Bounty for Bitcoin Animated Movie [won]

[bytemaster]

There seems to be a ton of questions that need to be explained and it is VERY hard to teach new people about bitcoin.  I would like to start a community bounty for someone to create an animated video that visually describes what is going on inside the system.  I think that we should establish some specs for the video.

1) Explain what exactly a "bitcoin" is.  More specifically, explain that the system does not track coins, but transactions.  And then show how by tracking transactions you know exactly how much any account/address has.

2) Show the process by which a transaction leaves your computer and enters the block list.  
   a) how does it propagate?  Which nodes hear about the transaction and why.  
   b) how does the block list grow.  

3) Explain proof of work and the math that makes it computationally difficult to "solve a block".   Explain how this difficulty prevents fraud.

4) Explain what is stored in your wallet and how you can transfer coins from your wallet to another wallet.  

5) Explain how the network solves common concerns such as loss split and how transactions are "recovered" upon rejoining the network.  Specifically, if the smaller chain contains 1000's of valid transactions, why would any other node bother pulling them out and trying to integrate them with the new master chain.  


I do not know the answers to all of these questions, but I would like to see a very clear presentation explaining it all.  So I propose a bounty for the best and most accurate video as voted upon by the forum.  Make your pledges below.

I pledge 200 BTC and reserve a tip of another 200 BTC if I think it is VERY well done.  

200 bytemaster
100 noagendamarket

Pledged but not in escrow:
100 FreeMoney
100 creighto
50  llama
100 The MadHatter
3600  theymos (with numerous conditions and partial credit)
100 Ground Loop
500 knightmb
50 Bitcoiner
50 kwukduck (pending first block generation)
23.05 kiba
 noagendamarket + 3 month pro package


Distribution of Funds:
Every movie approved by Satoshi will be put to a vote in a forum poll one week after the first submission is approved.  Coins sent to my escrow will be sent to the winner of the vote.  Everyone else who pledges will get to choose among approved submissions.  The major sponsor (theymos) has conditions of getting to digg front page which is sort of vote by digg.

If anyone has seen any videos worth of the bounty, let me know!

Mod edit: Funds are stored in a Mybitcoin account controlled by bytemaster, Kiba, and noagendamarket.

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[FreeMoney]

In for 100.

My criteria is, Satoshi says "That's accurate".

[MoonShadow]

In for 100.

My criteria is, Satoshi says "That's accurate".

Same for me.  100 if Satoshi blesses the final product as correct.

[The Madhatter]

Same here. Put me down for 100 provided the final product is 100% accurate.

[Anonymous]

Count me in for 100.Do we get producer credits in the movie for donating ?

edit- this site might make it easier to create something http://goanimate.com/

I will donate a 3 month pro package if you make a demo and it looks ok

[martin]

Just to get this straight before I go off and do any script writing

Everyone has a balance stored in their wallet which it how much money they have, much like when you log into internet banking with any other currency. This balance can be changed by sending and receiving money in transactions. A transaction, just like normal, is money changing hands. To keep people honest and stop them spending money they don't have is the real cleverness of bitcoin. When you make a transaction you announce it to the rest of the network. They all check that this transaction is valid. In this way, the amount of money that anyone has is know by the network, and you can't spend money that you don't have (because the network would know and would deny the trasnaction). When you submit a transaction to be verified by the network not everyone can take a vote on if it is a valid transaction, that would make the system too easy to fool with a large amount of nodes all broadcasting that a fake transaction was real, instead nodes do some very difficult computational work (generating blocks), when they complete it that seals the transaction as valid. Other nodes verify this work is correct and in this way votes are limited by CPU power (which is much harder to accumulate large amounts of). Each new block buries old blocks deeper to form a chain of blocks, this makes changing older transactions even harder, so transactions become more certain as time passes. A fraud can only be carried out by generating blocks faster than the rest of the entire network and building a longer chain. When you first join the network (or after rejoining the network) you must download all the blocks generated since you left, once this is done your node can verify new blocks against the rest of the block chain.

[Anonymous]

I think martin left something on his clipboard!

[theymos]

Canceled.

If the video makes it to the Digg frontpage, I will pay 1 BTC per digg it gets (max 2000). I'll also pay 500 if it makes it to the frontpage of Slashdot and 500 if it makes it to the frontpage of Reddit.

Even if it doesn't make it on those sites, I will pay 100 BTC per item below that I feel is satisfactorily covered.
- How Bitcoin works technically.
- Why Bitcoin will work economically.
- Why Bitcoin is better than the alternatives (PayPal, Liberty Reserve, cash, etc.)
- How to get started. Won
- (Professional-looking animation and audio.) Won
- (Long-term value for the Bitcoin community.) Won

So you could get a total of 3,600 from me. The video must not contain any major inaccuracies to qualify. I can help answer questions about how Bitcoin works, and there is a lot of info on the wiki.

[Ground Loop]

Man that would be cool -- a simple animated video showing how the bitcoin works, and an example of use.
I really believe that most people could "get it" with a simple explanation of the core principles.

I pledge BTC 100 to the first animated explanation that is accurate and, well, explanatory.

(It sure would be nice if there was a tangible mechanism for pledging.  Even if bytemaster or anyone trusted/reputable would designate a receiving account for pledges, that would be good enough to send the coin out for holding.  This isn't exactly high stakes.)

[martin]

I think martin left something on his clipboard!

No, that was just jotting notes off the top of my head to make sure I have all the details straight. A script will be far better thought out

[FreeMoney]

I just wrote out some stuff and realized it would derail the thread. I'm going to PM you Martin, and maybe we should start a thread for hashing (not intended) out how best to explain this stuff (and how it works, heh)

[bytemaster]

If the video makes it to the Digg frontpage, I will pay 1 BTC per digg it gets (max 2000). I'll also pay 500 if it makes it to the frontpage of Slashdot and 500 if it makes it to the frontpage of Reddit.

Even if it doesn't make it on those sites, I will pay 100 BTC per item below that I feel is satisfactorily covered.
- How Bitcoin works technically.
- Why Bitcoin will work economically.
- Why Bitcoin is better than the alternatives (PayPal, Liberty Reserve, cash, etc.)
- How to get started.
- (Professional-looking animation and audio.)
- (Long-term value for the Bitcoin community.)

So you could get a total of 3,600 from me. The video must not contain any major inaccuracies to qualify. I can help answer questions about how Bitcoin works, and there is a lot of info on the wiki.

Most excellent!  Though, I doubt we can all agree about how it will work economically.  There are all manner of opinions on that.

[FreeMoney]

Most excellent!  Though, I doubt we can all agree about how it will work economically.  There are all manner of opinions on that.

Yeah, if the video says bitcoin could only be better if there was unlimited coin production I'm not paying.

[bytemaster]

Man that would be cool -- a simple animated video showing how the bitcoin works, and an example of use.
I really believe that most people could "get it" with a simple explanation of the core principles.

I pledge BTC 100 to the first animated explanation that is accurate and, well, explanatory.

(It sure would be nice if there was a tangible mechanism for pledging.  Even if bytemaster or anyone trusted/reputable would designate a receiving account for pledges, that would be good enough to send the coin out for holding.  This isn't exactly high stakes.)

I know I am new around here, but I am personally investing a lot of time / energy into bitcoin.  So, if you trust me you can send pledge money to this address: 1NLPqEyWo9HzPmXG2H8uGG4NBFCV31NarD

[Anonymous]

If the video makes it to the Digg frontpage, I will pay 1 BTC per digg it gets (max 2000). I'll also pay 500 if it makes it to the frontpage of Slashdot and 500 if it makes it to the frontpage of Reddit.

Even if it doesn't make it on those sites, I will pay 100 BTC per item below that I feel is satisfactorily covered.
- How Bitcoin works technically.
- Why Bitcoin will work economically.
- Why Bitcoin is better than the alternatives (PayPal, Liberty Reserve, cash, etc.)
- How to get started.
- (Professional-looking animation and audio.)
- (Long-term value for the Bitcoin community.)

So you could get a total of 3,600 from me. The video must not contain any major inaccuracies to qualify. I can help answer questions about how Bitcoin works, and there is a lot of info on the wiki.

Most excellent!  Though, I doubt we can all agree about how it will work economically.  There are all manner of opinions on that.

I think concentrating on the benefits of bitcoins as a trading currency rather than "getting free money" which seems to be a major misunderstanding at the moment!How many threads have there been about people not getting coins after all the "work" they put in? :)It is essential this be explained clearly and succintly for the new users.

[Anonymous]

Man that would be cool -- a simple animated video showing how the bitcoin works, and an example of use.
I really believe that most people could "get it" with a simple explanation of the core principles.

I pledge BTC 100 to the first animated explanation that is accurate and, well, explanatory.

(It sure would be nice if there was a tangible mechanism for pledging.  Even if bytemaster or anyone trusted/reputable would designate a receiving account for pledges, that would be good enough to send the coin out for holding.  This isn't exactly high stakes.)

I know I am new around here, but I am personally investing a lot of time / energy into bitcoin.  So, if you trust me you can send pledge money to this address: 1NLPqEyWo9HzPmXG2H8uGG4NBFCV31NarD

Sent 100

 

[bytemaster]

I agree, there should be very little focus placed on the "mining" aspect of the system because as it stands now mining is not practical or "encouraging" for most users, trust me I know.  I have yet to earn one block despite 3 machines running for over a week.   As more users join this will just get harder.  I have purchased 250 BTC from Mt. Gox and was very happy with his service.    

When discussing how to get coins mention:

1) transaction fees
2) purchase from Mt. Gox (including charts from Mt. Gox is a plus)
3) sell goods and services

By the way, I think it is fair to say that there is no monetary inflation, but instead the vast majority of coins are held by the system which pays them out to people who do hard work to verify the transactions.  This way of looking at it reinforces that it is not possible to counterfeit coins because all coins have been allocated to someone or to future blocks.  


 

[llama]

This is a great initiative.  I saw the video for Flattr the other day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwvExIWf_Uc

And thought it would be the perfect sort of format for explaining Bitcoin.  I'll pledge 50 BC.

[knightmb]

I'll pledge 500 BTC for a good animated movie that has a laymen explanation of how things work, maybe a sprinkle of technical stuff about why it's safe/secure/etc.

It can't be too technical, people's eyes will glaze over if it starts talking about SHA256 and p2p block chains.

[bytemaster]

I agree that any really good video should not bore people with technical details.  Lets refine the requirements, 10 minutes in length max. 

Questions people will have that need to be answered.  Perhaps people could chime in here and provide their answers.

1) Why does a bit coin have any value?
     - it is free from government control unless they shut down the internet
            - shutting down internet will prevent most credit card systems from working too
     - it enables "cash-like" transactions across the internet
     - it provides some degree of anonymity.   (note: when used properly)
     - there is a limited supply
     - it enables micro-payments
     - it can be backed up
     - other people are willing to trade goods/services for BTC
     - little or no transaction fees

2) How much value does a bitcoin have today? What is current trade volume and trends?  How many nodes?
     - sum up daily transaction totals

3) How do I keep it safe or know that a transaction is legit?  How long does it take?
     - compare risk to risk of a check bouncing or counterfeit cash.   

4) Can someone "hack" the system and steel my coins?

5) What if my computer crashes? 
    - backup your wallet.dat file.  It is hard to "backup" cash in your safe or wallet. 

6) Future Direction
    - cell phone payment at merchants
    - inflation hedge vs government printing press
    - whole new types of start up businesses become possible by removing the
      overhead associated with accepting payments. 


If the video can address all of those concerns then it will help bring new users into the fold. 

At the same time I would like to see a technical "how things work under the hood" video.  Many people will be skeptical and want more detailed information.