Congratulations to BitcoinPonziOrg for winning this auction.

I looked more carefully at the specs of the suggested server and now I see that it might be not good enough to run bitcoind since bitcoin blockchain is now alsmost as big as its SSD. So it  might require a better server or perhaps we could switch to some other solution. E. g. if we use blockchain.info wallet then a cheaper server would be good enough. If you already have bitcoind-capable server then there is no problem.

Thanks for your feedback.

Publisher's sites are being evaluated by moderators. If the site has no content, it shouldn't appear in advertising campaigns by default. Only advertisers that need this kind of traffic and explicitly widen the quality range for their advertising campaigns will get it.

Also advertisers can ban inefficient traffic sources in their campaigns.

I agree that "Report abuse" button might be useful, we have it in our todo list.

~1 week left till the end of the auction

Thanks for your question. Ad unit of type "Site" needs to be available at the URL specified upon its creation and needs to generate globally unique traffic. When these conditions are met it will be placed to categories decided by our moderators.

let it be 0.01 btc


I can confirm that I've been contacted by bitcointalk user whom I would trust to run the Pyramid. That user promised to create a new anonymous bitcointalk account to participate in auction.


When I started Bitcoin was not so serious as it is now. It was an experiment and governments didn't try to regulate or ban it. I don't want to deal with regulation and I don't have enough enthusiasm to promote and develop this service. It will die a slow death if nobody takes it over.

The pyramid is transparent and doesn't hold much money, its daily database dumps are public. I assume there is not much space for scamming here since typical amounts are small and fraud can be quickly identified by pyramid members.

Description:

Bitcoin Pyramid - a transparent pyramid game, live from July 2011: http://bitcoinpyramid.com

domain name, database dump and sources included

Starting bid:

0.5 btc

End date and time:

2015-02-01 00:00:00 UTC

Payment methods accepted:

Bitcoin only

Additional information for auction winner:

You can develop the Pyramid and change the rules, but please protect the interests of the existing members.

The Pyramid will be transferred to you after I receive your payment (unless we use a mutually trusted escrow at your expense).

Before I transfer it to you, I will lower withdrawal threshold so that most of the pyramid balance is paid out to existing members.

Money received from you will be distributed among them as well.

To get a domain name you will need to set up a verified name.com account and tell me your account code (not a username).

You should have a server capable of running bitcoind (probably an anonymous virtual server for $216/year in btc should be sufficient, here is my referral link). I'd gladly help you to install everything for free.

you can see the stats for non-unique impressions here: probably you'll see over 500 there.


your ad unit won't get ads & money if it doesn't generate unique impressions every day

Yes, it counts IPs per day that are unique in the scope of the whole advertising network.

If your visitors saw a-ads anywhere today, they won't be counted as unique. If you have several ad units on the same page, only the one that loads first will get a unique impression. See this blog post for more info: http://blog.anonymousads.com/2014/08/why-am-i-not-paid-for-clicks-what-is.html

Thanks for reporting. Are you trying to create ad unit or advertising campaign? Please tell me your bitcoin address so that I could reproduce it.

Looks like we had a bug that didn't allow some advertisers to add categories to their advertising campaigns. We fixed it.

What worries me is that this bug existed for a long time and probably affected many advertisers, but we received a report about it only yesterday.

If you see a bug (or something else that prevents you from using a our service), please let me know via bitcointalk, twitter or email (contact@a-ads.com).

Thanks!

PS: Also Max CPM limit for advertising campaigns should work better now.

Ok, here are the options:

1. I got a request from a member who looks trustworthy. He could create a new anonymous account at bitcointalk, take over the pyramid and develop it. He is likely to preserve the hierarchy and protect the interests of existing members at the same time making the Pyramid more attractive to the newcomers.

2. I can try to auction the Pyramid with starting price of 10K USD in Bitcoins. Not sure if anybody would buy it, but if it happens then every pyramid member could get a compensation based on the average USD value of his/her deposits (at their respective dates).

3. I can auction the Pyramid with starting price of 100 USD in Bitcoins and partially compensate pyramid members based on ~USD value of their deposits.


Which option would you prefer?

If I auction the site, I don't know who will win the auction and if that person would preserve the hierarchy. That's why compensation is important.

But probably there are members who lost their bitcoin addresses or don't want to be compensated. I could give some time for members to claim their compensation and after that I could compensate only the ones that did so. Should I require to claim a compensation? If yes then should I require the claims to be signed by members' withdrawal addresses?

yes, kind of. you can check it here: http://bitcoinpyramid.com/history

the problem is I don't develop it, a lot of things could be done. so I am considering to try to sell it (see https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=29390.msg9843427#msg9843427)

do you think anybody would buy it? how much could it cost?

You need to decrypt your wallet. If you remember a fraction of your password or likely parts of it then there should be tools that allow you to try all the combinations. I never used such tools though, but would like to know about them too.

You mean you forgot your wallet password?

Sorry, the pyramid is read only, there is no way to verify that you own your account unless you own your old address.

Do you think anybody would like to buy the pyramid? What should be the minimum price?

We are having low CPM again. Advertisers, advertise!

Because payouts should be proportional to the value transferred into the pyramid. Bitcoin is too volatile to be a good measure of value yet. USD fits better (ideally we should consider USD inflation too, but it is not that significant).

Does it sound convincing?

I think if the new owner preserves the hierarchy and doesn't significantly change the rules, s/he should debase members' weights with respect to historical USDBTC rates. It should give newcomers more incentive to make deposits and generate income for existing members. It is better to have a lower share of a larger income than to have a higher share of ever-decaying negligible income, isn't it?

This is just a suggestion, I am posting it here to get your feedback. Would you like to preserve the pyramid in its current zombi-state, or would you prefer to sell it and to get a proportional share of its price?

There is a chance that new owner will develop and promote the pyramid and there is a risk that s/he will destroy it. I don't know, not even sure if anybody buys it.