

Ask HN: How does Dropbox's Betacoin work? - joeblau


======
Artemis2
They probably just generate a GIF with your beta code, that you enter in your
apps. The apps then check against Dropbox's servers whether the code is
correct or not, using a hardware ID (HWID) to restrict codes to a single
device. Probably nothing outstanding apart from the branding ("betacoin").

Dropbox engineers on HN, correct me if I'm wrong.

~~~
BillinghamJ
More specifically, the GIF contains the activation code in its comments
section:

[http://www.velvetcache.org/2014/08/20/custom-mailbox-
betacoi...](http://www.velvetcache.org/2014/08/20/custom-mailbox-betacoins)

I don't believe any hardware IDs are used. The codes are one-time use only,
and your Dropbox/Mailbox account is activated with it. Once your account is
enabled, you can use the beta on multiple computers.

