swfchan: Donate

Send Bitcoins to swfchan

For those of you that are curious on how much I've gotten through this: 0. Nobody has donated anything yet. Maybe you'll be the first? If you happen to be someone that really wants to donate but can't be bothered with using Bitcoins, please say so in the donation thread and maybe I'll try to find an easier way. Please mention what country you are in as well.

Update 20jul2012: Still gotten no Bitcoins in these six month however you can donate using PayPal/VISA etc by buying an ad in The Mix. Some kind people has already done so. Please read in this thread if you want to help out with some money. More info in the posts above the one linked to.

Update 25aug2012: Donations stopped coming after those three (give or take) people gave a few bucks a month back. This clearly isn't working. The site have to depend just on ads. Removing the bottom donation button on all pages for now, not much point in it.

Update 15feb2013: Making a small note on how much one BTC is worth today: 27 USD. And rising by the hour. It'll probably drop eventually of course, question is to how much. Since now only half as many new Bitcoins are mined every day it isn't surprising if their value increases.

What is this page?

This is the donation page of swfchan with info on how and why. I had planned on never taking donations but I eventually made the decision to start accepting them because a new server was needed and the ads alone just didn't do the trick. It would be foolish not to supply a way of donating to those that really wish to help making sure swfchan stays online.

How?

Donate money to swfchan by sending Bitcoins - the Anonymous gold of the Internet.

A Bitcoin (BTC) is a currency that exists entirely in digital form, but it can still be considered real money because a lot of people gives value to it. USD or any other government based currency can be used to purchase Bitcoins, and by that Bitcoins can also be turned into USD. Some companies accept Bitcoins as payment for their goods and services.

More on Bitcoin and how it works can be found below.

Why?

There are several reasons of why you might want to donate:

1. It ensures that swfchan stays online by helping out to pay bandwidth costs, hosting and those expensive server upgrades when needed.

2. It ensures that my interest of the site doesn't fade. Money talks, if I notice that people care enough about swfchan that they actually send money to keep it alive I will feel motivated to expand the site's features and maintain it. There's a lot of work making sure everything works like it should, one cloudy day I might not have time for it anymore. However if there's money involved chances are that I will make time. Don't get me wrong; at the time being I love running swfchan but we all grow old.

3. Perhaps you like one of the services provided?

BITCOIN ADDRESS

To donate to swfchan, please send Bitcoins to:

	1. Click in the text field. 2. Press CTRL+A. 3. Press CTRL+X.

Click here to jump to the four donation steps below (how-to).

Bitcoin - an overview

A Bitcoin is a number that exists within the Bitcoin network, nothing else. These numbers that we call Bitcoins are rewarded to computers that has generated a block in the Bitcoin network. Everybody in the network knows about all blocks and they are always ordered in a chain where the most recent block may only be added at the very end of the chain. In order to generate a block a computer needs to solve a really hard mathematical puzzle, once solved the generated block will contain the answer. The reward for each new block starts with 50 Bitcoins, however this number is halved every four year. The algorithm is designed so that in the end there will be exactly 21 million Bitcoins in existance. It is also designed to adapt the difficulty of the puzzles so that one block is generated every 10 minutes. Bitcoin was first introduced in 2009, the second reward era of 25 BTC/block will be entered in 2013.

Bitcoin works in much the same way as gold does: There is a limited supply of gold on Earth -- there is a limited supply of Bitcoins to be gained from generated blocks. It's harder to find gold if more people search for it at the same time -- it's harder to generate a new block if more people are trying at the same time. Less gold is gained for a certain amount of effort today than the same amount of effort would have brought you 1000 years ago -- in 10 years a generated block wll gain you less Bitcoins than it does today. Gold has value because we humans say it does -- Bitcoins has value because we humans say it does. Gold has a high value per kilo because there is a limited supply of it -- a Bitcoin has a high value because there is a limited supply of it. Gold's value doesn't suffer from inflation because very little new gold is discovered in the world today -- Bitcoin's value won't suffer from inflation since less and less new Bitcoins will be put into circulation. Bitcoins are basically the digital gold of the Internet.

You cannot cheat the Bitcoin network and gain Bitcoins without solving the current mathematical puzzle. The project is open source, if you want to and if you have the skills you may look at the code and try to break the system but you won't. If you attempt to insert a block into the network with an incorrect answer the network will simply ignore it. If one (or even a hundred) nodes in the Bitcoin network somehow magically has a chain that contains illegal blocks they will be isolated from the rest of the network since there will be thousands of nodes that are telling each other (and any new nodes joining the network) that the faulty chain is incorrect. You CANNOT gain any new Bitcoins without finding the answer to the current puzzle, inserting it into a block and then have the ENTIRE Bitcoin network say "The answer checks out, you have just gained X Bitcoins". Note that you don't actually need any confirmation before Bitcoins are added to your wallet - as soon as you successfully generate a new block you get the Bitcoins. This means that no node can ruin things by always disapproving a real generated block - if it does it will simply be isolated from the network since all other nodes accepted the generated block. Of course it is wise of your client to get a few confirmations of your generation however, just to make sure everything's alright (that's why you may have unconfirmed Bitcoins in your wallet for a period of time before your actual balance is updated). The longest unbroken chain of blocks (all with unique, correct answers to their puzzles) is always the one saved by all nodes in the network.

Bitcoin is an Anonymous currency. There is no central authority that approves of anything. No government add Bitcoins to the circulation, there are no banks, no accounts can be frozen, no money can be refunded by anyone except the receiver (by him creating a new transaction himself in the opposite direction). Everything is done by the Bitcoin network as a whole, everybody is the same. All nodes in the network know about every transaction that ever took place and how many BitCoins each address has, however since a transaction pretty much only consists of a number (the amount of Bitcoins being sent) and the sending/receiving address it is completely Anonymous. There is no name/IP or anything that can identify anyone and anybody can generate a new receiver address at any time (you can keep as many addresses as you like for as long as you like). In that way Bitcoin is Anonymous. The only way one could argue that Bitcoin is not Anonymous is because everyone can track every transaction, Bitcoins always flow out in the open, Bitcoins changing hands are always public. However you can only see that Bitcoins have left a certain address and arrived at another, you still can't tell who the receiver is. The receiver may still be the same person (the Bitcoins might even arrive in the exact same wallet-file but with a different address).

Of course this makes Bitcoin a heaven for illegal money transfers since it can be done without a trace, but that's the price to pay for an Anonymous decentralized peer-to-peer currency. Okay, "without a trace" might be the wrong words to use here since there will always be huge trace due to the fact of that the transaction will be stored in all Bitcoin network nodes for everybody to see for all time. But it doesn't leave a trace to any legal identity if done right. Giving money illegaly using Bitcoin is much the same as giving gold illegaly, it's just way easier to do it over the net and there's less risk involved. There is a probability that certain governments may outlaw Bitcoin in the future because of the Anonymity. This will however of course not make Bitcoin disappear, just like making the possession and trading of gold illegal wouldn't make gold disappear.

Bitcoins can currently be divided down to 8 decimals, meaning that 0.00000001 BTC is the smallest amount you can send at the moment. It is possible to expand this in the future though if the need should arise for even smaller Bitcoins. Tomorrow, or the day after, prices will most likely be defined in milli-Bitcoins (mBTC) or even micro-Bitcoins (uBTC) since 1 BTC will be worth a lot (should current trends continue). Since Bitcoin was introduced three years ago (at the time of writing) the value of one single Bitcoin has gone from a few US cents to several USD. It has had its ups and downs, but in the end the value has grown a whole lot. Strictly speaking the value of a Bitcoin should be the electricity and time it took to generate it. But the same line of thought can be applied to gold, and I believe gold is rated pretty high in todays market.

One funny thing about Bitcoin is that the author --the original guy that came up with the idea and created the whole system-- is Anonymous. Nobody know who he is. He has only given us the fake name "Satoshi Nakamoto" and hinted that he is from Japan, although it certainly isn't certain considering that he has never written a single line of Japanese anywhere and handles English well. The alias didn't exist prior to the introduction of Bitcoin. In the very first "genesis block" of the block chain he has embedded the following message: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks". This along with what he has said in a few e-mails suggests that what he wanted to accomplish with Bitcoin was to point out the flaw in today's economics and to demonstrate that there are alternatives to banks. Maybe? I'm just speculating. In April 2011 Satoshi announced that he was done with Bitcoin and have moved on to other things. Of course this doesn't mean that he's not still active under a different name. But whoever he is I'm sure he will go down in history, he's a legend in cryptographical circuits already. I'm also sure he's pretty rich today. The Japanese name "Satoshi" means clear-thinking/quick-witted/wise, by the way.

TL;DR: Here's a video that explains Bitcoin much more briefly than the wall of text above.

How to handle Bitcoins

First of all you need a wallet. A wallet is where your computer keeps the Bitcoin money. There are two kinds:

+ The kind you keep yourself on your HDD.
+ The kind you trust someone else to keep.

To make your own wallet you need to go to bitcoin.org and download the Bitcoin client. After you've installed it your computer will become part of the Bitcoin network and the entire Bitcoin chain will be downloaded. Press WinKey+R (I'm assuming you have Windows here) and type "%appdata%/Bitcoin". A file named "wallet.dat" will be located in this folder. All of you Bitcoins will be placed inside this wallet-file. Protect this file! Backup the file as often as possible (close down Bitcoin then just make a copy of wallet.dat and start Bitcoin again). If the file is lost all of your Bitcoins are lost! If someone else but you get their hands on the file they are able to steal all of your Bitcoins (it will be like if they steal your wallet IRL)! You are able to encrypt the wallet by using the Bitcoin client however, it might be a good idea to do so with a long password that you know you'll remember.

The easiest way is of course to trust someone else with your wallet, for example if you create an account on Mt. Gox they will provide you with an online wallet. You don't have to install anything and your computer won't be a node in the Bitcoin network. Of course this means that you have to trust (in this case) Mt. Gox not to freeze your account and/or steal all of your money. And you of course also trust that nobody will hack them and steal your money... That's the risk with allowing someone else to handle your money (the same risk as when you're using PayPal or any bank). Although when you get Bitcoins stolen the police probably won't help you so take a moment to think if you really want to store your Bitcoins somewhere where you have no real control over them.

Be very careful when you're handling your BitCoin wallet. If you accidentally delete it it will be like accidentally burning a vault full of paper money or accidentally sink 500 solid gold bars to the bottom of a lava lake.

How to obtain Bitcoins

Now that you have your wallet it's time to fill it with money!

The first and easiest way to test that your wallet works is to head on over to the Bitcoin Faucet where they will give you a free fraction of a Bitcoin. It's not much, 0.005 or 0.001 BTC, but it's a great way to test that your wallet works. Just log in with your Gmail account and enter your wallet address and you've got the money (they are using Google to cut down the amount of abuse, they won't actually use your e-mail for anything).

The second and probably hardest way is to earn Bitcoin by doing some actual work. This includes scanning forum threads for opportunities to earn bounties or using stuff like for example YouTipIt and hope that people will tip you.

The third way is mining. This is for when you're feeling lucky. When you mine Bitcoins your computer is trying to solve the current mathematical puzzle and create a new block in the Bitcoin chain. It will push your CPU/GPU (mining with a graphics card is a lot faster) to 100% so you won't be able to do much other things with your computer while you mine, but if you get lucky you'll make a new block and get 50 BTC (25 BTC or less if it's no longer 2012 when you read this). If you actually mine something you have just won big on the lottory; there are a lot of other miners out there in the world and some of them use so strong computer clusters that they will be able to try 1000 answers to a puzzle in the same time as your computer tries one. Keep in mind that mining costs money if you pay for electricity so there's a chance that you'll earn less than you make here. It might be a good idea to join in a mining pool, it's less of a chance that you won't earn anything there. If you're interested in solo/pooled mining you can check out this page. A popular GPU (and/or CPU) mining program is cgminer.

The fourth and most common way is to trade other money for Bitcoins. Right now (23 jan 2012) you can buy 1 BTC for 6.2 USD on the most popular exchanges, but of course there's always a possibility to make better deals if you are talking directly to the seller, though that's more of a hassle.

If you are in the USA you can turn USD into Bitcoins in about an hour on average using the BitInstant service.

1.	First you get an account on TradeHill, Crypto X Change or Mt. Gox (those are the three biggest places where you can buy/sell Bitcoins for other types of currencies).
2.	Then you use BitInstant to transfer your money to your TradeHill, Crypto X Change or Mt. Gox account.
3.	Now you can buy Bitcoins with the money in your account.
4.	Once you have a couple of Bitcoins you can donate them to swfchan. :) Send them to the address that is written further up on this page.

If you are not in the USA you can still use for example Mt. Gox however you have to send them the money manually from your bank. This is a lot slower and can take a week if you're unlucky. But it'll get there. On the plus side you don't have to pay a fee to BitInstant if you wire money directly.

Note: This info might be old, things are happening fast in the IT world. Could be easier ways to obtain Bitcoins when you are reading this, do a search on the net on the subject.

All three of the mentioned Bitcoin exchanges has online wallets where your Bitcoins will end up when you buy them. You can then send them directly to swfchan or to your own wallet that you keep on your own computer (if you have one).

If you choose to make an account with TradeHill you should do a quick search online for a "10% off commissions" code. It's a silly gimmick they have, almost all of their accounts make use of such a code. They only have it to make people feel like they are getting a bargain with them.

There are of course lots of alternative places where you can obtain Bitcoins.

Random links not mentioned above

To learn more about Bitcoin you can check out these links:

Bitcoin Charts - Check the current value of a BitCoin.
Places that accept BitCoins, online and offline
The BitCoin Show - Video tips and info about BitCoin
Bitcoin Me - Information, related to The BitCoin Show
Bitcoin Block Explorer - Tracks all Bitcoin transactions
Block Chain - Prettier tracker of Bitcoin transactions, charts
Myths - False stuff you might have heard about BitCoin
Current number of BTC in existance

Donators

A big thanks to everybody that will donate to swfchan!

Here is the official donation thread. - Post all your questions and comments there regarding donations.

NOTE: Below was written when 5 BTC wasn't worth that much.

Just for fun: If you donate 5 or more Bitcoins you may pick a flash of your choice that has a ID on swfchan.com and have it hot-linked to from this donation page (the swf file will be hosted on the swfchan server directly and anyone can access it without entering a captcha, you may link to it from wherever).

How this works is that directly AFTER you have sent the Bitcoins to swfchan you go to the official donation thread linked to above and you post something like "I've just donated 100 BTC and would like to have flash #50000 hot-linked". If you want to you can specify a file name for the file, else I'll just use the most popular non-numeric file name at the time. The file name must be related to the flash, meaning that it should either have been seen before (be listed on the flash's index page) or be non-misleading. Note that it might be a good idea to make a test post in that thread directly BEFORE you actually send the Bitcoins, just to make sure posting works for you (it should work, but simply to be sure). Just write "test" or similar.

Anyway, when I notice your post in the donation thread I'll check swfchan's BitCoin wallet (this may take a couple of days if I'm out of town or something, or it may take a couple of minutes if I'm around). If the received amount matches what you said you sent in your post AND the transaction date is close to when you made the post I will proceed with hot-linking the flash file you selected. I reserve the right to veto flashes, to prevent someone from uploading a redirector flash named company-name.com.swf and ask to have that hot-linked. Donating doesn't give you right to advertise here, if you want to do that there are banners that you could invest in. Of course you can pick a new flash if the one you choose gets rejected (which it shouldn't be).

Making a hot-link is optional, you may just send the Bitcoins and that will be it if you wish. I just thought it would be fun to build a cash-fueled list of hand-picked flash files. Surely it would become the list of the very best flashes on the Internet, right?

Here's the list of hot-linked flashes:

#1: swfchan.swf
(example, removed when someone makes the first >=5 BTC donation)