Can the bitcoincard really work?

[notig]

if this card was successful it seems like it could have massive implications. What are your opinions on it? It seems an incredibly bold venture. But I also have this bad feeling. The reason why I am somewhat skeptical is because they say "in order for it to work you only need 3 people per block" . That seems like a problem to me rather than a good thing.

The only way I can see it working is if they first start in some highly populated city such as new york(or some Japanese city) or something where there is an actual movement of people that they know will use it. It can spread from there. But if they try to pan it out to the entire world all at once in the beginning I just see it as being something that will fail because not enough people would be in close proximity to others that also use it.

still if it does succeed it could be an incredible thing for bitcoin.

http://bitcoincard.org/

[cbeast]

There was a team of devs that went to see this device demonstrated. It seems to be legit, but I wonder if it will perform in the field the way it is hyped. Considering that it has been in development for 5-6 years, I'm thinking there are more than just manufacturing difficulties. I would like to see a smartphone bluetooth or wifi version of this type of protocol.

[TingCoin]

That really is amazing...
Although you mention needing 3 people per block to send coins, I can't see why this would be necessary. As long as the card is in range of what they're calling a 'gateway', which seems to be a radio transmitter (think of the range of radio stations. BIG) connecting your card to the ONLINE bit coin block chain, the card should be able to send bit coins to any address on earth.

This thing is actually a technological revolution.

EDIT: if a gateway isn't in range the card could use other cards to get to one. If that makes sense.

[notig]

The question is why would non bitcoin users start using it? Well free texting and sending of pics/data sounds good. Right now cell phones plans are still pretty damn expensive. imagine it being done for free...... that would setup infrastructure that bitcoin could use to help succeed

I wonder if you can make backups of your wallet though. it says your key cannot leave the device. So if you lose the card you lose what is on it.

[phatsphere]

For the beginning, only a solution with dedicated POS devices should be implemented. This p2p type of messaging system is very experimental and in my eyes, only feasible some day in the future. Also, a dedicated use case is necessary. Shopping-center card, in-house canteen for food, etc.

[franky1]

why would people buy a specialist device just to spend money when most people object to having to pay $10 to obtain a pre-paid debit card upfront. most men object to spending more then $30 for a leather wallet. so paying more for an electric gadget that only has the function of spending money at limited range, relying on other local people to be nearby to relay the 'messages' around if flawed.

in this day and age its all about phone apps. utilising Near-Field, bluetooth, wifi,sms, 3g/4g internet makes there is no need for a peer to peer specialist device with limited distance of use. when our own smart phones can do the job nicely. all it requires is a good stable app to link everyone together without it using up peoples phone balance and still remaining secure so that others cant gain access to the other phone features outside of the app, such as addressbook, phone dialer, etc.

[notig]

why would people buy a specialist device just to spend money when most people object to having to pay $10 to obtain a pre-paid debit card upfront. most men object to spending more then $30 for a leather wallet. so paying more for an electric gadget that only has the function of spending money at limited range, relying on other local people to be nearby to relay the 'messages' around if flawed.

in this day and age its all about phone apps. utilising Near-Field, bluetooth, wifi,sms, 3g/4g internet makes there is no need for a peer to peer specialist device with limited distance of use. when our own smart phones can do the job nicely. all it requires is a good stable app to link everyone together without it using up peoples phone balance and still remaining secure so that others cant gain access to the other phone features outside of the app, such as addressbook, phone dialer, etc.

I suppose people might buy it exactly for the reason you are mentioning... money. What's the cheapest phone plan out there to be able to text someone? If an ad hoc network combined with gateways and servers could pull it off then a small initial investment would easily be justified if you used text. The problem as I see it is needing other users for the ad hoc network to work.

[notme]

why would people buy a specialist device just to spend money when most people object to having to pay $10 to obtain a pre-paid debit card upfront. most men object to spending more then $30 for a leather wallet. so paying more for an electric gadget that only has the function of spending money at limited range, relying on other local people to be nearby to relay the 'messages' around if flawed.

in this day and age its all about phone apps. utilising Near-Field, bluetooth, wifi,sms, 3g/4g internet makes there is no need for a peer to peer specialist device with limited distance of use. when our own smart phones can do the job nicely. all it requires is a good stable app to link everyone together without it using up peoples phone balance and still remaining secure so that others cant gain access to the other phone features outside of the app, such as addressbook, phone dialer, etc.

I suppose people might buy it exactly for the reason you are mentioning... money. What's the cheapest phone plan out there to be able to text someone? If an ad hoc network combined with gateways and servers could pull it off then a small initial investment would easily be justified if you used text. The problem as I see it is needing other users for the ad hoc network to work.

The ad hoc network should be paid to pass on packets.  Each node can add a bitcoin address and the receiver would pay each node.  Those who didn't pay up could be punished prioritywise.  Perhaps instead the route can be established and then the sender can reuse the connection and pay in advance.  Either way we won't have time for confirmations, so we will just have to punish bad actors.  We just need some kind of routing algorithm with fee negotiation.  A nontrivial task for sure, but doable with enough effort.

We would then see people with cellphones set up routers.  The data for bitcoin transactions and text messages is tiny and would barely affect their data usage, and they could set their rates however they like.  Data consumers could also set limit on what they would like to pay.

[Seth Otterstad]

Mycelium (bitcoincard) is sponsoring both of the bitcoin conferences this year.