Bitcoin Forum

Hello everyone!

**5BTC Physical Coins - 5.4BTC + Shipping**

Promotion to get things started:
1 free 90% silver quarter to the first 5 purchases!!!

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb351/tymm0/Bitcoins/IMG_5625.jpg

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb351/tymm0/Bitcoins/IMG_5665.jpg

Accepted forms of payment are 5.4 BTC + Shipping of:
Cash in person - north of Philadelphia, PA area (5.4 @ spot rate when purchased)
Bitcoin
Litecoin (Rate to be agreed upon in PM)
Dwolla (Depending on WoT rating)
Maybe others?  Make me some offers

Escrow accepted if buyer pays through someone we both trust.

I have purchased over $400 worth of computer parts recently through this forum.  I did just make my WoT account a few days ago though.  The people i have done business with are in my sig.  I would love to get some of these out in person.  It would be cool to meet some of you.

Disclaimer: These are coins minted by Casascius.  I filled them with 5BTC and put my own hologram on them.  Casascius created the bitcoin addresses and private keys and printed the paper inside.  I took them out of the package and put the coins together.

these are not the original casascius holograms.

You ordered the "Rol your own Physical bitcoins" and funded them your self, didn`t you?

I did you are correct.  And i stated that at the bottom of my post. :)

read the disclaimer, all is clear now.

I don't see the public key visible.

Does that mean that we can't verify the funds are there without peeling the sticker?

You will be able to verify they are there. The address was provided to me on a piece of paper next to the private key I cut them apart and put the private under the sticker. The address will be included in the package with the associated coin.

Do you have the ability to see the private keys as you are putting them under the sticker? Or is it like, sealed or something?

Is your sticker a traditional sticker, or is it tamper-proof? If so, any chance of a tampered pic? Thanks.

Keys are on a piece of paper like I said.  The sticker is tamper proof. I will post pics of a sticker that was peeled off in about 1 hour from now.

Picture of tamper proof sticker peeled off:

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb351/tymm0/83f25dda-1954-4358-b928-af6d8d6e7aff.jpg

It is a pretty big disadvantage not to have the public key on the coin.  It makes it kind of worthless as a physical coin to trade.  On top of that, don't you have the private keys to the coins?

I can work up a way to put the public ey on the coin.  As far as the private key, yes it would be visible as I an putting them together. I'm not sure if there would be a way for me to roll my own without being able to see them.  Same as when Casascius puts his together he can see them.  If someone can suggest something I can do different that would make it safer for my customers I'm all ears.  I would rather not be able to see them.

Yep, you've discovered the hard part.

I'm fully supportive of the efforts to create these coins, the problems you're running into are predictable, but so are their solutions.

I've gone to the expense of creating my own custom holograms.  Anyone can do this if they want to pony up the money (it's expensive, but not too expensive for someone seriously getting into the business).  Having done this helps build trust in the marketplace.

When a hologram is generic and doesn't have your name on it, it's essentially an anonymous coin.  It looks great, and it's more than plenty for giving bitcoins to friends and family, but people's ability to trust it from a stranger is accordingly limited.

There is NO WAY to load a coin while provably not seeing the private key.  The only way to accomplish something similar is to have 2 people load it with one of a two-factor scheme, where what they can see is not enough to take the funds.  Trust footprint is then reduced to whether the two people are colluding, rather than a single person being dishonest.

Can two-factor be done?  I would say possibly, but is probably more complex than just getting a custom hologram done.  Imagine you started with a coin where BOTH sides had a pit for a private key, and a flat spot for a hologram.  Two parties could collaborate to produce split keys, and then each apply their sticker to one side of the coin, and then it would be very secure.  (e.g. party A does his half, ships them to party B, he does his half, and then sells the coins to customers)

There are multiple facets of trust involved: not just trust that it's not a scam, but also trust that the production process doesn't result in mistake coins with unusable or wrong private keys inside, as well as the keys being produced and stored securely.

Seems to me like an easy solution, at least in my case of keeping the coin for myself or giving only to trusted family/friends as gifts, would be for tymm0 to sell the unfunded coin + an unused sticker/hologram for .4btc, and let the people print their own key & fund it themselves since they have the 5btc anyway. It's less work & liability for the seller, but they'd still make the same profit.

I think I would be willing to do that if people would buy them that way. And if casascius was good with it. I guess it would be the same sort of thing as I was attempting.

One more thought, if people would be interested I might be able to put the money up to get my own holograms made nice and pretty depending on my wife.  If you do think it would be acceptable leave a post here. Thanks!