Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin unfortunately It is not the best means of exchange. I still find it easier to pay something using a credit card. You just swipe your credit/debit card into a machine and type a few digits (password). Bitcoin should be easier than that to be more widespread. Not everybody is tech-savvy.

What about creating a hardware wallet as small (preferably smaller than) a credit card without the need for a smartphone or computer? How difficult could it be?

To receive money you just need a QR code (could be printed on a card like versocards.com).
Unfortunately for PAYING is not the same. You can't go around putting your wallet private keys on other people's QR code scanners.

Is there any solution I'm not aware of?

I think the solution is a card with a chip that signs transactions. The merchant's POS terminal creates the transaction, and you swipe your card to sign it and perhaps enter a PIN to authorize it.

Such a system would be just as easy to use as a credit card and would be safer for everyone.

I don't find pointing my phone at a QR code and hitting the send button particularly hard... But that's just me...

bitcoin is still in very early stage..still lots to learn and improve..

This is just the beginning. Bitcoin will be evolving more and more

I don't find sending bitcoins from a phone particularly secure.

You're skipping a few steps to get to that point.

For the average CC user, its all baked into social norms so signing up for a card is trivial.

For Bitcoin, you have to train tech-illiterate people from square one, starting from how to buy bitcoin.
Most people don't even know how to scan a QR code or what Two-Factor Authentication is.

we need to decentralize the bitcoin foundation, they pay the lead developers and they can influence bitcoin, it is easy for government to influence the lead developers atm with a small amount of money
most people will use/update the original bitcoin client without a thought
we need more different bitcoin mining clients that take the centralized power away from the core client

Any one willing to learn the skills can come up with a client. If it is easy to use and solves an issue then it will become popular. Personally I feel more secure with the QT client so that is where I store my coins.

Do you mean like this?

http://www.bitcointrezor.com/ (http://www.bitcointrezor.com/)

What about a wallet app that uses iphone's thumbprint sensor to verify a send?  (now that Apple is more open to bitcoin)

paypal already do that

I think the answer is an online wallet + phone. Ie coinbase and the coinbase app that lets you scan a code/adress and u can then verify the transaction via you phone.

A physical card makes no sense in my eyes.

Copying a CC functionality is just going to create a crappy CC that is more complicated than a standard CC.

Just using your card?

Carrying your card in your wallet, needing to protect your wallet if you are on the beach, keeping your wallet in your front pocket when walking in areas with pickpockets, giving your wallet to someone who can get all of your information from your card.

Yes, that is so easy.

Having bitcoins on a locked phone that I already carry around, scanning a QR code...so difficult.

Yep. More things to carry and protect along with more things that you have to worry over security seems like a step back.

I have one of these and I love it but no, it is not what he is looking for.  The trezor is a Bitcoin SAFE, not a Bitcoin credit card.  They are different use cases.

If a bitcoin private key was encoded on to a smart card chip on a credit card style plastic card, what would happen if you lost the card? I guess that would mean anyone could go around signing transactions with your private key. People lose their (physical)wallets or have them stolen often enough that this would be a real concern.

I guess one solution would be to load only very small amounts you could afford to lose on the wallet that has the private key attached to the smart card. The pin system is interesting too, would you simply be able to set your own pin on the smart card after loading it with money? Is that possible. I'm guessing the way it works now is that your pin is verified by your credit card company. That obviously wouldn't work for bitcoin unless you were using a centralised service like circle or something similar.

If the pin could be stored locally I could see it working. It will be pretty exciting to see the ideas that come out over the next few years. Bit coin is driving technological advancement at an amazing rate. 

A theoretical solution I can think about, is as Card, with a small power source, a NFC Reader, a small Display and a NumPad.

You get Address and amount over NFC, check amount on Display, type in your PIN, Card generates Transaction and send it to the Transaction device.

So, it's swipe, check, Password, swipe, which should be user-friendly enough and much more secure, than typing a PIN into a foreign machine like with credit Cards.