This is exactly what I would have suggested as well.  If you look over the in Currency Exchange section you'll see established folks willing to buy these as well as BTC. 

Thanks for all the leads and feedback!

btctreasure 45% payout 50% price increase 3% reset .01 base 36hour reset
btc bears    10%            15                         3.125%   .25        7 days

So gold bar still looks like the best balance of payout and expiration time though you gotta admire the appreciation of the map.


I'm sorry you lost two BTC.  This highlights the key issue, how visible is the site you are gambling on?  I'm not sure how to quantify this, maybe number of twitter followers?  The runup in the price of BTC also probably discourages purchases, especially above 1BTC.

Anyway thanks to everyone for voting and the encouragement/help.

EDIT: (6 Apr.)  Thanks to everyone who commented and voted.  This "analysis" has clearly been overtaken by events.  Orb has changed their payouts, BitKing is advertising like mad, and there is a new "tree" game that has payouts so complicated that it includes a calculator to try and estimate them for you!  I've shut down the poll and each of the games I think now has it's own dedicated thread to explain its relative benefits.  I'd stress that the key in my opinion is the spread between what you pay and what you get and how well promoted the site is.  Good Luck to those of you who choose to play! --SRG



I was recently intrigued by the start of so many ponzi/tulip mania gambling sites that I decided to do a little comparison.  FWIW here you go:

Name	The Orb (1)	Bitcoin Gem (2)	Crown (3)	Gold Bar (4)	BitKing(5)
Player Payout	16%	10%	15%	10%	18%
Price Increase	20%	15%	25%	12%	20%
Reset Chance	3%	1.56%	1.5% *	3.125%	3%
Time Limit	1 day	1 day	2 days	30 days	2days
Base Price	.1 BTC	.25 BTC	.01 BTC	.05 BTC	??
Forum “owner”	AunOMau	maxmint	the_crown	??	ytwg

(1) http://theorb.biz/
(2) http://www.bitcoingem.com/index.php
(3) http://www.bitcoincrown.com/
(4) http://bitcoingoldbar.com/
(5) http://thebitking.com/

Other notes:
• The Crown gives back 20% on a reset
• A key issue is how easy the site is to find, how much advertising they do, I can’t find BitKing from Google and have never seen it advertised.
• These are obviously clones of each other.  I believe someone was selling a template for them.

Based on this analysis the BitKing barely edges out the Gold Bar except for the hard to find part.   As much as I like the Crown giving back 20% on a reset that is not enough to overcome the 10% “rake.”

I am not affiliated with any of these sites and there are no affiliate links in this post.  I’ll update the missing info if I discover it.  Happy Ponzi!

Edit: Found the post selling the template: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=144335.0  I don't think we'll see any shortage of these types of games any time soon.

Wow!  Awesome, thanks!  LTC is moving up!

LMKuihW2dvWCnLzzaVgUYmAXMWahMQh6jy


Edit: RECEIVED THANK YOU!!!!   I can't believe you made it this far down the thread.

I have not heard of this coin until today, but happy to explore it with the free coins!  Thanks!

xfkv5XqVFMPab4gPEkVQED4W7kpsjzyWsS

Edit:  Thank you for the coin!

wow, thanks!!!

1tzvTan2XCvmcMXTmtobgwTxGCkiSSuuf

EDIT: Got it Nagan!!!!  Thank you very much!  Very generous of you.

I fully support TRC on BTC-E.  Thanks to 420 I currently am on Vircurex and while I like it BTC-E's fees for trading are lower.  Good Luck!

I think this is the third giveaway thread, but I'm delighted for the coins, it looks like a great concept.

12Kvmy1Czqssh21dqKePVNpRmAP8xorLuh

Thanks!

I did not fill out the contact information so I didn't qualify for the bitpenny, but I really liked the radio button interface.  I think it is a very simple and intuitive site.  Thanks for trying to help newbies.

Edit: I also liked your FAQ!  I thought the last one was initially to invest in Nanaimo Gold then I realized you were worried about folks spamming you.

Their fees do appear lower, .2% versus .5%, and I did not see a withdrawal fee.  However, 420 asked me to join Vircurex, and he was handing out the coin, so I did.  Thanks for the suggestion!

I'd like to echo this.  As a newbie I found about about Vircurex thanks to 420's giveaway.  Vircurex is great and I'm glad I joined, but this fee seems like a lot, especially since the fee for Terracoins, which are worth a lot less, is very reasonable.  

Thanks for considering it.

Edit: 16 Mar  Thank you for lowering it!

Thank you for the coin.  I signed up for an account at the exchange and it is really cool, but I noticed:

Fees
The exchange charges a fee of
    1.0 (LTC) for withdrawing Litecoin

This seems like a lot.  Do you think it will come down any?

Regardless, thank you for the coin!

It is even more hacked now, trololooo.

And yes Psy, I was a dumbass to go there.

Happy to check it out!  Thank you!

PQ51MwCMo2m3PFnMACWkMGsPYCe3EQ5knB

Edit: Received THANK YOU!

That is awesome, excellent!

The key problem is that bitcoin is a deflationary currency, more so even than gold or silver, even if its number of users was constant, you should expect it to hold its value relative to fiat currencies, e.g. USD.  Given that more and more people are getting into bitcoin, as you discovered between January and now, you are fine doing very little.

So maybe sell a few to cover any needs you have but, ironically, many investments may actually underperform just holding the BTC, i.e. unlike fiat currencies bitcoin is itself a decent "investment."

Congratulations on your windfall and good luck going forward.

Played for free on Firefox 19 for Mac and it worked fine.  I would have lost both times. 

Maybe during testing you should make the payout 101% or something to encourage people to try it?  Then after you're sure it works you can cut it back to 98% or whatever.

Good Luck!

12Kvmy1Czqssh21dqKePVNpRmAP8xorLuh

I just got this wallet, thank you!

Thanks, it will be nice to see something other than ripple on the forum!

12Kvmy1Czqssh21dqKePVNpRmAP8xorLuh

Yes, I really think they need to try a different giveaway.  This clearly got them a lot of attention, but if people are buying old forum accounts I think they are at the point of diminishing returns if their goal is broad distribution to encourage use.

Still, I didn't think the xrp to bitcoin price would keep going against btc, so clearly they know something I don't.

I have been wrong on this so far, XRPs have done well based on the bitstamp exchange rate.  Even with people advertising for old forum accounts to get the free ripples the price seems to be heading up in terms of BTC not down like I expected.  Congrats and well played to Opencoin -- so far.