Last week the total amount of bitcoin that we have GIVEN AWAY though our websites and mobile games just hit 1000 bitcoin!

This 1000 bitcoin is right now (on the 6th March 2017) worth over $1,281,000… yup over ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

And yes, look, full disclosure, the amount we have actually given away is probably more like $1m (*perhaps, loosely estimating), but the fact is, that this $1m is now worth over $1,281,000 (and there was also a time when I was saying “I’ve given away $200k worth of bitcoin, but actually because of the price drop it’s more like $250k”).

Huh? How?

Let me step back a second and ELI5 this. It’s all from a company I started in late 2014, with a big (seemingly unlikely) mission — to give away one million dollars worth of bitcoin.

To cut a really long story short, I started investing in bitcoin personally, I invested all the way down from $800 to $400 , and along the way I saw a real lack of grass roots marketing, email marketing and lead generation within the bitcoin/blockchain niche — I saw a path through to start a bitcoin education / lead generation business and $600 price I also started what is now;

Our bitcoin network of online bitcoin incentive sites (we give away bitcoin through our websites for playing simple games, or actually just visiting — (our main brand name as a whole is known as Bitcoin Aliens, but here’s our nicest site; PaidBooks.com , it pays you, in bitcoin, to read)

Our bitcoin incentive mobile apps — Android and iOS games and apps that give away bitcoin while you play — we’ve got 5 of them, and in total we’ve had over 1 million installs — our most popular is simply titled “Free Bitcoin” and it’s not much of a game, just a giveaway app like a free lottery, and our most recent is “Alien Run” where you play as Daniel D’Alien (our mascot), in an Endless Runner game, earning bitcoin for completing levels and daily challenges.

The micro bitcoin advertising network; CoinAd.com, which is (sort of) the largest bitcoin ads network in the world, serving over 1 billion ads impressions monthly, generating 800k+ clicks.

Next?

I LOVE that we’ve given away a million dollars.

But I also love setting big impossible goals.

While companies like ZapChain folded (while raising and burning through $350k funding) and then (very sadly) ChangeTip folding too (while somehow burning $3.5million in VC funding, we’ve given away this 1 million dollars from nothing. Bootstrapped. Starting from only $600 of my own money. I nearly got into BoostVC but got rejected in the end, and we’ve grown, found profit, and are a little team of 5… with some EPIC plans!

We’ve given away $1+million worth of bitcoin, next I want to *facilitate the giveaway of $10 million dollars worth of bitcoin.

So far we have single-handedly given away this amount, but I don’t think we can give away $10million all on our own — so for the last few months we have been busy building and testing our new platform..

Introducing.. Digital Artists Online!

The model we have used so far to give away bitcoin has mostly been though “faucets”; simple, small websites where you click a button and get a reward — besides getting a tiny amount of bitcoin there’s not much other point to them.. we always tried to make them fun.. but still :/..

However, I believe that digital currency and bitcoin is PERFECT for revamping the “incentive” or “loyalty” or “rewards” platforms — you can give a micro tip/reward for performing an action on a website, or simply for browsing, reading and spending time on a website.

This is what we have created in Digital Artists Online — a very simple platform in which people can join and collect micro rewards and earn in bitcoin for visiting their favorite sites.

Now we are still in beta so right now there are just 4 sites using the platform (and yes they are all ours).

Right now you can earn bitcoin rewards for watching videos , playing online flash games, checking up on bitcoin and altcoin prices and stats, and even reading the bitcoin news..

All of these sites simply use the beta version of the Digital Artists widget, rewarding their users for their time spent browsing..

The idea being to soon let ANYONE create a widget with simple options on how big the rewards to give out, and how often and to receive traffic from the platform to their website * if you are interested to try this when we are ready (within 2–3 weeks) then just join up as a user and you will be able to do so as soon as it’s ready.

Ultimately were using our knowledge and experience from the last 2 years giving out rewards to bring bitcoin and blockchain to the loyalty/rewards niche — Digital Artists will have less fraud, a better database, and make it easy for any site to run a loyalty program — to reward their visitors for returning and using their website.

We believe this model can be win-win for both website publishers and their audience.

For Publishers: Rather than buying new users through traditional advertising, for example buying advertising from facebook, learning how to target different interest groups, bidding $1 per click and hoping the visitor is interested and signs up — instead they can use Digitial Artists to reward the traffic they already have to spend more time on their website and to refer their friends and family — thus they only pay for the traffic they receive and which actively engages in their content, and if they want more of it, it’s as simple as paying higher rewards or more frequently.

Rather than buying new users through traditional advertising, for example buying advertising from facebook, learning how to target different interest groups, bidding $1 per click and hoping the visitor is interested and signs up — instead they can use Digitial Artists to reward the traffic they already have to spend more time on their website and to refer their friends and family — thus they only pay for the traffic they receive and which actively engages in their content, and if they want more of it, it’s as simple as paying higher rewards or more frequently. For Users: The benefit is obvious, they earn rewards for visiting their favorite websites, reading news, watching videos and even playing games — and they also earn referral commission for inviting their friends to join them.

I’m so excited for this next chapter, I’ve managed to turn a hobby into a profitable passion business, and the lessons I’ve learnt about fraud prevention and user acquisition and engagement I think Digital Artists will help me to bring bitcoin to an even wider audience while helping website owners to get started or grow their audience in a simple and safe way.

Watch this space, if you’re doubting the engagement or traffic possible then wait till next week and I’ll publish some traffic and website engagement case studies :D