Advertise Bitcoin on every single banknote ( and make a new game ? )

[Explodicle]

I would totally play this game, especially if one gets a few mBTC for it.

Bonus points if this data can be automatically forwarded to one of the existing projects too.

[1713907171]

1713907171

[goodlord666]

@HostFat, Kookiemonster

It's a bad idea especially with strangers. You wouldn't know how quick situations like that may escalate. Also, people hate zealots when they see them. You'd be no different from Jehova's Witnesses.

I find the subtle approach much more effective which is why I'd prefer using Satoshi's name. That way people may become curious as to who "this mysterious person Satoshi Nakamoto" may be and eventually learn about Bitcoin.

Writing "Bitcoin" on a Dollar note is also... a little absurd.

Never underestimate the people.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I just had an efartphany! What if we simply used http://etchablock.com for this idea?

Since etchablock adds an extra 1 at the beginning of the newly created address, I took a single out of my wallet and recorded this serial number K28849219E as USDK28849219E, thus generating the new address 11Usdk28849219eXXXXXXXXXXXXV3GioW. I especially like the G and W at the end of the address. It's as if the internet knows me. How quaint!

But what if somehow etchablock did this on purpose for all denominations, e.g., AxxL for a fin, AxxH for a sawbuck, BxxF for a C-Note, etc.? Now we have a game. A finder of one of those is shown how to participate. Once he receives his first bitcoins, he can add his own special note on the bill, like this:

11Usdk28849219eReceived1nXXafxRDQ
11GoobertownArkansasonMarchXHoMBw
1142o12AtTheGroceryStoreXXXUMAUoU

The only drawback is that you'll have to pay to play, but that's the price one has to pay to have nice things.

~Bruno~ (not Bruno Baère)

[Koekiemonster]

@HostFat, Kookiemonster

It's a bad idea especially with strangers. You wouldn't know how quick situations like that may escalate. Also, people hate zealots when they see them. You'd be no different from Jehova's Witnesses.

I find the subtle approach much more effective which is why I'd prefer using Satoshi's name. That way people may become curious as to who "this mysterious person Satoshi Nakamoto" may be and eventually learn about Bitcoin.

Writing "Bitcoin" on a Dollar note is also... a little absurd.

Never underestimate the people.

I thought a little more about this and I actually think you are right. I think writing the word "Bitcoin" on the bills will have some ok-ish short term effect if the community starts doing this, but in the long run it would just be genious to put "Satoshi Nakamoto" on the bills. This will intrigue as I experienced myself: in my hometown one logo kept popping up everywhere as they were putting stickers on bicycles and all sorts of things displaying only this logo with no name. I wondered what it was and after I discovered what it was(a local healthy food take out/delivery restaurant, check www.bzzy.nl for their logo) I became a regular costumer. I think the word combination "Satoshi Nakamoto" actually might have a bigger effect since people can google it.

Anyway, we should decide with which to go so people can start doing this. It would be best if we all used the same word(combination). My vote goes to "Satoshi Nakamoto".

[Phinnaeus Gage]

@HostFat, Kookiemonster

It's a bad idea especially with strangers. You wouldn't know how quick situations like that may escalate. Also, people hate zealots when they see them. You'd be no different from Jehova's Witnesses.

I find the subtle approach much more effective which is why I'd prefer using Satoshi's name. That way people may become curious as to who "this mysterious person Satoshi Nakamoto" may be and eventually learn about Bitcoin.

Writing "Bitcoin" on a Dollar note is also... a little absurd.

Never underestimate the people.

I thought a little more about this and I actually think you are right. I think writing the word "Bitcoin" on the bills will have some ok-ish short term effect if the community starts doing this, but in the long run it would just be genious to put "Satoshi Nakamoto" on the bills. This will intrigue as I experienced myself: in my hometown one logo kept popping up everywhere as they were putting stickers on bicycles and all sorts of things displaying only this logo with no name. I wondered what it was and after I discovered what it was(a local healthy food take out/delivery restaurant, check www.bzzy.nl for their logo) I became a regular costumer. I think the word combination "Satoshi Nakamoto" actually might have a bigger effect since people can google it.

Anyway, we should decide with which to go so people can start doing this. It would be best if we all used the same word(combination). My vote goes to "Satoshi Nakamoto".

A place to buy the stamps: http://www.thestampmaker.com/Departments/Specialty-Stamps/Wheres-George-Stamps.aspx

Goal to have a forum like this for "Where's Satoshi?": http://forums.wheresgeorge.com/

~Bruno~

[edd]

I fell asleep thinking about this game and the domain I registered a few months ago, searchingforsatoshi.com. Here's how I envision it:

• At the website, anyone can anonymously open an account and deposit any amount of BTC as a donation and incentive for the bitcoin uninitiated.

• The user assigns their banknote serial number as the password to unlock the account for withdrawal.

• The Bitcoin advocate passes the note to someone they want to introduce to BTC and directs them toward the website to unlock the account and receive their funds. Alternatively, other bitcoin enthusiasts who find the bill may increase the amount in the account and then pass the bill along to make the game more exciting.

• Members may log in and share their "Searching for Satoshi story," e.g. "I paid my friend back the $20 I owed him with 0.25 BTC interest by depositing it in the bill's Satoshi account!" or "I had never heard of bitcoins before I searched for this website. The URL was scrawled on the dollar bill I got as a tip and when I opened the account, there was 5 BTC in it!"

Since we want anyone to be able to retrieve the bitcoins associated with any banknote as easily as possible, I'm thinking the "username" field for all accounts should be pre-populated with the name "Satoshi." 

So, anyone mind if I run with this?

[goodlord666]

Just to let you know I did it.

Went with the line "Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?" on all the bills I currently had.

Funny side effect: I had totally forgotten about it when handing over the notes. Nobody mentioned it. I guess most people tend to just take the bills and be done with it. But they're in circulation now.

It's a funny little game on the side.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I fell asleep thinking about this game and the domain I registered a few months ago, searchingforsatoshi.com. Here's how I envision it:

• At the website, anyone can anonymously open an account and deposit any amount of BTC as a donation and incentive for the bitcoin uninitiated.

• The user assigns their banknote serial number as the password to unlock the account for withdrawal.

• The Bitcoin advocate passes the note to someone they want to introduce to BTC and directs them toward the website to unlock the account and receive their funds. Alternatively, other bitcoin enthusiasts who find the bill may increase the amount in the account and then pass the bill along to make the game more exciting.

• Members may log in and share their "Searching for Satoshi story," e.g. "I paid my friend back the $20 I owed him with 0.25 BTC interest by depositing it in the bill's Satoshi account!" or "I had never heard of bitcoins before I searched for this website. The URL was scrawled on the dollar bill I got as a tip and when I opened the account, there was 5 BTC in it!"

Since we want anyone to be able to retrieve the bitcoins associated with any banknote as easily as possible, I'm thinking the "username" field for all accounts should be pre-populated with the name "Satoshi."  

So, anyone mind if I run with this?

My only question is why isn't it live yet?

Seriously, I hope you had a hard time falling asleep.

What if on one dollar bills (mainly) there was a note stating that to claim the rest of your tip, visit ....com? You bring this to your waitress's attention when you hand her her normal tip, explaining that because of her great service, more money awaits her. All she has to do is go to the site and unlock it. Whether she claims it or not, the bill will return to circulation, whereupon a new person will see the note and visit the site to see if they can claim it, which they'll be able to if the waitress didn't. Now you have introduced at lease two more people to Bitcoin with one bill. I'm sure others will also visit the site because of that one bill. Now multiple that by tens of thousands of bills, and you have Bitcoin awareness out the ass.

The script on the bill will basically only show the domain name. It's the landing page that's important. Short and sweet with a proper call to action. They have to get-it upon the first read. Few hopes with great rewards is something to strive for. Monetizing the site should be no big deal.

Here's a great selling point. Somehow inform the waitress, without coming across that this is some quick-get-rich-scheme, that this has the potential of making her wealthy in the future, at absolutely no risk to her.

What we now have here is a way to pay future Bitcoiners out of our own pockets a chance to play, for lack of a better word. Every single one of us probably dines out. And I'm sure we all tip. Even if only 100 true Bitcoiners marked bills to be put in the wild via the waitstaff, Bitcoin would experience exponential growth.

Then again, I came up with Koinaraoke, and we see how that worked out.

~Bruno~

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Where's George?

http://www.wheresgeorge.com/

Just got back from reading some of the posts on their forum. I'll have to admit. those guys are weird. They have a thread dedicated to bills with stars on them. I can't figure out why those folks are so obsess with money. Why can't they be normal like us?

[edd]

I've started working on this site but I had a concern. Yesterday, I received some brand new bills from a convenience store and noticed the sequentiality (sequence-ness? sequence-nicity?) of the serial numbers.

If all you needed was the right serial number to unlock an account, how easy would it be to create a bot to do it? Would a captcha help?

I know you could write a code on the bill along with the url, but I was kinda excited about using even an unmarked bill as an advertisement for bitcoin.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I've started working on this site but I had a concern. Yesterday, I received some brand new bills from a convenience store and noticed the sequentiality (sequence-ness? sequence-nicity?) of the serial numbers.

If all you needed was the right serial number to unlock an account, how easy would it be to create a bot to do it? Would a captcha help?

I know you could write a code on the bill along with the url, but I was kinda excited about using even an unmarked bill as an advertisement for bitcoin.

No need to worry about a bot, for each dollar bill has plenty of built-in security measures that can be taken advantage of. http://onhech.blogspot.com/2010/03/dollar-for-your-thoughts.html



Simply have a field to insert the Series and Year & Plate Serial Number & Printing Position Number and Letter.

For the example I gave earlier in this thread:

Serial Number: K28849219E

Passwords to claim the bitcoins include:

Series and Year: 2003 A
Printing Position Number and Letter: A3
Plate Serial Number: FW A 165

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Series and Year: 2003 A
Plate Serial Number: FW A 165
Printing Position Number and Letter: A3

Therefore, your site would recognize the password as 2003AFWA165A3.

[tvbcof]

There was some thread similar to this earlier on this board.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3141.msg574197#msg574197

When I was fooling around with arbitrary QR code generation I burnt one for bitcoin.org onto a bill (example in thread) thinking that people would be curious, scan it, and find themselves surfing the bitcoin.org site.

I only have a laser printer hooked up, and the ink didn't stick well.  And it was a giant hassle to align the bill right.  Probably illegal to for all I know.

[istar]

Just a note, in my country I have heard it might be illegal to write on bills. But its one of those laws that nobbody cares about, since noone does it.

How about writing down the value of a Bitcoin vs the value of the dollar bill. Now after a few years, people will see this and think back at when bitcoin was only around $5.

[HostFat]

Even if it can start with dollar bills only, I'd like that the website will be compatible with many other bills from other countries

[SgtSpike]

My take on this idea is a bit more simple.

- Write on each bill "cbtc.com" (or something similarly short - this is short for claim bitcoins).
- User goes to address, types in bill serial number, and receives 0.001 BTC for their trouble (this is what dailybitcoin currently gives out).
- Users can enter as many bills as they want, but the first time each bill is entered, it does not give out BTC.
- The bill also cannot be entered again from the same IP (at least for a payout), nor can it be entered again for 24 hours (somewhat preventing people from just changing IP's to game the system).
- Site is funded by advertising, similar to dailybitcoin.

Thoughts?  It wouldn't require any user funding (though users could certainly donate).  It wouldn't require any complicated passwords or private keys or logins or anything.  Just enter the bill's serial, and you're done!  And if you're feeling greedy, you can go enter them from your friend's house again to get the 0.02 BTC or however much it would add up to.  :p

[HostFat]

This is also good, but my main idea was about finding a way to push people ( everyone ) to put a Bitcoin advertise on all bills that come on their hands. So that other people will find them, and then they'll start also the "game" on other clean bills.

Your idea just push people to find bills already advertised.
I mean that it isn't viral.
They'll found the bill, get the Bitcoins ... and they will not have any reasons to add the bitcoin-adv on clean bills.

Anyway, I think that your idea can be merged with mine in some ways

The main rule of my idea/game is that someone must get a reward by being the first that has advertised Bitcoin on a clean bill.

[deepceleron]

http://this-dollar-is-worth-less-than-a-bitcoin.com
http://you-cant-send-this-dollar-around-the-world-instantly-for-free.com
http://the-dollar-your-government-just-prints-more.com
http://nobody-sticks-bitcoins-up-their-nose.com

or similar (I didn't suggest my better shorter ideas, you think of them before me...), set it up to be a serial number tracker combined with Bitcoin introduction and tutorial.

[deepceleron]

• At the website, anyone can anonymously open an account and deposit any amount of BTC as a donation and incentive for the bitcoin uninitiated.

...
So, anyone mind if I run with this?

Poor choice of words...you'd better not run!

[Phinnaeus Gage]

• At the website, anyone can anonymously open an account and deposit any amount of BTC as a donation and incentive for the bitcoin uninitiated.

...
So, anyone mind if I run with this?

Poor choice of words...you'd better not run!

LOL! Dude, it's not like edd said, "So, anyone mind if I MBC this?" Wait, what?

This is also good, but my main idea was about finding a way to push people ( everyone ) to put a Bitcoin advertise on all bills that come on their hands. So that other people will find them, and then they'll start also the "game" on other clean bills.

Your idea just push people to find bills already advertised.
I mean that it isn't viral.
They'll found the bill, get the Bitcoins ... and they will not have any reasons to add the bitcoin-adv on clean bills.

Anyway, I think that your idea can be merged with mine in some ways

The main rule of my idea/game is that someone must get a reward by being the first that has advertised Bitcoin on a clean bill.

Please forgive us for somewhat hijacking your thread, for we felt like we were still on the same page. But thank you for setting us straight. Your point is valid. The whole idea must be interactive with pullers and pushers, for lack of a better word.

A reward system based on advertisers is probably the best route to take. My only suggestion is that the site is slick looking, as well as being easily navigable. A site where a newbie can earn his first bitcoin, albeit on the backs of advertisers. It's not outside the realm of possibility to incorporate a myriad of ideas as outlined in this thread onto one site, with the waitress idea being fully implemented.

Bear in mind that many of the visitors may be minors, so...

~Bruno~

EDIT!

Users can enter as many bills as they want, but the first time each bill is entered, it does not give out BTC.

Unless those that enter the bills get to choose which ad the finder will see. He's awarded, say, .001 BTC for every 10 bills he adds.