I wanted to talk about bitcoin and a fun way it can be used in the Lego Brickfilm community.  Even though that's how this topic begins, if you have interest in bitcoin or any of its aspects, this thread can be used for any bitcoin discussion, so that there aren't a lot of threads all over the place.
 
First of all, is there anyone in BiM who uses bitcoin, or is curious about it?  There are web sites on the topic, "What is Bitcoin?"  The best can be found at "Make Use Of..." http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-v … in-manual/.  (download it in pdf: http://manuals.makeuseof.com.s3.amazona … _Guide.pdf )  Their bitcoin guide beats wasting so much here explaining it to people who may or may not be familiar with it.  Simply, it's a decentralized online currrency that's being used for transactions over the internet.  It's becoming more widely used; right now there's been an interest in it because of a recent spike in its value.

To get to the point, bitcoin is a nice way to tip people if you really like others' brickfilms.  Ham radio operators mail a memento to each other, called QSL cards, when two operators come into contact with each other.  Well, I thought a tip can be a way for brickfilmers to say to each other, "I like your work".  For instance, I like Joe Brickmond, and I'd send an amount like .0005 btc (about 15 cents) to show my appreciation.  And everyone who watches "Holding Our Own" should send a generous tip.  (Actually, I'd more expect negative bitcoins to be sent!)  A 10 to 25 cent tip is adequate.

People send bitcoins to each other from their bitcoin wallet apps.  Two free wallets that I like are MiltiBit ( http://multibit.org ) and Electrum ( http://electrum.org )  One good thing about both of these wallets is that they don't require you to download the entire block chain (ledger of all bitcoin transactions from its beginning).  Wallets will assign you any number of receiving addresses, like email addresses.  On your video site you can post your receiving address and a message that tips from viewers who enjoyed the brickfilm are appreciated.

Bitcoins can be acquired free.  New bitcoins (in large amounts of 50 BTC, worth about $16000) are created through bitcoin mining, but it consumes a lot of your computing power and can take a year or longer, and may never yield results.  Free bitcoins can be earned by visiting bitcoin faucets: ad-heavy sites that reward small amounts of bitcoins for taking a few seconds to solve a captcha.  For every good faucet, there are several bad ones. 

There's a list with only quality faucets at http://greatbtc.heliohost.org  I recommend using this list.

If you just visit the sites on this list once a day (takes about 10 minutes) and the Moon Bitcoin site whenever you have downtime while online, you can collect .0005 btc in about a week, and a lot more if you are more aggressive.  The rewards on Moon Bitcoin grow into something substantial over time if you are a loyal visitor.  Now you can tip your favorite brickfilmer.  You decide if you would only tip 4 1/2-brick (star) or 5-brick films, tip a brickfilmer as a whole, or create a personal tier system based on quality (.0001 per brick (star) for 3,4 or 5 bricks) If everyone acquires .0005 - .0025 btc to start, a nice litle tipping community can be started.

What are your thoughts on this idea?  ...Or bitcoin in general?

By the way, my bitcoin address is
1M5gjSu95JLnhy2FkmSe7h7eqy3MCdXRkX

Last edited by HoldingOurOwn (November 1, 2015 (10:21am))