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Topic: Why a physical bitcoin? - page 2. (Read 2640 times)

hero member
Activity: 772
Merit: 501
September 06, 2011, 11:21:03 PM
#5
These put the coin in bitcoin.

legendary
Activity: 1008
Merit: 1021
Democracy is the original 51% attack
September 06, 2011, 10:09:49 PM
#4
So those are pretty bad ass.

I want one now... to where do I send payment??
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
September 06, 2011, 10:03:00 PM
#3
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_von_NotHaus

Quote
In connection with the Liberty Dollar business, a federal grand jury brought an indictment against von NotHaus and three others in May 2009,[6] and von NotHaus was arrested on June 6, 2009. VonNotHaus was charged with one count of conspiracy to possess and sell coins in resemblance and similitude of coins of a denomination higher than five cents, and silver coins in resemblance of genuine coins of the United States in denominations of five dollars and greater, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 485, 18 U.S.C. § 486, and 18 U.S.C. § 371; one count of mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341 and 18 U.S.C. § 2; one count of selling, and possessing with intent to defraud, coins of resemblance and similitude of United States coins in denominations of five cents and higher, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 485 and 18 U.S.C. § 2; and one count of uttering, passing, and attempting to utter and pass, silver coins in resemblance of genuine U.S. coins in denominations of five dollars or greater, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 486 and 18 U.S.C. § 2.[6]

I would stick with the novelty aspect. Sell them at a price point to recognize a nice little profit. It would only take a little creative marketing to reach your goal.
legendary
Activity: 1764
Merit: 1002
September 06, 2011, 07:40:18 PM
#2
I thought I would start a thread and sort of state my purpose in having created a Casascius Physical Bitcoin (available here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=41892.0;all - moved to Goods).

I sincerely hope somebody copies the idea of a physical bitcoin and delivers one cheaper, faster, better than me.  While yes I'll make some money making physical bitcoins, it's not my aspiration and not what I want to do for the rest of my life - I just want bitcoin to succeed.  And somebody else can surely do a better job of this than me.

The hologram project was fun - I had to put up about $2k for the custom holograms to happen and it took five or six weeks.  They turned out really well.

OK, so now what?  Now we can cross out the line in the first sentence of the FAQ, which is that "a bitcoin is not tangible".  I just made the edit to the Wiki just now.  That's a big starter.  The fact that a bitcoin is no longer invisible, I think, is huge in and of itself.  OK, yes there are Bitbills and they are great and I own a few, but to me, there was something about there needing to be a bit "coin".

To make the physical bitcoin project self-sustaining, I must charge a significant premium on the coins, which sort of sucks.  Two things to say about that.  For one, that makes it more of a collector's item than an investment vehicle.  If you want to hold bitcoins simply for their value, it's best to simply hold digital bitcoins if you can.  But on the other hand, physical bitcoins are clearly in demand and they ought to command some sort of premium if passed around as payment.  I'm not sure if I'd spend one at Meze Grill for face value, but it's not ridiculous to consider them as having a trade value of "1 BTC + 1 USD" (the USD representing the premium) and asking them to be considered as such.

I only ordered enough materials to make a few thousand of these physical bitcoins, and they are all denominated as 1 BTC.  If I wanted to throw more resources at it, I might have gone after larger coins for denominations like 10 and 100 BTC, which might be valuable to an investor.  For three or four bucks (in quantity) you can get a fairly hefty "commemorative" sort of coin custom designed on the open market, which isn't a bad premium to pay if you're using it to tangiblize 100 BTC.  Somebody might succeed in talking me into it.

Anyway, here's to doing my part to help bitcoin succeed.

way to go Casascius.
vip
Activity: 1386
Merit: 1136
The Casascius 1oz 10BTC Silver Round (w/ Gold B)
September 06, 2011, 07:21:27 PM
#1
I thought I would start a thread and sort of state my purpose in having created a Casascius Physical Bitcoin (available here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=41892.0;all - moved to Goods).

I sincerely hope somebody copies the idea of a physical bitcoin and delivers one cheaper, faster, better than me.  While yes I'll make some money making physical bitcoins, it's not my aspiration and not what I want to do for the rest of my life - I just want bitcoin to succeed.  And somebody else can surely do a better job of this than me.

The hologram project was fun - I had to put up about $2k for the custom holograms to happen and it took five or six weeks.  They turned out really well.

OK, so now what?  Now we can cross out the line in the first sentence of the FAQ, which is that "a bitcoin is not tangible".  I just made the edit to the Wiki just now.  That's a big starter.  The fact that a bitcoin is no longer invisible, I think, is huge in and of itself.  OK, yes there are Bitbills and they are great and I own a few, but to me, there was something about there needing to be a bit "coin".

To make the physical bitcoin project self-sustaining, I must charge a significant premium on the coins, which sort of sucks.  Two things to say about that.  For one, that makes it more of a collector's item than an investment vehicle.  If you want to hold bitcoins simply for their value, it's best to simply hold digital bitcoins if you can.  But on the other hand, physical bitcoins are clearly in demand and they ought to command some sort of premium if passed around as payment.  I'm not sure if I'd spend one at Meze Grill for face value, but it's not ridiculous to consider them as having a trade value of "1 BTC + 1 USD" (the USD representing the premium) and asking them to be considered as such.

I only ordered enough materials to make a few thousand of these physical bitcoins, and they are all denominated as 1 BTC.  If I wanted to throw more resources at it, I might have gone after larger coins for denominations like 10 and 100 BTC, which might be valuable to an investor.  For three or four bucks (in quantity) you can get a fairly hefty "commemorative" sort of coin custom designed on the open market, which isn't a bad premium to pay if you're using it to tangiblize 100 BTC.  Somebody might succeed in talking me into it.

Anyway, here's to doing my part to help bitcoin succeed.
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