Breaking into Amazon

[Waschtel]

Hi!
Just wanted to inform everyone that I have test-launched a "hit" in "mechanical turk" which will pay dollars for a bitcoin.

For those who don't know what mechanical turk is:

It's an amazon web-service that allows requesters to offer tasks (called 'hits') to workers for a fee. The task can be anything - classifying images, writing essays, normalizing data - or sending bitcoins!

Payment by the requester happens when the requester approves the worker's submitted task. I will approve the task if I receive a bitcoin, and the worker account will be credited with 7 dollars. (I know, I'm being cheap).

So if anyone is interested, head over, get a worker account at www.mturk.com, search hits by "Bitcoin", send me a bitcoin, and receive payment. All through amazon!

Greetings,

Waschtel.

[1713923949]

1713923949

[BombaUcigasa]

So for the reverse, you need to have reversed roles and do the same thing?!

[Waschtel]

I guess you could say so - although you cannot take the initiative as a worker - you have to wait for the hit.

[BombaUcigasa]

Are there any implications from using Amazon for this type of activity? Do you realize you opened the market to competitive bidding and reverse auctions to follow, if people find this idea similarly attractive?

Do you think adding a small guide or link to how to begin mining for regular workers open the HITs?

[Waschtel]

Sure - the market will even out if this catches on. Regarding the guide: I'm not really aiming at newcomers, but at bitcoin owners. Actually, my hit just got claimed by what I believe is a kid who thinks "mining" is a world-of-warcraft sort of thing, and I will have to give him some time before rejecting his work (just in case he has some way-out-there graphics card) and refiling the hit.

[BombaUcigasa]

The ToS specify however that you may not request Workers to download software to comply with your task. I guess you have to let them figure it out by themselves or require upfront Bitcoin mining experience.

[Waschtel]

Mmmh. Didn't know that. Another reason for avoiding the non-initiated.

[FooDSt4mP]

The ToS specify however that you may not request Workers to download software to comply with your task. I guess you have to let them figure it out by themselves or require upfront Bitcoin mining experience.

You don't need to download the client to send a bitcoin.  There are web based wallets you can use to send and receive the coins.

[Waschtel]

Okay, I have rejected the kid's work, and the hit is once more available for all. Go to www.mturk.com and search for "Bitcoin"

[BombaUcigasa]

Go to www.mturk.com and search for "Bitcoin"

Any reason why you discontinued the creation of new HITs? Feedback on how this is going so far?

[Waschtel]

The hits kept being claimed by MMORPG-Players thinking this was some kind of high paying grind. Of course they couldn't deliver, but once a hit is claimed, it is out of circulation until it is rejected and refiled.

The only solution I see is to automate the process of rejection/acceptance through mturks API, and simultaneously to reduce the hit to something doable, not a whole coin.