Bitcoin Forum

Ok so, now that we are pretty sure - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=85931.0 - isn't happening anymore. Lets try making an open source alternative! Post ideas, drawings and stuff here and lets try to make a mockup and some things and see if we can get something made.

One idea I had was making an actual wallet, that can hold cards and all this, but also has 1/2 of the wallet that is a screen that can do all this stuff the ellet could do. I'm pretty much half asleep right now, but ill try posting some more detailed information about ideas I have here.

A wallet you carry in your pants may get crushed if kept in back pocket.  But mainly, you'd have to come up with something that can compete with phones. Specifically Android. Your options are compete on price (sub $100 devices for those who can't afford a smartphone), or compete on features (something very secure specifically for Bitcoin, or what I think would be a killer feature, whisper net or mesh network).

Good luck!

I agree with Rassah, you need to compete with smartphones somehow.

A decent way to compete on price, at least for prototypes, may be to get super-cheap, simple, ideally small Android phones imported from Asia, then customize the OS and apps to do bitcoin.  Pair that with prepaid plans and some Bitcoin-over-SMS infrastructure, and it might pick up some momentum.

How plausible would it be to convert a Raspberry Pi or something like an Adruino into a wallet? Keeping this open source in a way that allows anyone to make their own cheap wallet from (somewhat) easily obtained parts would work, too.

Arduino might be a little under-powered, and I don't know if there's a nice way to battery-power Raspberry Pi yet, but the basic idea is good.  One problem could be that if the hardware choices get too broad, it will be hard for developers to effectively support them all.

Yeah, I found some of these on alibaba.com and they could work if they're real.  Has anyone seen the super-cheap ($50) ones in real life?  With some of the pictures I saw, I had serious doubts about if it was even Android as claimed.

I'm much more confident that the more expensive ones are Android, but it's getting out of the price range for a project like this.

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=35417.0

There is no strong need to mix the "mobile wallet" and "secured, dedicated device" use cases like Ellet intended to do. These are different use cases, that may be separate.

Competing with smartphones in the mobile wallet use case would be difficult since people already carry the phone around all the time. I believe most people wouldn't like to carry an extra device just because bitcoin.

A cheap, dedicated device to keep at your home and use it to access your main wallet is still interesting though. Once in a while you make a transfer from this device to your mobile wallet, like when you get cash in ATM. Most of you money remains secure in an almost-unhackable device, and you only carry a small amount you can afford to lose in your unsafe smartphone.

People are already running wallets on Raspberry Pi: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=93724.0;all
https://gist.github.com/3644551

I was actually thinking about something like a cheap device running Armory in offline mode, which would be great if there was easy to use user interface, easy to understand security features, and good looking packaging, but wasn't sure if I should mention it. Thanks for bringing it up.

This is exactly what I was envisioning for the ellet, basically an offline wallet for cold storage thats a little bit easier to use.

Guess we'll have to keep an eye on how that goes.  Anyone know who's taking over?