Dogecoin, an online internet currency, sponsored Wise at Talladega Superspeedway three weeks ago, and organized through reddit.com to vote their driver into the All-Star Race, prevailing over presumed favorite Danica Patrick and others. Immediately following last night’s announcement, speculation surfaced that Wise may have benefitted from an automated vote-casting program, or bot, which bypassed online tests designed to prove that voters are actual human beings. These test are referred to as captchas.
A reddit.com user identified by the screen name ihaveabulldogerefuted those charges, saying, “Those saying we used a bot… are incorrect. You need a human to solve those. How did we vote so fast? Skills.
“(We) read the rules (and) realized we could vote unlimited times with double votes on (Sprint) mobile. I personally was on the slow end and could bang out 2-3 votes per minute on mobile, depending on captcha difficulty. So in one hour of hardcore voting, that is a minimum of 120 votes from just one person. We have over 80k subscribers and a ton more people on reddit to help.
“Once we started, NASCAR implemented the captcha,” he wrote. “Instead of discouraging us, it actually helped us, since many fans of dogecoin and Josh Wise are also skilled at the internet. (We) voted quickly by using the back button (to solve) the captcha each vote...instead of re-clicking through 2 other pages. Simply put, instead of using a mouse to slowly click, we used a keyboard shortcut for `go back.'
“We knew our adversary and the awesome fan base we would be up against,” he wrote. “They are a dedicated bunch, so we knew we would have to vote nonstop and whenever we could in order to have a chance. There was no paying for extra votes, or hiring offshore (voters) as some people have theorized. We did NOT use bots, as a bot cannot beat a captcha. It was good ol’ fashioned crowd-sourced voting.
“We had a vested interest in Josh winning,” wrote ihaveabulldoge. “A lot of people donated a lot of dogecoin to get the sponsorship (and) that means that a piece of us -- no matter how small -- was plastered on that car. It was more important for us to win, because we invested real money. Sponsored drivers have a big company behind them, but we had a group of individuals.
“Community members started streaming their votes live and showing off their speed voting skills.”
The entire online post may be seen at http://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/25sb7j/info_for_news_outlets_and_angry_nascar_fans/
