Crypto-currency

By Kaizad Patel on April 1, 2016 18 Comments / 4118 views

TGIF! Not so much a celebration that one has survived another work week but Asha is putting together the weekly newsletter which all of us eagerly wait for.

I have a question on crypto-currency:

Has anyone on TheRodinhoods used or is aware of crypto-currency such as Bitcoin or other P2P currencies as rewards for gamification?

For example for answering surveys or commenting on the community forum, one would be awarded points which can be linked to bitcoin and can be cashed out once a certain level of points have been reached.

Would be great to hear pro and cons of such adoption.

Thanks!

Kaiz

Comments

Kaizad Patel

18 Comments

asha chaudhry April 1, 2016, 4:33 am

hey kaiz,

we have bitcoins dudes here – check out zebpay. maybe sandeep can share some ideas??

https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/zebpay-world-s-simplest-bitcoin-app-and-winner-of-coinagenda

ps: have you asked any online games creators what they do?! :))))
Sandeep Goenka April 2, 2016, 12:41 pm

Thanks Asha 🙂

Kaiz, I don’t know of any company which is doing this but I am sure they are out there.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal April 3, 2016, 6:09 pm

I’m sure its used in Drug Land / Porn given the nature of the usage of Bitcoin

Question – why would you ask this question?
Kaizad Patel April 3, 2016, 11:36 pm

Thanks Sandeep!
Kaizad Patel April 3, 2016, 11:40 pm

Hi Alok,

The rational behind exploring this was to see how the points awarded to our mystery shoppers can be converted to real world cash / money and also be used worldwide. I need something that can be used worldwide as our mystery shopper base is quite spread out. Currently Amazon Gift certificates seems to be the most viable. Any suggestions?

Kaiz
Shobhit Bakliwal April 4, 2016, 6:14 am

I haven’t worked with such companies, but have definitely used a service like this to earn some bitcoins. It was a fun little weekend task. The amount I earned was very less hence the motivation dropped after cashing in the first time.

What would you like to know?

My address: 15meamzjWfPoXyXQiPch7Q8Z8ipj3ZjeYQ
Sandeep Goenka April 4, 2016, 9:21 am

Hi Alok

Before Bitcoins, I am guessing the the USD and INR was being successfully used for buyings drugs and porn. And I guess porn is a pretty big use case of the Internet itself.

In any case, at Zebpay, in last month in March, our users topped up airtime and purchased vouchers of Amazon, Flipkart, etc worth Rs 15 lacs using bitcoins, a figure which is doubling every month.

I guess just like other forms of money and the Internet, the bigger use cases are coming and the adoption is faster than you think. The pity is that ‘Users topped up airtime using bitcoins’ or that bitcoins is accepted in more than 1 lac stores, just is not newsworthy enough!
Vikram Kulkarni April 4, 2016, 12:15 pm

This is indeed an interesting concept. I have seen a Bitcoin overview/basic & promotion site, which offers are real tiny fraction of bitcoin upon completion of training & sharing it over social networks, couple of years back. Given the value of bitcoin now, I don’t think that site might be alive/active.

In India (I assume you are planning this for Indian customer), trading in Bitcoins is banned by RBI, as it has been used for money laundering. (reference here) It might not be a good idea to get bitcoins as a gamification reward.

About using Bitcoins, I know couple of webhosts/server providers who accept bitcoin payment. I believe post Silkroad TOR time, its no longer restricted for illegal activites/porn/dugs etc.

Hope this helps
Amod Gokhale April 4, 2016, 1:01 pm

Crypto-currency is future of currency eventually replacing paper currency. Ethereum is another new currency which has been in market supported by Microsoft and other Tech giants.

Pros – Early into market gives you advantage of getting virtual currency at lowest possible rate.

Cons – Uncertainty and lack of transparency might inject fear and crash of currency value. In 2014 Mt. Gox was hacked causing it’s value to half.

So think of this as Investment similar to investment in Shares. You don’t know whether it’s going to get max return or it’s going to hit rock bottom.

No investment is bad investment if you know when to enter and when to exit 🙂
Kaizad Patel April 6, 2016, 2:45 am

Hi Shobhit,

Thanks for sharing. I want to be able to reward users on my site an option to encash /redeem their reward points in real world currency. Since we operate in different geographies I am actually looking for a single currency that can be used across the globe. Hence the idea of Bitcoin came up. Here in the Philippines there is coins.ph which also uses blockchain.

Kaiz
Kaizad Patel April 6, 2016, 2:48 am

Sandeep,

Wow ! 15 Lac worth of bitcoin usage. These folks must have earned/bought their coins at a cheaper rate I would assume.

I have been talking to gamers here in Philippines and Singapore who use to invest in bit coins and also use it to pay for games.

Kaiz
Kaizad Patel April 6, 2016, 3:06 am

Vikram,

Thanks for sharing. I am not looking only at India as we currently operate in different regions and the whole idea came about by wanting to offer real world rewards that can be purchased using the points earned on our website.

The price of bitcoins and its possible fluctuation may be a deterrent to use Bitcoins.

Kaiz
Kaizad Patel April 6, 2016, 3:07 am

Hi Amod,

Ethereum looks interesting will check it out.

Thanks for sharing!

Kaiz
Shobhit Bakliwal April 7, 2016, 7:20 pm

Yeah, so keep a check on how much bitcoins they’ve accumulated and once they cross a threshold, allow them to transfer the money to their address.
Sandeep Goenka April 8, 2016, 7:23 am

Hi Kaizad, email me at sandeep@zebpay.com. May be we can explore this. – Sandeep, COO, Zebpay, India’s largest bitcoin exchange
Sandeep Goenka April 8, 2016, 7:35 am

We just released a What is Bitcoin in 2 mins video. The video has already got 1,000 views in a few hours. To understand the future of money, watch it now!
Sandeep Goenka April 8, 2016, 7:38 am

Trading in bitcoins is not banned by RBI at all. Bitcoins is legal in India. Trading in bitcoin is NOT money laundering.

Zebpay is registered under ROC and we operate more than 6 bank account. We are India’s biggest bitcoin exchange and all trade is only via bank to bank transfers.

You can see a white paper published by India’s leading law firm NDA, here.
Vikram Kulkarni April 8, 2016, 2:07 pm

Thanks for update. I am not a