Bitcoin Forum

The Titan One Silver coins are now available. Production is limited to only 1,000 coins for the 2013 edition. These are "proof-grade" in their quality, and have a mirror finish in the polished areas.  They're minted from 1 troy ounce of .999 pure silver (31.1 grams). 

Read more at https://www.titanbtc.com/product/titan-one-silver/


Just a reminder, these are available in 2 versions:

"2-factor Authenticated" (Each coin is registered to an email address, which can be changed at anytime.  Access to the email is required to redeem)

-OR-

"Private Key included" (Just like Casascius coins, the only copy of the 30-digit private key is included underneath the hologram)


https://www.titanbtc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Titan_One_Silver_Front_800WM.jpg

https://www.titanbtc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Titan_One_Silver_Back_800WM.jpg

https://www.titanbtc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Comparison_800sq_WM.jpg


We limited production for this coin to just 1,000 pieces and they're selling quickly.  Credit card payments will be available next week on our site.

Lastly, Thanks for the warm welcome in Vegas this week, guys.  The 1 oz gold versions of this coin will be available soon.  If anyone wants to PM with pre-orders for the gold coins, that will help us gauge how much bullion to buy for the full production run.

Nice coins!

Where are you shipping from?

We're shipping from La Habra, California, near Los Angeles.  First Class shipping is included in the cost.  For whatever reason, South America is having trouble delivering our packages, so I'd recommend paying extra for DHL or FedEX if we're shipping south of Mexico.

I'm from Spain. It won't be problems with shipping? I read about what happened to Casascius...

Spain shouldn't be a problem, but I'd recommend opting for the $15 shipping upgrade at checkout so that you get the package faster.

The Titan Mint is well aware of the legal environment in which we operate.  Our products are perfectly legal to sell in the U.S. for companies that have the appropriate license.  We intend to comply with whatever regulations are required of us in order to continue to sell our products both domestically and abroad.  Casascius's decision to cease operations in order to avoid compliance with FinCEN is a legitimate one.  Compliance can be very expensive and while we're saddened, we respect Mr. Caldwell's business decisions in the face of the current regulatory environment.

"Our products are perfectly legal to sell in the U.S. for companies that have the appropriate license.  We intend to comply with whatever regulations are required of us in order to continue to sell our products both domestically and abroad.  "

That sounds like waffle speak to me. You are the guys selling the products. Either you have the appropriate licenses or you don't. What licenses do you currently have?

As you say, compliance is very expensive ..... if the biggest player just shuts down instantly, I have to wonder about other US producers of physical bitcoins.

Not waffle speak...its just a complex area in which the laws are currently evolving.  

Money Service Businesses fall under a few different categories, including currency exchanges and money transmitters.  The FinCEN definition of "money transmitter" is vague enough to cover sending pretty much anything of value from person A to person B.   When the regulations were drafted, it wasn't a big deal because everyone knew what money was and it was very clear who was and was not a money transmitter.

Bitcoins represent peer-to-peer money transmission, and the regulations just weren't designed to accommodate such a radical departure from the previous way money has been thought of.  We expect these regulations to change in the next 6-12 months.  

In the meantime, we are federally registered as an MSB.  Our original conversations with FinCEN led us to register as a currency exchange but we have since submitted an updated registration as a money transmitter.  Registering state by state is also technically required in 48 out of the 50 states, and that is a process that requires review of the each state's policies. We're working through the review of state policies and planning where registration will likely be required.  Typically the application to become an MSB in a particular state is preempted by sending a request for ruling letter to determine whether or not the state wants you to register at all.  Most states laws are simply not equipped to address businesses that deal with bitcoins, and many state lawmakers do not understand how regulations should be applied or whether they should be applied at all.  If registration is required, it usually means that a surety bond has to be provided in an amount meant to protect the consumer from fraudulent money transmitters.  This bond can cost as much as 2% of annual gross transmission volume when required.

Mike was the first, and he did an amazing job at bringing Casascius coins to this community in the best way possible.  I personally think that Mike could adapt the business to comply with FinCEN's request, but it's not my decision.  

The U.S. government did not shut down Casascius.  Mr. Caldwell has chosen to shut down for now because of the uncertainty in the regulatory requirements.

Thank you very much for your full and clear answer. Much appreciated :)

which has more resale value? on ebay for example..

the 2 factor with email? or the private key only?

That's a great question.  It brings up a point that I don't talk much about (publicly at least) on purpose.

Private Key only coins are relatively easy to counterfeit.  We don't recommend that you buy private key coins from un-trusted individuals and this is one of the biggest reasons why.  I've already seen counterfeit Casascius coins and unfortunately there's not much stopping the activity (except traditional law enforcement of course).  As a result, its likely that the resale value of 2-factor coins will be higher, as the trust in private key coins diminishes.

However, for people that don't want to rely on our company being involved in the redemption of 2-factor coins, private keys make sense.  We're working on a custom client that will allow our future 2-factor coins to be redeemed without the need of our company's involvement, so future coins will have the best of both worlds. 

For now though, 2-factor probably makes sense if you're looking to resell a handful on ebay or through classified ads.  We find that those newer to the bitcoin community prefer 2-factor coins.  However, if you have relationships built up with customers and they will trust your products' authenticity, private keys probably still have a broader appeal. 

I am happy with the first coin you sold.  Any chance of a price update for the new ones after the crash today?   Or how often do you update the site's prices?

I've looked forward to this! I'd be interested in buying one (silver coin in the private-key version). Would love a PM with your latest updated price for this, quoted in BTC.

Would like to know this as well.

titanBTC.com guys, come on....

prices are in fluctuating USD, and are roughly 1.12-1.18 BTC for a brass coin depending on the exact bitpay rate when you buy

I bought one yesterday and paid the price that was given on their site.
A couple of minutes after I paid, they contacted me and asked for my address so they could refund the BTC I paid to much when they checked the live value.

Excellent service, I must say!

That is how you get new customers. Great service!

thats the dilemna of selling in USD via bitpay rather than direct BTC prices. Im curious, what is the price *supposed* to be? 1.15BTC for brass?

I'm sorry for the unreliable pricing.  We've been working on coding out an automated pricing script that updates product pricing and buys on the exchanges in real-time when orders are placed, but its a manual process at the moment as that code still needs more work.
 
It's tricky to price things in BTC because we have both fixed costs in USD and fixed costs in BTC for each product.  The official price is $85 over spot for the brass coins and $226 over spot for the silver.  If BTC doubles, then the markup over spot BTC is cut in half (I mean the pirce in BTC drops...does that makes sense?).

If anyone has had problems with price or feels like they got a bad deal, just reach out to sales@titanbtc.com and we'll make it right.  

Order placed and payment made to 1PEsVxSS27aLgM25wwWwhTTfWZT9EjR7ca

Thanks!

Coins look awesome, I'll have to get saving my BTC for one!

These coins are awesome looking, I'll be placing my order very soon.

Credit card ordering is back.  

We battled and negotiated with FIVE different banks/merchant account underwriters before landing on one with the best rates and terms, so please appreciate that the price markup you see at checkout when selecting to pay with a credit/debit card represents the lowest we could find at this time.  

We'll be looking to leverage our good standing to lower the rates in the future.

Would love it if you could somehow implement a BIP32 encryption into this.

Can you elaborate on how you're thinking this would be implemented? 

We don't currently have need to generate public/private keys from our servers, as we use cold storage for all BTC that is used to fund our coins, so I'm not sure that the secure deterministic public key generation BIPS32 offers would help us, but I'm honestly not up to speed on the latest protocol updates. 

What are the problems you're hoping to address and what are you envisioning the solution to look like?

I think It stop's you from tracking all the coins you've sold, and after selling 2-5000 you run a script to cash them all and zero them and F off.

Not to say you would. But extra level's of security allow us to buy a coin we KNOW is safe and you have no way to running off with.

Again not saying oyu would. but if TF has shown us anything.. Anyone can screw off lol.

Hell just imagine the money Cas. would have if he did this :D

BTW. Marked you off, I will but at least one in the new year, when will gold be out!?!?!

Want to buy some and send to an address in florida, but pay one part in BTC, and another with credit card, can we do that?

We're looking at late January for the 1 oz. gold coins.

We track coin ownership for our 2-factor coins as a security/anti-counterfeiting measure.  We're working on making ownership tracking decentralized, but we haven't come up with a good way to make this product "trust-free".  I'm certainly open to suggestions on that topic. We've explored a few ideas, but its likely there will always be some aspect of our products that involve some trust on the part of customers. 

I don't know Trade Fortress, so I can't comment on the inputs.io fiasco.  I'd like to believe he had good intentions to start, but he also had a reason to stay anonymous.  We're definitely NOT anonymous.  If Mike Caldwell stole everyone's BTC, I would expect he would be arrested, tried and jailed for theft, no? 

 

That's tricky but we can probably make it work.  Could you send an email to sales@titanbtc.com and give them the details of what you're looking for?  They can make up a custom invoice for you. 

Fair warning, though.  We had some stolen credit card purchase attempts (as we expected) and as a result, for the next month or so, we'll need to ship to the billing address associated with the credit card. 

Sorry for the inconvenience there.

he could theoretically have keys to several >7000 BTC -  more then enough to run away to belize

oh these sure do look pretty

i think my hubby is going to have to buy me one soon  :-*

Any chance of getting some of these "unloaded"? I'm building a collection of physical bitcoins and I'd like to add yours, but don't want to tie up any actual bitcoin value in them right now...

I was interested in your coins, but when I saw how to redeem them I changed my mind : http://www.titanbtc.com/redeem/ (http://www.titanbtc.com/redeem/)
If someone wants to redeem their coins they need to use your website :-[ On long-term it's not a good idea; you can disappear for any reason and our BTC get frozen.

Are you going to make a series of coins with the private key directly written underneath the hologram ?

They sell coins in the CASASCIUS style with the private key attached to the coin.

They don't. This is what's under the hologram :
https://www.titanbtc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Step3.jpg

whut?  :o

I just receive my 2 goldalloy coins yesterday and they look great (1 is a little looser in the airtite and rattles, but its not much of an issue). I ordered the privatekey style (rather than 2FA) and am/was expecting a full privatekey under the hologram, like with a casascius.

can you please clarify what is under my hologram? If its just the firstbits like shown above

I'm sorry it's not more clear on the website, but we do sell coins with the full 30-digit private key included.  

There's an option to select whether you want a private key version or a 2FA version of the coin on the product page before you add the coin to your cart.  See the product page, right underneath the price.

https://www.titanbtc.com/product/titan-one/

I'll get someone working on making that clearer on the website today.
  

Here's a few pictures of a private key coin being redeemed.

https://www.titanbtc.com/how-to-redeem-private-key-titan-bitcoins/

Ok, I tought that it was for any version, not only the 2 factor version.
You should make it clear on your redeem page and put the procedure for each versions; 1. Redeem 2 factor version; 2. Redeem Private key version


How many Titan One Silver 2013 do you have left ?

I received my Titan One Silver today, thanks so much - it is so shiny and beautiful!

Great service.

Two questions :

1) As you're selling to for USD do you not have to be a money transmitter?
Not sure if you already are one :)

2) Do you take BTC and what is the shipping to the UK?

Thanks

In answer to your first question, the short answer is yes we're registered. 

The longer answer is that FinCEN just isn't really sure what to do in our case.  They originally asked us to register as a currency exchange, and then we revised it to a money transmitter.  Because we can clearly show that we're not transferring money from person A to person B, we don't fall under the traditional definition of a money transmitter but it's a bit complex for the average FinCEN employee to understand, so we're erring on the side of compliance for now.  We're registered and complying with AML/KYC policies as needed. 

In answer to your second question, yes we take BTC and first-class shipping is free worldwide.  USPS priority is $25 (select international express for the shipping option at checkout).

Hi,

 I'm interested in your silver coins, how many do you have left ? Can you prove that you'll only make 1000 coins for 2013 edition ?

Thanks.

https://i.imgur.com/in8vYkEl.jpg


Received my silver Titan One a few days ago, and it is much more striking than the "goldine" version. There's a reason people have loved silver for such a long time... the heavier weight and larger size are nice, too. Great stuff -- thanks!

So, the true-gold one is coming... soon? Because I think I'm hooked.

We've already made the production run of 1,000 for 2013 on the Silver coins.  That die is decommissioned.  We're engraving the dies for the 2014 edition now.  We got a late start on selling the Silver coins and they didn't start shipping until December 6th, so we still have around 750 left in the 2013 edition.  We will sell those until they're gone (Probably February or March if I had to guess).

Each coin comes with a certificate of authenticity that shows its edition number, and we're going to be adding the edition number to the coin ID page shortly.  We'll be publishing a tally of the total number of coins produced for each edition.

Nice picture!

Yes, the 1 oz. gold coins are in production now.  They are about the same diameter as the "Goldine" coin but are thicker with engraving on the coins edge that states the weight and purity.  The first batch of gold coins will be ready to ship by late January.



   

Amazing work Tim.  Amazing.

a great work done by you I will try this in near future  :)

Got my 1oz silver round today

Very quick delivery (states to the UK in about a week) well packaged and very professional. If I had the BTC I would certainly order again

Thanks, a very beautiful coin

I just wanted to add my 0.02 to this thread.

Tim, from Titan, is an excellent customer focused "Merchant" [not sure if that phrase is right] or Seller, whichever you prefer... Vendor etc.

anyways - my experience with Titan/Tim has been nothing short of brilliant. I'll let you in on a little story...

I bought my two Titans [1 alu and 1 silver] from a good friend of mine. He sent them and they got "lost" in the post... Tim actually stepped in and offered two, free of charge, new coins -- unfunded, of course, but the sentiment was one I was very pleased with.

In the end they turned up and we didn't need to have Titan reship the coins but it showed the consideration that Tim has for his customers.

Hey,

I'd like to buy 5-10 of the coins, I just have a question.

Mike Caldwell explained many times his process for generating private keys and the limited people involved in getting the keys on the coins.

I've personally seen the process, and pretty confident that in 10 years no one will be able to steal my keys, including Mike himself. He is also a well known member of the community for a long time.

What is your process like? Do you retain copies of the keys? Who is involved?

Thanks BigBitz!

We've had a handful of coins either lost or stolen in the mail so yours definitely wasn't the first.  (South America seems to have an especially high difficulty with delivering mail).  Anyway, that's why we ship the coins unfunded, so that when they don't turn up we can send out a replacement with no questions asked.

Glad you like it, Luke!

Great question.  We recently added a much needed update to the security page on our website with a bit more detail about that very issue. 

https://www.titanbtc.com/titan-bitcoin-security/

I'm summarizing it here, but basically we're as paranoid as Mike is about the handling of those keys.  We print private keys in batches of a few hundred, on demand as the coins are manufactured. They go straight from the printer to being placed underneath the holograms and they're printed and assembled in a room that's access controlled and under video surveillance. 

The computers and printers that print the codes are permanently offline.  Hard drives are securely wiped after each printing (we usually do batches of private key coins 2-3 times a week) and we follow a procedure for clearing the memory on the printers as well. 

With that said, we're working towards implementing a more automated 2-of-3 key system for the coins that should address some of the security concerns with having a third-party like us handling private keys. 


For our 2-factor authenticated coins, we handle cold storage on our customers' behalf and we DO have access to the private keys for those coins.  IN return for that trust that owners place in us, we are able to verify a coins authenticity and identify counterfeit coins when they are scanned as well as provide extra services.  For example, one customer lost his coin in a movie theater.  The "new owner" contacted us to see about registering the coin.  Long story short, we were able to reunite the coin with its rightful owner.   

Anyway, we're trying to meet the needs of a wide spectrum of bitcoin users with different concerns and requirements.  If we're leaving anyone out, I'm happy to look into how we can adapt to serve this community.  I was an early bitcoin evangelist and this business is an extension of that drive.


 

Quick apology to our Non-American buyers that are wanting to use credit cards.  We've had to enable a more strict card verification system and I'm afraid many overseas customers will have their cards declined as a result.

We can all thank the scammers in France for this one.  I hope they read this, because THEY'RE the reason we can't have nice things.  

If you really want/need to pay with a credit card and are willing to do a little more identity confirmation, email sales@titanbtc.com.  After jumping through a few hoops, we can key in your card manually.  

carry on.

That's high praise coming from a discerning gentleman such as yourself, Cypher.

Bought a few of these from a friend (probably the same guy as BigBitz) and have to agree with everyone else about these coins...they are amazing.  Keep up the good work guys..looking forward for more coins in the future.

When will the gold coin come out?

Small detail, but the video isn't high enough definition to make out any part of the private key by chance is it?

We've got the 1 oz. Gold coins now.  Unfortunately, we're having to do smaller runs than we originally thought and the first ones were sold out before we even got the blanks in our shop.  The refinery doing these for us is pretty slow (it took 4 months to get the tooling ready) so if you'd like to reserve one of the Gold coins from the next batch, email sales@titanbtc.com or PM me ASAP. 

Until we can speed up production of our 1 oz. Gold blanks, delivery will take about 4 weeks, depending on where you live.  I expect we'll have this supply crunch resolved by the end of March.  I wish we could speed things up, but they're worth the wait.

We don't sell unloaded coins at the moment, though you should be able to find some on ebay/craigslist/ classifieds from owners that have redeemed the coins.  Only a handful of silver coins have been redeemed, but we have seen them for sale out there.   

We're planning on releasing self-funded coins later in 2014, using a multi-signature address and private key system.

Good question.   

No.  The point of the video survellance is to track who was present in the assembly room and when.  The info is already recorded with each production batch, so its a secondary verification.  There's an enough resolution to do the job, but not nearly enough to read the text from the private keys. 

Nice interview on the Bit N Mortar Podcast.

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbQggtuUG00_yFkIHMzbc7Q

Are you online only or is there a storefront open to the public in La Harbra? (I live in Brea and would love to visit)

These are beautiful! I am about to order my first one :)

Good to know.

I will pay the seller for your name and address. Seems like pretty useful info.

Or you can send my 0.4 BTC.

I don't know how but I'm just seeing this video for the first time...

Gosh this post a month old.  Time flies.

Brea you say?  I'm at the Birch St. promenade at least once a month. We're just online right now, but I'm always happy to meet with fellow bitcoiners.  PM me.

Titan coins have started turning up still sealed but "already redeemed". It's unclear right now whether Titanbtc are safe to hold, whether they are the victim of scammers, whether their coin redemption site may have been hacked, or whether they themselves are pulling an investment scam. I advise anyone holding a Titanbtc to attempt to redeem it NOW.

Pretty big accusation there...have any proof of this?

I personally unsealed a Titan btc which appeared perfectly sealed, with a witness present, about 4 weeks ago. I've been in a protracted conversation with Tim Fillmore, their President, since then, when I discovered that the coin had no private key, but instead a "2fa code" underneath the sticker, and Tim is saying that this coin has already been redeemed, using the 2fa code and the email address of the original coin owner. Here's a thread about it:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1208618.msg13309129#msg13309129

Supplying some pictures of what you see under your hologram would be helpful here, and go a long way to adding some legitimacy to your claim.

I am now formally accusing Tim Fillmore, President of Titan Btc, of securities fraud.

In the same way that Michael Scott declared bankruptcy?
What exactly do you mean? - Are you taking legal action? Do you have any proof to backup your claims? Falsely claiming something like this could actually end up with you facing leal action for defamation.

And by the way, Michael Scott's bankruptcy declaration wasn't binding.

I have given Tim Fillmore 1 month to make good on this physical coin or I will file legal action. I have offered to "split the loss" on this disputed coin. please see the referred thread.

I have seen the thread. However, you have failed to provide any evidence to back up your claim (both here and on the other thread).
Have you provided any evidence to TitanBTC? If not, I see no reason as to why they should split the loss with you. Every company will do everything they can to maintain good customer service, however, I see no reason for them to do so if you aren't providing them with any backup to your claim.
If this is the case, I can understand why TitanBTC wouldn't be scared and would fully participate in any legal proceedings and investigation as they are fully in their right here as no evidence has been provided that shows any foul play.

I could be wrong and you could be in the right. However, as I've stated and as the others above me have too, until we see any evidence, it's simply your word against his. Surely innocent until proven guilty still applies?

can you please stop with this nonsense?
1) you bought the coin from 3rd party
2) you did not verify its balance prior to purchase
3) you dont remember who you bought it from
4) you told titanBTC to stay away because you have a gun in your house
5) you declared "formal accusation" over 2 dozen times in different posts in the last 24hrs
6) 7)
whatever sympathy I had for your issues went out the window when you stopped being remotely rational

I had spoken to Tim before he is  helpful. There was an issue with the website and Tim responded right away to resolve the problem.

I've also had nothing but positive interactions with TitanBTC. I have redeemed a couple coins with no problems, and when I did once have an occasion to contact customer service they were extremely helpful & fast.

Their responses here seem entirely professional and reasonable as well.

And the coins are drop-dead gorgeous. It looks like most are sold out on the website, will there be more in stock any time soon?

Edit: looks like the "out of stock" message was just a glitch or something, as I see there is stock now. Great!

I don't know about the accusations Todamount is making, but my dealings with TitanBitcoins has always been professional and helpful.  Titan coins are, IMO, the best looking coins you can buy.  So many coins today looks so amateurish.  Titans look like something the US Mint would produce.  Very professional.   

Todamont is obviously not very bright... go get Titan on those "securities" frauds!!! lol...

see the kind review he left you? kid's not right in the head, either exposed on a scam, or so upset at buying a redeemed coin from a 3rd party that something snapped

He does not even know the difference between securities fraud and fraud... I assume this was all just to troll for some unknown reason.