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African's are sending #bitcoin peer to peer WITHOUT internet using feature phones 🙌

You can't stop adoption ✊ https://t.co/26REYusCJu
https://twitter.com/BitcoinMagazine/status/1560976662656860173?t=awVePztglx6p0RULBras7g&s=19

Question: I think I must have seen this somewhere but not sure if I had a good look, ( Can't recall ) How can this be ?? Like how can  one carry out such transactions. ?? Guide Any ?!

Here's the past thread about this kind discussion:

1. SENDING BITCOIN WITHOUT THE INTERNET  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5126946.0)
2. Bitcoin without internet: SMS service allows sending BTC with a text  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5409627.0)
3. Offline cryptocurrency transfer?  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5239655.0)
4. south africa has launched a SMS service to send bitcoin without internet  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5409639.0)

Actually it's still need an internet in order to proceed the whole transaction into successfully recorded on blockchain. You're not using internet since you only sign the transaction and send it in the other form without internet. You're need someone to broadcast the transaction and it's using internet.

Correct me if I’m wrong but this kind of Bitcoin transaction is just like an IOU since it’s not recorded on blockchain. I’m not totally familiar on this kind of method but I preferred transaction being recorded on blockchain to be valid for my personal preference. I believe this kind of transaction are prone to fraud and scam because it can be easily use to persuade person that has no knowledge on this kind of transaction.

I read a news similar to this some weeks ago on Cointelegraph:

Bitcoin without internet: SMS service allows sending BTC with a text (https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-without-internet-sms-service-allows-sending-btc-with-a-text)


But no matter what these would be, there would be a third party involved that will help the users to connect to the internet, the bitcoin blockchain is online and needs internet access.

I have seen news of this making waves all over the internet, but I am a bit concerned as to how it is becoming easier for people's crypto to be swindled even without an internet connection. It calls for a need for people in Africa where this is already working to be wise and be extra careful especially now. As it is new, scammers and people with dubious motives will also be looking to take advantage of it.

I'd agree with this one, phones/texts are generally easy to attack afaik (especially without an Internet connection) and this might make an attacker try/succeed at targeting certain areas where this is used a lot to send funds to themselves (it might not be much they'd get away with but it could add up to quite a bit of they attack several people/a large town).


It's probably a way crypto might be able to compete with banks though in some areas. You are handing over the custody of your crypto to a third party too which I think would be quite a drawback (you're still relying on their security as well as your phone's and your network's).

I think Sim port attack is the most worried case in this situation [BEWARE] Sim Port Attack  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5146701.0), everyone should know there's nothing safe to think your Sim card and phone are very secure even though you didn't connect to internet, but as long as you're share the phone number and it has a financial related, anyone will try to attack your sim card.

I wouldn't say it's an innovation or creativity, but it's more like letting your coins associated with third party.

I guess if they can't afford to pay electricity and internet cost, I don't think they have a plan to buy Bitcoin because usually they're lack of financial.

It is good if you have no other choices.

It is bad if you have other choices but you still choose to use this one. You don't control the broadcast of your transaction and your coin. You have to rely on a company that run the SMS service. Don't trust them.

If people have no other choices (very barely they have no other choices), they have to accept the only solution they have. In that case, this one is good and acceptable but they have to know about risk of this. Knowing about risk means whenever they have other choices, they will stop using that one.

This is something that is impossible to do, because sending Bitcoins without using the internet is something that is completely impossible. Bitcoin is a digital currency in the form of numbers, so when we want to transfer Bitcoin to someone else via cellphone, of course the cellphone that we use for the transfer will go to the internet network so that our shipment reaches that person.

As far as we know, bitcoin transactions must be supported by the internet, nowadays it seems impossible to do transactions without the internet as a transaction facility, but in today era I think many blockchain developers and companies are starting to look for solutions to overcome this, such as by Criptolago, a Venezuelan company that is now starting to develop a digital system that allows sending bitcoins only through a short message service or SMS.
For now it looks impossible but I think in the next 1 or 2 years
it will be very possible to do.

The other one that I know that doesn't require the internet is through radio signals or waves. I don't know much about it, but soon, we'll see those transactions happening without the internet.

But that image shows like just a message and the transaction did happen somewhere so, we don't know if that didn't really require the internet. It's just like a transaction message and has to be sent after doing it.

I don't want to take that kind of risk, and it's impossible to believe, I also agree with you, that I prefer transactions that are recorded by the blockchain, it's full of risk and I don't want to take that risk..

Despite any formation it still requires internet meaning those features are not really nice since is network required transaction, to my little understanding it is a digital currency and must work online. So you don't get it twisted wondering how that could be possible.


Thanks for the materials

When you say prone to fraud, I really believe that could happen because right now in some countries in the world they don't link the phone numbers to its owner so anyone can fake their identity and claim whoever they want and they can just scam people with their innovative techniques which are really confusing to others. Though this kind of transaction is not totally worthless, it really requires some guides for the people who use it will prevent themselves from getting scammed. right now, I just prefer the usual transactions we are doing so far because for me it is the safest.

So it's like a bot command? You send the signals to some software through your cell phone without internet, and then that signal gets passed to a machine which carry out the commands for you while being connected to the internet? Basically, no offline transactions are possible in crypto world without internet. Otherwise, no data will be saved, and you can't move assets from one place to another, right?

Yes I think it's certainly possible but the point is that a third party would definitely be involved in such transactions.
For example, if I am the third party I would be providing a custodial wallet to the users and linking it to their mobile numbers.
When the user makes the SMS it would trigger a transaction from the wallet and broadcast it to the blockchain.
Thus, the users would just be making an SMS but in the backend an actual bitcoin transaction would be done on the blockchain.

things that are out of control if you haven't done it yourself, because this is vulnerable to fraud I think, as long as the exchange is still available and more effective I will not use this sms feature

obviously it's very possible that there's even a lot of news about it out there, if you look at this era of modern and developing technology, of course bitcoin can continue to develop something great to make it easier for many people to adopt easily even though in every certain area there is no internet network which is sufficient so through mobile bitcoins can be transacted, that's really cool, even I support this development, it can be used widely

As the founder once said (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583.msg11405#msg11405), "can be transported over a communications channel". The Bitcoin protocol uses TCP/IP, Tor network, I2P network, satellites, SMSes, I think we've even transacted using radio waved? Fucking proud man.

Well, they do use internet from their home computers, otherwise it'd be impossible. If they don't, then it isn't peer-to-peer, but using a third party. It's advisable to mention you don't gain the benefit of paying privately that way, as your mobile services can track you down.

I read in an article that we can send Bitcoin without the internet and it is true. However, the concept is almost the same as the internet, it is only using other things as the media to transfer Bitcoin.

There are 4 alternatives that we can use to transfer Bitcoin:
1. Waves of Amateur Radio
2. SMSPushTX
3. Pony Direct
4. Blockstream Satellite

For complete information, you can read here: https://cryptomode.com/4-ways-to-use-the-bitcoin-network-without-an-internet-connection/

However, I think it is still easier to use the internet to send Bitcoin than using those 4 alternatives above. So, to send Bitcoin in an effective way, we always need the internet. The Internet is still irreplaceable, it is something that has a vital role for the existence and development of Bitcoin.

   WRONG!!
Indirectly, end users doesn't require internet connection to carryout the transaction, they only need to initiate the process while the service provider of that voucher are  responsible for completing the transaction after the instructions has been initiated by the end users. The service providers require  the use of internet to process the transaction so that it would be recorded on the Bitcoin Blockchain.

   For example, this method is just like the MTN VTU (virtual top up) that allows users send airtime to their friends without internet connection. the VTU service providers uses internet connection to complete the transaction and that's exactly with the case of this new means of mobile Bitcoin adoption that seems not to require internet by the end user.

This is a great innovation but a lot is required to get it to work 100%/ as I have read all the technicalities involved to carry out this transaction, this is a long-term project and the guy championing this project will need to go an extra mile to get the network fully set up and transaction convertible from online to the offline network using the cellular network. And kind of curious to see how this will work especially when we.are.at.the early stage of.LN network adoption and most Bitcoin transactions are done using the Internet because the wallet needs to be online to send the transaction to blockchain.

Bitcoin transfer needs internet that was the fact. Of course, the use of a cellphone is possible. There are a lot of Bitcoin applications available in play store for phone and already used by some individuals but yes, I really don't think it was safe knowing that phones have low security due to easy attacks and many application installed that contains malware. This option is not advisable especially if we plan to hold BTC and make this as a storing wallet.

This whole process isn't possible without a third party service, right? They make a fool of us into believing that bitcoin transaction can be sent without the use of the internet lol.  So I think this is just another marketing strategy of some company in order to lure bitcoin users to use their platform.  I find this kind of service a bit tedious since we need an extra effort to send Bitcoin while it is just as easy like 123 when using or sending it the normal way.

in fact it is, all need the internet to do so. on the types of transactions that use SMS such as bitcoin transfers described by the OP. maybe the same as buying pulses. We only need to send an SMS with a certain code to be executed by the server in charge of the system. but the vulnerability for SMS scamming will indeed be greater. if a feature like bitcoin transfer via SMS like this is possible and is really needed when the internet isn't there, I think it needs to get more serious development. but now the internet has reached all over the world, even internet like StarLink will support all corners of the world.

This can be possible to transfer the bitcoin through SMS or other services instead of the internet but still, we will need an alternative for the internet to send the transaction details to the blockchain otherwise the transactions can be in another network and this network can be synced to the bitcoin network whenever the internet connection is available which is still not a good idea because the transaction details can be changed during this time, but regardless of these transferring bitcoins like this can be very much useful for many situations when the internet is not available for people.

Exactly, not a good idea, not a good option. What comes my mind is how sms authentication has been successfully manipulated in the paste by hackers, it is possible that sending bitcoin through sms can be that bad through sim swap or related attacks. The best option is to just use the internet and never depend on any third party which are making use of sms that will still depends on the internet to make the transaction valid on bitcoin blockchain.

This has been discussed a lot in the previous thread and even though we can still do something like that but the context is still the same because it still requires some kind of network there.
On the other hand, when talking about this I agree with what @Rruchi Man said because in this case the risk of fraud will obviously increase because indeed we will also find it a little difficult to check whether transactions are done correctly or not when we are not within the reach of the internet.

Bitcoin can not be send through SMS, message or text even ussd can not send BTC because bitcoin uses blockchain which is it has nodes that connect system for the transaction of bitcoin. If bitcoin uses text message to send or for transaction, bitcoin will be controlled by the national Authorities because through the service providers national Authorities will cut or deduct fees from users which means users have to pay two service for one transaction.One fee will be on the blockchain/nodes transaction while the other fee will be on the SMS text which will be deducting by the service providers. Therefore, I do not think that will be possible in Africa. And as it is said, scammers will send fake text and claiming to be original because there is no way for one to verify it mostly for the countries that have no ATM machine. If there is a ATM machine as the person sent it. You can use your ATM card to check to know if it is inside. Therefore fraud will be promoted.

I guess it’s not safe also.
As third party is involved so you might not have complete access on Bitcoins that you should have.
Also I won’t recommend anyone to transact larger amount using this feature. If you are capable of holding these precious Bitcoins, then why can’t you have internet? If you are anywhere out of range, then you should wait till you get the internet connection back to do the transaction.
We can send Bitcoins without internet and it’s a feature of Bitcoins, but yes we should not use this in whole stable mind.

That make up of cryptocurrency transfer is not something that everyone can do maybe when looking at that cellphone I will see that it might be configured with any of Bitcoin ATM machine code because such kind of cell phone is not the phone that we know someone can use transfer bitcoin to somebody if I should be asked in what way will it be bitcoin wallet address appear and where can you copy it and depressed I'm extremely confused concerning using such kind of cell phone to transfer cryptocurrency especially bitcoin to another wallet

It was great to hear BTC transactions can be made offline but that was not the real scenario - it still needs the internet to process. It is only the message confirming the completion of the transactions but not literally we use to make a transfer without internet because that was impossible. And if we are thinking that the use of phones to do this is quite possible but be sure it was connected to the internet and mind also the vulnerability for the hacking. This is just an option but not should be done always.

I mean SMS is still possible right? You can definitely send each other Bitcoin via SMS and yet if you cannot really use it then what's the point? Meaning if you can get paid via SMS from someone near you, and then you go ahead and meet someone else and pay them via SMS with bitcoin as well then this works. But that will have to go online and see on your wallet and move to Binance type of thing eventually.

You cannot just end up getting to a point where we can't really keep it all in SMS forever, that wouldn't be healthy and it would cause a lot of trouble for all of us. This is why I believe that we should focus on online payments and moves, much easier and secure.

I also don't think it could be possible via only mobile sms . For bitcoin transaction need of internet is obvious. But it could be possible that way where a central server will manage the whole thing  who will always connected to internet. But I think this way the decentralization process can not be done.

Shipping is full of risks, I don't want to take the risk, but I've heard of this problem, but what I know is that using a cellphone is only for storing secret keys and security, to keep it safe from being hacked, correct me if I'm wrong..

You are right @Charles-Tim what also came to my mind is the rate of fake SMS alerts in the network lately, and when I watched the youtube video I was waiting to see where the receiver will send out those Bitcoins received, the amount transferred to him was equivalent to 100 nairas and this amount in naira was included in the SMS alert so that also raised my curiosity about the project. I don't think there is anywhere that is possible for Bitcoin value to be transferred through short messaging services as the platform can not perform such transactions in bits since there is no internet and the processing memory of SMS is not set to process a large volume of services. It will take a lot of development for that to be achieved shortly but now SMS is not ended to end so there will be a high vulnerability in its system.

If you're talking about online shopping then you can go for it. I know many website are accepting Bitcoin as payment methods where you don't need to put your secret keys for transactions. You can make transaction manually by sending Bitcoin to their wallet address. Bitcoin transaction through cellphone is being popular day by day.