Topic: Thinking about creating my own physical Bitcoin... (Read 3668 times)

Thanks for the suggestion!

Here is a link that might help someone design a more accurate map. Regardless of what is in the center, it would be nice if the map had more realistic (equitable) proportions. http://www.petersmap.com/

Hey, I'll take criticism!  Criticism is good.

Certainly, the design on the prior page is not meant to be a final design - I will fully admit that I am no graphic design guru!  From what I gather, most mints have graphic designers on-hand to help with designing a great-looking coin, so those will likely be the professionals I turn to.  But, if you have any specific suggestions for improving my rough-draft design, I would love to hear them. 

Thanks, I will!

Put me down for 10 of the first 150.

Actually, I take back my original comment, don't use fivver.com.

In fact don't go with CC either, spend some real money on a real designer and this thing will go much much further.

There is a reason why some gold and silver coins always fetch a premium, this is what you should be aiming for.

Don't go cheap, you will regret it!

Also consider this, you are the second person ever to create a physical bitcoin, how do you want to be remembered?

There's quite a few CC vector images in Wikimedia, maybe one will be helpful for you?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a0/World_map_with_points.svg/603px-World_map_with_points.svg.png

This may sound cheap but have you tried fivver.com yet for ideas on design? Just $5.00 each.

I know this may come off as sounding harsh but the design that I saw a few pages back is hideous, please reconsider it.

Ok, I'll change it from the americas to something else.  Just hard to find other views of the earth with CC licensing in a format that can easily be changed to what I want.  But it will be done!  Mosty, I just want to be sure that it is easily recognizable as the earth, even when partially obscured by lettering, etc.

Binary on the edge of the coin is an interesting idea, or maybe even something else on the coin edge.  I was thinking of even just doing a basic rough edge like you would find on a US quarter.

I didn't even change from the default font, not knowing what might look good.  Any suggestions on a specific font I could try?

Well casascius coins bring that kind of markup because Mike's reputation and trust has earned it. Any new coin will have a long road ahead of it in order to be as successful as casacius coins; it can and I believe it will be done though.

As for the design, I wouldn't worry about it to much. You only have 1 competitor and to be honest, his 1 BTC coins are kind of "ehh" to me.

My thoughts on the design: Having the Americas on the obverse might be too American-centric? (Although you would have the other countries on the back they are smaller.) The binary goes on the edge of the coins? And have it say something else? Maybe a different font that gives more of a feeling of "safety", "security", "trust"?

Would definitely be interested if you make it look good and be secure. Around B1.4 would be better because a Casascius coin is B1.6 retail now.

Yep, that makes sense!  I'll try to target a small denomination on a cheap coin (but still secured by the best security hologram I can buy) for those sorts of purposes.

Thanks for the advice data_teks.  As I said, it would take around 150 coins preordered at 1.4 BTC/ea to cover the fixed and variable costs (including funding the coins).  I am not sure I could generate that much in pre-orders, but it is so hard to tell how much of a market is out there!  I might just create a quick market survey to find out.

I really wish I had the funding to just bootstrap it myself.  I mean, I could if I took out some debt, but I really don't have any room in my budget to support debt payments.  We're a single-income family with college loans, a mortgage, and all of that, there's just not that much room there.  Still looking around for whatever options present themselves.  I've spoken with a few people interested in investing, but haven't had any satisfactory deals work out on that end either.

Thank you, I appreciate the feedback, having smaller denominations like this really helps to spread the word about these things.

Sure I could buy 10 Casascious coins but that would cost me $1000+ USD. I would love to be able to buy $100.00 of .05 BTC coins to send to my friends, family, holiday gifts etc.

   The only thing that could hurt this whole situation is relying on pre-orders from this forum to pay for everything. Even if you collect the funds, you're still looking at a minimum 4-6 weeks turn around before your coins are even minted and shipped from most companies (I've checked).  Then you got to have the holograms created.  So now you got to put everything together and ship them which will be quite time consuming as well especially since I'm assuming you have a day job. (this won't pay the bills for awhile).

   Not saying it can't work, but people are looking at least 2+ months to receive their coins after a successful funding; this is also assuming everything goes perfect on the manufacturing end that is out of your control. Due to such a long wait, you would almost have to keep 1 BTC from every pre-sale to fund your 1 BTC coins as you never know what the price of BTC will be in 2-3 months after you've funded your project here. So now your stuck with having to raise enough money from the little extra btc of every presale, which means you need lots of presales; might pose a problem.

  I just see to many post on these forums where people jump to conclusions and any delay on your end might have some people trying to label you a scammer and give you a bad name before you can even get your coins out; could be the death of your business before it even starts.  For those reasons, I believe it's best to just bootstrap this (or most of it) and get it all done behind the scenes away from this forum but remain active in the community.  But if you do decide to do it, I would definitely do it quick before some scammer reads all these post about people wanting to throw their money at a preorder of a physical coin and runs off with peoples' money.  Because after that, good luck trying to get enough pre-orders for a project like this.

That's not a bad idea chainsaw, I'll certainly consider it!

I've been talking to a few people and gathering additional advice, etc from various people.  Good stuff, and it certainly gives me better bearings on what all will need to go in to making this a reality.  I don't believe it is too complex a project, just time consuming.  Should be well worth it though.

Speaking of design... is there any additional input with regards to improving the design I posted?  I didn't end up getting a whole lot of feedback on that.

@NewLiberty - I appreciate you supporting this project!  Engraving is not required - if nothing else, I can always print the firstbits on the hologram rather than engrave it into the coin.  I'll send you a PM.

Spike - my apologies, I hadn't fully thought through #-of-unique-addresses-per-firstbit.
It was an attempt to segment releases, using your idea, so there was a limited history, and an easy way to know chronology.
Perhaps you could achieve the same effect like so:

Name each release by the name of the single, special firstbit. That coin is always mint #1 of the series.
In this example, you'd take your 100 bidders, and the single, highest bid would get the 1music coin, of the 1music series.

The important thing is the general incentivization structure that lets you pre-collect funds, while protecting both buyer and seller in case you don't get enough funds.

I'd jump on NewLiberty's expertise, as well as anyone else willing to chip in.
There are a lot of unique skills necessary to pull this off, but this is a GREAT opportunity to crowdsource those skills.

I'm really glad this is moving forward with so much promise.  Nail down a kickass design for the coin, and you should be golden.

Count me as a customer/supporter as well.
Especially if you will take payment in silver/gold.
If you want to partner.  I have the manufacturing/design/distribution elements covered as well for minting, though your project seems to be a better fit for engraving over minting.  I may be able to see many of the pitfalls that are ahead for you, if you want to chat about it sometime.

I fully support this spike. I would be glad to preorder/invest in/etc to help make this happen.

Chainsaw, I think you are missing a critical aspect of firstbits.  There is only one 1music firstbits address.  Any subsequent addresses would have to have firstbits of, say, 1music1, 1musicb, 1musicp, etc.  So I own the address corresponding to 1music (and a lot of other simple english words, names, and patterns).  No one else has it, no one else can generate it, etc.

There wouldn't be a run of 1music coins.  There would be a run of coins with one coin having 1music engraved, one coin having 1sexy engraved, etc etc.    Those firstbits could never be reused - they can only exist once.

Engravings cost only $0.50/coin, which is why I am considering a unique engraving for each coin.

All of that said, I rather like the auction idea!  It would still work (arguably even better) for a run of 150 coins with different firstbits addresses.  I could pick out 150 prime firstbits addresses that I own, and then allow the auction to work out who pays how much for which ones.  If I don't raise enough funds through the auction, then everyone is refunded.  And after fixed costs are recovered, I could drop the price further.

How about the following. It would incentivize and reward early investors while mitigating your risk.

Choose a single firstbit, let's just say 1music to pick one.

Offer an auction for all 150 first-run coins at 1.4 BTC apiece.
Auction goes 1 week. If all coins have at least the minimum bid, collections will begin. If all are not covered, the entire auction is null and void.
Winning bidders may choose the coins they want from the initial lost of 150 in price-descending order. (Highest payers get first choice.)
Winning bidders will get first crack at subsequent printing runs.

For example, after this first auction has been run, startup costs have been cleared. Let's say 34 bidders claimed the initial 150 coins.

Now you're ready to start 1music, Second Printing.  These are offered at 1.25 BTC apiece. You offer up the 1000 coins to the 34 bidders, immediately sell 430 of them, then offer the final 570 to the market. (On an ongoing basis, the starting price is adjusted up or down based on demand.)

This process can then be repeated for subsequent firstbits.
This way, collectors can define the price, you offset upfront costs, and still can pad a reasonable profit on an ongoing basis.
You create a rotating collectible stock.  (Future custom engravings could be considered in the future, if/once this has legs.)