Devtome: Get Hundreds of Thousands of free Devcoins for writing

[FinShaggy]

Finshaggy,

I understand that it's hard to get ahead when you are down.

I have had drop shipping websites in the past. They require little to no capital to get going, you just need to buy a domain name and hosting plan such as yahoo. There are cheaper options out there but I'm giving you the easy route to a web checkout. Yahoo overcharges on their domain names so go somewhere else for that like KVC Hosting as one example.

OK if you have a website set up (you can use a template and yahoo e commerce is quite easy to use), with a check out, then you just take orders and accept payments with PayPal. From your PayPal account you order the item they want.

You need this - motivation, free time, modest internet skills (if you can do Devtome you can do this), a phone, and a product to sell.

I sold this product http://www.x-tremescooters.com/ at Christmas's for two years when I was between meaningful work. You can get an account after you set up a basic website, at http://www.greenmaxdistributors.com/

Use Google pay per click to get traffic. I'm not sure how the economy is in the US now as I moved, but I started the PPC campaign in late October and finished about December 5th (after that you get stressed out problem customers), and I worked four hours a day on the phone, making $100 an hour average after expenses. This comes to $10,000 for 2-3 months work.

Just a suggestion, and you can read my experiences with it at Devtome here - http://www.devtome.com/doku.php?id=drop_shipping which is part of this subset of pages http://www.devtome.com/doku.php?id=self_employment_ideas

Best,

I literally have no money. I have various websites that are not online right now because I cannot afford them. And I can't afford to invest in anything.

I can't use pay per click. I don't have any money. If I could do that, I would have plenty of blog and YouTube traffic to make money. I already have a fair amount of traffic, and that is from sheer elbow greese. Unless I can get clicks for free, I can't do it.

[FinShaggy]

I hope to use my Devtome earnings to start a silver company.

[MAbtc]

We should find free open source content we want to paste onto the wiki, paste it there, then if any of it turns out to have been created by someone who routinely, lifestyle, spends forty hours per month creating such content, nominate them for a place on the list of devcoin recipients.

-MarkM-

That would make article-developers who are working specifically on developing articles for devtome just like any other developers who are spending ten hours a month OR MORE on devcoin projects.

-MarkM-

What you're suggesting isn't really for devcoin projects, or devtome, though... right?

And how does this encourage adoption? In the context of this discussion, I think adoption is crucial to think about.

A wiki is user-generated, community-oriented. What you're suggesting -- not so much.

If there is a way to up the quality standards in an objective way, I'm all for that. And a cap lower than 80 would help to weed out some the fly-by-nighters and would be beneficial to all shareholders, I think. Penalizing new users with a lower cap, though, discourages new users from joining while encouraging older users to churn out those words, knowing that their own shares won't be diluted by newcomers.

[markm]

For adoption we probably need things people can buy using DeVCoins. So maybe the idea of packaging free open source content into e-books for sale has some merit for that.

I think DeVCoins might be one of the coins the many-coin-types payment processor handles, if so then that should make it easier for people who sell stuff on the web to accept DeVCoins for whatever it happens to be that they sell.

But giving out DeVCoins at the rate of one full project's worth of coins (a whole share, such as a whole open source project's lead developer gets) per each 1000 words is clearly not helping adoption, on the contrary it is causing massive dumping, driving down the value of the coins, which in turn turns people away from adopting the coin.

So to boost adoption we would probably be better off not paying out anywhere near as many coins, maybe pick a lead developer for Devtome and give them one share, from which they then divvy out coins to their team, such as any authors they get to help them develop devtome.

The less coins given out the less dumping, likely we'd see prices go back up to 200 to 300 satoshis like they used to regularly before we started throwing away 80 shares at a time to authors.

Periodically the price used to tumble to thirty-something satoshis once enough rounds had passed that a few developers started to think maybe enough shares-rounds might have passed for them to have accumulated enough coins to be worth the trouble of firing up their client to sell the coins, but it used to then climb back to the 200 to 300 satoshis range.

Quite likely also the long span of low prices these so eager to dump all the coins authors have created has triggered other people who had been happily sitting on their coins maybe not even bothering to set up a devcoin wallet since afterall their coins go to a bitcoin address, they never needed a devcoin wallet to get on the list, to decide there is no point letting it ride a few years since it seems like it is going no-where and has in fact lost its direction completely, throwing away far far vaster sums on dubious wiki-articles than even the most important projects' most dedicated developers get.

-MarkM-

[FinShaggy]

For adoption we probably need things people can buy using DeVCoins. So maybe the idea of packaging free open source content into e-books for sale has some merit for that.

I think DeVCoins might be one of the coins the many-coin-types payment processor handles, if so then that should make it easier for people who sell stuff on the web to accept DeVCoins for whatever it happens to be that they sell.

But giving out DeVCoins at the rate of one full project's worth of coins (a whole share, such as a whole open source project's lead developer gets) per each 1000 words is clearly not helping adoption, on the contrary it is causing massive dumping, driving down the value of the coins, which in turn turns people away from adopting the coin.

-MarkM-

That would be cool if we could make e-books of the articles.

Do you know where we could look for payment processing?

I don't think the price turns people away from the coin, they are getting them for free. The only people worried about the price are people holding coins, and if they would just buy coins and tell everyone else to buy coins, it would correct itself.

[FinShaggy]

Devcoin needs to launch a giant "Buy this coin" campaign. Even if that just means 1 thread from each regular about something that leads people to Devcoin.

[FinShaggy]

If we got 10 people, and had them all pick a link from this list, and make a thread about it. We would have SO MANY NEW DVCers

This is the Main Devcoin thread. The following are popular devcoin links:

ASCMDVCPT - ASICMiner Devcoin  Pass Through
Buy Computer/Mining Parts with Devcoin
Buy Amazon Giftcards with Devcoin
Devcoin Advertising Campaign
Earn Devcoins by Writing
Free DVC! Devcoin Faucet Beta Test
Free Devcoin Faucet 20DVC per person!
Help with Setting Up a Devcoin Wallet - Ya I'm a Noob
IRC Channel: #devcoin on freenode.net
Official Site
Devcoin Escrow Service
Devcoin Talk Forums

Devcoin is an ethically inspired project based on the BitCoin crypto-currency and created to help fund open source projects created by writers and software developers.

Participants in the DevCoin economy earn DevCoins in proportion to their project development. Writers earn devcoins by writing, developers earn bitcoins by developing, Marketers earn devcoins by marketing, and Administrators earn devcoins by applying their time and effort to help organize the DevCoin project.

Hopefully devcoin will eventually fund all types of developers including hardware developers, graphic artists, musicians, and filmmakers.

Download instructions are at:
http://www.devtome.com/doku.php?id=devcoin#download

The number of devcoins offered is large because the generation is fifty thousand per block, one thousand times the initial bitcoin generation rate. Devcoins can be traded at:
https://vps.vircurex.com/welcome/index?base=dvc&alt=btc

Besides bounties, the remainder of the 90% of generation is going to the open source developers on the bitcoin donation list:
https://github.com/Unthinkingbit/charity/blob/master/bitcoinshare.html

and to the open source developers who are developing other stuff on the devcoin share list:
https://github.com/Unthinkingbit/charity/blob/master/devcoinshare.html

To get on a donation list to receive shares of devcoin, an open source developer should message the share administrator or post in this thread. For more information on developer shares, see the devtome page.


The developers on the bitcoin donation list can see their devcoins by running a devcoin client and importing their bitcoin donation key into devcoin. One way of importing that key is by following the README.txt instructions for the modified version of bitcoin tools which incorporates Matt Giuca's privkeyimport:
https://github.com/Unthinkingbit/bitcointools

They could also use Jackjack's pywallet:
https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet

the instructions for which are in the Pywallet section at the bottom of the post:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34586.msg432697#msg432697

----
Devcoin has never been $10 before. It was kind of a glitch, but it has never been that price itself before. If anybody tells you otherwise, please don't believe them.

[markm]

I don't think the price turns people away from the coin, they are getting them for free. The only people worried about the price are people holding coins, and if they would just buy coins and tell everyone else to buy coins, it would correct itself.

The price definitely turns people away. They see it has gone no-where but down for the last however many months, and figure it is dead or dying so don't invest in it.

People getting large amounts free does not increase adoption, it increases dumping, which lowers the exchange rates, which turns off potential adopters.

A faucet is one thing, giving people more than Gavin or FellowTraveller or other people working forty hours a month on important projects just for posting some dubious but 2000 words article is just crazy.

Seriously. One share is worth forty hours of skilled work. How many words can a skilled author write in forty hours of writing? Or even just ten hours if we assume they are writing new material specifically for us?

Once Stephen King has a story idea worked out and plotted ready to write, how many hours do you think it takes him to write it down? If he doesn't have something ready to write that month, no problem, take him off the list that month. Some month when he has come up with something ready to write he can sit down and write it.

-MarkM-

[FinShaggy]

I don't think the price turns people away from the coin, they are getting them for free. The only people worried about the price are people holding coins, and if they would just buy coins and tell everyone else to buy coins, it would correct itself.

The price definitely turns people away. They see it has gone no-where but down for the last however many months, and figure it is dead or dying so don't invest in it.

People getting large amounts free does not increase adoption, it increases dumping, which lowers the exchange rates, which turns off potential adopters.

A faucet is one thing, giving people more than Gavin or FellowTraveller or other people working forty hours a month on important projects just for posting some dubious but 2000 words article is just crazy.

-MarkM-

I'm pretty sure I've seen like 5 new authors in just the past week, so I don't see how people are "turning away" when we only have like a total of 35 authors, and five of those came recently.

Even my trolls followed me here, and then stopped trolling me for the sake of the coin... So I think that says a little more than just random unfounded words about "potential adopters".

Then give the coders more shares. Don't penalize writers for not coding. (or add a lower cap)

[markm]

There are not more shares, the maximum number of shares the software can handle is limited. That is why many things pay in fifths of a share.

Once we hit 4000 shares that is it for the month, there are only 4000 blocks in a round, that is, 4000 shares. Each share is one block.

So increasing the number of shares is the wrong way round. Once we have four thousand projects more and more projects will have to be getting fractions of a share instead of whole shares.

So if eighty thousand words is the max per person, and we want up to 4000 people, we need one share to be worth eighty thousand words. One fifth of that is sixteen thousand words, so we could give one fifth of a share per sixteen thousand words. That way the max any one of the 4000 recipients could get is one entire whole share. So simple math, we know the max words an author can get paid for per 4000 blocks and we know the max number of shares there are per four thousand blocks. (One share per block, 4000 shares.)

If we make the max one whole share, we could have four thousand people/projects all receiving one whole share.

If one person is to get two shares, we'll only have enough shares for 3999 people instead of 4000, unless maybe we find five people to each only get 4/5 of a share so that the one guy can get two shares.

-MarkM-

[FinShaggy]

There are not more shares, the maximum number of shares the software can handle is limited. That is why many things pay in fifths of a share.

Once we hit 4000 shares that is it for the month, there are only 4000 blocks in a round, that is, 4000 shares. Each share is one block.

So increasing the number of shares is the wrong way round. Once we have four thousand projects more and more projects will have to be getting fractions of a share instead of whole shares.

So if eighty thousand words is the max per person, and we want up to 4000 people, we need one share to be worth eighty thousand words. One fifth of that is sixteen thousand words, so we could give one fifth of a share per sixteen thousand words. That way the max any one of the 4000 recipients could get is one entire whole share. So simple math, we know the max words an author can get paid for per 4000 blocks and we know the max number of shares there are per four thousand blocks. (One share per block, 4000 shares.)

If we make the max one whole share, we could have four thousand people/projects all receiving one whole share.

-MarkM-

Increasing coders shares is different than increasing shares, I even suggesting decreasing shares. You have to have seen that...

[FinShaggy]

And your logic doesn't make sense.

4000 blocks (or however many) = 180,000,000 DVC...

No matter HOW MANY shares there are, the 180,000,000 DVC does not need to be bigger... The shares get smaller.

[markm]

Coders already get the maximum: an entire whole share.

And your logic doesn't make sense.

4000 blocks (or however many) = 180,000,000 DVC...

No matter HOW MANY shares there are, the 180,000,000 DVC does not need to be bigger... The shares get smaller.

Coins are different than shares. If you were admin of a project, such as maybe lets say, the history category of devtome, or whatever, your project could get a whole share, and that would mean you have 180,000 coins so you could hire 180 authors for 1000 each, or pay yourself 2000 and hire 178 other authors for 1000 each or however your team likes to dvide up the coins that its share gets them.

-MarkM-

[FinShaggy]

Coders already get the maximum: an entire whole share.

-MarkM-

How is that the max? They can't get credit for 5,000 words for their work?

[markm]

Coders already get the maximum: an entire whole share.

-MarkM-

How is that the max? They can't get credit for 5,000 words for their work?

Only if there are not going to be 3999 other lines in the receivers file.

There are only 4000 blocks. If devtome authors get 80 blocks (shares) each and there are 50 such authors, that is it, sorry, no coins for anyone other than devtome authors.

That is why the plan is to deploy Open Transactions, so each project/field, whatever those may be, maybe like math, physics, biology, geology, history, art (conveniently there are five arts, so each could get one fifth of the arts budget maybe, sculpture (3D art), drawing/painting/computer-graphics etc (2D art), drama, dance, music), whatever the fields/projects, can have the coins their share(s) provide put into an Open Transactions server so the individual coins can be divvied up as that project or field chooses among its workers.

-MarkM-

[FinShaggy]

Coders already get the maximum: an entire whole share.

-MarkM-

How is that the max? They can't get credit for 5,000 words for their work?

Only if there are not going to be 3999 other lines in the receivers file.

There are only 4000 blocks. If devtome authors get 80 blocks (shares) each and there are 50 such authors, that is it, sorry, no coins for anyone other than devtome authors.

That is why the plan is to deploy Open Transactions, so each project/field, whatever those maybe, like math, physics, biology, geology, history, art (conveniently there are five arts, so each could get one fifth of the arts budget maybe, sculpture (3D art), drawing/painting (2D art), drama, dance, music), whatever the fields/projects, can have the coins their share(s) provided put into an Open Transactions server so the individual coins can be divvied up as that project or field chooses among its workers.

-MarkM-

Wait... So they get paid for the actual lines of code they submit? Or what is 3999 receiver files?

Why are the shares separated? They aren't just randomly jumbled together?

If there are blocks with 5,000 coins released sometimes, is that not being divided by 9? I thought that was what was happening, and that was how they made 45,000 fit into any number... Maybe I'm wrong.

That would probably be best. Splitting the coins before they get split into wallets.

[FinShaggy]

Idea, maybe we could have a MINIMUM words per round. You have to write say 10,000 words before an Admin will review your work. Then you get graded (just A or B) then A's earn more, while B's earn less or something.

[markm]

Miners get 5000 coins. The other 45000 in that block they just mined go out to addresses listed in the receivers file. One line in that file is one block. If there are less than 4000 lines then some lines get used twice. If all get used twice and the round of 4000 blocks is still not finished, some lines get used 3 times. If all get used three times and still we have not gone through 4000 blocks, some get used four times. And so on.

Ideally it would be nice if each line got used a lot of times, so that the difference in income between people who were in the lines that got used one more time than the other lines would not be huge.

If some lines get used only once and others only twice, the people on the lines that got used twice got twice the pay.

If some lines get used 99 times and some get used 100 times, the people on the lines that got used 100 times only got somewhere in the neighborhood of 1% or so more pay.

So nicest would be to never have more than 40 shares given out. That way each line (each share) would get paid 100 times, so if there happens to only be 39 shares some month, one share would get paid 101 times the others 100 times, not a huge difference.

If never more than 40 shares are to be given out, and we want 13% (the current quota) to go to admins, that leaves less than 40 shares to go to all other things combined.

Idea, maybe we could have a MINIMUM words per round. You have to write say 10,000 words before an Admin will review your work. Then you get graded (just A or B) then A's earn more, while B's earn less or something.

All of that the devtome project participants could worry about on their own if the entire devtome project was allocated some specific number of shares. Those shares would pay out devcoins to the project's Open Transactions account, from which the individual coins could be divided up however that project likes to divide up its coins.

-MarkM-

[FinShaggy]

Miners get 5000 coins. The other 45000 in that block they just mined go out to addresses listed in the receivers file. One line in that file is one block. If there are less than 4000 lines then some lines get used twice. If all get used twice and the round of 4000 blocks is still not finished, some lines get used 3 times. If all get used three times and still we have not gone through 4000 blocks, some get used four times. And so on.

Ideally it would be nice if each line got used a lot of times, so that the difference in income between people who were in the lines that got used one more time than the other lines would not be huge.

If some lines get used only once and others only twice, the people on the lines that got used twice got twice the pay.

If some lines get used 99 times and some get used 100 times, the people on the lines that got used 100 times only got somewhere in the neighborhood of 1% or so more pay.

So nicest would be to never have more than 40 shares given out. That way each line (each share) would get paid 100 times, so if there happens to only be 39 shares some month, one share would get paid 101 times the others 100 times, not a huge difference.

If never more than 40 shares are to be given out, and we want 13% (the current quota) to go to admins, that leaves less than 40 shares to go to all other things combined.

-MarkM-

Then I propose we make a share harder to get. 5,000 words? 10,000?

[FinShaggy]

As long as no one gets MORE shares, then all that does is raise the value of the individual shares. You might need to write 10x as much for a share, but it is worth 10x as much too.