Are you sending first (and then hoping something shows up in the mail later)?  If so, then this preference makes sense.  But it is unclear who goes first.


Normally in a sale there is a buyer who pays for a purchase, and a seller who accepts payment for a purchase.

In this instance, it is worded that the seller is offering a C$100 bill.  Thus wouldn't you instead ask how much the seller would require you to pay?  [Brain fart, ignore that.  The question above it still is valid though.]

One hurdle to most anyone who newly registered an account is that funds need to exist in the account before a new bet entry can be submitted.

However, the submission needs reviewed by an admin before it is accepted.  Why can't submissions then be accepted regardless of balance?  Then the verification that the account has funds occurrs at the same time that the review is performed.  Or perhaps at the time of submission, in addition to looking at the account balance consider any 0/unconfirmed payments as well -- those would in nearly all instances be confirmed by the time that the entry's review occurs at a later time.  And if they didn't confirm, then the entry doesn't get approved.

To improve participation levels ... try to remove the reasons people don't participate.

Necro-thread.

But anyway, here's Mem's recently compiled list:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=75883.0

The reason a person might use Coinapult is likely because the person isn't technical.  PGP is still mostly only for those who are technical.

Maybe do risk assessment.  Sending amounts over 2 BTC or something like that provides a warning to the sender that warns about the potential risk of loss.

When using the website wallet and clicking Receive I do get a little box with a QR code.  It tells me I need to click the QR code for it to copy the Bitcoin address to the clipboard.  

I'm a select text, copy and paste kind of guy.

Couldn't it simply display the public bitcoin address as well, to serve all rather than forcing users to adopt to this fancier method?

[Update: Not only that, couldn't clicking on the QR code (and/or the bitcoin address if you add that ) use the BIP 21 format?  bitcoin:12ab34C1P7tY6e4nKYDNe4nKYWhe4nKYt
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0021 ]

Nice, now the disgruntled customer (or scammer or whatever) is claiming "OKPAY is closing".  Got this email:


Nice try!

MegaMillions is twice a week:
 - http://www.megamillions.com/numbers/pastdrawings.asp

Previously offered was a weekly BitLotto Jr. but with small jackpots that didn't get much interest.  Having a once-a-month draw at least puts the jackpot in the "that would be a nice amount to win" range.



I don't think a 100% or 99.5% payout is much different from a 99% payout.  But a 99% payout is much different from the 60% payout that MegaMillions offers though.



I hope that never happens.

What I'm wondering is when someone figures out this opportunity.  There are two reasons a business (in most jurisdictions around the world) currently wouldn't want to sell BitLotto tickets.  One, because there are regulations (in most jurisdictions) about lotteries so selling BitLotto tickets directly is likely prohibited.  Secondly, selling the state-run lotto tickets is something that is more profitable.  Convenience stores might get 8% of the revenue for every MegaMillions ticket sold.  For BitLotto, even if a store was a BitLotto affiliate it would only get 1% of the payout so there is no incentive for a merchant to want to sell BitLotto tickets.

The opportunity though is in selling the bitcoins.  They can be sold at any price.

So let's say the customer has to pay that same 8% over spot to buy bitcoins from the counter (paying cash), but then uses those bitcoins to play the lotto online with everyone to BitLotto's regular Bitcoin address for the draw or through that store or chain's own BitLotto address.  Sold could be paper bitcoins from a stack held in the register of pre-funded paper bitcoins.  Each is printed on regular paper and has a QR code of the private key exposed, similar to these:
 - https://www.bitaddress.org/bitaddress.org-v1.5-SHA1-f2e410251c8741ac65d29a1c6fb8ef6919b6ab8b.html

but to execute this would need some designer skills and formatted in a familiar packaging (paper bitcoins made of the same size that a paper dollar bill uses).

[Update: If this was done right, the merchant's point-of-sale system could spit out a receipt with the paper bitcoin QR code on it.  Or this instead could be a standalone system to print physical bitcoins.  Like this: http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Casascius_Bitcoin_POS_system ]

(One caveat ... since the private keys are exposed the merchant would only sell them under the terms that the customer should redeem them to their mobile immediately while at the counter.  Otherwise if they aren't redeemed until the customer gets home, for instance, there gives the incentive for the cashier to double spend the funds before the customer redeems the private key later, or it gives the customer basis to claim that the code "didn't work" after already successfully redeeming the funds first.)

So yes, the payout for the BitLotto player that buys bitcoins at the corner store drops to about 91% (if the store charges 8% when selling bitcoins) but that is a heck of a lot better than 60% from MegaMillions.  And if it takes off, competition between stores might bring that percentage down to more reasonable levels -- like 3% or under even.

If you notice, that's how Square is proceeding.  Step 1 is to get merchants onboard using new software, but the payment methods are the same yet (magstripe swipe or cash).  Added to that is the optional mobile data (where the customer's presence is shared with the merchant ... "pay using your name").

Once there are enough users doing that, Square can switch to having accounts the app also function as a wallet so that transactions for mobile users don't go through their credit card anymore.    Square can do this because the fraud rates are lower when GPS data + security at the merchant's point of purchase (e.g. video cameras, face-to-face transaction with a cashier) makes fraud harder to get away with.

Here's how Bitcoin can piggyback onto Square's progress though:
 - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2732.msg843575#msg843575

I do see that the Mt. Gox Mobile app will scan redeemable codes.  It might generate them as well.

Also, you can use any QR code creation tool.  The problem with using an online tool to create a QR code is that you never want to expose the generated redeemable code to any service you don't trust.

I might trust, let's say, Wolfram Alpha's, service to create the code securely (without redeeming it themselves).  For example:
 - https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=QR+CODE%3A+MTGOX-USD-ABC12-DEF34-GHI56-JKL78
But this I would only do for a code that is for small amounts and one that will get cashed in within a day or two.

But long-term, use of methods that are not secure will cause bitcoins to be lost.  It takes a second for an admin at Wolfram Alpha, for example, to write a regex filter to be alerted any time a search like that is for a redeemable code / bitcoin voucher.  But for the moment that method is probably secure because only a few people use it for printing redeemable codes.

Can anyone else who uses Mt. Gox Mobile confirm whether or not it will create the QR code for a Redeemable Code voucher (for BTCs)?

There are several exchanges that trade BTC/GBP:
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Selling_bitcoins

For BTC/GBP markets specifically there are Mt. Gox, Intersango, and Bitmarket.eu

BitFloor has an API.  Would like to see an option for their BTC/USD chart.

Pretty decent ... a few usability issues, and a concern regarding security.

1.) When sending I see the "Load Bitcoins Here" dialog,  
The message states "Once the Bitcoins are received, the Catapult will launch." and I see a link to Close.
As a first-time user, I wasn't sure what "Catapult will launch" means.   If I were thinking this were like a game, I might be watching the graphic of the catapult waiting for it to sling the scoop of gold (bitcoins?).  
Of course, what it really means to say is that Once the Bitcoins are received the Catapult will send a message to: "recipientname@recipientdomain.com".
That's what is meant by "catapult will launch".  
So perhaps if there were some way to let the user know that after the coins are sent what to do next.  (i.e., Click Close after you've sent the bitcoins).

2.) The message ended up getting flagged as spam by Google's Postini.
X-pstn-levels:     (S: 0.01365/97.07104 CV:99.9000 FC:95.5390 LC:95.5390 R:95.9108 P:95.9108 M:97.0282 C:98.6951 )
You might want to look into DKIM (and /  or SPF) to help lessen the chances that the message goes into the spam box.
Would there maybe after a few days a message to the "from:" e-mail address notifying that the funds hadn't been retrieved and offer the abiliity to get them back?

3.) When trying to retrieve the bitcoins, the first time I only had two confirmations I believe.  When I went to spend it it had said
"This transaction is still unconfirmed. Please wait 10 or 15 minutes and try again.".    

Firstly, what is the number of confirmations the site requires?   It appeared that after three I could then "retrieve the payload".

At the time the page is being rendered, wouldn't the state of being confirmed be known and thus it could tell me before I even enter the Send To address that I just need to hold on for a bit?

Additionally after that error message, I got another "Retrieve Payload" page, except this one asked for "Target (email address)" and also "Secret Location".  If I'm redeeming funds, I wouldn't be sending it to an email address.  Additionally, the e-mail sent to me to claim the funds never describes what 'Secret Location" is.  Of course, that's what is in the URL, but that isn't described in English in the message.

5.) When I entered the Send To address it had a trailing space in what I had copied and pasted and as a result there was an error message. The form validation could  do a trim() to help eliminate this from resulting in an error.

6.) On a later attempt, after there were three confirmations I then went to retrieve the payload.  It was a trivially small amount, like under 0.003 BTC.  When I hit the Send button the response said "Insufficient Funds."  I entered the exact amount that I had sent earliery.  I tried a second time same thing.  I then tried with 0.00001 BTC and it went through fine.  I tried another time, less than the full balance, and it too went through.  The third time I spend the remaining amout and it too went through.   So the entire amount couldn't be sent but breaking it up and sending portions, even though they added up to the same as the original number, were able to go through.

I presumed that the message was saying that as recipient I was trying to spend more than I had available.  Perhaps instead the "Insufficient Funds" message refers to the service's wallet itself not being able to send because it has insufficient funds?

7.) Consistency.  Am I retrieveing bitcoins or recovering bitcoins?   Both terms are used.

8.) Security.  SMTP messages are transferred clear text.  That means that if your service starts becoming popular that there is then an economic incentive for a sysadmin at the ISP or at the e-mail hosting service or somewhere between Coinapult and the recipient to heist the coins.  By simply adding a filter, every message that comes from Coinapult gets special attention by the scammer who redeems the coins, never with even a slight chance of getting caught.

E-mail is just not a secure method for transmitting essentially what is a negotiable bearer instrument  (the URL to claim the money).  This would be the same risk that exists when sending Mt. Gox Redeemable Voucher codes thorough e-mail, which is not recommended either.

Oops, yes, that was an omission in the README.  Fixed.  I'm using wget -r  which pulls every page that has a link to it from the homepage, so /valid.html was in there.

Well, the prior adjustment period had an increase of 8.5% so this drop of 3% doesn't even reverse half of the previous rise.
 - http://bit.ly/HCbFOp (difficulty history spreadsheet)

There definitely was a fair amount of wasted hashes on blocks that became orphaned but there's been enough time for miners to have updated and the hashing level hasn't yet turned back upward.
 - http://bitcoin.sipa.be/speed-lin-2k.png

There are miners rotating out of GPU mining and delving into FPGA mining, so during that transition there is a period where some are doing no mining, particularly if they need the proceeds of the hardware sales to fund the purchase of the FPGAs.  Even then, many end up on a waiting list for the FGPAs ordered, in the meantime.

Here's one miner that is making that switch:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=75616.0

Oh, I hadn't seen any reference to your site:
 - http://www.c0ffer.com


I see.  So these items are all custom (one of a kind) and not where you can just list an item and keep that listing open as long as you have inventory?

These things take time to catch on.  Give it at least a couple months perhaps?


I created an archive of the BitLotto.com site on GitHub.  For now it is manual (with updates depending on a daily change detection process) though I'll try to automate it at some point.
 - https://github.com/sgornick/bitlotto

Does smf allow the sort order to be ordered chronologically by first post instead of being by Last Post?

Otherwise new posts that don't get any comments will get buried below all the older posts that are still seeing comments.

Either way, +1 on this move.  A place for discussions on these press items was needed.

For the record, the OP is not affiliated in any way with BitcoinEconomy.com or @BitcoinEconomy
 

There's a market exchange at Bitcoin-Central as well, but it appears to have low liquidity.  For a patient seller that sometimes means that a better price to sell at can be obtained.  I'm not sure the reason currently there are so few sell orders there though, so maybe start with a small amount sent to the exchange to gain experience on whether a trade is found and also that the sale and withdrawal goes smoothly.
 - http://www.bitcoin-central.net
 - https://bitcoin-central.net/order_book?utf8=%E2%9C%93&currency=CAD

 - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Selling_bitcoins

Reminds me of this discussion:
 - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2875.0