[SOLVED] Bitcoin's chicken and egg problem

[ahbritto]

I'd like to point out this wonderful Bitcoin success story: Ogrr.com

The site is ugly!  What it is does is wonderful.

Ogrr is a forum.  It focuses mostly on gamers.  Ogrr's twist over a regular forum is that people can have mBTC balances and trade goods with each other. (FYI: 1,000 mBTC = 1 BTC)

Additionally, next to everyone's avatar is their mBTC balance.  The implication being people with a zero balance have low status. So, everyone has a reason to find some way to have some Bitcoins.

Ogrr has been growing like wild fire.  Ogrr has 1,500 members.  Membership is more than doubling every month.  In the last week it has grown by 500 members.  The previous 500 members took 3 weeks to join.  You can view the membership count at the bottom of the home page.

Ogrr's members seem to be coming from d2jsp.  d2jsp has over 670,000 members.  d2jsp's members have been abused: Advantages of Ogrr and mBTC over d2jsp and FG

Many of the members are likely kids.  Bitcoin let's anyone regardless of age conduct financial transactions over the Internet.  The site has a page that makes it easy for them to find ways to earn Bitcoins: List of websites to earn bitcoins.

Ogrr brings together sellers and buyers of virtual and real goods.  Further, since you can see people's mBTC balance, you can know they have money to spend.  You can tip people with mBTC.  Further, people who engage in transactions can be rated.

If Ogrr continues to grow at this rate in several months, we could have over 500,000 new Bitcoiners.  Imagine if they each wanted 20 Bitcoins.

I've talked to the owner and he assures me that they will have no problem dealing with spectacular growth.

BTW, the first 1,000 people to register and reach 10 (legitimate) posts get 1 BTC: All aboard!

-Arthur

[kiba]

WICKED COOL! 

Anyway, bitcoiners foresee this a long time ago. We just didn't know who's going to execute it.

[bitprotection]

Tipping point? 

[evoorhees]

Additionally, next to everyone's avatar is their mBTC balance.  The implication being people with a zero balance have low status. So, everyone has a reason to find some way to have some Bitcoins.

Excellent point, and great post Arthur!

[Daily Anarchist]

Could somebody feasibly make a living playing online computer games? Slaying dragons and such all day, gaining armor and weapons, selling weapons for Bitcoins, and on and on? That's badass!

[Steve]

Could somebody feasibly make a living playing online computer games? Slaying dragons and such all day, gaining armor and weapons, selling weapons for Bitcoins, and on and on? That's badass!

Why not?  People make money playing all sorts of games and sports.  And selling the related equipment.  (ogrr.com seems great btw)

[triplehelix]

Could somebody feasibly make a living playing online computer games? Slaying dragons and such all day, gaining armor and weapons, selling weapons for Bitcoins, and on and on? That's badass!

in some asian countries, pro video gamers are treated like rock stars.

[evoorhees]

Could somebody feasibly make a living playing online computer games? Slaying dragons and such all day, gaining armor and weapons, selling weapons for Bitcoins, and on and on? That's badass!

There are a number of people who make very good livings playing Starcraft professionally. Sponsors, girls, limos, blow, they have it all.

There's also an entire industry of "gold farmers" in Asia who just kill things in MMO games and sell the gold (it's against the games' TOS, but it's a huge industry regardless).

[FreeMoney]

Love showing the mBTC, brilliant.

[RandyFolds]

Further, since you can see people's mBTC balance, you can know they have money to spend.  You can tip people with mBTC.  Further, people who engage in transactions can be rated.

So how is loading money into your forum account indicative of status? Who is holding the bag? Why should anyone trust them?

[FreeMoney]

Further, since you can see people's mBTC balance, you can know they have money to spend.  You can tip people with mBTC.  Further, people who engage in transactions can be rated.

So how is loading money into your forum account indicative of status? Who is holding the bag? Why should anyone trust them?

You obv shouldn't.

I wouldn't be comfortable leaving much unless I saw a reasonable long term way for them to make profit.

Seems like a possible place to use multi-sig.

[finway]

Nice!

[jimbobway]

When Diablo III comes out this year it is going to be HUGE.

[kjlimo]

BTW, the first 1,000 people to register and reach 10 (legitimate) posts get 1 BTC: All aboard!

-Arthur

Anything I need to do after posting 10 times?  Any thoughts on what makes posts "legitimate" other than just not being spam nonsense?

And yes, I'm looking forward to Diablo III and this sit will be a great resource for that!

[MemoryDealers]

Why should anyone trust them?

I've known the owner of ogrr.com for more than 15 years.
He is 100% trustworthy,  and knows what he is doing.
He has been selling virtual goods online for around a decade,  so I m sure ogrr.com will quickly become a success in the Bitcoin and gaming community.

[cbeast]

The funding for the site appears to require manual approval for both adding and withdrawing. I don't know how they will handle thousands of users. The site appears to use tokens for trading. This way they only need enough bitcoins on hand to send to the few people that actually withdraw. This reduces the risk of hackers stealing a big wallet. It looks like a profitable model that if managed well, will be good for online gamers.

[Nefario]

Awesome.

[ahbritto]

BTW, the first 1,000 people to register and reach 10 (legitimate) posts get 1 BTC: All aboard!

Anything I need to do after posting 10 times?  Any thoughts on what makes posts "legitimate" other than just not being spam nonsense?

How to get your 1 BTC: where?

[kjlimo]

BTW, the first 1,000 people to register and reach 10 (legitimate) posts get 1 BTC: All aboard!

Anything I need to do after posting 10 times?  Any thoughts on what makes posts "legitimate" other than just not being spam nonsense?

How to get your 1 BTC: where?

Thanks lots!

Is there a way to have a referral link?  Or do you have to go through the "invite a friend" link in your profile?

It's taking a little while to invite peeps.

[kiba]

They should obviously looks for way to automate the whole send and receive thing. If it's microbitcoin they're dealing with, they can even afford to have only a 10 BTC hot wallet for instant transfer outside and withdrawal.