If we could somehow ban the exchange of bitcoin into fiat currency (and vice-versa) this would probably take care of the problem. Then people would have to earn their bitcoin by providing services or goods in exchange for it. But then, there would have to first be a flourishing bitcoin economy for that to work. And since the growth of that economy is being hampered by speculation, it's a problem that doesn't seem to have an easy solution except to try and raise awareness that people should not hoard bitcoin to realize future fiat currency profits, but rather spend it on quality services or goods.

As terrytibs stated, a single wallet address is monitored and downloads are identified by the payment size. I realize this is not the most efficient way of doing it, but it works due to the extreme unlikeliness of two people simultaneously downloading a file of the exact same size (to the byte). However, my to-do list certainly does include the implementation of unique payment addresses for the sake of user privacy.

With regards to your question on session identification molecular, I assume you want to know if recurring users will also generate you referral income? As it is, the referral idkey is obtained though a GET method, and then stored as a session variable. The session is destroyed when the user leaves the site. So if the user comes back of their own accord, you won't get credit.

However, I just implemented the referral system today, and plan to store the referral idkey in a cookie on the users computer so recurring users will generate referral credit. I don't know if this would have privacy implications for end-users though, but I don't think it should.

Do you think this would be a good idea?

Thanks for the glowing review, and I'm absolutely delighted that you find this service useful.
I will excuse the shouting this one time!


The reason that I don't immediately redirect to the status page is because I like the idea of a payment received page that thanks the user for their payment and use of the service, and gives advice not to lose the address of the status link, as it would be otherwise irretrievable.

I do realize the status page is pretty much useless as it is right now, requiring multiple refreshes etc. And the swirly-thing probably is a bit deceptive, I'll admit, LOL. However, I am AS WE SPEAK, working on a much more detailed status page that will show download speed, ETA, and % completed. It will also update every few seconds. I don't know when exactly it will be ready, but no more than a couple of days... if not sooner.

Thank you for your very useful feedback. I will take it all on board.

Keep in mind that this service only went online a few days ago... I have MANY ideas for future implementation. There just isn't enough time in the day to write the damned code! I have other major work commitments IRL, so until this service starts paying my salary, my development time is restricted to my spare time!

No, but he is...

True. As long as the intermediary is trustworthy and as transparent as possible, that probably wouldn't be too much of an issue.
This would be a good way of expanding the bitcoin economy. I like it.

Announcing the BitCoinTorrentz.com Referral Program

The best method of advertising is by word of mouth, so to I have introduced a new feature, a referral program that rewards you with a percentage of the revenue generated by users you bring to the site.

The amount you earn depends on the number of people you successfully refer to this service. You will receive 20% of all earnings generated from your referees. You can request a payout at any time, there are no arbitrary limits that you must exceed in order for us to release your funds. All payments will be processed within 24-48 hours of your request.

To get started, simply sign up to get your customized referral link. It is 100% free to register. From the control panel, you can view detailed statistics on your referral activity, including the number of hits you have brought to the site, the number of downloads your referees have successfully completed, as well as your total earnings.

Here is a direct link to the referral page on the site:
http://www.bitcointorrentz.com/index.php?page=member

Congratulations?

The whole idea of people "investing" in bitcoins is idiotic. Bitcoin is not an investment vehicle, or else, SHOULD not be. It is designed to be a currency, not a commodity. People buy lots of it, and hoard it to realize future profits. That makes it more expensive for others to obtain it, therefore creating an artificial bubble in USD / fiat currency value, and reducing it's value as an actual currency. This bubble inevitably bursts, reducing the USD value over time.

But it's value in USD is not what is important. It only remains relevant while a small number of people hold a majority of the coins. Until these people stop treating it as an investable commodity, buying tones of it and selling once the price rises, of course the price will fluctuate wildly. People who hoard bitcoin will inevitably lose money, so why do they still do it?

When people actually start using their bitcoin to pay for goods and services, and retailers or service providers begin to accept it as payment, its true value will become apparent. I.e. not the USD equivalent value at any particular time, rather, it's purchasing power.

This will not happen as long as idiots think their $2000 of bitcoin will be worth millions in the future. Sorry to tell you that this WILL NOT HAPPEN. It might be worth millions though, if Mr. Bernanke persists with his policies of "quantitative easing'.

The value of a bitcoin is not its conversion value to fiat currency, rather it is in it's purchasing power. It's purchasing power is very low at the moment, because it has been badly harmed by speculators (miners, investors, and general hoarders).

Shame on all of you speculators out there! You are ruining the bitcoin project...

I like the concept of this. However, wouldn't it be just as easy to email your friend telling them to download the bitcoin client and to give you their wallet address so you can send them the coins directly? Involving 3rd parties where it is not necessary negates the primary goal of the bitcoin project itself.

I like the idea, but I just don't see a market for it, and it would require too much trust in the intermediary.

What is your current unique daily pageview count?

Likewise...

This may have been answered elsewhere actually, I will do a forum search now.
I know, should have searched before I posted this thread.

EDIT:

There are many threads already that are reporting the same issue.
Here are a few links to some of them:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=43752.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=43741.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=23465.0

I just ran a complete system scan on my server using AVG business edition, and something surprising popped up. It detected a virus in the bitcoin.exe client program and quarantined it. The virus it claims to be infected with is some kind of trojan horse:


This is probably a false positive however, considering the "generic" bit of the virus name, so I am not worried about it. I was just wondering if anyone out there has had the same experience with their antivirus apps thinking bitcoin is a virus.

How should we deal with this? Would it be a matter of contacting AVG so they can modify this in their definition updates? This really is not good if we hope to grow the bitcoin economy. People new to bitcoin will be sceptical it if their AV's tell them the client is a trojan!

Our server was suffering from some temporary hardware issues. The support team had to replace the bios battery. However, the site is now back online with some BIG improvements, i.e. the addition of a referral system that gives 20% of generated income to affiliates.

By the way, the official thread for bitcointorrentz is: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=42477.0.
I posted this thread accidentally in the wrong forum, and was unable to delete it.


No, not currently. Do you want to buy some shares?

I have looked into it, and it is something that I would definitely consider in the near future. I'm not an economist so I might need a little help getting my head around the business side of operating a publicly traded business, such as how I would manage dividends, how many shares I should issue, for what value etc. Are you affiliated with GLBSE? I may send you a PM later.

I would listen to investment offers here though if anyone is interested.
You can either reply in this thread (but preferably in the official thread) or else PM me.  

Our server is suffering from some temporary hardware issues that the support team are working on as we speak. The bios had died and the server was unable to start up. The bios battery has now been replaced and the site should be up again within the hour with some BIG improvements. I'll post more about the improvements once the site is back up.

Thanks a lot mate. If you try it now, you will find that I have fixed the problematic part of my code. That btjunkie link is now working fine, in addition to many other trackers that did not previously! I completely rewrote the code I was using, but it is working much better now. Thank you very much for giving me the incentive to look into it further.


What I'm thinking here is putting a button on the status page (i.e. the page once the torrent completes) that would give the user the option to archive the entire torrent for an additional fee. This is quite a good idea, as I was also thinking of adding another button to enable "1:1" seeding (again for an additional fee) if for example the users tracker requires >=100% seeding, so this would be killing two birds with 1 stone.


I am hoping to invest in a US based server in the future, so I can ensure consistent fast speeds in europe and america. But it's early days yet. I still have to grow my userbase to the point where I can afford to make capital investments in more server power.

Anyway, thanks again for your feedback. It has been EXTREMELY helpful.

Thank you so much for going to the trouble to write that extremely helpful review of the site. Most of the issues you brought up I am already aware of, and am working hard on solutions. Apart from those few niggly things, the site is working as it should.

The reason why the site could not download your btjunkie file is because btjunkie employ certain security protocols, meaning that the "Download Link" you click for the torrent file is not the actual file itself. It does a subsequent redirect, then the torrent begins to download. I have noticed several sites have this authentication method, and I am not sure how to overcome this issue other than recommending that people download the torrent and upload the torrent file manually. Torrents from thepriatebay, however, work fine via CURL downloads.

With regards to the payment system, I am aware that all payments are going to the same bitcoin address. I am already in the process of creating unique wallet addresses for individual users, however, for the time being it is not so big of an issue as you would think. The cost of the download is filesize in GB (to 3 decimal places) * 0.1, then rounded down to 4 decimal places. It is the price of the torrent that identifies the payment, and unless two users simultaneously download a torrent of the EXACT same size, it is not an immediate problem. I plan to transition to a unique-address based solution soon.

With regards to the torrent status page, unfortunately, I cannot find a way to interface with the torrent client to update stats on realtime download speeds, ETA's etc. I can only differentiate torrent states, such as Downloading or Completed. I am working hard to try and improve the status page with more detailed information however.

Another good point you brought up with regards to multi-file torrents, with many subdirectories. I had considered doing exactly as you suggested and zipping up the whole torrent, but then I felt that some people may want instant streaming access to files contained within. I am still not decided on how I will proceed with this.

Torrent names, yep, again you are totally spot on. I intend to create folders with unique names in the future for downloads to prevent the exact scenario you suggested. Also, I don't really have a problem with multiple downloads of the same file as long as it does not start to become burdensome on the server. If this does become the case, I may have to put in place some further security layers to prevent this.

As for your speed, 400kb is indeed VERY slow. I don't understand how it could have been that bad. My website runs on a 100mbit dedicated server with unmetered bandwidth, based in europe. I max out my 30mbit home broadband connection downloading from this server every time, without fail. It could be due to the fact that the server is located so far away in europe, or maybe you just got it on a particularly congested time. It's hard to say. But I know that I am downloading something off it right now at a speed of 2.8 mb/s.

Thank you once again for your very in depth beta testing of the site and once again I really appreciate the time you took to write up this review that has provided me with such stimulating feedback.

I'm telling ya, vbulletin is the way of the future!!!

No problem. I think I will actually put the price of the service on the home page for the sake of clarity.

Sorry for the ambiguity. If you go to the FAQ page, there is a section there explaining the costs.
It's a pretty straight forward pricing structure. The rate is 0.1 BTC per GB.

So, if you want to download a 100mb file, thats roughly 10% of 1GB, so the price would be 0.01btc.
A 1GB file would cost 0.1btc, and a 5GB file would be 0.5btc, etc.

If you want to check the cost of any particular torrent, just upload it and the exact price will be displayed.
You can then proceed with the download if you choose.

I have reported your thread to a moderator stating that the OP wishes to have his account removed.
I'm sure they will get to it soon.