BitCrate - break crates, get free Bitcoins

[Matoking]

So, after spending some of my time learning PHP and MySQL, I've come up with my first Bitcoin-related site : BitCrate

The premise is simple. You enter your Bitcoin address, solve the CAPTCHA, select a crate and get your free Bitcoins. (Payments processed every 24 hours or so) You can repeat this every 24 hours.

The site will be funded by advertising (Operation Fabulous and Anonymous Ads) and voluntary donations, which can be sent to 1GVm5g3Xrvmk7mGXe61UxipGY5DghP6kG

http://www.bitcrate.net

EDIT :
As of June 17, 2012, BitCrate has been closed and will no longer payout visitors.

EDIT 2 :
BitCrate's source code and domain up for auction here :
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88483.0

EDIT 3 :
BitCrate has relaunched under the ownership of mark_logan.

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[rjk]

Nice. I bet "crate breaking" will become the next "wow gold farming".

[DeaDTerra]

yay! I got 0.015 BTC thanks
//DeaDTerra

[Matoking]

Yeah, looks like you got the best prize at the moment at your first try.

If this happens too often, I may have to turn the value of the prizes down a bit. Don't want to go bankrupt during the first hours. (I have no idea how much attention the site will get, so I'll most likely adjust the prizes soon)

[tarrant_01]

Awww 0.002

Cool idea though!

[Matoking]

Currently implementing a new CAPTCHA. Hang on there. Done.

Lowered the value of the prizes. Will probably continue to change depending on what's feasible.

[Stephen Gornick]

(I have no idea how much attention the site will get, so I'll most likely adjust the prizes soon)

Is that because you don't know what kind of ad revenues you'll get from the Captcha and/or banner ads yet?

Great to see you support Bitcoin advertising networks -- Anonymous Ads and Operation Fabulous.

I've added it to the wiki:
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Samples_and_Marketing_Offers

You might want to post to this thread so that BitCrate gets added to the OP:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74046.0

Same here:
 - https://ogrr.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1424

[Matoking]

(I have no idea how much attention the site will get, so I'll most likely adjust the prizes soon)

Is that because you don't know what kind of ad revenues you'll get from the Captcha and/or banner ads yet?

Yes, I can't throw free Bitcoins at people forever, so the site should be able to cover itself in some way. Advertising is planned to be the main source of revenue, but that remains to be seen. I could end up implementing something different than Operation Fabulous, similar to what CoinAd and Daily Bitcoins are using at the moment.

Thanks for adding the site to the list.

[mcorlett]

I would suggest using Ads Captcha, for both verification as well as extra income.

[Matoking]

I would suggest using Ads Captcha, for both verification as well as extra income.

I've looked at it. They don't allow people under the age of 18.

[SgtSpike]

I just won 0.001 BTC to the donation address.  

Would be cool if a person could see "already broken" crates for a specific time period.  So, all the crates that were broken during a given day would show a broken crate with the amount inside of it that was won, then they would all reset at the end of the day.  Or something like that.  That would make it a little more interesting/different from the existing coin-a-day sites.

Would you consider adding firstbits support?  That way, I don't have to worry about whether I am at my home computer or elsewhere - I'll always have an address to put in and use.

[Matoking]

I just won 0.001 BTC to the donation address.  

Would be cool if a person could see "already broken" crates for a specific time period.  So, all the crates that were broken during a given day would show a broken crate with the amount inside of it that was won, then they would all reset at the end of the day.  Or something like that.  That would make it a little more interesting/different from the existing coin-a-day sites.

Would you consider adding firstbits support?  That way, I don't have to worry about whether I am at my home computer or elsewhere - I'll always have an address to put in and use.

That actually sounds kinda neat, need to think how to implement it. I may put up a bounty for some graphics and/or site logo at some point. The site looks pretty bland at the moment.

I'll try my hands at implementing the Firstbits support tomorrow.

[mcorlett]

I'll try my hands at implementing the Firstbits support tomorrow.

I have some PHP code, hold on!

[mcorlett]

I rewrote it from scratch instead:
http://bitcoincash.com/firstbits_demo/
Enter your Firstbits and click outside of the text field.

resolveAddress.php:

Code:

<?php
function firstbits($q) {
	$blockchain = file_get_contents('https://blockchain.info/q/resolvefirstbits/' . $q);
	$blockchain = trim($blockchain);

	// Check if address begins with 1 (very lenient, needs to be improved)
	if ($blockchain[0] == '1') {
		return $blockchain;
	} else {
		// Blockchain.info failed, fall back to Firstbits.com
		$firstbits = file_get_contents('http://www.firstbits.com/api/?a=' . $q);
		$firstbits = trim($firstbits);

		// Check if address begins with 1 (very lenient, needs to be improved)
		if ($firstbits[0] == '1') {
			return $firstbits;
		} else {
			return 'no_match';
		}
	}
}

// Get the query via GET.
$q = $_GET['q'];

// The function output is stored in $firstbits.
$firstbits = firstbits($q);

if ($firstbits == 'no_match') {
	echo 'no_match';
} else {
	echo $firstbits;
}
?>

[schnell]

AMAZING site.
Love the random amount paid out
Any chance of renting some advertising space?
Reviewing you for freebitcoins.co.uk and free-bitcoins.net

[SgtSpike]

I rewrote it from scratch instead:
http://bitcoincash.com/firstbits_demo/
Enter your Firstbits and click outside of the text field.

resolveAddress.php:

Code:

<?php
function firstbits($q) {
	$blockchain = file_get_contents('https://blockchain.info/q/resolvefirstbits/' . $q);
	$blockchain = trim($blockchain);

	// Check if address begins with 1 (very lenient, needs to be improved)
	if ($blockchain[0] == '1') {
		return $blockchain;
	} else {
		// Blockchain.info failed, fall back to Firstbits.com
		$firstbits = file_get_contents('http://www.firstbits.com/api/?a=' . $q);
		$firstbits = trim($firstbits);

		// Check if address begins with 1 (very lenient, needs to be improved)
		if ($firstbits[0] == '1') {
			return $firstbits;
		} else {
			return 'no_match';
		}
	}
}

// Get the query via GET.
$q = $_GET['q'];

// The function output is stored in $firstbits.
$firstbits = firstbits($q);

if ($firstbits == 'no_match') {
	echo 'no_match';
} else {
	echo $firstbits;
}
?>

Mind if I post this to the firstbits website as an example how to use the API?

[mcorlett]

Mind if I post this to the firstbits website as an example how to use the API?

She's all yours!

[viboracecata]

Cool one

[Nyaaan]

Yay, I won the jackpot and got 1 Bitcoin ^_^

[Matoking]

AMAZING site.
Love the random amount paid out
Any chance of renting some advertising space?
Reviewing you for freebitcoins.co.uk and free-bitcoins.net

Yes, send me a PM.

The value of the prizes were lowered after the first 50 payments, 0.015 BTC is no longer the best prize.


In other news, I'm going to send out the first batch of payouts out very soon. (Miners are going to hate me)

18k1X3Lcxd6dF6aykjLzWEGnulfEbD4yS6 was an invalid address, although the site didn't apparently catch that.


First round of prizes have been paid out!

http://blockchain.info/tx-index/3677027/57d1ce4604ef550f138736120acd7d579174ca5d63d793989ed5c7558297e8a6
Looks like it added a whopping fee of 0.602 BTC against my wishes. I'll most definitely go bankrupt soon at this rate. Well, at least miners are happier this time.

I may have to add a minimum payout rate (0.005 BTC? 0.01 BTC?) or get something better than the vanilla Bitcoin client that doesn't get too generous in the name of miner satisfaction.

EDIT :
Ignore all that, I misunderstood how the txfee was set. (It was per kB, not per transaction)
The minimum payout has been removed for now, I'll take a look into it again if it becomes a problem.