A friend had a strange idea

[RobFre]

I was hanging out with some friends and one of them had a very strange idea: writing on 5€ banknotes the public and private keys of a bitcoin address with something like 0.0005 BTC on and the link to the official bitcoin website to make more people know about the Bitcoin.

In your opinion would it work?

[--Encrypted--]

isn't that illegal is some countries? also that would create a legit reason for banks to go against bitcoin (IMO).
better not do that.

[holydarkness]

So the idea included giving away something like 0.0005 to a random people to spark their interest on btc, right? I thought it'll be better to give it away to someone you know that hadn't know bitcoin yet. And please no banknotes, I know thst in some countries it is illegal to writes and doodling on banknotes

[NorrisK]

People have been going around handing free bitcoin paper wallets for a while now. It is a nice idea to get people interested, but the way you are proposing has a risk attached to it.

Imagine receiving a banknote with 0.0005 btc written on it. People that don't know about bitcoin trade those banknotes around like it is fiat banknotes, without realizing the private key is on the same banknote. Also, they probably didn't check the public key to see if the bitcoins are still on that address.. They risk losing out this way.

Think of it this way: I could write down the private key, hand the note to someone else and immediately import the private key and send the coins to a different address.

[Greenenergy]

That's a nice idea, but not the right way to do it. A better idea is to stick some posters in the streets or to hang a kind of banner in your house's walls.

[OROBTC]

...

Defacing paper currency is usually illegal in most countries.

Yet, I have seen "END THE FED" stamped on US money.

Not to mention telephone numbers and other small notations.

I see no harm in putting a public & private key on a US$20 or a €20.  Just don't get caught!

[kenot21]

That's a nice idea, but not the right way to do it. A better idea is to stick some posters in the streets or to hang a kind of banner in your house's walls.

you're right. It's better to hang a banner than write it on a banknote, It's illegal in my country. Stores won't accept a banknote if it has some ink on it or holes on it.

[pawel7777]

It's similar to idea of stamping "time for plan BTC" on banknotes. That didn't get great reception among community, many saw that as low level spam and rather bad PR.

Also if someone claim the tiny amount, banknote goes back into circulation and the next person who bothers to visit website and (manually?) type in the priv key just to discover there's nothing on it anymore, will be hugely disappointed.

Not the best idea, but you could do it just for lolz, and to check how many people have bothered to withdraw.

[BitcoinPC]

isn't that illegal is some countries? also that would create a legit reason for banks to go against bitcoin (IMO).
better not do that.

Writing on note can be illegal i think.

[pawel7777]

...

Defacing paper currency is usually illegal in most countries.

Yet, I have seen "END THE FED" stamped on US money.

Not to mention telephone numbers and other small notations.

I see no harm in putting a public & private key on a US$20 or a €20.  Just don't get caught!

It's actually legal in the US as long as intention is not to destroy or make them unusable.

Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

[spendabit]

I was hanging out with some friends and one of them had a very strange idea: writing on 5€ banknotes the public and private keys of a bitcoin address with something like 0.0005 BTC on and the link to the official bitcoin website to make more people know about the Bitcoin.

In your opinion would it work?

There's debate as to the legality of "defacing" money in this way, and I think it varies from country to country. What could be more perfectly targeted grass-roots advertising though? I suspect "rewards" in the form of public/private keys on the bills is a stretch of complexity for the intended target market and that simply stamping "Make This Dollar Honest at Bitcoin.org", "The Future of Money is Bitcoin, Visit Bitcoin.org" or "Claim Your Free Future Money at Bitcoin.org" or something else short and catchy would be more ideal.

[RealPhotoshoper]

I was hanging out with some friends and one of them had a very strange idea: writing on 5€ banknotes the public and private keys of a bitcoin address with something like 0.0005 BTC on and the link to the official bitcoin website to make more people know about the Bitcoin.

In your opinion would it work?

nice idea,if bank not problem with that,its okay and will effective to introduce bitcoin to people and banks member.
but i dont think its will can applicable in every banks,and dont put 0.0005,its too small,raise the amount about 0.001

[bitbunnny]

Isn't it forbidden to write something on banknotes? I don't know how successful this method could be even if this is alowed, many people maybe just wouldn't have the clue what that means.

[Akupuniard]

Will people understand what it means? I am not sure but it's good that people and community trying to make bitcoin much popular.

[Greenenergy]

That's a nice idea, but not the right way to do it. A better idea is to stick some posters in the streets or to hang a kind of banner in your house's walls.

you're right. It's better to hang a banner than write it on a banknote, It's illegal in my country. Stores won't accept a banknote if it has some ink on it or holes on it.

In Europe, if I remember well, you can even pay with 9/10th of a buck. It can have holes, be in several parts, but as long as you can understand it and that there's a least 9/10th of it, that's fine I presume.

[spendabit]

That's a nice idea, but not the right way to do it. A better idea is to stick some posters in the streets or to hang a kind of banner in your house's walls.

you're right. It's better to hang a banner than write it on a banknote, It's illegal in my country. Stores won't accept a banknote if it has some ink on it or holes on it.

In Europe, if I remember well, you can even pay with 9/10th of a buck. It can have holes, be in several parts, but as long as you can understand it and that there's a least 9/10th of it, that's fine I presume.

So it's possible to take 10% of 9 bills to create a new acceptable bill?

[BTCBinary]

I was hanging out with some friends and one of them had a very strange idea: writing on 5€ banknotes the public and private keys of a bitcoin address with something like 0.0005 BTC on and the link to the official bitcoin website to make more people know about the Bitcoin.

In your opinion would it work?

IMO that would be a stupid move. Besides that being an illegal act in several countries that would be the act that would make Banks hate bitcoin even more.
If you want more people to get in bitcoin, the best way you can do that is to offer some bits to many of your friends.

[pawel7777]

IMO that would be a stupid move. Besides that being an illegal act in several countries that would be the act that would make Banks hate bitcoin even more.

I can guarantee you that no bank will give a shit about some writings on few banknotes. They wouldn't even notice, and what banknotes have to do with banks? You make it sound like banks own banknotes.

I'm not sure whether such thing would be illegal in EU. It's allowed in US (as posted above).

If you want more people to get in bitcoin, the best way you can do that is to offer some bits to many of your friends.

Or he could do both? These 2 things are not quite the same in terms of promotion.
-----

side note, BTC0.0005 is definitely to small for the purpose. Better do less with at least BTC0.0025 (around $1) each.

[Hugroll]

I was hanging out with some friends and one of them had a very strange idea: writing on 5€ banknotes the public and private keys of a bitcoin address with something like 0.0005 BTC on and the link to the official bitcoin website to make more people know about the Bitcoin.

In your opinion would it work?

lol i see a major problem with this. say the first person to notice the writing goes on the bitcoin site and signs up. but the tons of people after that who receive the note will attempt to claim the same key, but theyre would be nothing on it.

[pawel7777]

I was hanging out with some friends and one of them had a very strange idea: writing on 5€ banknotes the public and private keys of a bitcoin address with something like 0.0005 BTC on and the link to the official bitcoin website to make more people know about the Bitcoin.

In your opinion would it work?

lol i see a major problem with this. say the first person to notice the writing goes on the bitcoin site and signs up. but the tons of people after that who receive the note will attempt to claim the same key, but theyre would be nothing on it.

That's what I wrote few posts above. But on the second thought, such people would at least learn a little bit about Bitcoin, private keys etc.

Overall I'd say such guerilla promotions are no longer needed, it could be somewhat useful 4-5 years ago. Bitcoin has grown past that stage.