Bitcoin Forum

Cryptocurrency Become Really Big, Bitcoin is king of crypto world. in Future any chance  physical coin manufactured ?

You can already find a bitcoin 'coin' that contains some satoshis with its private key printed on it. Of course, it's not safe to be used for storing a large amount of money, but it's cool and fun.

For official business purposes? I doubt so. It being a virtual currency helps a lot in terms of efficiency and really makes it easier in terms of storage, transactions and the like. It could be used as a type of wallet though like a single coin like wallet holds this amount of satoshi and such but I doubt it would be mass-produced. It'll most probably be used for events such as prizes, souvenirs and the like though. Also, OP should probably post this in Bitcoin discussion instead? I don't think this fits into the category of Beginners & help.

There are some Bitcoins stored on Paper Wallet as well, You can use it to give to others as a gift card. Of course, you need to give it to someone who already knows how to use it. As for the physical coin itself, there are some of it at the Amazon but they already removed it for a possible scammed attempt of some abusive sellers. I don't think it would be necessary to create one physical bitcoin coin because the idea behind using bitcoin is to promote the use of digital money.

If you mean a physical coin that could be use the same way we can use physical cash almost trustlessly, most likely not. For this to happen, a centralized authority would need to do the manufacturing of the physical "coins".

If you're really that interested though, the best we have right now is a paper wallet or an Opendime[1]. It's probably just a good idea to swipe the funds at the moment you receive them.

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[1] https://opendime.com/

That defeats the whole purpose. You may as well just use cash then. Or if you don't want to use fiat, you could use some form of gold or other rare metal.

It also wouldn't be as easy as passing around a private key, because you have no way of knowing the previous owner didn't make a copy of it and spends it even when he passed on its physical copy.
There's just so many better, easier and cheaper alternatives for physical money than bitcoin. It doesn't really make sense to use it for that.

I don't think it's possible to be a physical coin, because cryptocurrency is for the digital eye so there is no physical form, blockchain is a technology for the future so I think in the future all transactions use digital, if bitcoin becomes physical money what about the fate of Fiat cash and others I could not understand it.

There's no official legal tender since the founder is anonymous, so nah. Else we'll be seeing a shitton of fake BTC coins.

No the creator of bitcoin not had the idea to create a phisical coin, he create it and he think this will be a new payment method and people will use it more instead of cash system, and i hope to really happen.

Short Answer: Yes. But why we need it?
Why do we need a physical currency as long as all transactions must be conducted digitally?
Such an adjustment would be at the end of the currency and therefore would only constitute a further burden in its circulation.

You can think of it as digital gifts. If you want a gift of paper, metal or other, the value in the validity of the code and not the type of physical material from which the currency.

If you are expecting physical coin for bitcoin then what will be different with traditional payment system? There is physical bitcoin but it's just parabole, not for real uses. If bitcoin create for real use then its will be centralized and bitcoin itself is decentralized. So can't be use real bitcoin in future. The creator of bitcoin is still anonymous, then who will issue real bitcoin. Its impossible in my opinion. Also there is limited supply, when it will manufacture in real life then anyone should print it unlimited, perhaps people will create fake bitcoin and we might so many problems about real bitcoin. I strongly believe it will never happen and it wasn't goal of bitcoin.

There are physical coins being held by some people. There are private keys engraved on it but it’s not an official currency nor the coin has its value. It just like a piece of paper where you put your private key with a small amount of satoshis in it. Can be used as souvenir though.

Here is a picture of one of the Casascius coins that people have mentioned:
https://www.maketecheasier.com/assets/uploads/2013/05/bitcoinquestions-physical-coin.jpg

They can be traded in the collectibles forum: Economy > Marketplace > Goods > Collectibles (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=217.0)

Bitcoin is digital currency and if ever it will convert into physical coin not the physical coin we all know since that is BTC wallet. Then it will kill the decentralisation of BTC since BTC transaction will not be listed on blockchain because people will buy and sell using the physical coin itself. And also miners will have less profit on mining fee.

Most importantly we are already upgraded to digital which is fast and reliable. So why we will go back again to physical payment?

I'm thinking the same thing too. I mean, Bitcoin was made to be a digital currency. It's meant to be anonymous and without having the need of a third party.

If it is to have a physical coin, I'm afraid that the essence of anonymity and decentralization might be lost, don't you think?

If we talk about usable physical Bitcoin, this means that paper wallets and collectible coins are out of the question, as they don't provide any security. So, there's 2 choices left - either use some small tamper-resistant devices like Opendime, or have a centralized company that issues Bitcoin backed notes. The first option is more decentralized, but it's not suitable for smaller transactions and there's always the risk that someone will learn how to tamper with the device in order to cheat. The second option is very centralized, and there may be even risks of them running fractional reserve.

Already forum members given in what ways a physical bitcoin could be made.

But Why do you think we are in need of a physical coin in this modern world,bitcoin coin was created for security purpose so its not for the physical transactions.

The problem with physical coins or also called Casascius coins is the fact that minting your own currency is illegal in most countries. Governments

are the only entity that are allowed to print or mint physical currencies. The other problem is that something like this goes directly against what

Bitcoin stands for. No central entity should have control over the creation of the currency, because that entity can manipulate the supply and it

will influence the value of the coins that were already created in the past. Bitcoin's value is purely based on Supply & Demand and the supply is

not determined by a single entity.

Physical as itself not will become, here regulate very serious organizations

Possible but fully contrary on why bitcoin being created.Its a digital currency and making it as a physical coin isnt really that something should really be think of.

We have seen some physical coins with had some embedded amounts of btc on it.Yes its a cool idea but it would just remain to be like that and going further isnt
really that something that can be implied globally.

I doubt it. The whole idea behind cryptocurrencies for being digital is for the sake of convenience and regulation on the internet through the blockchain technology. In addition, there should be a country representing the value of bitcoin as being a physical coin means dealing with transactions all over the world. If some countries do not recognize it as a legitimate currency, it would only create future problems especially on its transactions.


Well those coins are purely collectibles and do not hold any value at all (except for its price on the market) as it does not represent bitcoin completely.

As a collectible coin or a memorabilia yes, why not. But if you expect to carry bitcoins in your pocket and pay with them like you do with fiat currencies it wont happen. It is digital money, you don't need to touch it or physically carry it with you. All the protection is in the private keys that let you spend it. 

Why do you need a physical coin when the whole purpose of the cryto currencies is digital ?
If you still like the physical coins better find a coin of your choice from the fiat market as there are many different coins available. Let the bitcoin be the way it is.

I see no point in this besides it being a collectible. Physical Bitcoins are fetching high prices, especially if they belong to a limited edition that is no longer produced.
It's difficult to confirm the coin is real right away. It may work for fiat currencies because fiat coins are usually of low value. It wouldn't be worth it for someone to make a 2 EUR coin because the metal needed for that process is worth almost 1 EUR by itself. It's different with Bitcoin. It would be very profitable for people to try to counterfeit a coin worth 5k EUR, or something of that sort.

Who would make these coins? Who would pay premium for them to make it worthwhile for the manufacturer? Would you?

Yes there is no need of having a physical coin as this goes against the concept of bitcoin creation but as you have rightly mentioned it can be just created as a collectibles just like medals, trophies but cannot be used for real life transaction as it will make go against the government and their will be legal consequences as well.

Did not like the concept at all. If BTC becomes a physical currency then what about the decentralised and anonymous properties :'(

Physical coin manufactured by means as collectibles(there are lots of them already), bitcoin doesn't have a central bank that mint a coin from a machine/

Not in the way as in fiat cash that represents value, bitcoin doesn't need that because it is valuable itself, it doesn't represent it.
And they are trying to get rid of fiat cash as well. Not because counterfeit bills but because they want to track the owners of cash.

But as people have pointed out, there are physical coins as in gifts containing the private key, so you can either store them or empty them. I am guessing that many physical coins has been emptied by now.

Bitcoin is created to get rid of physical coins (FIAT) so why do we have to go back to using physical coins.
If we are going to exchange bitcoins manually, how transactions are going to be recorded on the blockchain?

Some physical coins have been minted but they are used mainly to store bitcoins for long time not to exchange them.

I like this one the best, I'm waiting for an update to when it uses segwit addresses.

It already is in the form of casascius and others that followed but that is more art than a real use scenario.  More than likely, bitcoin will be used like apple pay soon, you load your phone with btc, then tap at the register and have it converted to fiat.

Something like a fiat? I don't think so, all transactions are recorded in the blockchain, you cannot use it manually to buy something in a store it will have to be recorded, I don't think if in the future an innovative mind will try to solve this issue, but you always need a private key to manage a transactions, where to send and manage the fees, well who knows maybe something like this could happen.

I don't think so. Bitcoin is meant to be transacted peer to peer according to Satoshi and it will not be effective if it's going to be in physical form, it will be more useful if it is going to stay as a digital coin. The safety and security also is ensure in bitcoin unlike in fiat that can be stolen easily by anyone if you're not really careful. We should just hope that bitcoin and fiat would work in harmony instead of hoping that it would appear in physical coin cause it just wouldn't work well that way.

At this time I can’t imagine bitcoin to become physical coin in the future. There are many collectible coins but in bitcoin it’s purpose is digital money where we can easily use and access freely. Why do you think bitcoin to be a physical coin? In fact, many users who believed in bitcoin are enjoying its features already.

Its strange how a bunch of newbies like this person and some more in this are not reading the replies and posting to get their post counts done. Bitcoin physical coins are very popular among this forum collectors of the same and they are traded regularly in raffles in a specific section for that.

Sadly these new users are clueless about what they are talking about and are very quick to jump into conclusions before actually taking time to read and know about what older members have to say. :-[

For me, not a chance bitcoin without anonymity, decentralization and its blockchain itself is nothing. It is like some cold cash or gold that can be controlled by government its not bitcoin anymore if you make physical version of it. Yes, it exist some fans created a physical bitcoin just for souvenirs only.

Bitcoin is never meant to be on physical state, it's a virtual currency. Basically Bitcoin was created to be operated and transacted on an online basis not physically. For instance, you can have Bitcoin represented by a normal gold coin but there is no value attached to it. It just for decoration and or as fashion accessories.

Of course it can be used on physical and virtual way of payment. Just imprint the private key on any physical items like coins. Actually I found some coin maker that printing the private key on coins he make. But for me I think it's too much work to do. For me just scan and send is enough and of course they should use Lightning Network to receive it faster than traditional tx.

The problem here is not that it's too much work, it's that that centralized entity that prints the private keys is a point of attack. Think about it, they print the private keys on the coins, which means that they have access to the private keys in the first place. How sure are we that they won't do some shady stuff like recover the funds from the wallets' private keys that they print on the physical coins?

Nope :) That is called cash

I think you are missing the whole point entirely, why should it be called a "digital currency" when it was meant to be physically printed? Moreover there are just 21 million BTC and all of them has not been mined yet and there are billions of people in the world and this means that very few people has ever owned 1 BTC to begin with, the currency would be useless without it's denominations (satoshi) and I just don't see how that would work out because if you have a coin worth $10,000 and you want to purchase $100 worth of goods in a store, how do you colllect your change when you pay with the bitcoin physical coin? You get your change in dollars? It just wouldn't work, it's meant to be digital and would always remain digital.

I think it's not the phylosophy of the concept of bitcoin =)

Aside from OpenDime, which are little devices people can verify (and might be good for trading off-chain transactions), the next best thing are paper wallets.

Physical coins that are collectibles are paper wallets with tamper resistant features / stickers / seals, but they are the same thing.

Paper wallets might work for trading physical goods in a face-to-face or in-person scenario, but then the other party might prefer to sweep the funds in front of you to at least confirm they get their coins.

I don't think there is a possibility about that happening. Bitcoin is meant to be convenient and decentralized. It is under the blockchain technology so it is better to stay as digital currency rather than become a physical one. Bitcoin indeed is the king of crypto and it can dominate even more as it stay as a digital currency. In future, we would see it more as a coin that will give great convenience to many and will contribute a lot in different countries economy. We just need to believe and stay faithful on it.

No because if someone send bitcoins from wallet that is on the Physical coin, then that wallet is empty and that bitcoin is not linked to Physical coin anymore. If we make undependable wallet linked to Physical coin, then is sort of useless, since no one can spend it. 

It's really the only way to use paper wallet as physical coin, since it's essentially just sharing private key with an untrusted third party. This can be done if the user doesn't have a mobile device to conduct payment but can somehow print or write down a private key/seed on paper - something that could happen in a poor third world country.

That is very unsafe and makes little sense. You cannot use physical bitcoins since you can't break it up and even if you pay an entire bitcoin the person you pay must trust you do not have the private key which you probably do without even knowing so. The private key could have been made with haste and not backed up so lose the coin and lose the bitcoin. It is a bad idea. The only reason to keep a really nice made coin with a privatekey on it is if it is yours and it is a novelty and a way to backup and always keep entire bitcoin. So if you have extra bitcoin it is a very good idea to make one to keep as an investment.

If it become physical currency then how we will record its movement on blockchain? There are 10 million satoshi in every bitcoin how can we break down on paper?
Bitcoin came up as digital currency and will remain like that. Though some members have shown the physical coins but I don't think they are practical on large scale.

I'd accept payment with a paper wallet, as soon as I have swept the coins in it. That's easy to do with some mobile apps, such as Electrum for Android.

Of course, I'd rather that the other party just broadcast a normal regular bitcoin transaction that I can confirm is in the mempool of my own wallet at least (or can be seen by most block explorers.)

then you are not accepting a paper wallet, you are just doing what the payer had to do (creating the transaction and broadcasting it). accepting a paper wallet means you take it and store that instead without spending it. which is obviously not a good idea since you can never trust the other person to not still store a copy of it.

We're getting into semantics here.. Maybe the payer doesn't have a mobile device or does not want to bring it with him, and prepared a paper wallet knowing it will be swept during the trade or transaction.

So he prepares the payment and puts it in a paper wallet, hands it over to me, to which I tell him to stick around until I've scanned the paper wallet and swept the funds. Around 10 seconds later, if nothing else funny has happened (maybe he has someone else watching from afar then try to double spend it or something) it should be good to go.

Of course, if during the whole deal thing I get a confirmation or a block, then that's pretty much good.

Sweeping a paper wallet is pretty much a function in both android mobile wallets I use: Electrum and Bitcoin Wallet for Android.