$10 Of Free Bitcoin For College Students

http://blog.coinbase.com/post/85758038492/10-of-free-bitcoin-for-college-students

by jessehu • 12 years ago

76 83 12 years ago

blog.coinbase.com

johnwalker• 12 years ago

Hmm. I signed up a few minutes ago with my university email, but didn't get anything. Does it take a while?

Edit: Aha. It doesn't work for everyone, even within the top 500.

seangarita• 12 years ago

This is a great initiative on Coinbase's part. Will definitely get a lot of adopters because the free money will incentivize the use and then the experience of using Bitcoin should hold on to the new users.

catmanjan• 12 years ago

ANU student here, can confirm it works with .edu.au emails

How do they stop people taking advantage of the ability to create an arbitrary amount of email accounts?

iancarroll• 12 years ago

If they see a lot from an insecure uni I'd assume they would take action.

jefftchan• 12 years ago

It seems like they're detecting browser user agent (and possibly IP)

krilnon• 12 years ago

I'm not going to abuse this myself, but at MIT you can create seemingly-unlimited @mit.edu email addresses using Moira.

Getting a bunch of fresh IPs might be trickier, but you could probably wander around different WiFi access points, use the CSAIL OpenStack installation, or maybe just renew a DHCP lease a bunch.

User-agents a easy to find and change with a browser extension (or scripting).

cynix• 12 years ago

Does not work with uts.edu.au address.

opcon• 12 years ago

Does not work with utas.edu.au either.

NamTaf• 12 years ago

Failed, it seems, to work on .uqconnect.edu.au addresses. I don't know if you have to use .uq.edu.au or if that wouldn't also work.

Sucks, I was looking forward to this.

brimtown• 12 years ago

Has Coinbase posted a list of the "top 500" colleges that are supported, or are we left to guess? I signed up a few minutes ago and haven't seen anything yet.

Edit: Still not showing up. Kinda scummy to advertise this to college students and not follow through, especially in the heat of finals week.

manacit• 12 years ago

Same here, with an @uw.edu e-mail address.

kandalf• 12 years ago

@seas.upenn.edu didn't seem to work.

andrewmunsell• 12 years ago

Same thing with my @uw.edu email address.

loarake2• 12 years ago

McGill University doesn't use an .edu domain, I tried signing up in case they included it anyway but got nothing.

selmnoo• 12 years ago

That's interesting... (and a little too bad for you, since a lot of systems will give you student discounts and all just for the .edu email address), how come it is that way? Is that a thing with a lot of Canadian universities, or?

alain_gilbert• 12 years ago

I used my email@ulaval.ca (Laval University in Quebec city, Quebec, Canada) and it worked !

andrewjkerr• 12 years ago

I just tried my @ufl.edu address and it didn't work. I would assume my university is large enough to be included.

Also, as a side note, they sent me an email asking me to subscribe to their blog before they sent a verification email. Once I subscribed to their blog then I realized it was not the same as user verification, lol.

wavesounds• 12 years ago

My friend at Orange Coast College just signed up with her .edu email address and it didn't work. I think its a scam to get people's email addresses. I don't think I'll ever refer anyone to Coinbase again now and I'm a previously happy customer.

arfliw• 12 years ago

What's more likely, coinbase is running a 'scam' or that they don't consider Orange Coast College one of the top 500 universities worldwide?

nuxi7• 12 years ago

works with mtu.edu

brianbreslin3• 12 years ago

I wonder if it works for my alumni.virginia.edu email? though i already have a coinbase account.

privong3• 12 years ago

It doesn't appear to work with a regular viginia.edu email (at least not if the BTC are supposed to be deposited immediately upon account confirmation).

But, Wahoowa! :)

brianbreslin3• 12 years ago

@privong wahoowa indeed! you're an astrophysicist?

Oculus• 12 years ago

This reminds me of a very similar campaign Paypal did to help jumpstart the online payments market. Paypal offered $20 to anyone for opening an account or referring a new user[1]. This served to help rapidly grow a market of Paypal users before one existed.

1 (I highly recommend watching the full conversation as it's immensely interesting) - http://youtu.be/vDwzmJpI4io?t=11m21s

battani2• 12 years ago

The difference being that most of these students will receive the free bitcoin and hold, hoping they appreciate in value, instead of transacting and contributing to the network effect.

beaner3• 12 years ago

Is this myth not dead yet? People spend bitcoin and want to spend it. There is also speculation and hoarding, but no universal law that says you can't do both.

$10 isn't even much to hoard. If the price goes up 10x that's still just $100. This is more like, "Oh, you got our drinks, I'll pay you back in btc!" kind of money.

covi• 12 years ago

I signed up with my @berkeley.edu email, and the coins haven't showed up yet.

fakename2• 12 years ago

ditto

amtab• 12 years ago

This is a great idea, just got mine! It worked for Paypal back in the day to boost signups. Hopefully between this and the MIT program we'll see more interesting transactions in BTC as opposed to people holding it as a lottery ticket.

eswat2• 12 years ago

This offer is good for select .edu domains only. We have tried to include the top 500 universities worldwide (this is not U.S. focused).

I’m not aware of a university outside of the US that uses a .edu TLD…

nickonline• 12 years ago

When I was at university similar comments were made by other organisations and they allowed my .edu.au

However upon reading the first thing I considered was "who are the top 500". It might be easier if they provided a list.

Mandatum• 12 years ago

In New Zealand it's .ac.nz. We're screwed whenever there's .edu sales/offers.

adrianmacneil2• 12 years ago

Fellow kiwi here. Most NZ universities are included.

adrianmacneil2• 12 years ago

I'm an engineer at Coinbase. There are definitely many non-US domains included (e.g. .ac.CCTLD and .edu.CCTLD).

bendoernberg• 12 years ago

Why not publish the list? Surely it's not worth frustrating students from hundreds of colleges who try to take advantage of the offer and can't?

icelancer• 12 years ago

Not publishing the list makes you look like you are harvesting email addresses. Just publish it.

pugz• 12 years ago

http://monash.edu is based in Australia. It also apparently has campuses in Malaysia, South Africa, India, Italy and China.

There's also the embarrassingly bad http://australia.edu/, which is not a university and even has public signup for @australia.edu emails. Perhaps that will allow access to this promotion.

spectrum• 12 years ago

Here in the Netherlands the University of Tilburg has a .edu: http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/

DCKing2• 12 years ago

The website having an .edu is one thing, but that doesn't give you a usable .edu email address.

Tenoke• 12 years ago

We have tried to include the top 500 universities worldwide

Eh, doesn't Coinbase operate only in the US?

haakon• 12 years ago

Their wallet service can be used by anyone, anywhere. If you want to use their brokerage service to buy bitcoins, you need a U.S. bank account.

derekja• 12 years ago

worked from my uvic.ca address. 0.02229 BTC. thanks!

Permit• 12 years ago

It looks like their list extends beyond .edu domains. I just registered with an @uwaterloo.ca email and received 0.02266 BTC.

ohblahitsme2• 12 years ago

Well, now I have a coin base account but not $10. Looks like UC Davis email doesn't work.

rdl2• 12 years ago

I signed up with a @mit.edu and it doesn't appear to be credited, so I think maybe they've used up all the money in the promotional account.

ohblahitsme2• 12 years ago

I chatted with support and they said to email their support.

rdl2• 12 years ago

So glad some .edu sites allow creating mailing lists at top level, like @mit.edu :)

benguild• 12 years ago

@fas.harvard.edu didn't work

millzlane• 12 years ago

Works with jhu.edu thanks!

phrolik• 12 years ago

woohoo works for NYU! I just spread it around a bunch of social media outlets to get the word out :)

91edec• 12 years ago

Works for University of Birmingham (UK) email addresses. @bham.ac.uk

kwikshot• 12 years ago

Thanks, didn't think I'd see another UoB student here!

misingnoglic• 12 years ago

I'm not sure what qualifies top 500 college for them. So far from Brandeis and UCSB neither have gotten the $10.

adamevers• 12 years ago

I hope they continue with the running totals for each university. It's interesting to see adoption and adoption rates.

fakename2• 12 years ago

they might be checking ip addresses. i succeeded with the first edu email i tried, nada for the second. both schools are listed on their site.

unclesaamm• 12 years ago

This didn't work for my Swarthmore email address. I assume liberal arts colleges weren't included on the list of top "universities"?

Edit: And if someone from Coinbase is reading this, can we get added? I have friends who would be interested too.

arrayjumper• 12 years ago

buffalo.edu works :) TY coinbase.

peteretep• 12 years ago

Not working for ox.ac.uk addresses (name@kellogg.ox.ac.uk)

why-el• 12 years ago

Anyone from coinbase here? Are there plans for international universities? Mine does not use a .edu but rather a country specific one. Would love to hit all students with this but I need to know first that they would be accepted.

DCKing2• 12 years ago

Did not work for University of Twente emails (utwente.nl). Please know that all Dutch public universities are firmly within the top 500 of universities worldwide (whichever ranking you pick) but don't have .edu email addresses!

It's a shame, because I know a lot of people who would like to experiment with Bitcoins.

explicate• 12 years ago

Works for University of Toronto - uses utoronto.ca

DanAndersen• 12 years ago

I tried this with my purdue.edu email a few days ago and it didn't work at all. I think it was because I used a computer in an on-campus lab to sign up. When emailing Coinbase support I got these responses that, while prompt, were unhelpful in actually fixing the issue:

My apologies for the trouble! In some cases, we may not be able to credit this promotional bonus to new accounts. If we are able to credit it to your account, it will be displayed on the Transactions page immediately after signup.
If another user used the same device to redeem the .edu promotional bonus, we unfortunately would not be able to credit it to your account at this time.

baby3• 12 years ago

What about my @etu.u-bordeaux.fr ? I'd gladly tell the other students in my cryptography master.

matart• 12 years ago

This sounds great but I can't take advantage in Canada because we don't use .edu emails.

therobot24• 12 years ago

@andrew.cmu.edu doesn't work

ToastyMallows• 12 years ago

rit.edu email works, thanks Coinbase!

$10 Of Free Bitcoin For College Students

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