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Topic: CoinFunder.com - Bitcoin Crowdfunding for Bitcoin (Read 4179 times)

full member
Activity: 189
Merit: 101
Is this service still on? I see new projects but i dont seem to get any answer from the developers
newbie
Activity: 34
Merit: 0
This is a great idea.  I wish you guys the best of luck.
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
Hey Guys,

We have improved our rich text editor so that including images in the post is much easier.

Get started today:
CoinFunder.com

Also, we have made some advancements in our Search Engine Rankings.  We are getting a steady stream of new users / visitors!
member
Activity: 182
Merit: 10
Thanks for the help DarkPunk!

We have made a few adjustments based on your suggestions, and we will continue to make a few more adjustments over the next few days.  Most importantly, we have adjusted the browse section.

No problem mate.  I'll check back on your site in a few days, and see if I have any other tips for you.
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
Thanks for the help DarkPunk!

We have made a few adjustments based on your suggestions, and we will continue to make a few more adjustments over the next few days.  Most importantly, we have adjusted the browse section.
member
Activity: 182
Merit: 10
Add

Code:
.icon-white {
background-image: url("../img/glyphicons-halflings-white.png");
}

to your css to make the chevron on your landing page white.
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
DarkPunk - no offense taken at all!  Thank you for the constructive feedback, we will go through and try and clean this stuff up a bit!
member
Activity: 182
Merit: 10
OMG SO MUCH BOOTSTRAP!

Okay, now that that is out of my system, can I make a few suggestions?

  • Replace the ">" in your sign up buttons with "" or basically any glyphicon.
  • Reduce the amount of words in your button classes, they aren't text fields.  Add some text inline, or a table, or something; just not in the button.
  • While a full row on your landing page for a project is nice, you should probably reformat your browse page. We don't want to scroll for years to look through the projects.
  • There should be more of a difference on the posting pages (images, descriptions, anything to differentiate what page I'm on)
  • Work on your form layouts, there is a whole 12 columns you can use with bootstraps framework, put them to use.
  • More padding.  The text bumping up against the div boundary on the dashboard, and the loading bar not even a pixel away from the project image, looks very amateur.

I'm not trying to be mean or anything, it's just a bit on constructive criticism.
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
The CoinFunder Team is proud to announce the launch of the 2nd iteration of CoinFunder.com.

What makes CoinFunder different from other CrowdFunding platforms?
1) CoinFunder allows you to post projects / fund projects based on your currency (BTC amount floats as exchange rates change / we support 19 currencies)
-This feature is especially important given the volatility of the BTC market if you are trying to fund projects in a local currency
-Of course, you can choose project owners and funders can choose to pledge in BTC, in which case the amount does not fluctuate
2) Flexibility - CoinFunder allows you to pick between 2 Campaign Types:
-Escrow - A funder is not counted toward your project's goal until the pledge is paid.  Any funds that are pledged are held in escrow until the project reaches it's funding goal.
-Pledge - A funder is counted toward your project's goal immediately once they pledge.  Funds are not requested until the project reaches it's funding goal - they go directly to the Project Owner.

View our Youtube video here for more information:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD5Ghec_CA0

CoinFunder.com allows 2 types of crowdfunding initiatives:
-Projects - A user can post a project and solicit Bitcoins from the community for their idea.  If the idea is fully funded, bitcoins are transfered to the project owner
-Bounties - A user can post a request for a bounty, and fund it.  Other people within the community can contribute to the bounty.  Once a bounty is funded, other people within the community can post solutions for that bounty.  If a solution is approved by the project owner, they can choose to award the solution contributor the bounty.

Our Fees:
CoinFunder has always charged a 5% fee on all initiatives.  In some cases - we may waive our fee all together (i.e. Bitcoin PR Campaigns)

In order to start a project, post a bounty, fund an initiative, or post a solution you must be a member of CoinFunder.com.

We launched our initial version on 3/25.  We have been hard at work adding the features requested by the community.
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
Update:
We have totally re-designed the UI on the search pages!  Check it out:
www.coinfunder.com/browse
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
We have added a new featured project:
http://www.coinfunder.com/project/the-bitcoin-revolution

This is one of the first projects to use the Pledge model.
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
Is bitcoincharts.com the best API to pull the currency values from?  I am guessing it would be best to use the 24 hour weighted average?
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
Thanks for the feedback on the video!  I agree - I also think it could probably present the ideas in a clearer fashion.

On the currency conversion subject, I guess there are 2 directions to look at this.
1) The Funding Goal could be specified in a currency other than BTC, in which case, the value in BTC would fall and rise.  This would probably be necessary where the user was planning on converting the funds from BTC to their home currency to execute on the project.  I am guessing that this would be the vast majority of projects funded in the Bitcoin Community.

2) In the case of a Pledge, I think this is where the currency conversion is needed the most.  If someone pledged X amount of Bitcoin, and they did not set that Bitcoin amount aside designated to this purpose, it could be a real issue.  To combat this, the user could always Cancel their pledge, and then re-pledge a different BTC amount.  Project owners could also add new rewards (of a lesser value) to combat this issue as well.

How much of a priority do you guys think it is, considering that a Pledge can be canceled (prior to the project reaching it's funding goal)
hero member
Activity: 526
Merit: 508
My other Avatar is also Scrooge McDuck
The video was sweet, but kinda long. Perhaps splitting it up to answer different questions would be better.

He suggested that we allow the Project Owner to tie the goal amount to a particular currency (instead of tying it to a BTC amount).  Obviously, the funding would still be in BTC.  I could see this as being a good feature, especially with the fluctuations that we have seen in the BTC value over the past month.  What do you guys think?
Well of course you have to allow people to pledge their local currency's worth!

That's the first thing I thought when I learned about pledging... Could you imagine if someone pledged a bitcoin today and 6 months later the project is done and funding is due and their bitcoin is now worth $5,000?  Or half a million?

That's a deal killer, plain and simple. No one would honor their pledges if the price of bitcoin rose considerably.

After you fix that gaping hole, you really need to spend some time and money on advertsing. I know you're only a week or two old but logging in and seeing no bounties and just a tiny few projects is really disheartening.

...Add some small ones yourself if you have to!

(Oh yeah, and don't forget to put your real information on your WHOIS data at your registrar. The whole outfit looks shady without it.)

...Just my 3 bitcents.
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
Man - no comments on the video. = )

I just received some feedback from a Project Owner. He suggested that we allow the Project Owner to tie the goal amount to a particular currency (instead of tying it to a BTC amount).  Obviously, the funding would still be in BTC.  I could see this as being a good feature, especially with the fluctuations that we have seen in the BTC value over the past month.  What do you guys think?

I have always been a fan of Keep It Stupid Simple - myself.
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
Wurish, you never know!  We will help out where we can.

I have posted some marketing content - we are trying to boost are marketing efforts to get projects more visibility.  Let me know what you think of the video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBlqYUM9hgY
rme
hero member
Activity: 756
Merit: 504
Like Kickstarter but with Bitcoins, great
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
2 New Features Have Been Added:

1) To address potential security concerns, we have added split Projects into 2 different Campaign Types:
-The first Campaign Type is Escrow. This is the campaign type that we launched with.  Under this campaign type, once a pledge is made, the user is immediately requested to make a payment for their pledge.  Until they do this, the pledge does not count toward the funding goal.  In other words, as the escrow account for each project builds, so does it's progress toward it's funding goal.  We chose this campaign type because we wanted to collect the payments up front and hold them so that when the project actually completed, the funding was there.  The downsides to this approach include:
-Single point of failure in CoinFunder.com (What happens if we get hacked / run off with all the coins).   I would like to take this opportunity to point out that funds are routinely transfered to a segregated Cold Wallet for each project.  Hopefully this alleviates some concerns regarding the potential of getting hacked.
-More complicated workflow for refunds, etc (This isn't really a huge downside, it is already built in, but it is a more complicated process in general)

-To help address Security Concerns we are launching a second Campaign Type that we refer to as a Pledge.  Under this campaign type, once a pledge is made, it counts immediately toward that project's funding goal amount. The only way a pledge wouldn't count is if the pledge is canceled.  Once a project reaches it's funding goal based on the total of the Pledge Amounts, the project owner is given the ability to enter the Bitcoin address they would like to receive payment at.  Once the project owner does this, the funders are given the ability to submit payment for their pledges.  These payments go directly to the project owner, without going through CoinFunder.com controlled accounts.
-Obviously, this approach has it's own downsides (someone Pledges, but then they do not pay)
-Over time we will build controls around how many of these type of Pledges you can make toward each Project.  In addition, we will build a rating system that shows how often someone walked.

We firmly believe that each process has it's own advantages and disadvantages.  It is up to each project owner to pick the process that they would like to follow.

EDIT: All existing projects will continue with the current Escrow model unless you tell us to move it to the Pledged format!

2) The second feature we would like to announce is that each project page now gets it's own Slug that the project owner can manage.

Happy Funding!
The CoinFunder Team
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
You are 100% right - here is a quick intro for now.

We have a team of 3 right now.  My name is John Pike - I am based in Texas.  My background is in IT, I have been building web applications and running websites for over 10 years.  We started CoinFunder.com because I saw an opportunity to build a valuable crowdfunding service within the Bitcoin community.  From a little research, it looked like some had tried in the past, but there were none that were active within the community.

We are working on some changes to the website - they should be ready within the next few days.  These changes are focused on building trust in our service, I think that is the biggest problem we have right now!

j980 - Thank you for the suggestion, we have added a plugin that allows you to share each project page on your social website of choice!
member
Activity: 90
Merit: 10
This sounds like a really great idea, but really, who are you? Who's the team behind the site? If you really want the community to support you on this project, I think you would not hurt to be more transparent. So here's my two cents, why don't you make a formal presentation of who are the people behind the project? What are your skills, and perhaps, just for the fun of it, why did you started it in the first place? I'm sure people would feel much more confident using your site once they know who's running it.
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