Introducing Airbitz, Bitcoin Wallet and Business Directory

[AirBitz]

Airbitz Launches Mobile Bitcoin Wallet Designed for Mainstream Consumers
San Diego Startup Brings User Experience and Security to New Levels

LAS VEGAS, NV – October 6, 2014 – Airbitz today announced the release of its integrated mobile bitcoin wallet and business directory, now with 3200+ listings and coverage in 14 countries, at Inside Bitcoins Las Vegas. Airbitz CEO Paul Puey will present a session on “Bitcoin Wallets: Balancing Security, Privacy, and Ease of Use” at the conference on October 7th at 2:00PM.

“In order to increase adoption of bitcoin and grow our ecosystem, we recognized the need to make transactions easier and more approachable,” said Airbitz CEO Paul Puey. “This was our impetus in creating a product with a carefully crafted UI and user experience, and we are extremely proud to bring our mobile wallet and directory to the masses.”

The Airbitz Wallet and Business Directory features simple account creation using just a username, password and 4 digit pin. The user has the option to input transaction data (Payee, Category, Notes) and search by these fields.

Features implemented for robust security include:

Automatic wallet encryption and cloud backup
Device-to-device account sync across phone, tablet, iOS, Android
Local, client-side encryption giving Airbitz zero-knowledge and zero-access to user data or funds
Device-to-device account sync across phone, tablet, iOS, Android
Great privacy through HD Wallets (changing addresses with each transaction)

Additional exclusive features:

Payments via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) without QR code (iPhone only)
Merchant Mode with the ability to submit partial payments

Airbitz is available for free on Android and iOS mobile devices at www.airbitz.co and in the Google Play and Apple App Stores. The Airbitz app code will be released as open source by end of 2014.

About Airbitz

Airbitz was founded in January 2014. We aim to bring bitcoin to the next billion users through amazingly simple yet feature rich applications focused on ease of use and ease of security. Our focus is to deliver software, services, and products with an amazing user experience, both visually and functionally, simplifying this advanced technology and delivering it to the masses while still retaining Bitcoin’s core principles of decentralization and privacy. For more information, visit www.airbitz.co and follow us at www.twitter.com/airbitz

https://scontent-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10576958_682992665115560_1269504554820656036_n.jpg?oh=96f0167ee79058e23f5cf80c7fd3de52&oe=54C4041D

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10524593_686663128081847_3318905310039600588_n.png?oh=82319a07fa97449f6af2de329384b426&oe=54BA10AB&__gda__=1422600311_82ae74922c1ccdd85c6f1fc866eb12de

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10492231_663029993778494_8061212951222250016_n.jpg?oh=0305039d8ac8c1b2f5c40b06e8c6e37c&oe=54AE6A69&__gda__=1421978549_696d755edd63595ef993233352896a03
Here is a quick demo below:

http://youtu.be/E3Z7-ya-h5Y

Articles:

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/17137/airbitz-launches-mobile-bitcoin-wallet-designed-mainstream-consumers-san-diego-startup-brings-bitcoin-user-experience-security-new-levels/
https://coinreport.net/airbitz-debuting-bitcoin-wallet-inside-bitcoins-conference/
http://www.examiner.com/article/airbitz-launches-bitcoin-wallet-app-and-directory-to-meet-consumer-needs-1

We hope you enjoy. Any feedback would be appreciated!


TLDR: Watch the video

[mskryxz]

Love the directory very beautiful.

Blue Tooth seems pretty cool too.

[runam0k]

Congrats on the release, etc.  Just a couple of minor bugs/complaints:

1. I know you're going for an online banking app feel, but entering the password each time is a bit of a pain. It seems to happen too often for me.  Perhaps make it optional (i.e. user logs out) or let the user play with the auto log out settings?  Even better, spend limits for PIN only operations?

2. I set the currency to GBP but there are still instances of amounts being displayed in USD (e.g. when requesting funds).

3. Would be nice to default to wallet view, rather than directory.

[El Emperador]

Congrats! Very nice app 

[paullinator]

Congrats on the release, etc.  Just a couple of minor bugs/complaints:

1. I know you're going for an online banking app feel, but entering the password each time is a bit of a pain. It seems to happen too often for me.  Perhaps make it optional (i.e. user logs out) or let the user play with the auto log out settings?  Even better, spend limits for PIN only operations?

2. I set the currency to GBP but there are still instances of amounts being displayed in USD (e.g. when requesting funds).

3. Would be nice to default to wallet view, rather than directory.

1. Our next release will allow you to re-login using just your PIN. This required careful crafting of our security model to retain the same level of security (no unencrypted data on device storage). We will also have spending limits (daily spending limits and a limits that doesn't require the PIN).

2. That should be fixed as well

3. I hear you, but we've gotta pay the bills, and we'll be monetizing the directory soon. You're always just one tap away from Send, Receive, and Wallets!

[runam0k]

The new PIN works great, good work.  Just two usability issues remain:

1. The "Receive" screen still defaults to USD (useless for me, since I want to see what I am sending in GBP).

2. As mentioned above, the back button tends to exit app completely rather than return to the previous screen.  So if I open airbitz now on my Android phone (still open in memory), it will open to the last screen I was looking at (let's say "Receive").  If I navigate to "Send" and then hit the back button, the app will close (rather than go back to "Receive" or home/directory). Maybe returning to the directory before closing the app is the answer.

[Swimmer63]

Love your app.
I am a miner and heavy user with a lot transactions. I have switched to your app as my main wallet(s).
Really like how you have been economical in style but feature rich.
Wish you had a PC app like blockchain though. Please tell me it's on the development list.

[paullinator]

Love your app.
I am a miner and heavy user with a lot transactions. I have switched to your app as my main wallet(s).
Really like how you have been economical in style but feature rich.
Wish you had a PC app like blockchain though. Please tell me it's on the development list.

No PC app in development, but our wallet uses a C/C++ cross platform library for almost all of the wallet functionality. If someone wanted to port it to desktop, they'd just have to rewrite the UI keeping all the wallet code intact.

Thanks for using the wallet!

[paullinator]

The new PIN works great, good work.  Just two usability issues remain:

1. The "Receive" screen still defaults to USD (useless for me, since I want to see what I am sending in GBP).

2. As mentioned above, the back button tends to exit app completely rather than return to the previous screen.  So if I open airbitz now on my Android phone (still open in memory), it will open to the last screen I was looking at (let's say "Receive").  If I navigate to "Send" and then hit the back button, the app will close (rather than go back to "Receive" or home/directory). Maybe returning to the directory before closing the app is the answer.

To default to GBP, you need to create a new wallet that is a "GBP" wallet. Each wallet has a fiat currency permanently tied to it. The wallet will forever save that fiat currency's value at the time of the transaction.

[paullinator]

Hi Everyone.

Airbitz just launched version 1.3 of our mobile bitcoin wallet this week and we implemented features from users' feedback:

- If the app gets shutdown due to a reboot, crash (ugh), or OS just shutting down the app, you can now re-login using just your PIN. Note that a timer auto-logout and an explicit Logout from Settings will still require a full password.
- We've added spending limits! You can now specify a threshold of spending that would require a PIN, and a daily threshold above which would require a password. Great for sharing an account with restricted access such as for merchants letting staff use Airbitz as a POS.
- You can now share a business listing using Email, SMS, Twitter, Facebook or other apps on your device.
- You can now view business listing social media pages (Twitter, Facebook, Google+) pages at the tap of a button

Hope you all enjoy, and please send us feedback at info@airbitz.co

http://airbitz.co

Cheers

[runam0k]

To default to GBP, you need to create a new wallet that is a "GBP" wallet. Each wallet has a fiat currency permanently tied to it. The wallet will forever save that fiat currency's value at the time of the transaction.

Perfect, thanks.  Works flawlessly.

[runam0k]

This is now my primary wallet.  Really nice work.  And great work on the recent run of PR and podcast appearances too!

Two minor nits (Android): (1) When emailing a receive address (I wonder if "share" is a better option), for whatever reason the email app I use the most (Fastmail) does not come up in the list of possible mail apps.  It appears when I "share" an address in Mycelium. (2) When receiving funds, one of the fields says "Enter Payee".

Also - possibly a silly question - what exactly is being shown when you view the private key?  Is it a raw private key (and if it is, can it be imported into another wallet)?