The search for Silk Road #2 – Let’s talk fundamentals

[N12]

I have seen two pretty cool sites making use of Bitcoin’s features lately. I see great promise in both of them and suggest to check them out.

1) https://ogrr.com/

Read the creators’s blog post about it. It is a trading forum for virtual gaming goods. It’s been around since the end of October and seems to be starting to pick up some traction now, with 800 out of 1300 members registered during the last month.

2) http://coinworker.com/

This crowdsourcing site I found particularly interesting. I was set up in the time it took me to grab a BTC address and could start making some bitcents. It automatically pays you out (with a 15 min delay or so) and thanks to Bitcoin it is a very smooth process. Coinworker was created in the end of January, and I can imagine people from developing countries with internet access might find this lucrative. There are many crowdsourcing sites already, but their use of conventional payment mechanisms or national restriction (like Amazon’s Mturk which is available to US citizens only, afaik) pose problems.

Does anyone know other cool stuff with such a potential that actually enables new markets thanks to Bitcoin? You know, things that people will probably actually use.

[Bro]

3) Ads Networks, I think there's a LOT of potential there too:
http://anonymousads.com
others??

[Technomage]

http://piratemyfilm.com/

That site has real potential. It now supports Bitcoin and there is actually a project there already that accepts only bitcoins. http://www.piratemyfilm.com/projects/304

The Bitcoin functionality is provided by Bitpay and here is a nice pricing comparison:

For a $5 sale, Paypal takes 30 cents plus 3%, so the producer only gets $4.55.

Using Bit-Pay, the producer gets $4.95.  The nickel comes to Bit-Pay.

Everything that involves a lot of small online money transactions is Bitcoin territory. Crowdfunding appliances fit this area perfectly because a lot of small transactions are involved.

Also one other project I'd like to mention is:

http://bitcoin100.org/

That project hasn't really exploded yet but it's just a matter of time. There is currently 266 BTC just waiting for the first charity to add Bitcoin donation option through the Bitcoin 100 project.

Donations involve a lot of micro transactions which is the main reason why it's only a matter of time before more and more charities start endorsing Bitcoin. It's just so much cheaper than the alternatives and convenient as well.

[N12]

Thanks for the contributions so far, guys! I’ll have a deeper look at them.

Donations involve a lot of micro transactions which is the main reason why it's only a matter of time before more and more charities start endorsing Bitcoin. It's just so much cheaper than the alternatives and convenient as well.

I disagree, Bitcoin is more expensive because you have to dedicate some time to learning to deal with it, and then you need to exchange it back to your local currency at a cost, so doubly inconvenient. You also carry currency risk. I don’t see much hope in donations until there is an actual Bitcoin economy, if ever.

With ogrr for example this is probably not that much of a problem, because there can be a circular flow of Bitcoins to trade goods on the site. The Bitcoins themselves also can buy you stylized nicknames on the forums.

[DeathAndTaxes]

I disagree, Bitcoin is more expensive because you have to dedicate some time to learning to deal with it, and then you need to exchange it back to your local currency at a cost, so doubly inconvenient. You also carry currency risk. I don’t see much hope in donations until there is an actual Bitcoin economy, if ever.

With Bitpay there is minimal learning.  Any charity competent enough to setup CC donations (or hire someone to do it) could handle Bitpay as well.  Hopefully someday a company (Bitpay) or newcommer integrates CC & Bitcoins to allow a single "checkout" function making it easier for charities and small biz.

Granted Bitpay isn't free but it does have three advantages over credit cards:
* Harder to shutdown (i.e. wikileaks & VISA)
* No per transaction fees ($0.30 on a $5.00 donation adds up.  Get 100K donations and you are paying $30K off the top).
* No chargebacks (and assorted "fun" like hacker groups using stolen credit cards to rack up millions in chargeback fees for charity).

[Bro]

I don't think charity is a good niche for bitcoin. Except for charities that seem on the edge of legality like Wikileaks or Sea Shepherd.
Offshore gambling on the other hand.. sportsbook, poker..

[Zotia]

1) https://ogrr.com/

Read the creators’s blog post about it. It is a trading forum for virtual gaming goods. It’s been around since the end of October and seems to be starting to pick up some traction now, with 800 out of 1300 members registered during the last month.

This is awesome.  It's basically a clone of D2JSP.org, but it uses BTC. D2JSP's "forum gold" is the worst thing about it... you can buy it but you can't (legally) sell it.  This creates inflation that only benefits the site's owner.


Now we need a new game that is like Diablo 2 so the site can be take off like D2JSP did.

[damnek]

Launching this spring: http://infinitipoker.com/
I have some expectations for this site.

[marked]

There are many crowdsourcing sites already, but their use of conventional payment mechanisms or national restriction (like Amazon’s Mturk which is available to US citizens only, afaik) pose problems.

I work on mturk occasionally, and am not a us citizen.

The coinworker work source also crowdsource on Mturk.

marked

[paraipan]

There are many crowdsourcing sites already, but their use of conventional payment mechanisms or national restriction (like Amazon’s Mturk which is available to US citizens only, afaik) pose problems.

I work on mturk occasionally, and am not a us citizen.

The coinworker work source also crowdsource on Mturk.

marked

+1 quite nice to see a well known company on mturk, CrowdFlower, provide work for bitcoins too

[Seal]

Also one other project I'd like to mention is:

http://bitcoin100.org/

That project hasn't really exploded yet but it's just a matter of time. There is currently 266 BTC just waiting for the first charity to add Bitcoin donation option through the Bitcoin 100 project.

Donations involve a lot of micro transactions which is the main reason why it's only a matter of time before more and more charities start endorsing Bitcoin. It's just so much cheaper than the alternatives and convenient as well.

+1 good cause

Isn't there somebody providing hosting (paid for in BTC) floating around on this forum too?