back side of the paper behind of each QR code, to make it impossible to shine-through.

We could also do it on the front, it would require more stickers.

Let's do more research... this is an exciting idea and development. Cantor brought us a completely new "user problem" which actually can become one of the unique features and benefits of this project.

I think I know what you're talking about.

3M I think sells a coating like that. I should also ask the printing company. This could really add value to the product.

Actually, I think Scotchguard would work, but it cannot be flat-packed in an envelope. We could add it to a "tips" section

I will run some light and water tests today. Please standby. Sorry for the delay, but my other project (OpenBitcoinStore) became huge overnight... (see https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=161264.0;all if interested)



REMINDER: Submit designs by end of week.

I will be copying all the submitted designs to a single location and adding a voting widget, so everyone can vote on the best design.

Thanks!

I definitely need help, especially JS and client-side. I need to implement a "hover for BTC price" with exchange rate. Not easy...

Please visit openbitcoinstore.com and go to Volunteer, or email at info@bitcoinstore.com. Sorry for the extra contact request, too much going on and I need to use a process to not lose my head!

Definitely interested. I am setting up a Partner page for additional services.

My expectations are simple and consistent with the OpenBitcoinStore mission.

1) All partners will offer a basic free service of some kind, just like OBS does.
2) All partners will also volunteer to support store owners via IRC, on a best-effort basis

I have requests for partners in SEO, advertising, PR, graphic design and Wordpress templates so far. I want to have a nice healthy ecosystem of services around OBS.

So yes, please join us. Send me an email please at info@openbitcoinstore.com, so I don't forget this conversation (sorry, many many store requests, I'm overwhelmed)

Thanks!

Thanks. My favorite part was implementing the "elephant" in the demo. It has unique features, like you can't use the SHIPFREE coupon and it is very expensive to ship, because of the weight. There's only 1 in stock. It nicely shows several of the complex and sophisticated features of WooCommerce, the underlying store software.

Project Update

We have now received 67 applications in 48 hours. We have processed about 20 and have finished TWO stores already.

We also have received 10 volunteers, two donations and lots of heartfelt support.

The website is much more complete now: openbitcoinstore.com

I expect we will reach 100 stores before the end of the week

Don't beat yourself up. Key management is hard.

I've seen it happen on reddit three times. I scanned QR codes of one of the notes on another post on reddit, just to see if it  was possible but I didn't take the balance, I warned the OP.

Good luck!

This is exactly the problem we are solving over at Open Paper Wallet.

We've designed wallets that follow a standard template, with lots of different designs. The graphics are pre-printed on high quality paper and shipped with security features.

However, the keys are self-printed at home

That way you get the best of both.

We're a couple of weeks from the first 5000 sheet production print run. See the project here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155847.0;all

UPDATE:


Today we started the launch for TWENTY NINE new bitcoin stores.

Twenty nice applications were submitted in full in less than 12 hours. We have responded to all applicants and they are in the process of setting up their FREE bitcoin retail stores.

The stores started today are planning to sell a huge variety of products and services, both physical and intangible (media, software downloads).

I was honestly surprised by the incredible variety of ideas that bloomed out of the basic concept behind OpenBitcoinStore:

Launch a retail bitcoin store, for free, in less than an hour, without techie skills.


We will be collecting testimonials and making a directory of the new stores.

The beta is officially closed - but we are now accepting applications from all, for the next stage.

Visit openbitcoinstore.com and click "Get a Store!". (or to volunteer or donate)

Fredwu,

The btcprice.info site offers conditional alerts on % change, for FREE.

We are expanding to add email, SMS to more countries, and more custom conditions (code is in beta testing and planned for launch next week)

The site will remain free.

UPDATE:

Yikes!

We now have more than 200 requests for stores.

That's 200 people wanting to sell goods and services in bitcoin, in less than 24hrs, from one post.


Please see the new site: OpenBitcoinStore.com

Go there to SIGNUP for the beta, to volunteer, to donate, or to read the FAQ.

I can no longer take PM or email for beta signups, as I am completely overwhelmed. Form entires will be handled on a first-come first-served basis.

Thank you for all the amazing support

me too. Some difficulty making transactions.

Balance and funds are fine, no worries (I'm not worried at least)

It seems there are some little bugs emerging. Let's hope they get fixed soon

WOW!

We have had a sudden response with more than 20 requests for new stores in an hour, since posting on reddit.

Since the process is not yet automated (beta test), it will take a bit of time to manually do all those, solve the bugs and document.

However, EVERYONE will get a store. That is the whole point. So, I will add everyone to a list, tell you how many before you,  and provide updates on progress, so you know when we will get to your store.

This is fantastic news, as the project just got enough momentum to ensure it's continuation.

I have also received several offers for donations. Since I will not be taking any money for this project myself, I am setting up a separate address and policy for the use of any donations. All donations will go to offer tech support to store owners and for project development. Standby for more details.