[Market check] Bitquarters physical coin

[bitquarters]

Hello all,

I am interested in bringing a new physical bitcoin to the market. This will just be an interest gauge to see if there is enough interest so I my pursue my project.

Coin specs:

Material: brass
Denomination: 0.25BTC
Size: Somewhere between 26-32mm diameter
Quantity: Depending on the response on this interest gauge  Will not be more than 1000 however.

Why would you want to buy a bitquarter? Well the idea of bitquarters came around when I first saw physical cryptos and it took me back to my childhood where I would get a roll of low denomination coins to spend at my liking. I feel that the idea of being able to buy a roll of quarters of crypto currency would be fantastic. It would be an excellent collectors item to keep for the future, as well as being able to give some to friends and family as a thoughtful gift.

Another reason I thought bitquarters could be successful was the low premium I could offer. I have seen coins go for double or even triple it's face value. While I understand that this is collectors value and that coins aren't produced anymore (Casascius coins for example), I think a low premium coin would catch on nicely. The low quantity will also make it more desirable.

All the bitquarters will have the private key attached to the back with a tamper evident hologram and all private keys will be printed on a dumb printer and all keys will be destroyed immediately after printing.

If I get some good response here, I will post more details and possibly a mockup. The coin will have a classic feel to it, so after 50 years of storage it will still have a unique nostalgic attached Please let me know what you think.

Kind regards
Bitquarter

[bithalo]

I'm always interested in new coins.  Just keep in mind that if you are going the funded route, that there will be buyer's trust concerns, as well as US FinCen laws to abide by.  Unfunded or DIY coins are the safer route, unless you abide by the laws and provide your real world information.

Feel free to post a mockup.

[TookDk]

I will have to agree with bithalo on this one.

I would never trust a private key funded with 0.25 BTC to a complete stranger that came out of nowhere. You could have a secret copy of the key, and empty all the coins down the road. It is just no go.

Obviously, this is a dilemma for any new coin manufacturer, nobody will trust you before you have proven your trust and you cannot prove your trust before some trust you over a long period of time.

Here are some inspiration to overcome the dilemma:
 
DIY (as bithalo suggest), nobody need to trust you.  

Cryptolator: the coins was fully assembled but sold unfunded, then will it be up the buyer if he trust you enough to fund the coins.

Crypto imperator; the coins has very low denomination (0.01 BTC), this reduces the risk for the buyer greatly, since you can only potentially steal 0.01 BTC from each coin. They also made a DIY option.

Microsoul, not 100% sure, but I believe that he published his own DOX + he only made low denomination 0.05 and 0.01.

Ravenbit: unfunded + DIY series

Genesis: unfunded

Coingraphic made funded coins, that went terrible wrong, I read at least one case of exposed private keys.

At the end of the day, very few manufactures, have been successful in making coins preloaded with more that a few bits.

Bottom line, there are only people few I would trust my private keys to: Mike and Smoothie are some of them.

[bitquarters]

Thank you to bithalo and TookDk for your advice on my project!

I understand your concerns about the buyer's trust. If there is some way to prove I don't have the private key in the generation process, please let me know.

About your comment about low denominations, that may an option. What I could do is have a bigger run of lower denomination coins of say 0.05BTC and if everyone is satisfied, I would release a smaller batch of bitquarters.

The reason I thought a quarter bitcoin would be a good amount is that I can offer a low premium, and a low premium on a higher face value is desirable. I did think that any amount higher than 0.25BTC is unreasonable, at least for the beginning of the project. Having a lower face value means the premium to face value ratio is a lot higher. If people prefer lower at first, then I could do that and have my quarters be a bit more rare.

All of your contribution is valuable, thank you!