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Topic: [IDEA] $abc cookie (Read 996 times)

sr. member
Activity: 312
Merit: 265
August 16, 2012, 01:03:32 PM
#4
Discussion of this feature is continued here:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1104631
sr. member
Activity: 312
Merit: 265
August 08, 2012, 01:21:27 PM
#3
Yes. As I mentioned, the $abc token is only for the sender/receiver to establish a verified communication channel -- the actual transfer of money can be done in variety of ways.  Transfer to a bitcoin address is the simplest, however, here are some options:

- recipient opens a tip jar on Propster, and so he receives props using any method supported on Propster (USD, BTC, Flattr Style, One-time).
- if both sender and recipient are on a 3rd party service (Flattr, Dwolla, Paypal) and both prefer that, they can choose that. In this case Propster was just a mediator.

Also, the service can be on a separate domain, like a url shortener.  This could actually be generalized to be a "connect token service", nothing to do with donations, but only with establishing a channel. So I'd write in a comment:

"props to you, connect/abc"

or,

"props to you, ping/abc"

then, Jack would have to reply:

pong/abc "unique id string"

The "unique string" is something I realize now that I need in order to verify that Jack is Jack. It could be a bitcoin address created by the mediating site (ex: Propster), or some short id. Ex:

pong/abc 742

In the original case, the "thank you" message would have to read,

"Thanks for $abc-742"   or

"Thanks for $abc, my bitcoin address is 1HQ9QMw1...22tnWxM95e"

--

Or, maybe the cookie should be a "bitcoin cookie", like so:

"props to you Jack, here's a bitcoin cookie for you btc123"

Then the mediating site would be called Bitcoin Cookie  (or a page "Bitcoin Cookie" on Propster.me), and a google search would easily find it. Is that better ?
legendary
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1003
Ron Gross
August 08, 2012, 02:25:39 AM
#2
Nice concept.

You should make the donation reclaimable by its sender, because a lot of people won't bother to collect these $abc cookies.
This is what Blockchain.Info does - you can send BTC to your email contacts / Facebook friends, but the BTC is kept in a certain state such that you can reclaim them whenever you want.

When the recipient claims the BTC, you then proceed to move the funds to their account, and from this point on the sender cannot claim them.
sr. member
Activity: 312
Merit: 265
August 07, 2012, 11:38:13 PM
#1
I am the creator of the Propster donation site. Here's my idea.

Imagine you read a very helpful thread on some forum, say Hacker News, and a guy with nickname Jack123 wrote something helpful. So you want to write something like: "Thanks Jack, that really helped me".  The problem with this is that Jack can't do much with your "thank you".  To make it more of a real thank you you could write:

"Thanks Jack, here is a 0.1 bitcoin for you, you saved me a day of work. Email me at [email protected] so I can give it to you."

But, obviously, it's not the internet way. How about this:

"Thanks Jack, a $abc cookie for you"

What is $abc ? Well, Jack googles it, he would find a page:

propster.me/$abc

(this obviously doesn't exist now).  A visitor to this page will be asked to claim this cookie, by providing the following info:

- url of the page that the cookie was mentioned (news.ycombinator.com/...)
- his nickname as it appears on that page (Jack123)
- his contact email or bitcoin address

He is then instructed to add a comment on that page with words:

"Thanks for $abc".

Because I have created the $abc cookie in advance, I'm its owner. I am now being contacted by the Propster system with notification that Jack123 wants to pick up my gift.

To help me verify that it is really Jack contacting me, I am presented with the screenshot of the part of the site with the thank you comment. I know it is really Jack123 who is claiming it and  I click Approve.  At this point a verified communication channel between Jack123 and me is established, and the exact delivery of money is straightforward (bitcoin, tip jar etc).

If someone else is reading the same comment, and likes it as well, he can chip-in to the $abc cookie, by going to propster.me/$abc and adding money to it.

The verification step that Jack is Jack can be streamlined for particular hub sites. For StackExchange, all that is required of Jack is to sign-in with his StackExchange id (since StackExchange is an openid provider). For other hub sites and forums the verification can involve asking Jack to modify his profile page by adding a particular string to it (ex: his new Propster bitcoin address). Then, that could be automatically checked. If twitter account is known (from the profile page), all is required is a twit with a certain string.

Obviously there can be many cookies, all in the form of a dollars sign and three letters. This gives a lot of possibilities to start, then the length can be extended. Every cookie is created and owned by a Propster user. Basically, it is a token that, once you create it, you can go around and give to people you wanna thank.
The actual amount of money delivered is dependent on the Propster user settings, not with the cookie itself. Cookie is only a token to get two people to connect.
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