What do Tour de France spectators, the NASA’s Mars Rover and potential Bitcoin users have in common? They all love selfies.
A company in the Philippines is taking advantage of our vanity by having millennials convert their cash into Bitcoin in daily “selfie contests.”
Satoshi Citadel Industries, an umbrella company for various bitcoin-related endeavors, launched a site called Bitstars that allows users to “tip” others, bid on their favorite selfies and upload their own to compete for prizes.
“We knew we wanted to create a fun and simple way for people to get introduced to the idea of Bitcoin, and then have a way to actually earn some Bitcoin,” Luis Buenaventura, head of product at SCI, told BetaBeat. “This is generally referred to as a Bitcoin faucet, as its primary use is to ‘trickle’ small amounts of Bitcoin into the economy.”
At the conclusion of each 24 hour contest, votes are tallied and an amount of BTC is awarded to the winner. More submissions mean larger prizes, so cue the Instagram filtering.
As the site grows, SCI hopes to incorporate more prizes from sponsors and partners. A pair of tickets to a Chainsmoker concert has been the only non-Bitcoin prize to date.
“The group had a single entitled ‘#selfie’ so we thought it was a total no-brainer,” Mr. Buenaventura said.
The Filipino site, which launched last month, has seen over 6,000 selfie submissions across the Philippines, Australia, Eastern Europe and the U.S. so far. About 0.6 BTC or $400 has been generated by tips and contest winnings to date. It seems selfies aren’t worth too much.
Now that selfie takers are making money off their faces and even the deceased are sending them, it seems we’re further than ever from the demise of #SelfieNation.