Topic: CryptoVest Physical Litecoins - page 4. (Read 15992 times)

PM sent

I just wanted to stop in and say thanks! I've been really busy answering emails, assembling coins & packages, etc... along with my day job it has actually been hard to find time to sleep lately. I think that is a good problem to have, but I haven't had as much time to respond here on the forums & am a bit behind in emails. Since ~November 22 (the websites launch), we have sold over 1048 coins. This is much faster than expected. I might need to hire some extra help for assembling to keep up. For instance.. 321 coins have been ordered since Monday. Most of these coins will be shipped tomorrow & the rest on Friday.. just in time for Christmas for domestic orders.

We shipped all orders up to orders that were place last Sunday. The cut off time for domestic first class mail is this Friday. Please get your order in by tonight if you want it by Christmas. If you want to pay for express shipping this weekend, email [email protected] and I will send you an invoice via coinpayments.net or paypal with the added shipping costs. If you are an international customer, it is most likely too late to get your order by Christmas, but please email me and I will see. Cut off times vary by country.

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Coin capsules are now available in the store.. both with Firstbits and without, your choice: http://imgur.com/a/CCpl3

A coin capsule is a plastic airtight coin protector, they are good for long storage of coins for protection. There is the option to add the "Firstbits" of your coin to the inside of the coin capsule via semi clear white tape. This way you can keep track of your coins without worrying about the plastic bags that come in the standard packaging. You may type the Firstbits of each coin in any block explorer to see the transactions to and from the coin. The Firstbits are the first 7 characters of an address.

Please submit the Firstbits of your coins in your order message during check out for this option if you are ordering coin protectors for coins that are already in your possession or coins that you personally assembled. Otherwise, we will email you and request the Firstbits. Please note if you are ordering an assembled coin for this coin capsule, see the coin's web store page and the capsule is an added option. Ordering the capsules that way will let us know ahead of time not to request the firstbits from you and that we should generate them.

I bought 75 coins a few hours ago... what's the average delivery time? I'm anxious

order placed, now the dreaded wait.

this time of year is the worst for packages ex US to Australia.

no doubt will be worth the wait.

these will be loaded and half will be given to family and the other framed on a wall for prosperity. very nice work CH. cant wait.

BTW you have PM

International & domestic customers should have better shipping costs now for lower quantities of coins. In some cases international shipping is ~$15 cheaper than it was when I was using straight flat rate prices. Please let me know if shipping costs seem out of whack. It is very challenging to get shipping costs to automatically calculate dynamically for each user ACCURATELY. I played with the numbers/dimensions for about a hour and I think I finally have the shipping costs somewhat accurate to their actual costs.

If something seems way too low or way too high, please tell me.  

Thanks!

A few random updates:

Re: Fincen
There are two way I see that I could get Fincen's attention and have them contact me:
1. Sell loaded coins. This could be argued as being a money transmitter... both crypto->crypto and FIAT->crypto.
2. Sell coins made of precious metals. This could also be argued as being a money transmitter. Exchanging cryptos/FIAT for precious metals (AKA. other stores of value.) The way I read Fincen's guidelines it includes precious metal exchange as money transmission, and I believe the government agrees with me at the moment. I think this is the reason Coinabul was subpoenaed earlier this year by the NY division of FINcen.

I am currently doing neither #1 nor #2, and I don't plan on doing those any time soon. I will sit on the 1000 coins I was planning on selling as loaded coins, until it is determined that I can sell them legally without registering as a MSB. I do not want to break any laws by doing this stuff, the last thing I want is a letter from Fincen. It is for this reason that the plans for the 1000 loaded coins may change. I have not really determined a course of action as of yet and am awaiting the outcome of Casascius' decision to stay in business or close up shop. Casascius has a lot more money for lawyers than I do, so if his legal team deems that selling loaded coins is indeed money transmission and/or chooses not to fight Fincen on this issue, then I will follow suit.

Again, for the time being I feel like what I'm doing by selling unloaded coins with no precious metals is well within the Fincen guidelines and it is not necessary to file as a MSB. Therefore, I will continue about business as normal (except the loaded coins will have to wait and/or have a change of plans for them).

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(legal bs aside)

We've now sold over 750 coins since November 24th. I am quite surprised at the interest in these, thanks a lot to everyone that ordered!

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Fun facts for the day:

Yes, I know I made up the word unassembled. 

I saw the first two coins being sold on Ebay the other night. Someone had loaded it themselves and sold one for $99 and the other for ~$100. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=cryptovest&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc

Not bad.. well played sir. 

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We are trying to stay on top of the orders, but are finding ourselves falling behind several days at times. We have now shipped out all orders made up to today's orders. Please excuse us if there is a 1-3 business day delay in shipping.

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I will get a different shipping option enabled for international customers late this week. If ordering 20 coins or less, this will be cheaper than the current flat rate price. Also, coin capsules will be available in the store early next week for a nice way to store your coins. I think they will be $0.99 extra, and if you choose not to buy one your coin will simply be placed in a plastic bag (like all other orders have been done up to this point.) It is recommended to buy one, because you can place the piece of paper with the Litecoin address/QR code inside the capsule so it is less likely that you'll lose it. I am also looking at getting custom packaging for those that choose to buy the coins without a capsule, but I will not have these until sometime next year.. this will be much more professional than a plastic bag.

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The key insert generator does not work on Mac/Linux computers, because of the .NET framework requirements are not fully compatible with WINE just yet. Please take this into consideration when deciding to buy assembled or unassembled coins.

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Thanks again to everyone for your orders, I hope you like your coins!

Effective immediately, you can pay with 26 different ALT coins in our online store via coinpayments.net

Including:
LTC   Litecoin
ADT   AndroidsToken
ANC   Anoncoin
BQC   BBQCoin
CAP   BottleCaps
CGB   CryptogenicBullion
DGC   DigitalCoin
DVC   Devcoin
FRK   Franko
FTC   Feathercoin
GLD   Goldcoin
IFC   Infinitecoin
KGC   Krugercoin
MEC   Megacoin
NET   Netcoin
NMC   Namecoin
NVC   Novacoin
PPC   Peercoin
QRK   Quark   
RED   Redcoin
SXC   Sexcoin
TRC   Terracoin
WDC   Worldcoin
XPM   PrimeCoin
YAC   YaCoin
ZET   Zetacoin

I'd try something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-DIRECT-FIT-COIN-CAPSULES-PLASTIC-HOLDER-ONE-OUNCE-SILVER-ROUNDS-39MM-/130867893295?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e7855942f

or these look nicer: http://www.ebay.com/itm/25-Airtite-Coin-Capsules-Holders-with-White-Rings-for-1oz-Silver-Rounds-39mm-/141082405076?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20d92aa8d4

Perhaps I should buy some and offer them for sale in the store. Thanks for your order.

Does anyone have recommendations for coin holders for these?  I'm going to give some away, and I don't want to pass them out naked.

Good norman, thanks for the review & the suggestions! I admit if I could go back and do a couple things differently, I would. This is a learning experience for me so all suggestions are much appreciated.

I have some holograms with windows of the same design, and am planning on using them on the 1000 loaded coins of the same design. I wanted them to be easily distinguishable from unloaded/customer assembled coins. Along with having the holograms with windows, I am developing different tamper evident techniques in an effort to thwart the hypodermic needle attack (and by coincidence, potentially help against other attacks as well.) I plan on basically combining every tamper evident method I can think of- using more than holograms to protect the private keys. Even still I'm sure as new technologies are developed these tamper evident techniques will be broken as well. But, I think in the near term future they will be fairly secure.

With current regulatory issues, I'm not sure I will even be able to make the loaded coins. They might end up being sold unloaded, but with windows and extra security features. I'm not really sure and I'm waiting to see how that plays out. I feel like what I'm doing now by selling unloaded coins with no precious metals is within the law and not considered money transmission. Selling loaded coins might put me on the other side of that fine line of regulatory status. We shall see...

Thanks for your order norman!

I got my coins in the mail today.  They look really nice.  They are a little larger than I expected from the pictures. which isn't bad at all.  I like the feel.  I wish the hologram had an id number of some sort on it so I could store each coins address along with the number in case I wanted to give it to somebody and show them the value.  (in addition to general record keeping)  I'm also tempted to load more than 1 LTC on these, but without any numbers on them, I'd be afraid I'd lose track of which one is which.  (maybe that's intentional)  I also would really like higher denominations.  Even with the increase in value of litecoins, 1 LTC is not very much.  Maybe it will be some day, but it seems like 10 LTC coins would be closer to the sweet spot for me. 

Some answers to questions via email:

- If you get an error while opening the coin insert program, make sure the Microsoft.NET framework is installed & updated (try to repair it if it is already up to date.) You may download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17718

- Disregard the wax paper in the early promotional shipments. At first I was using this to transfer the holograms, but I found it much easier just to use the paper the hologram is already stuck to. This way has a much higher success rate too! I should of thought of that sooner, I am actually embarrassed I didn't. Follow these innstructions closely for the application of the hologram:

1. Take the two holograms in the kit and fold them where both holograms are on the outside. Place your thumbs on the front hologram and your pointer fingers on the back hologram. Slowly push down the back hologram with your pointer fingers until you peel half of the hologram off of the paper.

2. Line up the hologram so it is right side up and carefully put one edge of the hologram down on the coin. After putting one edge of the hologram down on the coin, peel off the rest of the paper from the hologram and let it fall into place. Run your finger around the hologram lightly to make sure it is attached. Use caution not to press too firmly on the hologram where the coin insert is, as it can warp the hologram and make it look bad. It is best to only apply pressure around the raised ring on the back of the coin.

- If you need any further assembly clarification let me know. I am going to try and make a video this week illustrating the process. I understand how the assembly instructions could be confusing. Once you do one though, it's really easy to do. That's why I provide two holograms.

We have sold over 250 Physical Litecoins to over 15 countries during our first week in business. I’m so glad people are interested in the coins, your support will help us continue this project and release more coins in the future. If you haven't done so, please check out our website to place an order: https://www.cryptovest.com. All orders that were made before today have been shipped. Thanks for all your support, we hope you all like your coins!

Updates:

Re: Using 1/2 inch hole punches to assemble a bunch of coins:
I tried out two half inch hole punches to quickly cut out private key inserts, but I was disappointed with both. They are easy to use and both have a window for precise cutting, however they cut too large of a circle and cut pretty far outside the lines. This causes a bulge when the coin is assembled. If you don't care about that, then these hole punches are recommended (let me know and I'll sell you one for cheap.) I will not use them on our assembled coins though, because of the said bulge in the hologram it creates. The models I tested were Ek Tools "Mini Punch" and Paper Shapers (a... ummm... ek tools company) "Decorative Punch". Both were labeled as 1/2 inch punches.

How many Zinodaur Physical Litecoins will be made?
There will only ever be 3000 unloaded coins with this design and 1000 loaded coins (with added security features- not yet for sale.) Once all 3000 unloaded coins and the 1000 loaded coins sell out, there will be no more coins minted with this design. There will only ever be 5000 original Zinodaur holograms made, once all 5000 have been sold, the replacement hologram will have a slightly different design, likely with the year they are made on them so they are easily distinguishable from the originals. By only releasing the original coins and holograms in limited quantities, we hope to increase the collectors value of the coins & holograms (although we cannot promise this.) Over time as coins get redeemed, the original holograms will become more and more rare. Also, coins in pristine condition will become more and more rare over time, be careful when handling your coins because dropping them from about the waist high can damage the coins (hardly noticeable, but you can see it upon close examination.)

General security procedure upgrade:
All holograms, printed private key inserts (sometimes more are printed than needed), and the laptop used to generate and print private keys are stored securely in a safe at all times. The only record of the private keys and addresses used for our assembled coins are either hidden under the hologram, or shipped to the customer. Absolutely no record of addresses and private keys are kept by us, and assembly is personally overseen by me and done by trusted family members. IF the safe is stolen, all coins that have been assembled and/or shipped are not compromised.

Security procedures for assembled/loaded coins:
1. A brand new laptop was purchased for generating & printing private key inserts. The Windows setup was completed without file sharing enabled.

2. I connected to my personal password encrypted Wifi to do the following things:
2a. Update the Anti Virus (McAfee) and perform a full system scan.
2b. Saved local copies of bitaddress.org & liteaddress.org
2c. Downloaded the CryptoVest Coin Insert Generator from our web server & also the Casascius Bitcoin Utility program from Casascius' server.
2d. Microsoft Office was installed in case it is needed for later projects.
2e. Installed the printer drivers.
2f. A full scan with McAfee was ran to ensure the PC was clean after downloading the needed files.
4. No extra web browsing was done, I simply downloaded the needed files and updated the needed programs.. nothing else. The reason for connecting to the internet at all: I felt this was safer than downloading everything on my normal PC (used for web browsing, etc.) and saving it on a flash drive or disk. Although I am pretty certain my normal PC is not infected (I have held 100-800 BTC on here in the past several months and I think this would have disappeared then), I thought it safer to use a fresh install, only download the things I needed, and never connect to the internet again.
5. I disabled the Wifi network adapter. This will stay disabled for the remainder of the laptop's life, and this computer will never connect to the internet again.
6. The laptop along with all holograms and printed private key inserts are stored in a safe. If this safe is ever stolen, all coins that have been sold & shipped are not compromised, as no record of the addresses or private keys are being kept after coins are assembled.
7. I personally oversee the assembly of all coins and only use trusted immediate family members to help me assemble them. No records of private keys or addresses are kept by us.

Price change for unassembled coins:
After assembling hundreds of coins, we've come to the realization that it takes just as long to put together the package for unassembled coins as it does to actually assemble them. Therefore, we needed to adjust the price of the unassembled coins accordingly. I apologize about this, I am kind of learning as I go here and  did not realize how long it takes to assemble the coins/packages. Both assembled and unassembled coins will now sell for 2.99, so if you ordered in the first week you got a good deal (we hardly broke even on those coins.) For the success of the business, to bring different designs to the community, and to make more coins & replacement holograms in the future, this price adjustment was necessary.

Bulk Packaging:
Bulk packaging has been implemented on all orders of 20 coins or more, because it is easier to assemble many coins this way and also easier for us to prepare the packages. A 10% discount is applied automatically when adding 20 coins or more to the shopping cart. If the coins are for gifts, please specify that you would like individual packaging (or even bulk packaging on smaller orders) and we will accommodate you. All orders under 20 coins are automatically sent in individual packaging.

What's next?
We are planning on making a better quality replacement hologram for the Zinodaur coin, a physical Bitcoin (design yet to be decided), and minting LikeHero's Physical Litecoin design (+hologram). I am looking into increasing the quality of both the coins and the holograms the next time around, yet still keeping the low prices. There is no ETA on those, so please don't expect them anytime soon... I am pretty much a one man operation (when it comes to choosing designs/manufacturing/security/web site/customer service/etc.. I only have help for assembly/shipping). I also have a day job along with a couple other crypto related projects that keep me busy. I love doing things for the community because I love the original libertarian principals of cryptocoins and I want to help further their adoption. I am not doing this because I have a huge stash of coins. I do not plan on stopping anytime soon, so expect more affordable novelty cryptocoin products from us in the future.

Thanks again to everyone that has ordered for your support! I hope to offer more products and services in the future,

Ch

Some clarification:

The coins are made with a Zinc Alloy material. Be careful not to drop them from a high level, as they will show small defects depending on how they land... like from the waist to the floor. Even then the defects are only noticeable when examining the coin up close. I recommend keeping them in the bag provided and handling them with care.

Some assembly clarification/tips & also how to redeem the coins: You cut out the small circle on the paper inside the lines, but leaving all the characters of the private key and face the private key towards the coin. The address next to each coin insert is the address used to load the coin, and the QR code is the same address associated to the coin... it makes it easier when loading them (you can scan the addresses with your phone and email them to yourself etc..)

I recommend a 1/2 inch scrapbooking punch if you're cutting a lot of coin inserts. Scissors can get tedious. I ordered two different kinds of half inch punches and am testing out to see which one is the best. I will update everyone on those test results. Right now I am cutting them out with scissors, but I imagine the hole punches will be easier. Such as this: http://www.etsy.com/listing/60417118/paper-shapers-12-inch-circle-paper-punch?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_listing_promoted&utm_campaign=supplies_low&gclid=CMvijLqEi7sCFaTm7AodensA8Q


As far as redeeming the coins,

1. Use Liteaddress.org to convert the mini key to a normal Litecoin private key. Click on the wallet details tab and type in the private key as it's shown on the coin insert. Copy the 51 character base58 private key.

2. Download the Litecoin client from Litecoin.org and download/sync the block chain. Go to the Help Tab, select the Debug menu option. Click on the console tab to enter commands into console. Use a combination of the following (depending on if your wallet is encrypted or unecrypted):
walletpassphrase
importprivkey [label]

3. Wait for the block chain to sync. This can take a long time and it will seem like the client froze. Just be patient and wait for it.. go do something else as sometimes it takes upwards of 15-20 minutes. Once it's done, the value will show up in your wallet and you may spend it however you like.

Hope this helps,

Ch

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! Thank you all for your support these last two weeks, it is much appreciated! I am happy to say we have shipped out over 100 coins to over 10 countries. I have been reminded by this endeavor that Bitcoin/Litecoin is such a global movement, and I am excited to see what the future brings for both!

This is kind of last minute, but today for Bitcoin (& Litecoin  ) Black Friday, there will be bulk pricing on all orders. I changed the price on the product page manually because I was having trouble getting the sale/coupon functions to work properly. After today, prices will go back to normal for the time being.

The SSL issue has been fixed. Thanks mpjetta/carnth for giving me tips on how to fix it! I had made the website before I got the SSL cert, so some images were still linked using HTTP instead of HTTPS.

Thanks again,

Ch

Paypal issues have been fixed. Still working out the kinds in the website.

If you submitted an email through the form on our contact us page, please resend a regular email through your normal email client. Of course you can simply contact me here too (I come here more often than the business email account anyways.) Spam bots have hit the Contact Us page and sent me 300 spam emails. I had to delete them all because I didn't have time to go through and see if they were actually all spam or if there were some real customer inquiries.

I'm busy with work/assembling coins through tomorrow, but I'll have some time over the holidays and weekend to try and fix things on the website such as the SSL problem and this.

My apologies and thank you!

Google Chrome says there may be a problem with the SSL connection (IE doesn't show that there are any problems.. not sure about Firefox.) I'm not a web developer/designer, so fingers crossed I can figure it out on my own. If anyone has any suggestions on how to go about fixing this, any help would be much appreciated.

If you feel uncomfortable ordering from the web site because of this, I will still take orders via PM until this is fixed. Please still use the website to figure out the total costs for what you want and shipping cost.

Thank you.