sounds good let us know how it goes.

I'm another long time server/bartender.  I think this is a good idea.  Restaurant industry people like cash and anonymity.  Also, the industry is a VERY large sub-culture and word would spread pretty far.

With internet on this one, I believe somebody already tried it and they managed to piss off a couple of the staff there by trying to give them Bitcoins, just be sure to have some dollars on hand if your experiment fails

Oops, sorry, it was in italic as well, I'm having my coffee now so I noticed it >_<

Back in December 2012 I ate at a restaurant and asked the server if I could give him his tip in bitcoin. He had an Android phone and had no problem installing the Blockchain.info wallet. At the time the exchange rate was right around $10 so I gave him 1 bitcoin even.

Fast forward about 6 months and I happened to be there again and he remembered me as the guy who had given him a "$200 tip". Exchange rate at the time was ~$120, but he didn't mind that it had gone down slightly after having gone up so high.

Last time I talked to him he said he planned on holding it for a while longer.

Thanks everyone for their feedback on this experiment.  The consensus was that this is a worthwhile experiment and that it is ethical provided that the participants are properly tipped in dollars in addition to receiving a bitcoin paper wallet.  As stated in the "Methods" section, this was always the plan. 

I printed out my first set of paper wallets, loaded each with 0.025 BTC, and tipped the first one at Chambar in Vancouver yesterday evening (https://blockchain.info/address/1847EXesCGn9k7fcR9tBnYFfKSR8ssLCcY).  I have updated the OP to reflect our first data point; it's been 20 hours and the funds haven't yet moved.

I am quite eager to see the statistics on the percentage of these wallets redeemed within the 10 day window.  My hunch is less than 10%, but we'll have to wait to find out for sure....

Awesome to see you go ahead with this.

You can pay less fees on your tx btw, a fifth of that is enough, assuming you don't do this intentionally.

I have people leave them in geocaches.

Another thought is just offer the choice: want $5 or $20 bitcoin?

Good on you then, I am willing to support you so long as you give the server the option or both as you stated. Please don't try and force a server to accept btc if they want to  

Curious to see what happens with this as well, keep us informed

I handed out two more 25mBTC tips this weekend: the first at an IHOP (https://blockchain.info/address/1L22MWVzmGEf36SHLPnZjZ6C1wZxVMzFaW) and the second at a jazz club in Vancouver (https://blockchain.info/address/1Mn2PSAMP4aDrKSsSLkECAHTCSjW1Nzy2B) (see OP for more details).  

Thanks everyone for your additional thoughtful comments.  I’ll address a few below:



I don’t think we necessarily want to maximize the rate at which people sweep these funds.  Of course I could make each paper tip $100 and help everyone download the Blockchain.info app to their phone, and then sweep these funds to a private address for them.  If I hired a handsome guy to push for this with a charming smile, then I’m sure we’d have close to a 100% sweep rate.   But I think making it “too easy” or offering “personalized help” would be counter-productive to this experiment because:
     (1) the funds allocated for this experiment would be drained much quicker, so less paper wallets would be given out in total,
     (2) the “adoption rate” I calculate would be biased based on how much the server likes me (it would lose its meaning),
     (3) like Carlton Banks mentioned in regards to not claiming the funds within 10 days, this "emotionally charged story will spread the general sense of 'get on board, train's leaving with or without you.'"  

Instead of pushing bitcoin on the participants, I want to be very neutral and simply place these paper tips along with the cash tip on the table as I leave.  If the server uses it, then maybe we’ve created a new bitcoin adopter.  If the server doesn’t use it, then I get the funds back to give to someone else and perhaps we still triggered a conversation about bitcoin.  Win-win I think.  Also, by being neutral like this, the results of this experiment over time will also be meaningful.  If I can continue this experiment into this summer, it will be very interesting if we can measure a statistically-significant change in the adoption rate over time.  

That being said, I may be willing to modify the note that I wrote on the backside of each wallet (refer to the figure in the OP).  I debated about adding details like "download a Blockchain.info wallet app for your smart phone," "spend your coins at Gyft," or "gamble your funds away at just-dice.com" but I decided to simply leave a single link to bitcoin.org.  This may or may not have been the best decision.  


I used my Blockchain.info app on my iPhone and there’s no way to control the fees (unlike the blockchain.info web-wallet).  Unfortunately, due to Apple’s restrictive bitcoin policies, Piuk does not want to update the app to make this much needed improvement, as he is worried about it getting pulled from the App Store upon a re-review.