NFC initiated Bitcoin payments with Bitcoin Wallet for Android

[Andreas Schildbach]

Today, I've added NFC capabilities to Bitcoin Wallet for Android. You can initiate Bitcoin payments from an NFC tag or a second NFC capable phone having the "Receive coins" dialog open.

Instructions for how to prepare an NFC tag can be found here:
http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/source/browse/trunk/README

For now, it is only contained in the Testnet version:
https://market.android.com/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet_test
(Edit: It's now in the Prodnet version as well:
https://market.android.com/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet)

It's very difficult to find NFC capable phones out in the wild. If you have one, could you help me testing? Issues can be reported here:
http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/issues/list

Cheers,

Andreas

[1713566887]

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[1713566887]

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[cypherdoc]

Today, I've added NFC capabilities to Bitcoin Wallet for Android. You can initiate Bitcoin payments from an NFC tag or a second NFC capable phone having the "Receive coins" dialog open.

Instructions for how to prepare an NFC tag can be found here:
http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/source/browse/trunk/README

For now, it is only contained in the Testnet version:
https://market.android.com/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet_test
(Edit: It's now in the Prodnet version as well:
https://market.android.com/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet)

It's very difficult to find NFC capable phones out in the wild. If you have one, could you help me testing? Issues can be reported here:
http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/issues/list

Cheers,

Andreas

way to go!  we need lots more devs like you.  Thanks!

[PabloW]

I think THIS might be the salvation for bitcoins. We just need the nfc to become more popular so regular people can use ir and understand it. Then paypal will use nfc, and then people will understand they canuse bitcoins instead of paypal!
Someone go talk this to some tv show or somethin quick

[ffuentes]

I think THIS might be the salvation for bitcoins. We just need the nfc to become more popular so regular people can use ir and understand it. Then paypal will use nfc, and then people will understand they canuse bitcoins instead of paypal!
Someone go talk this to some tv show or somethin quick

Bitcoin doesn't need salvation but Paypal is faster, you can enter to a website and transfer money knowing an email address and that's all.

[wumpus]

Great work!

I have a NFC capable phone, not two, though So can't help testing right now.

[stick_theman]

Good work, OP.

[AgoraMutual]

Now, I'm pissed that I just started two year contracts on a set of Droid Bionics and I'll be stuck using QR codes to accept payments. I'm sure every phone that come out from now on will have NFC. I guess I'll just have to try to make enough money to buy new phones off contract.

[LightRider]

The market will most likely proliferate such technology on the android platform, but it probably won't gain mass appeal until the iBorgs start having it on their devices. Hopefully their yearly release plans will work in our favor inside of 18 months.

[AgoraMutual]

You're not 'stuck'. If companies like SquareUp are doing it for free for credit cards, it seems only a matter of time....

https://squareup.com/

Yeah, I'm already using Square as my primary Credit Card processor. I just found out that Dwolla is about to release a Proximity Based payment service that mimics NFC with no NFC hardware needed. Square already has such an app called Card Case. Dwolla's solution will be more streamlined, easier to use, runs on top of Credit Union infrastructure, and has more users. So, those are things to look forward to.

It's just that Bitcoin Wallet is the first solution to bring NFC to bitcoin. I just won't be able to take advantage of it or promote it for a year or two. Even if Gox adds it to their app, I hope Bitcoin Wallet stays active and gets more popular since it's a standalone system that will work even if Gox and the other exchanges face problems in the future.

[D.H.]

Bringing back an old thread to hopefully get some more feedback. Have people tried this? Does it work well?

I don't have the app installed myself (or a phone with NFC) so did I understand it correctly that
 - The receiver enters an amount to receive coins
 - The sender simply has to hold up his phone against the other and a populated send dialog will appear, which just requires the sender to press OK. (Does this work even if the app is not running?)

Seems to me that this is pretty much how I would like things to work when buying something with bitcoins in a store. What else is needed here to simply be able to use and Android phone + Bitcoin Wallet as a POS terminal?

[Mike Hearn]

Sure, I've tried it with other people and it works fine.

Yes, your understanding is correct. The receiver goes into the app and says how many coins they want. Then somebody else can touch their phone to it and the send activity pops up, fully pre-populated. They press a button and it's done. Their phone should be unlocked but otherwise can just be on the home screen.

Andreas has also implemented tx marshalling across NFC too, so you can send coins even if only one side has a working internet connection. But the standard method just exchanges addreses.

[chrisrico]

Andreas has also implemented tx marshalling across NFC too, so you can send coins even if only one side has a working internet connection. But the standard method just exchanges addreses.

That's awesome, but does it not work if neither device has a working internet connection?

[tgmarks]

This is my favorite bitcoin android wallet hands down.  I don't have NFC but happy to do what I can to support.

[osoverflow]

I have NFC in my galaxy s4. I have mifare 1k cards and want to know if I can put the bitcoin URI in any sector and block or I need to put it on a specific one. Also, which key are the wallet using to read that field? A or B? and which one? default like ffffffffffff or another one?

Thank you!

[Andreas Schildbach]

See the NFC section in the README: http://bitcoin-wallet.googlecode.com/git/wallet/README

You can also consider writing a BIP70 payment request on the tag, using an NDEF message of type MIME, mime-type as defined in BIP71. If you succeed in that, let me know so I can add it to the README.

[advanced]

hi, what happened to this project? I Have an rfid implant and a nexus5 Let me know if I can help

[Andreas Schildbach]

hi, what happened to this project? I Have an rfid implant and a nexus5 Let me know if I can help

The project is up and alive and used by half a million Bitcoin enthusiasts (-:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet
https://github.com/schildbach/bitcoin-wallet

People are paying with NFC (tap-to-pay) since 2011 and generally like it.

[advanced]

hi, what happened to this project? I Have an rfid implant and a nexus5 Let me know if I can help

The project is up and alive and used by half a million Bitcoin enthusiasts (-:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet
https://github.com/schildbach/bitcoin-wallet

People are paying with NFC (tap-to-pay) since 2011 and generally like it.

Oh great I didn't understand we were talking about that app, I'm using it myself.

I'm looking for another feature : a NFC tag as 2FA for sending coins.  Do you know of any wallet that makes the trick?