[ANNOUNCEMENT] http://www.giftcardbtc.com - Buy Giftcards (amazon) today!

[richiela]

Apologies for the xposting, but I finally got the ability to post in other groups

With the recent closing of BuyBTC.info and the lack of options to quickly turn BTCs into spendable money, we've put together a site that will allow you to change your BTCs for common Amazon.com denomination gift cards.  We will be adding additional giftcards if this fares well.

http://www.giftcardbtc.com

Come by and check it out.  If you do use us, please post back to this thread so we can gain some vouches.  Being a new BTC business is tough because you need people to use you to get vouches, but most people won't use something that isnt' vouched

We use an auto updating price system based on the mtgox bid/ask price.  It is extremely close to the rates that BuyBTC has offered previously.  As we get a better feel for the cost and our risk, we will improve our rates where we can.

Thanks
Richie

[Luckybit]

Can you register with Bitfunder or Cryptostocks so I can invest in your business idea?
I think you have an opportunity to become rich doing this similar to the guy selling physical Bitcoins. If one thing can promote Bitcoin adoption it's the ability to give people Bitcoin giftcards.

[richiela]

Can you register with Bitfunder or Cryptostocks so I can invest in your business idea?
I think you have an opportunity to become rich doing this similar to the guy selling physical Bitcoins. If one thing can promote Bitcoin adoption it's the ability to give people Bitcoin giftcards.

Hmm, we are actually giving people the ability to buy Amazon giftcards with BTCs.  Not quite what you are describing, though the implementation of what you're describing is pretty basic in premise.  The question is why would you want to give someone a Bitcoin giftcard, instead of just sending them coins directly?  In both cases, the ultimate receiver will have to create an wallet address to redeem the giftcard value.  Wouldn't it be easier to give them a preloaded wallet instead?

[Luckybit]

Can you register with Bitfunder or Cryptostocks so I can invest in your business idea?
I think you have an opportunity to become rich doing this similar to the guy selling physical Bitcoins. If one thing can promote Bitcoin adoption it's the ability to give people Bitcoin giftcards.

Hmm, we are actually giving people the ability to buy Amazon giftcards with BTCs.  Not quite what you are describing, though the implementation of what you're describing is pretty basic in premise.  The question is why would you want to give someone a Bitcoin giftcard, instead of just sending them coins directly?  In both cases, the ultimate receiver will have to create an wallet address to redeem the giftcard value.  Wouldn't it be easier to give them a preloaded wallet instead?

It's a good or perhaps the best way to introduce people to Bitcoin and the utility.

I think what you're doing is more a way to cash Bitcoins out into Giftcards which is cool but I was thinking bigger. I was thinking about finding a way to preload wallets with giftBTC and then create a sort of giftable wallet.

Marketing Bitcoin through Amazon is why. People view Amazon gift cards as legitimate. People view giftcards as legitimate. People like gifts. People use Amazon but don't know what Bitcoin is. A Bitcoin giftwallet could be just sending them the coins directly but in a way which introduces them to the Bitcoin concept and utility through gift giving and perhaps Amazon. So I think your business could be more important than you realize if it were to become popular enough.

And yes I'm thinking a pre-loaded wallet would work too just so long as it can be sent through Amazon. Imagine Alice sends Bob a Bitcoin giftcard with preloaded wallet which can be used at Amazon or anywhere else? They don't even have to know much about Bitcoin or the wallet but just that they can receive some Bitcoin and redeem it at their favorite sites somehow.

For now it would be more a cool way to distribute Bitcoins to people who will not know what they are and who can be motivated to learn to cash out their gift money. If they know their Bitcoins are worth 25 bucks or whatever now they have to learn what Bitcoin is. Once they find out what Bitcoin is and how cool it is, the eco-system benefits.

The Bitcointip bot is similar and works well so far.  The giftwallet wouldn't require a person even know what Bitcoin is. They simply get gifted with it and either learn to spend their gift or not. I'm convinced small gifts can introduce people to Bitcoin and they'll be more likely to spend it if they didn't have to earn it.

[richiela]

Thanks for the thoughtful response.  The fact you've been around longer and see some of the challenges I take for granted is useful.  Let us think of the best way to implement what you're talking about.  It definitely makes sense.

[richiela]

Just to solicit some more feedback on this idea.

Assume we create BTC giftcards, say in denominations of 1 and 5 with a small markup priced in.  Do you think  people feel better about essentially making it a paper wallet with pub/priv key embedded on the card, or would it make more sense to make it redeemable for BTC, and thus we can have our own unique identifier on there.  So a receiver would get a GC, and would have to come to us to redeem it.

There are pros and cons to both methods just curious how the community feels about.