Thanks sylkyx, its actually really good to hear that. Its funny after so many months spent trying to deal with legal/technical problems its easy to forget what we achieved and the good parts to the project.

I think the site did look well and did what it was designed to do. In the end it wasnt enough to make it fly but overall we have no regrets.

Out of interest, what kind of sites do you work on?

Thanks Stephen I appreciate to good wishes.

Hi Guys,

Thank you for your kind comments. Yes indeed what we were trying to do requires a critical mass that we never reached. By far the biggest hindrance to us though was the legal requirements here in Germany. According to the authorities here we are effectively an online bank (either with or without Bitcoin) and we have to abide by banking rules. This would require us to get a highly expensive banking license which is not achievable by us. This is the law however and none of us wish to run into any issues in the future.

Still if someone wished to move the operation to a more favorably country perhaps they could make a success of it.

I would be interested to see how flattr are doing these days. We were amazed to see how well funded and resourced they were but I think ultimately they are coming up against some pretty cold realities. Still its a great site and I hope they can turn it into a viable success.

If anyone out there has any questions/suggestion feel free to drop me a message.

Thanks again,

Brian.

PS: Ill look into the url issue

Hi Guys,

My name is Brian and I am one of the founders of Youtipit, the Bitcoin based online tipping service. I'm pretty sure some of you guys have seen our site at some stage so you may be aware of what we are about. We initially set out to create a platform that allowed people to tip others small amounts of cash with the minimum effort and at the lowest cost. It is a simple idea but one that was exceedingly difficult to get off the ground, largely due to legal matters surrounding the holding and transferring of money. We discovered Bitcoin and decided to use it as our base tipping currency: it was an almost perfect solution to our problems. It has very low transaction costs,  its a truly distributed currency with and of course it has a small but growing user base. We embraced it fully and built our platform around the currency.

Unfortunately, we have been unable to turn Youtipit into a self sustaining product and are considering to halt further development.
Mainly for two reasons:
-          Legal problems selling Bitcoins in Germany. We actually got threatened by the BaFin (German Finance Regulator) that what we where doing is likely to be illegal
-          We’ve run out of money and therefore time. We are all back in full-time jobs and don’t see ourselves continuing anywhere in the near future

The reason I am writing this is to ask if there is anyone out there interested in taking over the project. Youtipit has been running for almost a year and a half now with some degree of success. We were actually making some money when we where still allowed to sell Bitcoin so the possibility remains possibly to transfer it to a more Bitcoin friendly jurisdiction and continue with the project. During this time we have built up a strong active user base and managed to maintain the security of the site through out and have gained extensive knowledge of Bitcoin. The site  remains fully operational in the short term but we are currently reviewing our options.

We would like to hear from anyone who has any (wild) or interesting ideas on where to take Youtipit.

Kind regards,

Brian(and the other members of the Youtipit team)

Choose the right host or hostess.

http://www.youtipit.org/en/t/J3561   is a good host for example.
[/quote]

I think if Praxgirl was the spokesperson for Bitcoin it would have a noticeable difference to bitcoins profile. Actually she would be perfect, she only accepts "non-fiat" donations and she is making quite a lot of tips on youtipit.

Interesting....

Hi Guys,

Today we are launching a new way to buy bitcoins on http://www.Youtipit.org: Online bank transfer using your European bank account via Billing partner(http://www.billingpartner.com/).
 
In order to avail of this service you will need a bank account in one of the following countries: Germany, Spain, Austria or Italy(Additional countries will be added).
All transactions require a Transaction authentication number (TAN) and you will need to use your online banking details to place an order.
Once the transaction completes the coins will be credited to your Youtipit account.

Using this method you can buy bitcoins from us and withdraw them straight away. Previously we were forced to hold coins for up to 45 days because
the risk of chargeback and fraud was too great but we are confident enough to allow same day withdrawals when members purchase using Billing partner.

Members are still able to buy coins using Click and Buy however these are still subject to our 45 day rule.

Please check it out here (https://secure.youtipit.org/en/Deposit/buy)and feel free to give me some feedback. I am interested to hear what you guys think about this.

PS: Die Website ist endlich ins Deutsche übersetzt worden, aber es kann viele Tippfehler werden   

Regards,

Brian
Co-Founder Youtipit

+1 

... yep there are many way to contribute to a project. Bitcoin donations are just one of the way you can help. I remember installing the SETI client years ago and it blew my mind to think of the project that I was in some small way contributing to. Interesting to think of the bitcoin mining parallels though.

Julz I think you are of a more similar mindset to myself than bitrebel but I can appreciate his opinion:  finding aliens is not his thing
We set up youtipit to reward people who do interesting and worthwhile things in all areas online.
SETI is a relatively large project but I like what they do and maybe others in the bitcoin community do also. Also this might raise bitcoins profile and show it in a positive light.

Ok, signup to youtipit but up some of your work and if I like it,I'll give you tip 

The reason we chose to SETI is because both of us like what they do and they seem like the sort of organization that might be interested in bitcoin. Of course you and others might not agree but I'm interested to see if there are people out there who would like to donate via youtipit to causes like this. If it works we can try it with other causes.

Hi Guys,

We are attempting to raise funds for SETI using bitcoins (https://setistars.org/) on Youtipit. We have setup up a tipit (http://www.youtipit.org/t/J3399) where you can send your bitcoin donations. Once their fundraising drive ends (in two days) we will convert the bitcoins donated to USD at the MTGox rate and donate the money to them. Once we do this we will provide evidence that the money was given in the form of an e-receipt.

Why are we doing this? Since many organizations are wary of bitcoin we feel that we could act as a intermediary for bitcoin donations by converting the donated coins into legal tender for them. Of course this requires trust from all parties that we will honestly deliver all the donated money to the intended receiver. On the tipit all donations and their values are listed. We will provide evidence that the money has been transferred to the SETI guys. Youtipit has built up a strong user base and I think that our members have grown to trust us as we operate in a transparent manner and are quick to resolve any issues that arise. We have been operating Youtipit for over year now and this is an experiment for us: we are eager to see if this will be successful. If it works we can see us doing this for other causes in the future...
Whats in it for us? We have an interest in seeing bitcoin spread to a wider audience and we feel that causes like this help show the good side of bitcoin. Although we will not make any money from this we hope it will raise our profile and that of bitcoin as a viable means to donate online.

Any questions, comments or criticisms are welcome...

Thanks,

Brian,
Founder@Youtipit 

Very interesting for those who speak German:

http://www.zeit.de/2011/27/Internet-Bitcoins

Not exactly what you are looking for but try http://www.youtipit.org. We provide tipit buttons for bitcoin tips....

Nice idea... let me know if I can help:
our site http://www.youtipit.org for rewarding online with bitcoin tips.

Vinnie: I like how you broadened a discussion about cam porn into the wider topic of macro economics. Kudos 

This has been a very interesting thread. I first felt that the BitcoinCam idea was a license to print money but the industry insight that Jessy provided is a real reality check. I think there are lessons here for all potential bitcoin entrepreneurs in any field. Kind of makes me feel sad though: if you cant make money with bitcoin cams where can you  ?

Thanks again for the interesting discussion.

Ok thats an interesting idea but its a bit of a jump from our web based code. I see what you are getting at here, let us have a  think about it. Also "youtipit.org" now resolves.

Cool, let me know if there are any interesting developments.

Thanks Bimmerhead.... next time I'll let you know. If you want to give it a try just sign up to Youtipit and create a tipit with a Livestream (http://www.livestreem.com) video feed. If you do let me know I would like to check it out.

Brian

Tell them to get in contact with us, we'll tell them every thing they need to know