BlockRun.com - Penny auctions on the blockchain

[dipsy]

1BTC bid for a 1BTC prize?  
http://blockchain.info/tx/4e8a9a556a90b1c7a979c0514ad2e5b463e9d914cf7ab1cb4ee85cc71f0f77b0

Also yeah, come on grue, I've had no sleep this past week cos of you

The only thing I can imagine someone is doing here is adding a 1BTC bid with no transaction fee in order to scare off competitors and win with a lower second bid:
http://blockchain.info/tx/0cad5e5d168b2a97c4e77bb7479558513475a861160d9ec8ef32a15929b73a85
(unconfirmed txs get auto-refunded if confirmed after the auction has closed)

It's a risk as it could get confirmed, and then they'd pay more than BTC1 for a BTC1!

[pheaonix]

yes this 1R9T1 guy is insane. i hope i luck it out.

[dipsy]

yes this 1R9T1 guy is insane. i hope i luck it out.

I agree, he's been bidding like a maniac this evening!

Hopefully you get it 

[pheaonix]

yes this 1R9T1 guy is insane. i hope i luck it out.

I agree, he's been bidding like a maniac this evening!

Hopefully you get it 

.001 fee confirm in 1 block lol gg

[grue]

My motive for winning the auction will be disclosed 7 days from now.

7 days and 1.5 hours later...

I'm curious now!

I actually disclosed ahead of schedule. Just check the original post

1BTC bid for a 1BTC prize? 
http://blockchain.info/tx/4e8a9a556a90b1c7a979c0514ad2e5b463e9d914cf7ab1cb4ee85cc71f0f77b0

Also yeah, come on grue, I've had no sleep this past week cos of you

[Caesium]

I actually disclosed ahead of schedule. Just check the original post

Oh. Well that was anti-climatic.

[dipsy]

Closing now!

Micro Drone:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/micro-drone

1 Bitcoin:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-12

We now display the miners fee on pending bids; this should give an indication of how quickly a bid is likely to be accepted into a block.

edit: the reason is to get the 0.5 BTC reward for testimony. (0.5 net profit for me)

Thanks grue, much appreciated. We will now pay BTC0.1 to forum winners who post back here and also give us a picture. Just ask after you claim the prize  

[001sonkit]

Hi BlockRun Team, I really appreciate the work you made (and i have got the winner position! for just 0.011BTC)

Just a few points during my bidding experience that I'd hope that my two cents thought can improve the experience of other users.

1: The delay of your Bitcoin rpc server got a pretty darn great delay. You know the time of penny bids really matters. (PS: the realtime incomings is fines, the problem is on the block count)
Proof: http://imgur.com/ZYXqvdH

2: Why not put a claim button on the ended event page, the navigation now is kinda confusing.

3: If i didnt fill the countries/address it shows "The Bitcoin Address you have given is incorrect; contact support@blockrun.com". But actuallly is just caused by rejection of blanks input on the Address details.

Happy customer from 177r6JWcG6mEZRQSPMYbSq7HmtWVahtzWJ  (aka 1CasperDEhyGD81WNPo9qkaFnWxUSWmrqk)

Using the randomness of timing on Blockchian for the penny auction timer is an awesome idea. Keep it on!

EDIT:

With the current business model WITHOUT minimum incitements, it is not quite sustainable. I love your service and wish you can hang on tight this moment and hope you will go great in future

[dipsy]

Thanks for playing, and thanks for the feedback!

We were actually really unlucky as that auction closed...

1: The delay of your Bitcoin rpc server got a pretty darn great delay.

Just as the auction was closing, we had a problem with our node that meant blocks weren't being processed by the BlockRun app We were frantically trying to fix it, but the miners released 4 blocks in 5 minutes (238891 - 238894) and the auction quickly closed before our page had even updated!
Your bid went through and then there were 3 super-quick blocks that meant once the app re-connected, you won 

Why not put a claim button on the ended event page, the navigation now is kinda confusing.

This is a good idea, we'll look into it.

If i didnt fill the countries/address it shows "The Bitcoin Address you have given is incorrect; contact support@blockrun.com". But actuallly is just caused by rejection of blanks input on the Address details.

Thanks, we'll update the form!

Happy customer from 177r6JWcG6mEZRQSPMYbSq7HmtWVahtzWJ  (aka 1CasperDEhyGD81WNPo9qkaFnWxUSWmrqk)

Using the randomness of timing on Blockchian for the penny auction timer is an awesome idea. Keep it on!

Thanks for playing, we have 2 more cool things ending tomorrow (subscribe via email on the page):

Sphero robotic ball: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/sphero
Jawbone Jambox, bluetooth speaker: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/jawbone-jamebox

We'll might put another bitcoin on there too

[001sonkit]

Thx a lot. Too much luck on the super quick blocks lol.

Getting interested to blockspin.com could you reveal some of what it does. I've subscribed

I am good at HTML, CSS, PHP. pop me a PM if you need some help.
PS: 15 y/o coder... dont trust me too much

Thanks for playing, we have 2 more cool things ending tomorrow (subscribe via email on the page):

Sphero robotic ball: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/sphero
Jawbone Jambox, bluetooth speaker: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/jawbone-jamebox

We'll might put another bitcoin on there too

I am in Hong Kong, not in this game.

[dipsy]

EDIT:

With the current business model WITHOUT minimum incitements, it is not quite sustainable. I love your service and wish you can hang on tight this moment and hope you will go great in future

We either make a profit or loss on each auction, it all depends on how many people bid. Today we made a loss as we had problems and were unlucky with the blocks, but over the last few days we have been making a profit overall.

Overall we are still down, but we knew this would be the case when first releasing a new service.
FYI - if it ever got to the point where lots of auctions ended in one go and we couldn't cover the losses, we would refund ALL bids on these auctions; I think this would be the fairest solution. We are nowhere near this, but you have to consider these things   Hopefully it'll never happen!

[dipsy]

Thx a lot. Too much luck on the super quick blocks lol.

Getting interested to blockspin.com could you reveal some of what it does. I've subscribed

I am good at HTML, CSS, PHP. pop me a PM if you need some help.
PS: 15 y/o coder... dont trust me too much

Thanks for playing, we have 2 more cool things ending tomorrow (subscribe via email on the page):

Sphero robotic ball: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/sphero
Jawbone Jambox, bluetooth speaker: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/jawbone-jamebox

We'll might put another bitcoin on there too

I am in Hong Kong, not in this game.

We're working on a few other projects, we'll be sending out a newsletter about that soon. Thanks for signing up on http://blockspin.com!

If you are 15, you should probably be careful with your Bitcoins and not risk them on games  

If we have any small pieces of dev work, I'll bear you in mind!

[001sonkit]

If you are 15, you should probably be careful with your Bitcoins and not risk them on games  

Thanks for your warm reminder. Since i got in Bitcoin some time ago, which I got some (2 digit BTC) bitcoin left after having myself equilibrium on the fiat side. So I treat whatever i have here as a lesson fee, if I fail. I have gone thru leverage trading of BTC, dragon tales, plus some more freebies gambling here.

(One put their coins to cold wallet for a reason. Coz one does not simply spend them away)

[grue]

dipsy: stop putting up bitcoin for bitcoin auctions. It's retarded because anyone can sabotage the game. All they have to do is put in a bid for 1 BTC and they'll ruin it for everyone.

[dipsy]

dipsy: stop putting up bitcoin for bitcoin auctions. It's retarded because anyone can sabotage the game. All they have to do is put in a bid for 1 BTC and they'll ruin it for everyone.

Yeah, it'd be kind of pointless for them to do that; but agreed, they could do it just to screw everyone else...

We've given BTC18 away so far but perhaps we'll give the 1 coin auctions a rest for a couple of days and see how we go.

If anyone else has any feedback or feature requests, we're always looking to improve BlockRun 

[KingOfSports]

Question, where is the country origin of the company, like where are the prizes shipped from? Tempted to bid but don't want to wait a month for my prize  

[dipsy]

Question, where is the country origin of the company, like where are the prizes shipped from? Tempted to bid but don't want to wait a month for my prize  

We are based in the UK, but try to ship from a local Amazon (.com /.ca /.de/.co.uk/ .whatever). In the case of some things like the drone today and the Pebble smart watches, they are shipped from the UK as we source them locally but post them to the countries listed on the auction page. Where are you based?

[KingOfSports]

I am based in the US, that sphero robot thing looks kind of neat, thats why I asked.

[SgtSpike]

dipsy: stop putting up bitcoin for bitcoin auctions. It's retarded because anyone can sabotage the game. All they have to do is put in a bid for 1 BTC and they'll ruin it for everyone.

Why not let everyone bid how they like?  Sure, anyone can sabotage the game, but there's a chance that no one will sabotage the game.  People bid on that chance.

[Jgguy]

dipsy: stop putting up bitcoin for bitcoin auctions. It's retarded because anyone can sabotage the game. All they have to do is put in a bid for 1 BTC and they'll ruin it for everyone.

Yeah, it'd be kind of pointless for them to do that; but agreed, they could do it just to screw everyone else...

We've given BTC18 away so far but perhaps we'll give the 1 coin auctions a rest for a couple of days and see how we go.

If anyone else has any feedback or feature requests, we're always looking to improve BlockRun 

It would be interesting if a 1btc penny (bitcent?) auction was added where each bid was exactly 0.01btc (or other small amount), and each bid reset the 3 block countdown.  The last confirmed bid made when the blockrun runs out wins.  That way someone couldn't just bid 1btc and ruin it.  I could see that going for awhile if there are a few interested parties.