Bitcoin Forum

Hey everyone, I just wanted to post an update about the status of Piper (http://www.piperwallet.com), the paper wallet generator and printer.  We've changed the design of the paper wallets to a new one created by Jason Sawtelle.  A picture is below:


http://piperwallet.com/walletdesign-small.jpg

We've also added some new features.  Piper now has 2 modes: Remember mode and Forget mode.  When Piper is in remember mode, all private/public keypairs will be stored on Piper's internal memory.  If you plug in a USB flash drive, Piper will automatically copy the stored keys to the flash drive.  When Piper is in forget mode, the keypairs will not be stored and the keys will exist only on the actual paper themselves.  The mode can be selected with a switch on the top of the unit.  This video shows a demo of that functionality, and also the new wallet design as well: http://youtu.be/v5jmFJN1_cs (http://youtu.be/v5jmFJN1_cs)


We upgraded our paper to one with a 7 year image life (assuming the paper is stored in cool, dry office filing type conditions).  We're also working on a new foldable design tailored for use with tamper-proof holographic stickers, as an option.  You can always use your own printer with Piper's USB port, if you like.

Finally, we are proud to announce that Piper has passed the 26 tests of randomness from the Dieharder suite (http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/General/dieharder.php (http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/General/dieharder.php))  We tested /dev/urandom with every test rated "good" or higher in the Dieharder suite and Piper passed them all (except for the RGB Generalized Minimum Distance Test which is clearly broken since it reports a p-value of 0.00000 and fails on every other system we could get our hands on as well).  Since Piper uses vanitygen to generate it's keypairs, and vanitygen uses /dev/urandom for it's random seed, we can say that the keys generated by Piper are safe.  Piper actually has a hardware random number generator built into the SoC that it uses to ensure that it has sufficient entropy to generate cryptographic keys.  Piper comes with the shell script used to run the Dieharder tests, so you can test your own unit if you like.  Here's the results of a run of all 26 tests: http://piperwallet.com/dieharder-results.txt (http://piperwallet.com/dieharder-results.txt)

The enclosure design was sent to the manufacturer today and I should be receiving a prototype enclosure towards the end of the week, so I'll post pics when it comes in the mail.

Thanks for your support, everyone!  More info can be found in the FAQs here: http://www.piperwallet.com (http://www.piperwallet.com)

Damn, this sounds real good. Well done dude!

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback!

Great project!

Will you ship worldwide - can we preorder it with certainty?

What about refills of the paper? :)

Thanks!  Yeah I want to ship worldwide but I may have to charge extra for international shipping.  I'll have to get shipping quotes and see exactly how much the difference will be.

Right now I'm not taking people's money yet, I just want to know how much of each part to order.  But when I send out an invoice towards the end of June, it's very much certain your product will be shipped within the next few days.  I'm not sending out the invoices until I have all the parts sitting in front of me, with multiple sample units built and tested with at least 1000 prints tested on a unit. 

Ordering all the parts before taking any money is a huge risk on my part, but if I run into any sort of hiccup and need more time, I won't have your money hostage and I won't feel bad about delaying the ship date to make a better product.  I've literally sold the majority of my bitcoins to finance this (at $117/BTC, damn it!  haha), but I've been a member here for over a year and I've seen all the scams and I know how sensitive everyone is and stuff.  I intend to make the process fully transparent, with verification photos of myself with all the parts and supplies posted here before I send out the invoice so you can really be confident sending me your money.



Great question, I'll be selling refill rolls for $1 each. Each roll will print over 100 paper wallets.

how di i know that the adresses in the printer are uniqe and not just a bunch of adresses from a list that you can lookin too ?

greetz.

I really like it, just try to improve the design a bit more.

Amazing! How the hell did you get a thermal printer that cheap? Those bitches are expensive.

Probably one of these: http://www.adafruit.com/products/597

Nice, his profits must be tiny though. I'll be buying at ~100

Well, I suspect the internal Linux system is either a Raspberry Pi Model A ($25) or an MK802 (about $35). Not sure how much the enclosure and other parts would cost though. It's really not that important, just see if the overall system works for you, the total cost of parts shouldn't matter.

Can you imagine tapping a button and handing it to a friend? Very cool

It's the only real reason for me to buy such a thing. 'Cause it's awesome to do.

And send it in a Tmobile bill instead of a check? Exciting

Really hope he adds a real rng chip tho

Since it's all open source, you can check for yourself to see that each key is generated on the fly.


I ordered the custom enclosure prototype and once it comes in the mail I'll definitely take some new pics and do a new video.  


I've actually been giving out paper wallets printed by Piper with 0.25BTC stored on them to people as birthday gifts.  I include instructions on how to import it into blockchain.info if they want.  


Piper uses a Broadcom System-on-a-Chip that includes a hardware random number generator.

Can someone audit the soc and code? And give us an easy way to hash check the delivered product?

Outstanding work!

This is type of technology that CAN be used by the general public and its too bad that the 'new' Bitcoin ATM's did not include this technology.

I would just want to make sure that the DEV crew blesses the code to insure no mishaps.

Great job.

Cheers

Could you give us more details about the printer?

If it's just a standard thermal printer I'd be very concerned about the durability. 7 years under ideal conditions doesn't seem very long.

Ideally you'd laser etch it into stainless steel or something, but that's not very practical :)

Maybe I'm just paranoid.

He said there's guaranteed paper but yes a heat wave will wipe you out

You are definitively paranoid ;-)

I would be more concerned about storing the pieces of paper in a safe place, where your pets/foes can't reach them. Moving coins to a new wallet every 5 years does not look like a terribly complicated chore.

Another idea could be simply to print to PDF, perhaps even via a web interface when you put in the amount you want, pay for it and then print out the cash (Bitcoin) currency that you purchased.

The obvious issue with this solution is that the private key needs to be protected (like the cassius coins) until the certificate is redeemed. Something as low tech as a sealed windowed envelope would work in the short term but in the long term something like a scratch off section would work.

A paper solution could bring Bitcoin to all of the dis-connected people.

Great work!

Piper,

It would be good to review this comprehensive legal review of currency.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1817857 (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1817857)

There are many ways to address the legal characteristics of paper money and certainly including some language on the note will be a good start. Something like IOU or for amusement only or anything that clearly indicates that this is NOT competing with legal domestic currency.

Also it could be constructed more like a paper check, where it is an IOU from me to you but if you do not redeem it, then a 3rd party could.

I thought this legal review did a good job of pointing out the pitfalls and some clear ways to avoid them.

Good luck,

This isn't paper money though, it's just an encryption key. A value isn't even printed on it.

Good idea. Someway to check and verify the delivered printer is useful.
What is the warranty period for the machine?
Will it be easily serviceable?

I want a braille version with a 10,000 year shelf-life on metal media. Thermal and sediment ink just isn't reliable, unless it is sealed and specially cared for. (Not acid, UV, water or fire/heat safe.)

:P

Neat idea. Best use of POS equipment ever!

A "dollar", is a "Bank note", an "IOU", a "Check", a "FIAT"... Your money/value/note is "Spent" by them, as soon as you give it to them. It goes to the person who just requested a LOAN. You get another note, when you withdrawal, from the other person who just paid a portion of their loan, they got a year ago.. or ten... or 20...

Virtual-currency has "no cash value". (Can not be taken to a BANK, and exchanged for a BANK-NOTE.) Even if it can be exchanged with BOB for a BANK-NOTE, which is legal, since "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private."

That does not make it "currency". Only a "regulated bank" can make it "currency"... Thus, BOB could refuse your bitcoins, as it is... "A private note, valid only by those who find it valid, for whatever they are willing to accept it for." EG, it is a comic-book, a baseball-card, a pez-candy-dispenser, a seashell.

It is illegal to refuse USA currency for goods, in the USA... It is not illegal to refuse bitcoins for goods in the USA.

Printing an "account number" of a USA bank does not make you a MINTER or a counterfeiter... because the ACCOUNT is not the CURRENCY.
Thus, printing your bitcoins account info, is NOT turning it into a "currency". Even if it can be used to trade, or given to someone for a debt. At that point, it is the "extracting party" who is responsible for any "gains", to report them. But bitcoins are, "no cash value"... thus... are not a gain. (Not until sold for an actual currency.)

Like I said, great idea.

Yeah, this seems pretty freakin' amazing!

I already have mine. It's a rasperberry pi with printer. Works great.

I asked about checking the integrity of the software and apparently it's pretty easy to audit the code yourself, or reinstall the whole thing yourself. just hook it up like a computer and you will be inside ubuntu so you can check things to you hearts desire.

Very good
I purchased a print out and got a bonus usb drive.
The drive was taken from an overrun of bible drives.

When you do get the receipt how do you make the receipt key/money go to your wallet.

In the future you should think about including something similar to armory's Secure Print where you get a code to write on the paper after you print it out, so even if someone had access to the printer, they can't get the code. (For plugging into the USB)

Is there a qr? Sweep it with mycelium. Or sweep with blockchain

ok thanks

Hey guys,
I can't seem to get 1.06 to work, so I'm still in 1.05.
I did get some alts working in 1.05. Git (https://github.com/pembo210/PiperAltsAddon)
https://i.imgur.com/X4PpUS6.jpg

Please note* the edit on line 318 in the 'piper.py' file. I had to disable copying the keys to the backup /boot/ directory. I'm still a little new to raspi and python. I was messing with my profiles earlier and now my user Pi no longer has access to it so it doesn't copy to that location. The keys are still stored only in the local keys.db3 file.
Can someone can help me find the settings.db3 file or how to run the 1.06 release? I can't find any info on it.

edit: the new Piper release is out and contains all the necessary files. ;D