Here is my card design. Two options (double sided with color background, or single sided with no color background).

The single sided is cheaper and faster to produce. The double sided is more cohesive with the landing page brand look/feel.

Comments? We'll need to finalize a card option by this evening (EST)

Here is the revised version of the landing page, taking peoples' main concerns into consideration.

- "end the fed end the banks" replaced by "obsolete the fed"
- removal of walletbit, no ewallet is mentioned now
- "free coin" is more prominent, as that's the purpose of this campaign

It's very good to be learning about money - however I'd advise you to maintain a high level of skepticism on any theory that's put to you. Just because the "commonly held wisdom" about money and banking is totally flawed, doesn't mean that any given alternative theory is valid.

I can recommend no better book on money than Rothbard's "What has government done to our money?"  It can be read in a couple hours.

The YouTipIt site is really well-done. Is the owner on these forums?

I realize it. The vast majority of the protesters I would probably say are "anti-corporate, anti-profit, anti-market" types and they (incorrectly) ascribe the US banking system as an element of a free market economy, resulting in vast social inequities blah blah blah.  You can see from their signs that many of them are mad, but at the wrong thing, or they simply don't understand who the villain is. They blame "money" as a concept, instead of realizing it's the specific form of money that we have which is problematic.

So be it. They are an audience seeking answers and new ideas, and at least some portion of them realize that it's morally wrong (not to mention economically foolish) to bail out companies with public money. They'd probably just as quickly support subsidies for solar companies, but whatev. =)

But anyone who's ready to look at an alternative monetary system is a fantastic candidate to learn of Bitcoin. Who knows, perhaps some of them will be led here and ultimately learn about the value of liberty as a cohesive theory, and break out of the absurd right vs left silliness that US peoples are indoctrinated into.

They need Bitcoin, for many reasons.

Why is it so hard for people to understand that the electricity devoted to mining is not "wasted."  It is being purposely, and effectively, used to secure the network and make it more resolute against attack.

One could argue that it's not a good use of electricity, to secure a currency like this, but it's certainly not a "waste."

How many resources are wasted by the status quo banking system, the security, the servers, the offices, the salaries, the consumption that entire industry requires... ?

The site looks pretty decent.  But I must ask, why should anyone trust your service when you don't have any business or personal details on the site? Not even a phone number?

Also, assuming people trusted you, what competitive advantage do you offer over the other exchanges? Your advantage will need to be significant to get started, because your volume is currently zero.

Can you address these questions?

Worldly - I would strongly recommend, if registrations are an issue, that you promote this event a bit more on this forum (and the other btc forums cropping up). Furthermore, many people may be planning to attend, but procrastinating.

It's very important for prospective attendees to register ASAP - and this is a message you need to push out there. I bet there are at least one or two dozen who are just being lazy, and will be shocked to see a cancellation... reach those people!!

BOOM perfectly said.

Thanks everyone for the comments thus far. I guess the main theme is some concern regarding the "end the fed" type messaging, which I understand.

Let me try to defend it... effective marketing doesn't try to be all things to all people. In this specific project, we are targetting a very niche group of people and this is a wonderful advantage for a marketing message. This isn't a prime time TV commercial. This isn't a magazine ad. This isn't some banner space on a common website. We're targeting people who have decided to -occupy wall street-.  These people are pissed, and while I think many of them are confused as to the proper reason they should be pissed, there is a strong common antagonism toward the "big banks" and the biggest bank is, of course, the Federal Reserve.

So by using language specifically geared toward that sentiment, I think the Bitcoin promotion is most effectively served. Any strong message will alienate some people, sure, but how many #OccupyWallStreeters are going to be alienated by anti-bank messaging?

And indeed, we're not just using meaningless rhetoric. Bitcoin DOES have the potential to upend current financial systems. It is, quite honestly, the biggest challenge to central banking since Andrew Jackson.

There are a thousand benefits of Bitcoin. A portion of those benefits have to do with tearing down the status quo of corrupt financial institutions and replacing them with a productive, superior alternative system. It's not just "anti Fed," it is "pro Bitcoin, pro alternative" 

I want to connect on an emotional level with the protesters. I think a bit of edgy terminology is appropriate in this context. For a different audience, I would absolutely agree that the messaging should be different. But this is freakin' "OCCUPY WALL STREET" for goodness sake =)

Are any donors still strongly opposed to the wording?

comments welcome on the design - gotta go to bed for now

Here's the current landing page design...

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DONORS - thread continued here:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45943.0

****

This is a continuation of this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45881.0

This is for donors who are interested in contributing. If interested, please do the following:

1) Send donation to: 18E7852e1q3UFHjyNwddzydJ4uv7ZY2t7b

2) Post in this thread with your donation amount and a return payment address (if you wish to be anonymous, just donate, but you won't get anything back if the project is cancelled)


Please also post here if you have any questions. The wallet is under the care of trentzb (forum staff member). It's a VPS bitcoind instance specifically set up for this project.  If the project is cancelled, or refunds are appropriate for any reason, they'll be returned to the address you post in step 2 above.

IRC chat is #operationbitcoin
Landing page will be operationbitcoin.com or .org

Okay this idea is moving forward quickly. 

We are likely not going to do a "preloaded" card with money on it... it is more elegant but time and cost issues are a problem (mostly sequential printing, lost donations, etc.)

OperationBitcoin.com or .org will be the landing page where we send people via QR code on a printed business card. Business card will be short and sweet, landing page will be more descriptive, indicating how to claim free btc, get wallet, and other resources.

I encourage any of the interested donors to join our chat. Several of us are in the IRC room #operationbitcoin

LOL that's a really good idea also =)  We're discussing it in the IRC room #operationbitcoin

That's really well-worded. Great key points, succinct and well-toned =)

I guess the appropriate question is - is there someone who would like to step up and lead this?  Needs a dedicated leader at this point. I'll donate 3 btc to the project if it gets off the ground, and I would be happy to write the wording on the card/flyer.

Here's an alternate theory:

If anyone cares about Bitcoin by then, the transaction fees will be a large portion of each block reward, perhaps more than 50 btc. This means the drop to 25 btc reward will not actually be a halving of reward for the miners, making the event less dramatic.

Further, because the drop to 25 btc is totally predictable, we will see miners start to drop out long before the switch (those miners who are least profitable). As this happens, difficulty drops... and this will occur until some equilibrium is reached, again making the event even less dramatic.

In practice then, miner profitability will resemble much more of a curve, not a huge step drop. As such, there will be little incentive to orchestrate a global Bitcoin civil war =)

It works on margin, not fractional reserve. So you have to deposit something, and then you get 5:1 leverage off that position.