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Topic: BlockRun.com - Penny auctions on the blockchain - page 10. (Read 10316 times)

full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
I am based in the US, that sphero robot thing looks kind of neat, thats why I asked.

We can ship the Sphero from Amazon.com (US) if you win. They are cool, check out the video on the page:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/sphero
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
It would be interesting if a 1btc penny (bitcent?) auction was added where each bid was exactly 0.01btc (or other small amount), and each bid reset the 3 block countdown.  The last confirmed bid made when the blockrun runs out wins.  That way someone couldn't just bid 1btc and ruin it.  I could see that going for awhile if there are a few interested parties.
#1 problem with that: blockchain spam. even worse than satoshidice

#2: Why would any rational person bid on it? Sure, you have a chance of winning, but so does everyone else. It's against a rational actor's interest to enter the auction at early, because the game is all about attrition. Once a person makes his 100th bid, he's making a net loss, and everyone knows that. By entering early, he's putting himself at a disadvantage.

This could be interesting and we will be looking at different models of auctions in the next few weeks to perhaps add some different variations.
Are transactions of 0.01 really considered blockchain spam if they include a fee and is above the "non-standard" level of BTC0.00005430? In the long-run, if Bitcoin's market cap is a lot higher, 0.01 could be quite a significant amount of money; so they network should surely have to cope with this.

The workaround would be to require the creation and funding of accounts, but I'm not sure if that is blockrun's intention.

For the moment, I think we'd like to stay away from having user accounts. I like the fact people can simply bid straight to an address and then claim.
full member
Activity: 120
Merit: 100
True, but that is how an actual penny auction works.  It is a form of gambling and playing on people not being rational.  If everyone was rational, Las Vegas and Macau wouldn't exist.

I agree with the blockchain spam issue.  The workaround would be to require the creation and funding of accounts, but I'm not sure if that is blockrun's intention.
legendary
Activity: 2058
Merit: 1452
It would be interesting if a 1btc penny (bitcent?) auction was added where each bid was exactly 0.01btc (or other small amount), and each bid reset the 3 block countdown.  The last confirmed bid made when the blockrun runs out wins.  That way someone couldn't just bid 1btc and ruin it.  I could see that going for awhile if there are a few interested parties.
#1 problem with that: blockchain spam. even worse than satoshidice

#2: Why would any rational person bid on it? Sure, you have a chance of winning, but so does everyone else. It's against a rational actor's interest to enter the auction at early, because the game is all about attrition. Once a person makes his 100th bid, he's making a net loss, and everyone knows that. By entering early, he's putting himself at a disadvantage.
full member
Activity: 120
Merit: 100
dipsy: stop putting up bitcoin for bitcoin auctions. It's retarded because anyone can sabotage the game. All they have to do is put in a bid for 1 BTC and they'll ruin it for everyone.

Yeah, it'd be kind of pointless for them to do that; but agreed, they could do it just to screw everyone else...

We've given BTC18 away so far but perhaps we'll give the 1 coin auctions a rest for a couple of days and see how we go.

If anyone else has any feedback or feature requests, we're always looking to improve BlockRun  Wink

It would be interesting if a 1btc penny (bitcent?) auction was added where each bid was exactly 0.01btc (or other small amount), and each bid reset the 3 block countdown.  The last confirmed bid made when the blockrun runs out wins.  That way someone couldn't just bid 1btc and ruin it.  I could see that going for awhile if there are a few interested parties.
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1005
dipsy: stop putting up bitcoin for bitcoin auctions. It's retarded because anyone can sabotage the game. All they have to do is put in a bid for 1 BTC and they'll ruin it for everyone.
Why not let everyone bid how they like?  Sure, anyone can sabotage the game, but there's a chance that no one will sabotage the game.  People bid on that chance.
hero member
Activity: 602
Merit: 500
Acc bought - used solely for signature testing
I am based in the US, that sphero robot thing looks kind of neat, thats why I asked.
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
Question, where is the country origin of the company, like where are the prizes shipped from? Tempted to bid but don't want to wait a month for my prize  Tongue

We are based in the UK, but try to ship from a local Amazon (.com /.ca /.de/.co.uk/ .whatever). In the case of some things like the drone today and the Pebble smart watches, they are shipped from the UK as we source them locally but post them to the countries listed on the auction page. Where are you based?
hero member
Activity: 602
Merit: 500
Acc bought - used solely for signature testing
Question, where is the country origin of the company, like where are the prizes shipped from? Tempted to bid but don't want to wait a month for my prize  Tongue
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
dipsy: stop putting up bitcoin for bitcoin auctions. It's retarded because anyone can sabotage the game. All they have to do is put in a bid for 1 BTC and they'll ruin it for everyone.

Yeah, it'd be kind of pointless for them to do that; but agreed, they could do it just to screw everyone else...

We've given BTC18 away so far but perhaps we'll give the 1 coin auctions a rest for a couple of days and see how we go.

If anyone else has any feedback or feature requests, we're always looking to improve BlockRun  Wink
legendary
Activity: 2058
Merit: 1452
dipsy: stop putting up bitcoin for bitcoin auctions. It's retarded because anyone can sabotage the game. All they have to do is put in a bid for 1 BTC and they'll ruin it for everyone.
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1000
Casper - A failed entrepenuer who looks like Zhou
If you are 15, you should probably be careful with your Bitcoins and not risk them on games  Wink

Thanks for your warm reminder. Since i got in Bitcoin some time ago, which I got some (2 digit BTC) bitcoin left after having myself equilibrium on the fiat side. So I treat whatever i have here as a lesson fee, if I fail. I have gone thru leverage trading of BTC, dragon tales, plus some more freebies gambling here.

(One put their coins to cold wallet for a reason. Coz one does not simply spend them away)
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
Thx a lot. Too much luck on the super quick blocks lol.

Getting interested to blockspin.com could you reveal some of what it does. I've subscribed Smiley

I am good at HTML, CSS, PHP. pop me a PM if you need some help.
PS: 15 y/o coder... dont trust me too much Tongue

Quote
Thanks for playing, we have 2 more cool things ending tomorrow (subscribe via email on the page):

Sphero robotic ball: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/sphero
Jawbone Jambox, bluetooth speaker: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/jawbone-jamebox

We'll might put another bitcoin on there too
I am in Hong Kong, not in this game.

We're working on a few other projects, we'll be sending out a newsletter about that soon. Thanks for signing up on http://blockspin.com!

If you are 15, you should probably be careful with your Bitcoins and not risk them on games  Wink

If we have any small pieces of dev work, I'll bear you in mind!
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100

EDIT:
Quote
With the current business model WITHOUT minimum incitements, it is not quite sustainable. I love your service and wish you can hang on tight this moment and hope you will go great in future

We either make a profit or loss on each auction, it all depends on how many people bid. Today we made a loss as we had problems and were unlucky with the blocks, but over the last few days we have been making a profit overall.

Overall we are still down, but we knew this would be the case when first releasing a new service.
FYI - if it ever got to the point where lots of auctions ended in one go and we couldn't cover the losses, we would refund ALL bids on these auctions; I think this would be the fairest solution. We are nowhere near this, but you have to consider these things  Wink Hopefully it'll never happen!
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1000
Casper - A failed entrepenuer who looks like Zhou
Thx a lot. Too much luck on the super quick blocks lol.

Getting interested to blockspin.com could you reveal some of what it does. I've subscribed Smiley

I am good at HTML, CSS, PHP. pop me a PM if you need some help.
PS: 15 y/o coder... dont trust me too much Tongue

Quote
Thanks for playing, we have 2 more cool things ending tomorrow (subscribe via email on the page):

Sphero robotic ball: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/sphero
Jawbone Jambox, bluetooth speaker: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/jawbone-jamebox

We'll might put another bitcoin on there too
I am in Hong Kong, not in this game.
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
Thanks for playing, and thanks for the feedback!

We were actually really unlucky as that auction closed...

1: The delay of your Bitcoin rpc server got a pretty darn great delay.
Just as the auction was closing, we had a problem with our node that meant blocks weren't being processed by the BlockRun app Sad We were frantically trying to fix it, but the miners released 4 blocks in 5 minutes (238891 - 238894) and the auction quickly closed before our page had even updated!
Your bid went through and then there were 3 super-quick blocks that meant once the app re-connected, you won  Grin

Why not put a claim button on the ended event page, the navigation now is kinda confusing.
This is a good idea, we'll look into it.

If i didnt fill the countries/address it shows "The Bitcoin Address you have given is incorrect; contact [email protected]". But actuallly is just caused by rejection of blanks input on the Address details.
Thanks, we'll update the form!

Happy customer from 177r6JWcG6mEZRQSPMYbSq7HmtWVahtzWJ  (aka 1CasperDEhyGD81WNPo9qkaFnWxUSWmrqk)

Using the randomness of timing on Blockchian for the penny auction timer is an awesome idea. Keep it on!
Thanks for playing, we have 2 more cool things ending tomorrow (subscribe via email on the page):

Sphero robotic ball: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/sphero
Jawbone Jambox, bluetooth speaker: http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/jawbone-jamebox

We'll might put another bitcoin on there too Wink





hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1000
Casper - A failed entrepenuer who looks like Zhou
Hi BlockRun Team, I really appreciate the work you made (and i have got the winner position! for just 0.011BTC)

Just a few points during my bidding experience that I'd hope that my two cents thought can improve the experience of other users.

1: The delay of your Bitcoin rpc server got a pretty darn great delay. You know the time of penny bids really matters. (PS: the realtime incomings is fines, the problem is on the block count)
Proof: http://imgur.com/ZYXqvdH

2: Why not put a claim button on the ended event page, the navigation now is kinda confusing.

3: If i didnt fill the countries/address it shows "The Bitcoin Address you have given is incorrect; contact [email protected]". But actuallly is just caused by rejection of blanks input on the Address details.

Happy customer from 177r6JWcG6mEZRQSPMYbSq7HmtWVahtzWJ  (aka 1CasperDEhyGD81WNPo9qkaFnWxUSWmrqk)

Using the randomness of timing on Blockchian for the penny auction timer is an awesome idea. Keep it on!

EDIT:
Quote
With the current business model WITHOUT minimum incitements, it is not quite sustainable. I love your service and wish you can hang on tight this moment and hope you will go great in future
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
Closing now!

Micro Drone:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/micro-drone

1 Bitcoin:
http://www.blockrun.com/auctions/1-bitcoin-12

We now display the miners fee on pending bids; this should give an indication of how quickly a bid is likely to be accepted into a block.



edit: the reason is to get the 0.5 BTC reward for testimony. (0.5 net profit for me)

Thanks grue, much appreciated. We will now pay BTC0.1 to forum winners who post back here and also give us a picture. Just ask after you claim the prize  Wink
hero member
Activity: 546
Merit: 500
I actually disclosed ahead of schedule. Just check the original post Tongue

Oh. Well that was anti-climatic.
legendary
Activity: 2058
Merit: 1452
My motive for winning the auction will be disclosed 7 days from now.

7 days and 1.5 hours later...

I'm curious now!
I actually disclosed ahead of schedule. Just check the original post Tongue

1BTC bid for a 1BTC prize?  Huh
http://blockchain.info/tx/4e8a9a556a90b1c7a979c0514ad2e5b463e9d914cf7ab1cb4ee85cc71f0f77b0

Also yeah, come on grue, I've had no sleep this past week cos of you Wink
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