Photo Contest Seeks Replacement For Traditional Physical Bitcoin Image

Starting today, and running through October 15, all photographers and graphic artists are encouraged to enter a photo contest sponsored by Amsterdam-based bit4coin, for a chance to win up to 1,000 Euros worth of bitcoin. The contest aims to not only bring more color and life to the bitcoin community in general, but to replace the tired, old images of physical coins so typically found attached to bitcoin articles in the mainstream press.

"We felt bitcoin is lacking images and pictures. Most main stream media articles feature similar photos of physical Bitcoins. The bitcoin photo contest is an attempt to change this."
— – Dolf Diederichsen, bit4coin CEO

Anyone can submit their own bitcoin photos or artwork, and win up to €1,000 in bitcoin. 2nd and 3rd place prizes are for €500 and €250, respectively.

The public can view the images on the bit4coin site, and upvote their favourites. These votes will count towards the final outcome.

The site also makes it easy to tip artists directly in bitcoin, which is another metric being taken into consideration. Tipping is being encouraged on the site for the sake of transparency. As tips pile up, everyone can see the popularity of each photo in the blockchain itself.

Artists can submit as many photos, drawings, or other works of art as they want, as long as the images are connected to bitcoin. The submission period ends October 15, when a jury of bitcoin news sites, including BraveNewCoin, will then pick our favorites.

Depending on the number of entries, the submissions may get split up into different categories, including “memes,” “paintings,” or “photographs.”

“If we get tons of high-quality submissions, we may do it. We also may add more sponsors to increase rewards as well, but it really all depends on the reception by the community.”
— – Diederichsen

Between upvotes, tips, and the news-site jury, three winners will be chosen, and prizes quickly sent out. Most importantly, artists retain all rights to their images. This way, the artists can still earn money on their best work.

Prizes will be delivered in bit4coin vouchers, which are denominated in Euro, and can be redeemed immediately on the bit4coin.net website.

“For voucher codes, we will send the code to your mobile phone immediately after we have received your payment. Delivery should thus only take a matter of minutes. For gift cards, delivery time varies by destination, but should be in the range of 2-7 days. We will ship your order from our office in Amsterdam on the same day as your payment is received.”
— – bit4coin

Bitcoins via vouchers isn’t brand new, but the company is the only one that provides the service worldwide. Normally when bitcoins are sold via a physical voucher, the cards have to be printed and stocked on store shelves, which typically cuts down on how many countries they can sell to.

“We ship all vouchers in an inactive state to prevent any damage from vouchers getting lost or stolen. Once you receive the vouchers in the mail, you will need to activate them by clicking on a button in the shipping confirmation e-mail. If vouchers get lost, we can invalidate them and issue new ones.”
— – bit4coin

No matter how much artwork gets submitted, it would seem that many bitcoiners have another site to check and vote at daily, at least through October 15th.

"We hope artists and visitors will have as much fun with the contest as we had creating it,” said Diederichsen. "And we hope it adds value to the entire bitcoin community!"