Project Crypto Sense

I've been working on this for quite some time now, over a year in fact. It's only in the last few months have I gone from ideas, thinking and making notes to actual work and system development.

So what is it? Crypto Sense (current project name, may change later) is a Bitcoin payment platform, wallet service, hardware payment system and CTM/ATM network.

It provides a hosted wallet with web interface and mobile apps, nothing new there. Use an app or webpage to send, request and keep track of Bitcoin payments. What is also offered is instant transaction verification before any confirmations on the blockchain, providing both the sender and recipient both use the Crypto Sense hosted wallet. Given that the users do not hold private keys, a replay style attack is not possible, and the network will be able to guarentee the coins have not been previously spent, before waiting for a blockchain confirmation. I am aware of other services offering this, but this also ties in with other offerings.

The hardware payment system is, as the name suggests, a physical way of spending Bitcoin. Using smart card technology, payment terminals will handle card communication, security and cryptography. Once a PIN code has been entered and the user confirms the ammount to pay, the terminal sends the requests to the same back-end that handles the internal instant payment verification. Both the merchant and the customer need to use the hosted wallet service, however confirmation of payment can be received in seconds, even for high value transactions. There is much less risk than accepting un-confirmed transactions. Again, I know this is not a totally new service, however I aim to keep the price of the payment terminals to a sensible level, no minimum order quantity, and potentially offer a pay as you go type service (essentially a free terminal with slightly higher usage fees). The terminals will be built to comply with the same standards expected of "traditional" payment terminals. Tamper and intrusion detection, SRAM stored keys and a limited command set implemented on a serial connection to a host for POS integration. This would be a future addition to the system, depending on demand and costs.

The CTM network, which is already progressing well, is a back-end account server and CTM clients. I have chose CTM (Coin Transaction Machine) over ATM, as they transact coins, rather than tell automatically. They are essentially like existing Bitcoin ATM/CTM's. Insert cash, get Bitcoin. The current progress is Bitcoin purchase with coins sent to a scanned address, transaction information display by scanning a QR code with the prefix "txid:" followed by the transaction ID, paper wallet generation and printing, receipt printing, Bitcoin purchase directly to a paper wallet (paper wallet generated and printed, then Bitcoin sent to new address) and account creation (enter some details, just enough for AML and KYC, no ID required unless forced to by law).

The CTM is my main focus currently as on it's own, it is a complete product with no need for any other hardware or services, so it could be released standalone with more advanced functions automatically enabled once the backend network is running.
Current features in progress are:
)Once the basic account creation (and data encryption/back end server) is complete, the machine can issue RFID "CTM Cards" for storage of bitcoin addresses, and in the future, access to the account management services.
)Selling of Bitcoin to the machines. Given the high cost of bank note recyclers, and not being willing to develop my own hardware to do it, this may involve manual intervention and the use of a printed receipt to confirm the machine has received the Bitcoin.
)Machine management. I am working on a user interface for accessing user-configurable options and viewing machine balance, Bitcoin in and out, quantity of bank notes in the machine, buy/sell rates, errors etc.

At some stage I will start to impliment the facility for the machine to take advantage of running a full node by adding the facility to install mining hardware. The intent is the machines are bought outright, the owner keeps all profits from buying and selling, and by acting as an interface the to Crypto Sense network, could potentially gain business from it's users.

What I hope to provide is a conveniant and familiar interface to Bitcoin and crypto-currency in general, but still keeping the technical and more advanced features of Bitcoin there to use. I know there are concerns with hosted wallets and not having control of private keys, loosing anonynimity when signing up to services etc, and at the moment this is just me working on the project on my own, so I probably won't have answers to every question, or have even thought of them, but I welcome input, criticism, advice and ideas from the community.