That's not a bad idea chainsaw, I'll certainly consider it!

I've been talking to a few people and gathering additional advice, etc from various people.  Good stuff, and it certainly gives me better bearings on what all will need to go in to making this a reality.  I don't believe it is too complex a project, just time consuming.  Should be well worth it though.

Speaking of design... is there any additional input with regards to improving the design I posted?  I didn't end up getting a whole lot of feedback on that.

@NewLiberty - I appreciate you supporting this project!  Engraving is not required - if nothing else, I can always print the firstbits on the hologram rather than engrave it into the coin.  I'll send you a PM.

Chainsaw, I think you are missing a critical aspect of firstbits.  There is only one 1music firstbits address.  Any subsequent addresses would have to have firstbits of, say, 1music1, 1musicb, 1musicp, etc.  So I own the address corresponding to 1music (and a lot of other simple english words, names, and patterns).  No one else has it, no one else can generate it, etc.

There wouldn't be a run of 1music coins.  There would be a run of coins with one coin having 1music engraved, one coin having 1sexy engraved, etc etc.    Those firstbits could never be reused - they can only exist once.

Engravings cost only $0.50/coin, which is why I am considering a unique engraving for each coin.

All of that said, I rather like the auction idea!  It would still work (arguably even better) for a run of 150 coins with different firstbits addresses.  I could pick out 150 prime firstbits addresses that I own, and then allow the auction to work out who pays how much for which ones.  If I don't raise enough funds through the auction, then everyone is refunded.  And after fixed costs are recovered, I could drop the price further.

I was thinking about 1 BTC, 500 mBTC, and 100 mBTC.  I could go smaller to 50 mBTC and 10 mBTC, but the cost would have to be much higher than the face value to make them viable.  On the 10 mBTC piece, I'd have to charge around 45mBTC per coin just to cover variable costs, and the final price would likely be much higher than that.  But, I am still looking at various coin minters - I may be able to find a lower cost minter.

So, I think it is a definite possibility to go down to at least 100 mBTC, and possibly 50 mBTC.  I don't know that 10 mBTC is practical at this point though.

Instead of kickstarter, I am considering conducting a pre-sale here on this forum.  Some quick calculations show actual cost break-even at about 150 1 BTC shiny gold-plated coins sold at 1.4 BTC each + S/H.  I'd set it up so that if that 150 coin goal is not met by a certain date, I would simply refund the full BTC to everyone who preordered.

- Should I go with a higher price for lower # of coins necessary to meet the goal?  96 coins would be sufficient at 1.6 BTC each, for example.
- Should I go with a lower price to encourage more preorders?
- Should I offer multiple denominations of coins from the get-go?  It would increase the fixed costs by a small margin.

Since I have some unique firstbits that can never be reused, I was also thinking of offering some sort of premium coin feature, where those who paid more for the premium feature could pick out which firstbits they wanted on their coin before the others, out of the whole list of firstbits I have available.  Would this be a desirable feature?  How much extra would be fair to charge for this feature?  Or should it be a "pay whatever extra you want, and you can pick in order starting with who paid the most"?

Thanks, I appreciate it.  That's definitely a course of action I could take...!

Interesting idea... the only problem I have with leaving the coin unfunded is that people couldn't take them without looking them up.  You couldn't make the assumption that a 1 BTC coin actually holds 1 BTC by just making sure the hologram is intact.

It would certainly skirt the possibility of having to comply with MT/MSB though.

Thanks for the thoughts!

I agree, it is difficult to find such a map, but that's what I hire a graphic designer for - they can create one from scratch.  

I appreciate the input.

The reason I would need to buy Bitcoins is because the kickstarter is in USD, and I expect that the vast majority of the startup funds would come from kickstarter.  If I promise to send out coins in exchange for people helping to kickstart the project, but the price of each Bitcoin rises to $1,000 before I am able to purchase Bitcoins for the coins, then I would have no way to fulfill my obligation.

Even if I raised funds only in BTC, I would still have to set the majority of the BTC raised aside to be able to fund the coins with, which means I would still have to raise several times my startup costs in order to be able to pay for those startup costs.  It's six one way, a half dozen the other.

Good point about the Money Transmitter laws... that might make a kickstarter out of the question anyway.

I decided to move forward with this project, since you all are eager about it.  It bodes well that I seem to have customers before even starting.  I aim to fund the entire startup amount via kickstarter and possibly bitcoinstarter.  I'll have to raise around 4 to 5 times what my startup costs are (so, raise $25,000 - $35,000 in total), simply because I'll have to buy Bitcoins with a large part of the funds to ensure that I can fund the coins after they are produced.

In the meantime, I've been playing around with coin designs.  While I plan to have a pro complete the finished design from scratch, I want to have something visual to offer on the kickstarter page that will be at least somewhat close to the finished product.  What do you all think of this design?



Black would be embossed, gray would be textured.

The overall idea of the design is to show the freedom and global reach of using Bitcoin.  In Libertate Commercia translates to "Trade In Freedom" according to my Latin-loving cousin.  The binary around the edge also converts to say the same.  The box at the bottom would have the firstbits of each coin engraved (though I am unsure whether I actually want to keep this feature, as it does add some complexity to the logistics of it all).  The earth on the front of the coin shows the Americas, and a small part of the eastern continents.  I plan to have a similar design in the center of the hologram on the back of the coin, but showing the continents on the opposite side of the globe instead.

EDIT:  Also, any ideas for naming the coins?

Since you always have to bid higher than the last person, I don't really see any feasible advantage from botting this system.

It doesn't hurt to try, right? 

I'll see what I can do to get this going then..!

I'm still thinking about it.  I've been in talks about a partnership with someone else who is also interested in creating coins.  My biggest roadblock is funding, since I'd need around $6,000-$8,000 to make this a reality, and I just don't have that kind of money right now.

If it were me, and I was running BlockRun, I would only allow people to list items themselves if they first sent those items to me.  That way, I could inspect them, make sure they work and are in good condition, etc.  I would also ship those items out myself.  I would charge maybe 25% of the bids for the item in exchange for this service.

I wouldn't step into the escrow world directly with a service like this.  What would be the resolution for a he-said, she-said debate between people?  He says he shipped the item, she says she received a brick.

A 7th report coming in, this time in video format.  Looks like 29 watts (near the end) for a Jalapeno.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bIKrTciT5xc

EDIT:  And an 8th here, 5.9GH/s at 30 watts:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=228261.new#new

Why does this petition require a street address?

Just a fair warning on the Lotus Elise/Exige/Etc, they are awesome cars, and I would love one, but it does take a special sort of person to drive one often from what I hear.  They are tinny, rattly, super light-weight, and very small without much in the way of amenities.  Absolutely the car I would love to drive, but I know some wealthy people would hate to drive one more than just around a race track.  Heck, I'd daily drive the thing in a heartbeat.

Maintenance is usually much cheaper than that of other exotic cars, simply because (I think) all the engines used in them are based on production Toyota engines.

Anyone feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=197275.0

I can't find the other ones, but I know another story posted was of a guy who was buying something for Bitcoins.  Well, he met the guy, got his address, sent the Bitcoins.... and then the guy just walked out, product in hand.  He could have yelled and made a fuss about it, but it's almost like who would believe him or care?  How could you explain to the police that you sent him money, and that this was his address when no proof that that address was actually his was given?

Anyway, just a reminder that certain precautions should be taken when buying or selling something in person.  Obviously, the same things could happen for cash too, but there's probably a little more understanding from the law enforcement side of things if you get shorted on cash vs on Bitcoins.

Sorry for your loss, that is awful.

The shape of the peanut butter M&M's is more or less the same, but the peanut butter ones are actually much bigger than normal M&M's.  For a kid that young though, he couldn't know.  And probably for someone who doesn't eat M&M's often.  So sad. 

Several people here have reported being robbed while doing in-person transactions.  Anything in-person definitely carries a certain level of risk.

Because someone would have to own a large amount of hashpower to even have the slightest chance of reversing a 1-conf transaction.  Reversing a 0-conf, OTOH, is rather trivial.

I'd take 1-conf up to $50k or so.  0-conf up to maybe $20.