Have you looked into integrating even a free Cloudflare account to help with DDoS and https.  Might be worth consideration and can be setup in mere minutes.  Not sure what type of caching your site could integrate with their CDN but I'd think itd be helpful to stop attacks at their edge.

You can get a domain name free (.tk for instance), web hosting free (acceptable for lower traffic faucets), and faucet scripts are available free online as well.  Anyone with even a little technical know-how and a few Satoshi to fund the initial wallet balance can create a faucet with little to no expenses.  The ability to do so makes running an online faucet fairly simple, cheap (free) and leads to sustainability and perhaps even some profitability.

I'm not sure the same can be said for a physical Bitcoin "giveaway" shop.  The overhead costs of building and implementing the camera systems, microphones, coupled with the capital expenditures of purchasing a building and perpetual taxes, insurances and/or rent don't lend themselves to a physical Bitcoin faucet project that even sounds remotely sustainable or profitable enough to justify the efforts.  I'd gather, in fact, such a project would bleed money and result in perpetual losses unless you figure out some really unique way to monetize the building and the people inside...and I can assure you, if people aren't getting paid enough to justify them standing in line, yelling "bitcoin", and spending time/money to go to the shop, it's going to be hard to keep the business afloat.

Yes, Aliser is admin/coder/owner of MinerFarm

Ah, you are correct in terms of what I wrote as I was thinking incorrectly, what I was meaning to mention was not the daily maintenance and utilities, it was the technician and engineering fees that I was thinking of.  Those particular ones have fees per block found, so if you are in a pool that finds a block and your earnings per block found in that particular pool are not enough to offset those fees for technicians and engineers, then you do have to find a smaller pool where your percentage of earnings per block found is high enough to offset those fees.

Except, being part of the high hash rate pool isn't necessarily the best strategy.  There is no such thing as 0 fees in this game because you always have your daily maintenance and utilities.  Often, joining the highest hash rate pool means that when that pool does find a block, it's being distributed among a larger group of people who combined have a larger percentage of hash power than you.  So sometimes, by joining a smaller pool, you might not find as many blocks; however, when you do find one, it'll likely result in you getting a larger slice of the pie...

And make sure to take as much advantage of the Faucet as possible, too.

No, pools just exist for ever.  Failure to pay a pool fee just means the owner doesn't receive income from it...those funds are just redistributed to the site per a prior post from Aliser.

http://www.minerfarmforums.com/forums/topic/what-happens-to-players-if-pool-closes/

Withdraw charges are common for the Bitcoin network now.  Coming out with a positive ROI is possible with a bit of strategic planning of what pool you join and some patience too.  Yes, the game is edged to give incentive to the admin, but this is also what allows the game to be sustainable...some people will win and some will lose.  There's various ways to offset losses by being selective about pools you join and also just being patient for a small pool to find a block.

Flatblack is also legit - assuming it's the same Flatblack that joined my Miner Farm forums.

I've been corresponding with him at MinerFarmForums via PM for roughly a week regarding how to get started with real life Bitcoin mining.

Over time the health of mining devices depreciated slowly.  They can be repaired using technicians you buy or lease from others.

There a few different places to read about how to play.  This thread has some information, the game site has training and help pages and the unofficial MinerFarmForums has some information too.

Greatly appreciated!

ElscottHavoc

Anyone remember Kooday.com......

Even with the help file on MinerFarm, which may be vague from a strategy perspective, many users are still confused and BitcoinTalk thread is not easily organized.

I invite everyone to check out minerfarmforums.com

Feel free to ask questions.  We have a small but growing group of MinerFarm players, and an objective of helping fill in some of the blanks and missing information that is confusing new players.

One of the things I do like about Cloudflare though is their global CDN capabilities.  Im legitimetly interested in your DDoS Protection; however, many of my sites receive traffic worldwide on a rather routine basis so CDNs that offer facing on regional servers is ideal. 

Is your datacenter for the DDoS protection a single location or multiple spots and does it offer any CDN?  Is it easily implemented with CDN networks.  Please elaborate.

I have nothing to do with the game other than being legitimetly interested in it as a fan and helping people, so I started an unofficial forum and wrote this post about how I think the game works and why some pools even with a third of hashing power aren't cracking as many blocks as your assume.

http://www.minerfarmforums.com/forums/topic/the-reason-pools-some-pools-are-hitting-fewer-blocks/

I still think the game is in a sort of "beta" phase (although not officially) because it was only recently launched and still the admin is fixing some bugs and glitches.  That said, we have no idea how the exact reasoning behind blocks being found in the game works but as you'll read in my post I believe it may have something to do with random number generators or die rolls.

So therefore we might expect a pool to receive 33% of the blocks based on a 33% hash power, but I'm thinking that each time a block is found that it really means they have a 33% chance of their number being generated in a die roll to win a block.  I mean I don't know for certain, but it's at least an idea to work off of...

I wonder then, if such is the case, if over time admin will add more powerful and efficient virtual miners.

I think I see what you're saying.

I think that assumes the block value will remain the same.
So, if the current block now is worth .017BTC and divided by 100,000GH s that over time the block value of .017BTC will be divided by 200,000GH s thus each member would receive a constantly diluted share or that over time the chances of earning a block with the same hash rate will decrease as network hash rate increases, thus each pool that opens would have a constantly lower chance of earning a block at all.

That said though, I can't say for sure, but I was under the assumption the block value was adjusted for hash rate.  This as more users come on the higher the block reward.

Although, just as in real life, blocks are still only worth so much and yet we are constantly adding more hash power and the difficulty of mining gets harder and harder.

I have to try and think smart so I can give good help and advice and strategies on MinerFarmForums.com  Even though I am not admin of MinerFarm I try to give as much assistance and education as possible.

But a 0% fee pool may not be profitable if there are a very large member base.  How much you earn in a pool is a function of your hash rate percentage to the entire pool.  

There will still need to be new pools to open up to ensure that there are pools of varying hash rates and where members can find better yields even with higher pool fees.

And in the event the pool isn't profitable at zero percent, many of those members will simply stop logging in or leave the pool, thus slowly lowering the hash rate of the pool.

It's yet to be seen as the game expands, but I think there will be incentives for opening new pools or joint higher fee pools as we can go forward.

Perhaps going forward Pool can be private or password protected to allow collaboration and cooperation between like minded members.  In that way, perhaps you could have a pool owner open a pool, even with a 10% fee or so, but perhaps that fee would be justfied because it's a 'private pool'.  You know what I mean?

Only thing is, if everyone joins a zero hash rate pool, most people would lose money.  If 10000 people are all in one pool and we'll just assume they all have 10GH then they ha e divide an earned block of .017 by 10000...theyd lose money.

But you are correct.  If the game becomes a bunch of ghost pools, that lowers the incentive to start your own pool.