Host a campaign
You can run a fundraiser or an auction of your own. Hosting is done from your own computer, with a program you run there. This site does not host campaigns, hold keys or touch anyone's money, and it has no button that sets one up for you.
Which kind
- Fundraiser. People contribute toward a goal. If the goal is reached by the deadline, you keep the money. If not, everyone is refunded.
- Auction. People bid for a number of items. Bids stay sealed until you close. The highest bids win and are paid to your address; everyone else is refunded. A uniform-price auction, where every winner pays the same price and gets the rest of their bid back, is set up from the command line instead of the dashboard.
What you need
- A computer that stays on and online from the first contribution until you have closed the campaign. Tickets are issued only while the host program runs.
- The host program (
cb-host) and the relay program (cb-relay), built from the source code that comes with this project. The README has the steps. - A place for the public list: a relay that contributors and visitors can reach. You can run your own and give it a web address, or use one you trust.
- A shielded address to receive what the campaign keeps.
The steps, from your own computer
- Start the host program's dashboard on your own computer. It is for you only and cannot be reached from other devices.
- Set up the campaign there: type, goal or items, deadline, smallest contribution, and the ticket window. It makes a wallet and a key for this campaign alone.
- Share the contribute link it gives you. Contributors pay from their own wallets, and each one gets a refund ticket signed in advance.
- After the deadline, close the campaign from the dashboard. It refunds, sweeps or settles, and saves a final copy of the list with a signed fingerprint.
- Share the recount link. Anyone can then check your books against the public chain.
What to know first
- Try it on the test network first. Its coins have no value. A real-money campaign asks for an extra confirmation.
- Back up the campaign folder. It holds the wallet and the key. If you lose it, nothing can recover them; contributors can still use their own tickets.
- Late payments are not counted. A payment that arrives after the deadline gets no ticket and is not refunded automatically; it stays in the campaign wallet until you return it by hand.
- Close in time. If you do not close within the ticket window after the deadline, contributors may claim their own refunds.
- The recount is public. Anything that does not match the chain shows up as a failed check for everyone to see.