Thanks KingOfSports; hopefully we can convince some winners to come back us up. I'm hoping the miner who won the last auction might consider posting once they claim and receive their prize.
the problem is that penny auction sites obfuscate the house's edge and makes it really easy for the house to cheat.
We are actually more open than typical penny auction sites. They usually encourage users to buy "credits" and then bid with those. We have all bids openly displayed in the blockchain, with no credit system providing a layer of abstraction from the price.
I would love it if we could 100% prove that we are not bidding on the auctions, but there is no way I can think of; other than creating a system where people have to sign-in with facebook and bid with credits rather than sending from any address. You could then link back to people's facebook profiles, but that would spoil the fact that anyone can currently play without publicly revealing who they are.
Since we are being honest, it would be much better for us to have some way to prove that we are. If you have any suggestions on how we can be more open or prove that we are not bidding, I am all ears!
Since bitcoin's key feature is anonymity - i guess it's quite impossible to prove that BlockRun.com ops don't bit on their own auctions.
I understand that new bitcoin services should be taken very carefully to prevent scams. This makes perfect sense to me.
At a clooser look to BlockRun.com this seems to be a serious project which is just starting to build trust.
Trust will be a key successor for this platform, so i wan't to share my thoughts and experiences:
- The website is really professional made. I doubt someone would spend so much time/money and effort to build up such a front- and backend just to scam people, get caught (maybe) and disappear again.
- This service seems to be build to generate profits on the long run. It makes perfect sense NOT to scam people - build up trust - and profit from it's existing business model.
- PennyAuctions is pure gambling but i also think thats fine and has a right to exist in the bitcoin ecosystem just like other gambling services.
yesterday i deceided to give BlockRun.com a try and bet on this auction:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/lg-google-nexus-4-16gb-1I know it's gambling - but i really like the thrill and the fact to support new serious bitcoin startups.
So you call me the miner who has gone allin with my recent earnings and won the auction.
## Proof ##
address: 1294HsDaF8MkeW9TC5XZDtzrdsCPucu9dc
message: Hey it's me roomservice from bitcointalk.org!
signature: HIb+QA6vO9H+RgBzkw1Wse0QXp7bLYBHoXH0tJ50oHNkSpLsV25DapuL/mIDG+O8UOg6YM78OoaCNmgkpA6sjh0=
## END of Proof ##
After going through the claim process on the website, i just received a confirmation and was told to get a tracking number soon. So i don't get a product yet - but since now everything looks fine.
If you want i will keep you up to date and post a picture of proof after delivery.
Some final words:
Since i know from personal experiences how hard it is to get a bitcoin business started - i would recommend this BlockRun.com from my personal experiences just now.
My best guess is that the operator is honest, serious and really interested to build up trust and get a critical mass of customers.
I think we need more professional and well presented services like this to show what bitcoin is capable of. Making use of the blockchain for auctions is genius.
Just give it a try - if you like the thrill
Disclaimer: I never had any contact or relationship to BlockRun.com or the site op(s) since i discovered the project yesterday.
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