Bitcoin Forum

BitcoinDial: Make Calls With Bitcoin!

Remember pay phones? You put a coin in, and you could call someone.
No monthly contacts, or expensive hardware to keep in your back
pocket. We’ve done that with Bitcoin instead of quarters. Just as
private and simple, with no account setup or long-term relationship.

Simply type what number you want to call, and pay the bitcoin amount
shown. Once we see your payment on the bitcoin network, we connect
the call between your web browser and a regular phone or mobile
worldwide.  You can choose your time limit as 5 / 15/ 30 minutes,
or for your girlfriends, one hour or two. You can call multiple
times with the same payment until the balance is used up.

Get calling here

http://40.media.tumblr.com/e423ddb3c7f7fbfac24845bf8acfc9f5/tumblr_inline_nolojaC2lW1qz9xzs_540.png (http://bitcoindial.com/)

Recording feature

Check the box and we’ll save an audio file with both sides of your                                                              
conversion. Just click to download and save as an MP3 file after
the call ends. Please tell your other party that you are recording
the call, and keep in mind many jurisdictions have laws in place
related to phone call recordings.


Want to block your number?

It’s easy: send a SMS or call our phone number: (626) 340-2001 and                                                              
we’ll give you instructions (press 1234 on phone, text BLOCK back
for SMS). There is also a web page form you can use on the site.


BitKit API

This project uses Coinkite’s API called BitKit (https://coinkite.com/developers)
which we provide to 1000’s of the world’s leading Bitcoin startups (https://coinkite.com/startups). We can safely
use shared hosting because Coinkite handles all the money and it
tells our server (via webhook) when money arrives.



Hi Guys, this is a hackathon demo of [Coinkite's API](https://coinkite.com/developers).
[please report any bugs](https://coinkite.com/faq/support); it's still new.

Blog post about it http://blog.coinkite.com/post/119362064671

Note: It behaves just like a pay phone, so deposits can only be used on the same number,
 for a new one, new payment is needed. We plan on making this open source.

Have fun, call your loved ones almost anywhere in the world,
with Bitcoin with no account needed!

PS: More data in, calls are little cheaper now. This is still a very
expensive provider to make this "cheap calls". It could be changed
 later when we FOSS it to multiple local telcos.

Cool. I blocked my number ;)

Seems a bit expensive though. What is the average price of calls?

No avg yet. And these telco provides don't really give you prices until you place a call request, all a mess. You can even get order of magnitude price different to the same country! We are using a very high quality provider (better API). The cost effective way is to use the cheaper guys and multiple of them, each for a specific region where they are better.

Hey I just tried this out. Good job man! It's a cool thing.  :)

I entered a number and selected 5min.  I then send $0.20 in BTC and it connected. It worked like a charm!
Cheers.

Nice!  ;D ;D ;D ;D

Would be nice to get an estimate on how much the rates are going to be before placing the call. International calling is definitely much more expensive than other services around. Do you also save IP's of the person who makes the call using your service ?

Just give it a specific number, and hit "Call". It prices it out and gives you an invoice that you can just cancel if that's not what you want.

As for IP logging, since it's hosted on Google App Engine, you should probably assume your IP is recorded in at least 10 places... ;-)

It's 0.20$ per minute, it is expensive

OP I'll sent you a pm about a feature of the website that I think could be abused.

Awesome service. What would be the 'From' no. when I make a call ?


Use Tor... stay anonymous.

Brilliant idea, I could see this really taking off.  Especially if you can offer price competition for international calls.

Exactly, I like it very much and you're right, the local calls are usually very cheap but if the prices for calling international numbers is cheaper then many people will opt to choose this over that.

I input some of the international numbers to see what was the price for 5 minute call and it's Super cheap, way cheaper than what's offered in my plan. Great job OP, I shall post a tweet about it soon.

i think you will get more customers to your website if you posted it on the services section

A great idea and it's very nice have such service. But the rate is not competitive. It would be nice to decrease the calling rate.

WOW!!! This is such a freaking awesome idea!!!! I haven't made an actual call yet but I put a few numbers in to check the prices and I got to say they're very decent.
To people who've actually called someone, how's the call quality? Also I was thinking it would be pretty awesome if you added an option to create an account on the site itself so that people can deposit Bitcoin and have it ready for use anytime. Of course this would only be an option and people would still be able to make calls without needing an account. In any case good job man!  8)

wow ! i have been thinking of calling over btc and boom , its here in front of me. making calls over btc could change our life. although i m not known with the cost it takes to place calls , i might tell you that it can be cheaper than others.

Getting a 404 error...
Is the site down???
Is this site restricted in India???

Site is up, with no restrictions. Try the tor browser.

For 5 mins, $0.20 is pretty reasonable. Don't compare it will the rates in Skype. Skype rates are low, as the voice quality is also lower. Even in Skype, they will charge around $0.11 for the same call ($0.07 per call + $0.01 per minute). When being compared to normal cell-phone rates, these charges are very much reasonable.

Great original idea. The service works perfectly for international calls. Pay and connect. Very simple to use.

PS: love the avatar. lol

Checked it out...
But it's asking for $0.36 for 5 minutes, it's an expensive service IMHO...
As converting it into INR means giving INR 25 for 5 minutes, which means I need to pay INR 5 per minute which is very expensive compared to what I am using with my local carriers...

Thanks, was a fun project to work on.

Ps: We had an illustrator create a bunch of them for Coinkite's Nym's/Payment Pages http://blog.coinkite.com/post/102281886111

http://33.media.tumblr.com/7bc230780bf4b36009b44c7085f83352/tumblr_inline_nbn0twUh2F1qz9xzs.png

Tried putting in some international numbers and it asked me for $0.20 for 5 minutes. Very reasonable pricing, I must say. Better than what telcos companies here in our country offer. Btw, in case you guys didn't know, you can actually make an international call in Facebook with free of charge. But I must say that there is an immense delay between you and the one you called. If the average rates could be posted soon enough, this service will take off and gain traction. For those who actually called someone using this service, is the quality of the call potato or decent?

This is the most fun I had calling someone since the last time I used pay phone. I really loved it. I just dialed my fiance and she was so socked that I used BTC.
This one of the most brilliant use of BTC for sure.

If anyone should have had a bad call I should have. I called a sat phone of a friend located in Germany from the U.S. West coast and had a clear connection for the entire call.

Service looks nice . I called a friend here in Canada, and he got the call from a local number which was great. Other services usually call from international numbers.

I have 2 Qs...

1. When a call is made, which number is used as from ?

2. Which API u r using to make the call (not the payment) ?

Both on the about page, http://bitcoindial.com/about

1. 2.

besides the rate, which sometime seems off, i tried to call a  random number and the price was too high, maybe that number didn't exist or something, it's a great idea indeed

Good thing the quality isn't potato at all, and that is already an advantage and a plus to your customers. However, it would be nice if the average price per call is indicated so that users won't be shocked to find that they're bill is more expensive than a pay phone.

Sure about that ? Because when I tried calling a local number, I saw the call coming from a local number from mu country as well.

Even though its hosted on the Google App Engine, I assume its not their service that you are using for calling. So if I was to make an anonymous call to someone, will someone be able to get to you, and then to me through the number and the IP ?
Not that I plan on doing something wrong, just would like to know.

mmm, suppose to. I think the provider only does that for US.

I love this, I have blocked my number however. The quality is clear and seems a lot better than skype. No delays as well. It was awesome.

I'll be taking a look over the API and see if I can pull anything exciting off.

Cool, ping our support@coinkite.com happy to help.

Also look at some other Open Source projects we did, you can fork anything that may help bootstrap.

• https://github.com/coinkite
• https://coinkite.com/developers

What does it mean by blocking the number ? Does it mean that no one will b e able to call you through the service ?

It means people that do not wish to receive calls from this service wont.

Good work OP, very pioneering.
So exciting all the new businesses & ideas that are popping up lately using bitcoin.
I've seen so many new business ventures on this forum the last few months.
We might actually be going somewhere with bitcoin soon after all.
Seriously cool entrepreneur work OP.
Good luck with it my friend, this is the first of this type of business I've seen involving bitcoin.

Seems useless in a way , as its almost impossible to know that someone is calling the number from this service, unless you posted your number on the forum, and it was used by someone else.

We posted everywhere. This is a proof of concept anyway, once its FOSSed someone can take it of our hands and make it into a business with lots of cool features.

Nice work! This is an impressive idea and is worth sharing with others :)

Thanks, I hope people use it friday for the Bitcoin Pizza Day, "...Call your pizza order with Bitcoin..." :P

That makes me think another thing which might exist in the future. Like Googlevoice, having your personal phone number to receive calls on. That would be like a web phone , and would be epic. You guys should consider it as a future side project.

The site doesn't have phones to call the people. They use other services and might be using the same number to call different people. When the calls are received , then it would make it complicated enough .

It would be cool, but a project on itself. Definitely doable though.

Seems your service can be used anonymously... a bit expensive though. But, criminals may be your customer to make extortion calls as well as elites may use it to book call girls.

As I can see, you are talking about making it open source. Hows that going to financially benefit you ? Will it be partially open source, so that use of your service remains mandatory ? Or you plan to monetize it from BitKit API ?

As many have pointed out prices are quite on par with better services, but that's besides the point. We have no intention of monetizing this, was a fun project/proof-of-concept.

We already monetize BitKit (Coinkite's API), there is over 1,500 devs and over 1K startups using it. https://coinkite.com/startups

In regards to abuse, we have very clear terms of use, so does the telco provider. The call receiver can also block his number, no questions asked.

Its not completely anonymous, but yes it can definitely be exploited in some manner.


But how would someone who does not know of the service know that he is being called using this site or service ?  To him it will just be another number that he is getting a call from.

If they google the number they will find the site we've indexed it. Also, any call to the authorities would identify the telco provider which will have to release our service information.

Not necessarily. This could prove an easy way to extort, scam and prank call users/people. I'm not sure how the security features are set out if anything happens, but totally anonymous from my point of view. Bitcoin and a VPN/Proxy/tor could potentially mask you completely.

It was better than Skype. and I was calling from an old thinkpad. I can see using this service somtimes.

Tested the service by calling my own phone  ;D
This is a good idea actually, it's just like skype but with bitcoins
would be better if you could make a standalone software for this  :P

Mobile Apps specifically. That's definitely possible if they release an API for BitcoinDial. Developers could implement it into their own scripts.

As long as the app has an embeded WebRTC able browser should be a walk in the park.

Now that the forum is back: Did any of you use it to call pizzas on friday?