Bitcoin Forum

Thinking about easing use of BTC just two days ago I thought why nobody has introduced BTC certificates that would act like Cassius coins but be just paper and disposable if you wanted to 'redeem' them digitally. The note would be like a scratchcard that had a QR of a public address so that you could verify that it hasn't been spent with a quick scan of the BitScan or similar app. The private key would then be under a tamper proof seal with a signature from the issuing company on the front to verify it isn't fake.

Once enough of these in various denominations are in circulation people would begin to see that they can't be faked and will get used to trusting their value without bothering to verify that the address contains the balance. You then have circulating cash that needs no technical knowledge, just the old school wisdom of spotting a fake and not letting people nick your real wallet.

It was only hours after I had this thought that Max Keiser started tweeting about Prypto cards that seem to be several steps ahead of me. Searching on here it seems only the germans are onto this. Any reason why there's less talk of a cash form in English?

The only problem I see it how the issuing company makes a profit enough to cover the risks but I guess Prypto has a plan.

people have done this.. guess you need more research

here is a nice long 36 page thread about it.. which began the whole paper based bitcoin system

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=92969.0

Those are just paper wallets. I was thinking more of fixed amounts with the amount on the front to simplify it for non techies.

Ideally you wouldn't be able to send coins to the address and only redeem the whole amount but there'd be no incentive to do anything else anyway.

The point is making them usable as cash.

The receiver would have to be able to verify that there are actually coins on these "notes"

People have done it basically a physical Bitcoin is a wallet with a fixed amount on it. and I know a few did it with paper to lower costs.

same idea. and amongst the 36 pages were discussions of a central service that held the private keys. so that the notes just held the public key for value verification. but most preferred the de-centralised method, which meant that holograms were placed over the privkey and any tampering would make the note void.

most people just use them like gift vouchers/cards. from on person to another. not true circulation just betwn 2 people, such as inside a birthday card to relatives.

but atleast if you search for bitcoin notes you will see your idea is not new. and has been poked and prodded for atlast 2 years

This is a better thread from 2010:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=737.0

or maybe this one from 2011:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7724.0
and some pictures:
https://www.google.com/search?q=bitbillsx&tbm=isch

I guess the question is what will the idea ever take off then? I guess they all just got hoarded too. As for the design, I know you can't have the private key visible. I remember some gift cards being shown on TV and a viewer just scanned the QR code at took them (he did give them back). Good lesson but shows that things need to a lot more foolproof for ordinary people to start using them.

Correct, this has been done.

I have a full set of BitBills if anyone's interested.

I also can reasonably assume I'm the first and possibly the only one to have attempted to use X-rays to read the qr code without disrupting the seal...non-metallic ink it appears…my test failed.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=103464.msg1145251#msg1145251

Somehow it's great how the same ideas come up again and again by different people who 'invent' them totally separate from each other! :) Really, this always amazes me!