Wall Street Journal Frontpage Ad - 5000 Bitcoins

[BitcoinPorn]

Probably one of my favorite mass media ideas I have seen so far is this thread now.

However, it is too early, security needs to be figured out quicker like now.

But damn, this is the way to do something people.   We all know the coin itself is good, something that big is what throws it in everyones face basically saying "You may not have known what Bitcoin was before this huge ass ad, but now the news will be talking about this ad itself the next morning, so time to learn what Bitcoin is so you can have an opinion about at the water cooler during work in the morning"

This is about as awesome as getting the tv ad going.

One thing at a time Atlas, slow your ideas down to realistic goals lol

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[amincd]

I'd much rather see a 5000 BTC bounty on more usable clients, including smartphone clients and/or a "high value" app like a professional web based casino, a predictions market, or something else that US money is dying to get into but can't.

I agree. An enterprise bitcoin client that would allow multiple accounts, permission settings, compartmentalization of the wallet on a server, etc. would be nice.

I suggested this as a way to get more software developed for bitcoin:

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=25349.0

[Rob P.]

Like I've said in your other threads - advertisement is not what the bitcoin community needs. We get plenty of publicity from newspapers, and we can barely handle that.

You have my attention. I'm very interested. What should we do? Build businesses?

I agree w/ Garrett.

Building services that make it easier to learn about and get started using Bitcoin is what's needed imo.

You see, we have no business professionals to make this stuff. WE HAVE TO ATTRACT THEM FIRST.

The people here are, frankly, idiots when it comes to starting a business. They are good at technical stuff but are terrible when it comes to anything requiring sound delegation, marketing and financing.

Show me a business plan of what you'd like to achieve with this advertisement.  Are you just running an awareness campaign?  Is that what you believe the issue is with Bitcoin adoption?  Awareness?  

I find my problem is getting current, brick and mortar companies (or even online companies) to accept it.  Hell, most online companies don't accept PayPal for God's sake.  You think they'll accept Bitcoins?

Show me the metrics you've measured to date, and how you're going to measure the effectiveness of your advertisement, and I'll donate.

[muyoso]

What would you advertise?  Hey everyone, check out this extremely hard to get into online currency which can be used for illegal online purchases and not much else at the moment??  Hey everyone, there is free money to be had, just invest a thousand dollars on a new computer and in six months you will start to turn a minuscule profit?

Bitcoins aren't even close to ready for non tech geeks to check them out yet.  It takes a damn week to turn USD into bitcoins right now for someone who doesn't have a dwolla account.

[BitcoinDealer]

Ok everyone who's in.

Send the coins to my wallet.

...

[sunnankar]

Old school bankers, financiers will be the first to get bitcoin from the Wall St. Journal set, guys who really understand money ... if there are any left, but are they up to snuff on the tech.?

I agree. I have a friend who managed money and reported directly to Soros. He was hot to trot on Bitcoin and wanted to get a few hundred thousand dollars worth of coins but has been reticent since the MtGox debacle. I don't blame him as he doesn't fully understand the tech behind it. A few of his friends who run hedge funds have also been scared off, for now.

Right now Bitcoin needs entrepreneurs to solve market needs. In my opinion, the market action going to $30 and correcting to only $15 portends some serious advancements being made in this regard over the next 6-9 months.

Someone is going to have to solve the current main constraint which is people getting fiat currency into and out of Bitcoins. BitBills are a good example. I have another idea which myself and a few other entrepreneurs are moving ahead with implementing and should be shipping in a week or two. Whoever exploits this constraint stands to make a ton of money and then the constraint will move to something else and some other entrepreneur will have an opportunity to solve that.

Bitcoin has a bright future but I think it will be fairly boring price wise for the next 3-6 months. Right now what Bitcoin needs is for the entrepreneurs really need to come in and start building sustainable businesses that solve problems.

[AtlasONo]

Hey Atlas, why not try to limit yourself to one monumental project a week.

Judging by the ads you'd like to run; no we can't raise that much.

[bitcoiners]

Guys, these current enthusiasts can't build garbage. Again, NO BUSINESS SENSE.

I fail to see the correlation between not being able to build/code websites/apps and business sense.  And being able to code doesn't necessarily mean you have business sense.

It takes a lot of capital to have someone else build or develop your projects.  Unless you get a coder that really believes in your ideas and is willing to work for profit/revenue sharing.

That isn't business sense.  That's lack of capital.

[w1R903]

Guys, these current enthusiasts can't build garbage. Again, NO BUSINESS SENSE. Nobody wants to spend coins right now because of this. We need the enthusiasm and businesses to come at the same time.

We need to market Bitcoin to INNOVATORS.

The wave of entrepreneurs who were attracted to Bitcoin over the past month are just getting in gear.  It takes time to put together a business venture, even at light-speed Bitcoin time.  I suspect we'll see some awesome businesses emerge by summers end.

I do think that whoever is the first person to put together a well-done predictions market or casino using Bitcoin as its premier currency will eventually make a killing (and I'm not working on anything like that).  I bet a talented, dedicated team is hard at work on such a creature as we speak.

[bitcoiners]

Guys, these current enthusiasts can't build garbage. Again, NO BUSINESS SENSE. Nobody wants to spend coins right now because of this. We need the enthusiasm and businesses to come at the same time.

We need to market Bitcoin to INNOVATORS.

The wave of entrepreneurs who were attracted to Bitcoin over the past month are just getting in gear.  It takes time to put together a business venture, even at light-speed Bitcoin time.  I suspect we'll see some awesome businesses emerge by summers end.

I do think that whoever is the first person to put together a well-done predictions market or casino using Bitcoin as its premier currency will eventually make a killing (and I'm not working on anything like that).  I bet a talented, dedicated team is hard at work on such a creature as we speak.

A wave of entrepreneurs have been attracted to Bitcoin in the last month?  And they are just now getting into gear?  Source?

I think there was a wave of investors but that's just what I think.  I'm not counting it as fact as there has been more sells than buys.  Notice the decline in price.  You can explain it away as much as you'd like but facts are facts and speculation is well...

But everyone keep speculating on speculation.  It gives me something to do as I watch my investment dwindle down to nothing.  Fact.

I have bought a few Russian domain names relating to bitcoin that with a little SEO receive 200 visitors a day to my site.  The .30 cents a day it makes me isn't enough to invest more of my money.  Sorry.  Unless there is a Russian coder that wants to partner with me.  PM me.

Otherwise keep speculating.

[gigabytecoin]

As much as my wallet would love to see a Bitcoin ad on the front page of a major newspaper...

My brain hates the idea.

[Adam]

The problem with projects like this in my mind is they should be backed by those who stand to make money should the endeavor succeed.  But the decentralized nature of bitcoin in this case hurts it because no one really has the incentive to put a lot of capital into a project to benefit the community as a whole.  Taking lots of small donations is neat, but in order for it to really go anywhere you need corporate or VC capital and for that to happen you need a product and possible revenue streams.

The only company which is making any real money from bitcoin transactions is Mt. Gox, and even their revenue has been decimated since the hack.  They used to do $2M a day in transactions, with a .65% tax on both sides that was $26,000/day in revenue.  The past few days have been about $500k at .3% on each side, for just $3,000/day (and some with free commissions, so probably less).  Do they have the potential for amazing growth?  Maybe, but not unless they can make it a hell of a lot easier and quicker and more user friendly for the average joe to get their hands on a few bitcoins.

What we need before any major campaign is either a massive overhaul on the bitcoin client to make it more user friendly and quicker to get online, or a web based wallet that will allow people to instantly load a balance with a CC/bank transfer, set up probably like paypal with verification required at the initial setup but instant thereafter.  Then people use the web based interface to send and receive coins rather than the download client.

[wujh]

The problem with projects like this in my mind is they should be backed by those who stand to make money should the endeavor succeed.  But the decentralized nature of bitcoin in this case hurts it because no one really has the incentive to put a lot of capital into a project to benefit the community as a whole.  Taking lots of small donations is neat, but in order for it to really go anywhere you need corporate or VC capital and for that to happen you need a product and possible revenue streams.

The only company which is making any real money from bitcoin transactions is Mt. Gox, and even their revenue has been decimated since the hack.  They used to do $2M a day in transactions, with a .65% tax on both sides that was $26,000/day in revenue.  The past few days have been about $500k at .3% on each side, for just $3,000/day (and some with free commissions, so probably less).  Do they have the potential for amazing growth?  Maybe, but not unless they can make it a hell of a lot easier and quicker and more user friendly for the average joe to get their hands on a few bitcoins.

What we need before any major campaign is either a massive overhaul on the bitcoin client to make it more user friendly and quicker to get online, or a web based wallet that will allow people to instantly load a balance with a CC/bank transfer, set up probably like paypal with verification required at the initial setup but instant thereafter.  Then people use the web based interface to send and receive coins rather than the download client.

I think they should do some legal preparations, and start to make retail distribution broker network. I mean, Mtgox develop several dealer, give them a very very low commission rate, and the dealer just has the incentive to bring more people to trading on mtgox, and the dealer will provide more professional trading\depositing\withdrawing service than mtgox do.