best way to give BTC as a present

[giszmo]

Hi guys

no, I'm not asking for your addresses
And no, I'm not planning to give away my BTC now as they are "still worth something" *PANIC!!* =D

I'm just asking what is the best way to get all those non-geeks into the picture? BitcoinWallet on Android is one such thing that could show off great deal when others see how easy I exchange small changes with other geeks in seconds but that's another story ...

I want to give BTC as a birthday present. I heard that sending a wallet.dat would not work cross platform. Is that true??

If I see the friend in person I could give a bootable USB stick with everything in place but that is most likely too geeky for many. Also getting internet connectivity in place that just works is a concern then.

Any thoughts anybody??

[ripper234]

https://www.instawallet.org/

[Sukrim]

Most non-techies will use MS Windows anyways, so giving them an installer + a batch file that replaces their (new+empty) wallet.dat with a "preloaded" one (and maybe also copies a bigger snapshot of the blockchain to the data dir) on a USB stick should be sufficient in my opinion.

Just make sure that you communicate some basic security measures clearly. "Wallet.dat" files are like real wallets - if they get stolen, you're NOT likely to get it back full of money!

[giszmo]

instawallet should actually do for really small presents. i think it is crucial that i can keep a copy of the wallet (the initial amount) as most people will just loose the one $ and ask me how they can recover it a week later when it is at 10$. with instawallet I would also have the link.

Thinking about it:
when it comes to security, you can easily trick people with the key store. send your banker "friend" a wallet of 10$. he takes the bait and once he shifts his billions into BTC, run with it BTC is too complicated for noobs to realize this attack vector.

same with instawallet while there the host can run with the money.

I'm all not satisfied with the clash between simplicity at first site and complexity the deeper you get into it. Actually the *only* way to give BTC as a present should be together with a 2h lecture on security Then you can leave it to said friend what option he would like.

[hamdi]

just send them a MTGOX money mail

[k]

maybe bitbills

http://bitbills.com/

[lonestranger]

How come you can't just create an account on mybitcoin.com with $1 in it and give them the url, ID, password written in a card?