Today, we take as our text that defining moment when Bitcoiners began to expand the project's reach through marketing efforts, as memorialized in the following picture taken in February 2011:
No doubt you've seen this picture and perhaps the reddit post saying the gentleman was paid 32 BTC for holding the sign.
Did you know that he was supposed to be an underwear model and wearing nothing but underwear "times square naked cowboy style"?
Also, by my count, he made quite a bit more than 32 BTC.
And there's video...somewhere.
"Stop The Fed! Use Bitcoins!"
It all started with jimbobway on the bitcointalk forum. He put up a 100 BTC bounty for someone to do the following:
Make a sandwich billboard saying "Stop The Fed! Use Bitcoins!" in large black letters (on both sides.) Wear a crazy outfit too.Go to the New York Stock Exchange on Wall St on a weekday preferably Mon to Thurs. Stand there from 8:00AM to 9:30AM (when people are arriving to work. Market opens at 9:30AM) Have flyers ready to hand out talking about bitcoins or refer them to bitcoin.org.
He even included coordinates.
"The only condition that might not work is the megaphone."
The bounty gets up to 250 BTC pretty quickly and then tenbagger swoops in with a candidate:
He happens to be a former male underwear model and he would also like to see what kind of bounty would be made available if he were to go "times square naked cowboy style" and do this entire gig in briefs.
He claims it is "scheduled" to be unseasonably warm in NY...for February.
Tenbagger's claims of male model hotness ignite a very serious discussion about the candidate's attire (and also increase the bounty)
"Oy Vey! You guys expect a LOT for 100 Bitcoins..."
The question arises whether one can wear nothing but one's briefs while holding a sign in front of the NYSE and not get arrested.
To address these concerns, ribuck helpfully suggests that the male model could "always wear his briefs on the outside."
While others like S3052 suggest "disguising himself as a big golden (bit) coin or as a digital wallet" because "just a half naked guy will appear in the press as a non event." It is NYC after all...
Other costume suggestions include "a gold sparkly sequin Elvis number" and "a visualization of "bits" with (golden painted) 1's and 0's all over his body? Or black numbers on his bitcoin golden-bodypainted (half naked) body?"
The model himself, tenbagger reports,
wanted to wear a hip suit. He is a former male model after all so I'm sure he can pull it off and look good it in. This way, he'll look sharp, but it won't be in the typical wall street navy suit way but rather a funky, hip, colorful way.Any ugly guy can wear a coin costume.
I humbly refer you to the picture posted at the top.
"There will be mocking of bitcoin"
It turns out the 21st is a holiday and the NYSE will be closed. Bimmerhead expresses concern that "a 'protest' on that day will look a little clueless to anyone who does happen to walk by.
There will be mocking of bitcoin.
I would like to note that throughout the discussion of bodypainted bitcoin symbols and naked cowboy style, no one has been concerned that the event will reflect poorly on Bitcoin. Not getting the hours right on the other hand...
"Of all the mornings to come in late..."
The most poignant post is from endian7000, who says
Someone in my office (near the NYSE) said they saw it this morning!Of all the mornings for me to come in late...
Our man tenbagger then explains why the costume didn't turn out quite as majestic as was planned.
It was freezing cold this morning in NYC so he was unable to wear the originally planned suit which is fairly light. I think he just wore a standard coat and I hope this is all right.
Despite some computer trouble, he posts a vimeo link later in the day. As far as I can tell, it is no longer live. I wasn't able to find the video anywhere else, either. So if one of you happens to have a copy...
The Payout
Bitcoiners are nothing if not generous:
riX sends 50 btc
S3052 sends 30 btc
ribuck sends 15 btc
Mahkul sends 50 btc
jimbobway sends 100 btc
ShadowOfHarbinger sends "some" btc
By my count that's at least 245 BTC. Not bad pay for a morning's work.
"He looks better than Marky Mark did in his Times Square underwear ads"
The thread continues with discussion about a second attempt. And Bruce announces that he "happens to know the hottest male underwear super-model in the industry" (apparently there are a lot of underwear models in NYC).
Bruce posts a bunch of links to photo shoots his hot friend has done.
To which kiba responds:
You have a tendency to exaggerate.
And then the conversation turns into a raging debate about meat consumption of all things...apparently bitcoiners haven't changed that much.
The last post in the thread is from The Script
WTF? What happened to the super-sexy (according to Bruce) underwear model generating publicity for Bitcoin? All the sudden everyone is talking about vegetarianism....