There will be nothing to market if there aren't anything to market. I suspect it required maybe only a week of development if you're competent. Other than that, it's about gaining critical mass of stuff to download before explosion, I suspect. Marketing can be something like gathering desirable and not illegal stuff to download, curating it, etc and than giving the link to people who want it. That can be done in your spare downtime until you find marketer worth his salt of set up an affiliate program that incentivized people to market for you.
That is very true, it is something that I could start development on by myself but the actual development won't really take all that long even just working on it in spare time. The longer term job on the technical side will be keeping the central server running well and scaling up as needed. On the other side in the beginning the marketing would be getting stuff to download (as you said) and yes an affiliate program of some sort could help there. In the longer term there the issue is going to be providing help/support which is the big part I'm not really ready to take on. I'm already on-call basically 24/7 for my main site, doing sysadmin stuff for another project (that would likely share the same infrastructure at least to start with) won't be a big deal but I'm well aware of how important good customer service is and don't want to jump into something that I'm not prepared to do a good job at. Main reasons for finding a partner upfront would be 1) that they have some input in the design process (if you want to market to a content distributor that they can theme this download page to match their site then I want to know about that as soon as possible) and 2) so that they are familiar with how it is supposed to work from the beginning and can give feedback if it's not as userfriendly as they want or such. Neither of these is a necessity, I can code it and get a small site going regardless but I am a programmer by trade and know my limitations and something like this will need more than some fancy code to be more than just a small site. I've been considering some ideas already and am thinking I will put something together regardless, I guess this is more of an invitation for someone else who would be interested in running this sort of thing but may not have the technical skills to do it themselves to join me. I would think a markeeter these days need programming skills and statistics to analyze mass amount of data, doing A/B testing, etc. Although most of the work will be done within a week, I think you'll find that streamlining the download process, doing testing of different version of the site, will be a big part of your job. Let face it, there are many frustration in finding and downloading contents. |
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Maybe someone who is connected and knowledgable can contact some folks in this industry to allow bitcoin payments?
While I am not connected to the industry, I am considering building a bitarcade. In my game sketchbook, I try to figure out the simplest game that I could humanely implement while still being somewhat fun. This is somewhat inspired by sweepmine, a facebook game. |
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Bitcoin would be convenient for people who don't have a credit card...
Hmm...teenagers maybe  Through online gaming, they discovered bitcoin. Then they learn bitcoin can be used to purchase physical goods and real life services, thus beginning their career in the bitcoin economy. |
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1. Download site like rapidshare and other crappy host. Inconvenient captcha and required paypal. Bitcoin can possibly take both roles and streamline the whole process. Suggested by Kiba. That could be an interesting project. I'd be willing to work on the technical side but not sure I really have time to do proper support/marketing. Anyone interested in partnering up? There will be nothing to market if there aren't anything to market. I suspect it required maybe only a week of development if you're competent. Other than that, it's about gaining critical mass of stuff to download before explosion, I suspect. Marketing can be something like gathering desirable and not illegal stuff to download, curating it, etc and than giving the link to people who want it. That can be done in your spare downtime until you find marketer worth his salt of set up an affiliate program that incentivized people to market for you. Actually, I didn't suggested it originally, but somebody else did in the thread about p0rn. |
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Pestering them about a Bitcoin button is not a good idea. It was a gift, not a bribe.
Just give them the Bitcoins and follow up in two weeks. 2 weeks 2,419,200 seconds Same amount of time as expected time to generate 2,016 blocks How many days we have left? |
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Good discussion above.
I want to come back to the original question about HOW TO DRIVE CRITICAL MASS.
Some people have express their belief that we should wait a couple of months before trying to make it bigger, but still think we should build on the momentum BITCOIN has currently. For example, bitcoin transactions, prices and turnover of coins have started to increase significantly over the past days.
If we wait to long, it may die.
I also agree that we need to look for ways to have BITCOINS used in the right target group, i.e.
Gaming, online shopping, etc.
What can we do more and faster???
One small thing that could be done right now by everyone is: Install this Facebook game http://www.facebook.com/#!/apps/application.php?id=157118501301&ref=ts which is also listed in the bitcoin.org trade directory http://www.bitcoin.org/trade. The game accepts bitcoins in payment. Invite 10 different Facebook friends to install the game everyday for a week. Its free, fast and takes almost no effort. And who knows, it may go viral and all of a sudden everyone will be asking 'what are these bitcoins?' Just be warned, I found the game addictive. When you beat the game, it made a post at your blog bragging how good you are. Just by playing sweepmine, you help promote bitcoin and the game at the same time. |
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This is Operation Economic Growth. Our mission is to grow the bitcoin economy by making everyone specialize in a narrow range of good and services. Simply put, announce what you want to consume and I'll add it to the list. Somebody then will announce that he will try to enter that niche. There can be competition within niches too, but there are other niches to fill. We'll hold those people "accountable" for their niches by plodding, encouraging, starting a thread and then getting disappointed when the service didn't come online etc. Wanted Niches: 1. craigslist like classified ads for locale. 2. "Mechanical Turk"-like site that list simple jobs for people to do. Suggested by noagendamarket in the Stable Exchange Rate? topic of the Economic forum. 3. Beer supply store. Malt, yeasts, hops, etc. 4. Plant store for selling various herbs and stuff. 6. Hacker Academy. Free educational video. Flat tutiion fee classes. Pay as you go for personal tutors. 7. Dating site that accept bitcoins. 8. Easy encryption and backup service. Niche filled or being worked on: 1. Advertising clearing house like http://projectwonderful.com. Suggested by mskwik.(I used projectwonderful to make tiny bit of money. I wonder if I can get more money from a bitcoin advertising clearing house) noagenda offered a large bounty on it and being worked on Biomike. 2. Download site like rapidshare and other crappy host. Inconvenient captcha and required paypal. Bitcoin can possibly take both roles and streamline the whole process. Suggested by Kiba. Taken by Hippich. Eventually sprawned 3 competitors. 3. Freelancer site. Taken by whichspace. 4. Pizza order system. You can order on the web, from the commandline, from your smartphone, sms, etc. Taken by mizerydearia. |
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I think bitcoin poker will really establish the BTC.
I disagree. All you can get with bitcoins by playing poker is bitcoins. Gambling is also nowhere near as big a market as porn and it does not really benefit as much from the possibility of micropayments. I think bitporn would be an excellent idea and if someone starts developing it I hope they will contact me. Why not replace SharingMatrix/MegaUpload/et. al with a (user friendly) bitcoin based file host, and get all the "free" porn sites (like adultbay, for instance) to use it instead. I'd actually pay for the increased bandwidth and concurrent downloads if I didn't have to risk my personal and CC details and those evil, evil automatic recurring payments. This way we can use porn (and music blogs) in a roundabout way. Yeah, Bitcoin serve as good captcha. |
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I created a register link, fix spelling, and figure out how to do routing. Today is the most substantial progress we see.
Let see what happen tonight.
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What can we do more and faster???
In a prosperous economy, everyone narrowly specialize and consume diversely. Not everybody have a niche in the bitcoin economy, so there are no diverse consumption. This forum could be used as support group for entrepreneurial activities and niche finding effort. |
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And what if XYZ does violate the contract? How harsh would the penalties be in absence of a government-sponsored MPAA racket? Yeah, you could draft a contract that said "if you leak the film you owe me $100 million compensation", but good luck finding a theatre chain who would be prepared to take that kind of risk. On the other hand, if the mutually agreed penalty was more market-realistic, say $1 million, that would no longer serve as deterrent onerous enough to prevent a leak. All it takes is 1 out of 10,000 employees being careless, or dishonest, and the damage is irreversible. XYZ would not bother investing millions in airport-style security scans for every cleaning lady that enters the cinema building. It would simply accept the risk of paying the penalty.
Right, so there is a point in your example somewhere between $1 million and $100 million where the theatre owner and the film producer can come to agreement. Some point where it is feasible to take the movie and risk it getting out in the world and duplicated for free, and some point where the theatre operator can make money showing the movie even if he has to pay the fine. Theaters would just show public domain equalivent and be done with it. Smaller risk, and smaller profit maybe. Heck, public domain books these days sell, sometime like hotcake. If somebody can make a million dollars worth of movie quality, and don't force you to sign a non-copying agreement you're basically screwed. |
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I didn't mean brick and mortar businesses. I just meant online businesses with a reasonably wide inventory. Selling things that a reasonably wide section of the population want to buy.
Well, I mean store that sell physical items, not brick and mortar businesses. In my sleep deprivation I slipped up. |
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Very tired person from college. All I did today was beginning the use of an authentication framework and generating a user model.
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Yay! Bitcoin prediction market. I am glad to see this coming together. I wish you luck, let me know if there is anything I can do to help.
Ugh. I missed a day. No excuses there. |
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So are the bitcoins in my wallet real property?
Incidentally, there is nothing in your wallet that could be contrude as a coin. The use of the term, "wallet" to describe that file is a misnomer, as it contains only hash pairs and some transaction data. Your bitcoins are nothing more than a collection of transfers recorded in a massive ledger that we call the blockchain. A convenient metaphor from the age of physical money. Let leave it at that. |
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So are the bitcoins in my wallet real property?
I supposed the thief owe you money after he spend it or destroy it. But how can he 'destroy' my bitcoins? How are bitcoins 'real' property anymore than the music on a Celine Dion CD? That's what I don't understand. Aren't bitcoins 'artifically' scarce? By deleting your wallet, of course. It's like deleting your Celine Dion mp3. That's a destruction of property. You can alway download another one from the internet though. However, if you don't back up your wallet, you lose it forever. Well, I don't know how to decide bitcoins. I mean, bitcoin can only be spent once and you can only discover a bitcoin. So if the thief spend your bitcoins, it mean that your bitcoin in your wallet are invalid. It doesn't matter how many time you duplicate the bitcoin. |
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One of the biggest (unknown?) enemies of OSS is piracy...
Great arguments as well for how piracy actually *helps* proprietary software
This is why I do the evil laugh when Short-Sighted Commercial Dude do something stupid like stopping piracy of their software. |
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Some actual businesses accepting bitcoins that sell physical goods would also go a long way toward helping them establish a foothold. I know there is one website selling herbs online, but the inventory there consists of only two things, so I assume this is a personal hobby endeavor and not an actual business.
Business beget business. Before you can have physical stores, you must do it with cheaper capital business. |
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So are the bitcoins in my wallet real property?
I supposed the thief owe you money after he spend it or destroy it. |
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I'm not yet sold on the against-IP argument yet. I understand the scarce vs. non-scarce goods anti-IP argument that many libertarians are taking these days, but IMO it fails as soon as you say it voids private contracts. Disallowing individuals to enter into private contracts is obviously immoral, and yet some libertarians are arguing exactly that when they argue against IP. What's wrong with me selling you a reproducible good with a contract attached that says you agree not to duplicate it? If you do, it's dishonest and you've violated our contract. Exactly. And such contracts could be structured in such a way as to have almost the same practical effect as IP enforcement. Which makes me suspect that arguments in favor of evading IP laws are as much about getting free music and free movies as they are about consistent libertarianism. But I'm still learning. Not possible. You can persecute the party in agreement with the contracts but third parties and outsider have no obligations. Sure, but you can make the penalties for violating the party in agreement so onerous that they would never get into the hands of third parties. If they are willing to accept the agreement in the first place and the cost of enforcement does not exceed the profit from persecuting said violators. This is especially dubious when you have million of people with CDs. This is even more dubious if they can do it anonymously with no easy way to track the anonymous leak. If people actually stop pirating in the said ideal world, than GIMP and other copyfree business will eat and run away with the copyright holder's lunch. if you make something artificially scarce, you better have the quality to make it worth people's livelihood to host it at the movie theater. |
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