BlockRun.com - Penny auctions on the blockchain

[dipsy]

We've just launched http://www.blockrun.com , a play on penny auctions built on top on the blockchain.

- Each auction has its own bid address
- Auctions last for a certain number of blocks
- When blocks reach 0, each new bid extends the auction by 3 blocks
- There needs to be 3 new blocks with no transactions associated with that auction for a winner to be declared
- The highest bid wins, all other bids lose (we send winning, and losing transactions when you have been outbid)
- Winners are confirmed after 6 confirmations
- Winner creates a signed message to confirm they own the address

How it works: http://www.blockrun.com/how_it_works
FAQ: http://www.blockrun.com/faq
Auction for 5 coins: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/5-bitcoins

We're always looking to improve, so if anyone has any feedback (e.g. "this is too complicated, how does it work??), any thoughts are much appreciated

[Welsh]

So, Let's say I bid, would others see my bid?
And, how would you prove it actually is going to someone?


I have received my prize! LEGIT

[dipsy]

Yep, it's all in the Blockchain, both bids and win/lose transactions:

Auction: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/apple-ipad-mini-16gb-wi-fi-white
Bids in blockchain: http://blockchain.info/address/1Run2pD4CCYts6MUv7V7Fps1nCqQDB72S

Perhaps we should show bid history on the auction page?

[dipsy]

So, we added "Confirmed bids" so that users can view previous biding history on the page:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/5-bitcoins

Any other questions, or feature requests?

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

I like it, I'll be trying it out soon!

[elitenoob]

Why should someone bid more than 5BTC for the 5BTC auction? Does it makes sense? Not for me though.

[gadman2]

Why should someone bid more than 5BTC for the 5BTC auction? Does it makes sense? Not for me though.

Yeah I'm wondering this too.

[dipsy]

Thanks TradeFortress!

@elitenoob;
Someone should NOT bid more than BTC5 to win BTC5. The idea is that the winner will get BTC5 for perhaps BTC0.5 , BTC1 or BTC3. The cumulative losing bids subsidise the the winner getting a prize for a lot less than its true value. We anticipate to be making a net loss on the first few auctions, but that's the price of getting something off the ground!

Any other questions, just ask 

[luke.watson]

I think it's a pretty neat idea

For those who don't understand how penny auctions work, the markup is made through the commutative bids - so rather than paying the full price you pay a fraction of the price, but you pay per bid..


So the auction for BTC1 starts at BTC0.05 and the excrement is BTC0.01 the first bid has to be BTC0.05 (or more)

So the auction would work as so (in terms of money taken)

Bid 1 BTC0.05
Bid 2 BTC0.06
Bid 3 BTC0.10
Bid 4 BTC0.14
Bid 5 BTC0.2

END

In a normal auction you would only pay BTC0.2 for the BTC1 but in a penny auction you would pay the price of your bid as you bid

So the total made from the auction would be the total value of all bids, in the case BTC0.55, blockrun made a loss in the case, unfortunately

Again I like the idea, it's like a much less scammy version of Madbid

[dipsy]

5 Bitcoins are currently about to close at BTC0.09: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/5-bitcoins

Thanks Luke, that's a great explanation!
The only slight difference is that you can increment the bids by as much as you like, you just have to beat the previous high bidder.

As the auction gets close to the end, you can also bid with a higher miners fee to help it to hopefully get accepted into a block faster.

[dipsy]

Only 2 blocks left to win a brand new Nexus 4:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/lg-google-nexus-4-16gb

So far we have given away BTC6 for a total of BTC0.123 

[KingOfSports]

Holy crap 3 BTC bid for a nexus lol. Whats retail on those things?

[dipsy]

Over $400.

I suspect the BTC3 bidder may have won BTC5 off us yesterday.

[Zaih]

Hey,

What's stopping you from bidding higher every time? Like lets say I bid 0.5, and you bid 0.6. You'd be buying it for 0.6 from yourself & keeping all the bids below?

Maybe Iv'e misunderstood something, but yeh. I'm a little confused in that aspect. It seems like a really cool idea which I can see me getting easily addicted to ^_^

[hasher87]

Hey,

What's stopping you from bidding higher every time? Like lets say I bid 0.5, and you bid 0.6. You'd be buying it for 0.6 from yourself & keeping all the bids below?

Maybe Iv'e misunderstood something, but yeh. I'm a little confused in that aspect. It seems like a really cool idea which I can see me getting easily addicted to ^_^

this seems plausible, now i'm having a second thought whether to bid that 1BTC or not.

And seriously, 5BTC for 0.11500001btc??   I could've done better but then, the top comment COULD happen

and i actually wanna see the person who won that 5btc to make a post. i mean how hard could it be?

[Caesium]

The problem I have with this is there's currently no way to prove you're not bidding us up.

If you see that iPad Mini for example nearing the end and you're making a net loss on it, you'll add a bid which will cost you nothing and save you from having to give the iPad away.

How can you counter this claim?

[lexxus]

The problem I have with this is there's currently no way to prove you're not bidding us up.

If you see that iPad Mini for example nearing the end and you're making a net loss on it, you'll add a bid which will cost you nothing and save you from having to give the iPad away.

How can you counter this claim?

There is no way to prove that it's fair. That's why I stay away from these auctions. Note that I don't claim that it's a scam.

[KingOfSports]

This is what I was thinking ^^^, what is stopping them from bidding themselves up. Bitcoins transactions are anonymous and I truly don't think there is a way to prove you aren't just bidding yourself up besides saying you aren't (which isn't much proof at all).

[hasher87]

it seems like there's something fishy going on around here, according to blockchain info

*im not quite familiar in reading blockchain stuff, but the similarity is very weird*

The highest bid [AND NOW THE WINNER] (0.7btc) Transaction ID of 5 bitcoin auction: http://blockchain.info/tx/8dc113f35bdf6277e36a0ddd2e45147925801ba64330456a510cea7dd4628c51

Winner of Nexus 4 Transaction ID: http://blockchain.info/tx/b0c7066ceccec594a548dd552c8373bf89f30f78507a35fa19e9aa0224e3c482

The first bidder of another Nexus 4 auction Transaction ID: http://blockchain.info/tx/08137d975983ef58978c1ca7b22299255357de66e3b0a83518246a971079fc95

One of the bidder of  5 Bitcoin (lose tho) Transaction ID: http://blockchain.info/tx/f678aad35e290df1816ab29e65be2b8379fa7db7abec056ad59908981f5d3945

They all have the same address: 1RhodonBkTHyna6xSBY8Bb8wJDdJoVpTL

[dipsy]

Unfortunately there is no way that I know of to prove that we are not bidding, but we are certainly not as that would amount to a quick scam and destroy our reputation. We're in Bitcoin for the long-haul & will be releasing a few projects over the coming months, so scamming people would be very short-sighted.

I asked the BTC5 winner to post, but I think he either doesn't have an account or is a newbie as he said he couldn't. He tweeted here:
https://twitter.com/greenglue/status/336649024549560320
Auction on the chain:
http://blockchain.info/address/1Run2RUNo7bw1MB6dR2nNkdU1DNxE5Zwv

The Rhodon address is not us, it is a user who is very keen. It would be really useful for us if they posted here!