Bitcoin treasure hunt mobile app

[Giulio Prisco]

I am thinking of a Bitcoin treasure hunt with a mobile app. Players see Bitcoins deposits overlayed to the map on their smartphones (like you see things in some videogames like WoW), and the first users who comes within 20m of a deposit grabs it. Can be funded by selling the mobile app for Android, Iphone and Winphone.

Thoughts?

Are Bitcoin libraries for Android already available?

[benjamindees]

Okay so if we assume it's self-funding, then you would basically purchase the app, and then odds are there will be no Bitcoins near you.  So you wait as other people purchase the app, and maybe a Bitcoin appears near you and you can go get it?

It would be interesting as a price model, ie "How far is someone likely to go to get a Bitcoin?" 

[Giulio Prisco]

Of course the deposit generation module should be tweaked to favor locations near actual players.

Suppose 50% of sales is reinvested in the platform as deposits. Then, if I am the only user, half of the money I paid to purchase the app will reappear as a deposit near me, and with some tweaking the platform could scale well as more and more players come in.

Of course the platform could also be funded by third parties. For example if it becomes popular a club owner could generate a deposit in the club to draw people in.

[tito13kfm]

GPS location can be spoofed, just so you know.

If a user were to quickly iterate through brute force or smarter they could quickly narrow down exact location and claim it without leaving home.

[Giulio Prisco]

GPS location can be spoofed, just so you know.

If a user were to quickly iterate through brute force or smarter they could quickly narrow down exact location and claim it without leaving home.

Good point, thanks. Tentative answer:
At the beginning when the game is not popular, no cracker will bother.
If the game becomes very popular, new deposits will be claimed by legit users faster than a cracker with reasonable resources can grab them.