BitcoinWiFi Hotspot - Ready for Production, and Shipping Worldwide to customers

[Kris]

Build it with an ALIN board to cut costs. pfSense runs beautifully on there and form factor is much smaller.

Hmm the first thing I found when searching for ALIN board was pills.. however I was interested in finding out if it has enough juice to run proper as a multi user router.

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[grobbes]

Shit sorry, LOL, ALIX boards are what I meant. They sell all boards/cases/CF's separate or you can buy already built ones.

Netgate is a provider but ALIX sells direct too.

[jehst]

I can see the regulators swarming anyone who tries to make a living selling wifi to people, shutting them down, and saying "You are running an unlicensed internet service provider."

[Carlton Banks]

I can see the regulators swarming anyone who tries to make a living selling wifi to people, shutting them down, and saying "You are running an unlicensed internet service provider."

Not all governemnts have such draconian regulation agencies. And how would these regulators find the owner of the address the BTC gets sent to in any case? Might be a poor investment if it gets confiscated before it pays for itself, but that depends on how it's advertised 

[TippingPoint]

Numerous, inexpensive, lower capacity BitcoinWiFi Hotspots will have greater survivability than fewer, expensive, high capacity BitcoinWiFi Hotspots.

[Carlton Banks]

Numerous, inexpensive, lower capacity BitcoinWiFi Hotspots will have great survivability than fewer, expensive, high capacity BitcoinWiFi Hotspots.

Exactly, the trick is to have AP's that are completely cheap and disposable, that do a good enough job.

[FreeTrade]

This is very brilliant, and possibly the second killer app for Bitcoin. Thanks so much Kris, you're a visionary.

[jehst]

I can see the regulators swarming anyone who tries to make a living selling wifi to people, shutting them down, and saying "You are running an unlicensed internet service provider."

Not all governemnts have such draconian regulation agencies. And how would these regulators find the owner of the address the BTC gets sent to in any case? Might be a poor investment if it gets confiscated before it pays for itself, but that depends on how it's advertised  

Let's say you don't run into the regulation problem. Why pay for wifi access when there will probably be free wifi around somewhere? Many businesses are offering free wifi as a way to bring in customers. Why spend bitcoins on this when you could run over to the nearest Starbucks/hostel/etc.? I think this is a really cool idea. I heard Amir Taaki talking about it in an interview. I'm just thinking of what its best-use cases are.

[LightRider]

BitcoinWifi Prototype Video

Irony - video not enabled for mobile.

[Kris]

Irony - video not enabled for mobile.

I am unsure what you mean ?, I am not a youtube expert ?

[Kris]

This is very brilliant, and possibly the second killer app for Bitcoin. Thanks so much Kris, you're a visionary.

Thank you very much!

[bitspill]

Irony - video not enabled for mobile.

I am unsure what you mean ?, I am not a youtube expert ?

if you try viewing the video from a cell phone such as iPhone or Android it gives an error saying the "uploader has not made this video available to mobile devices"-or similar wording. I think there is a check box somewhere to enable mobile viewing but I'm not sure where

[Kris]

UPDATE, UPDATE

I have found and contacted another provider of the parts I need to built the BitcoinWiFi Hotspot, and can now get the parts much cheaper!

The current price is now only $350 and everyone with an order on the old price, has been refunded the price difference!
I hope to lower this even more to around $250 or less, however this require that BitcoinWiFi receives 10 orders at a time, so I can make bulk purchasing of the parts for even lower cost.

Also I've had quite a few interested parties interested in sponsoring BitcoinWiFi, this should bring for some interesting modifications!

[marcus_of_augustus]

Great work ... of course there are lots of ways one can talk about to do this but getting a product on the market is the only way to actually DO IT.

Well done Kris, wish you the best in your ventures. As to spurious concerns about 'regulation' at this early stage (whoTF  are these people that go around tinkering with computers always wondering "what will my government think if I write this s/ware?" whilst wetting their pants in fear) ... you could always encrypt all through traffic by default and use plausible deniability protections ... way off in the future besides.

[RAVENCROW]

cant wait to get money together to get one of these very cool!

[Bitfiniti]

A project I have been working on in my spare time is now complete!

BitcoinWiFi Hotspot

Introduction

1. User connect to “BitcoinWiFi” and by visiting a website, brings them to a captive portal where it displays. Pay (defined by the operator) Bitcoin for 24 hour, 5 days or 1 month access.

2. User can easily pay by pre-generated QR code or Bitcoin URI. Bitcoin connections on port 8333 is always open, and access are granted to the most popular hosted wallets.

3. To generate QR codes and Bitcoin URIs, the operator can define Invoice API key of their payment gateway in the settings of the BitcoinWiFi unit.

4. The unit features a captive portal, a small web server. By parsing the blockchain for payments the unit opens the internet connection for paying users in real-time.

5. The operator have the possibility of receiving the payment directly to their bank account in local currency via the payment processor or keep payments in Bitcoin.

http://BitcoinWiFi.me/

Customizable and Open source – The BitcoinWiFi unit can be converted and refurbished to an mini-PC by replacing BitcoinWiFi open source firmware with custom firmware.

Responsive web design - The Captive Portal is built with responsive web design, providing a seamless experience for mobile users as well.

Return on investment is not guaranteed, but if you set it up in a crowded place, one can only imagine?



If you think you can help with this project, please get in touch with me.

Awesome project. Even more awesome(er) that it accepts Bitcoin.