Titan Bitcoins - Physical Bitcoins with 2-factor authentication

[TitanBTC]

Thanks for your interest.  I'm glad you like the coins!

I'll admit that we haven't done a great job keeping the community informed, and that's on me and my time constraints.   We're putting out at least one update on Facebook a day now and twitter will be following soon. 

Making any product WELL necessitates a decision to target a particular market.   Titan Bitcoins are made by fine artists that were selectively recruited and paid to design, hand sculpt and engrave the tooling for these coins.  The coins themselves are made to exacting quality standards and on top of that, we often cull more than 75% of a given production run because of small defects.  The goal is to make physical bitcoins that look and feel like real currency and have an unspoken impression of value.  This costs much more than merely stamping out tokens, and I realize that added cost makes the price prohibitive for many.   While we're working on new products that have a lower barrier to entry...I hope you understand that owning these coins comes with a modicum of exclusivity that we hope elevates Titan Bitcoins to the level of "investment" for serious coin collectors. 

The bigger picture is hard to articulate in forum posts, but I will tell you that ALL of the profits from our sales are being reinvested into making more cool stuff that gets people excited about digital currency and grows the bitcoin community, so every coin you buy is an investment in mainstream bitcoin adoption. 

We're still selling the 2013 edition of the Titan One coins in both brass and silver and we'll be transitioning those to the 2014 editions in late Spring.  All other coins are currently in the 2014 edition, with the quarter and the 5 BTC coin coming out in the next couple months.  We're really close to having the Titan One 1 oz. Gold coin in stock as well.

We don't sell any unfunded coins right now.  Anyone selling coins unfunded has either purchased them from us at full price and redeemed them, or is selling one of the odd coins that was lost or stolen in the mail.  If you see an unfunded coin with the hologram intact, its a good idea to steer clear as it may not be legit. 

[micro23]

Thank you so much for your response. I understand where you are coming from.

I forgot my last question. When will you be supporting BIP-38 so I know my investment is secure. I'm having trouble jumping in on those full bitcoin coins until I can 100% guarantee my key will be safe.

Kinda similar to

http://www.crypto-cards.com/products/coldcards-black
or
http://cointalk.ca/cryptocards/

[haploid23]

TitanBTC, very beautiful coins indeed. But are you even just a little worried that you'll get a letter from FINCEN, just like what happened to Mike making the Casascius physical coins?

[TitanBTC]

TitanBTC, very beautiful coins indeed. But are you even just a little worried that you'll get a letter from FINCEN, just like what happened to Mike making the Casascius physical coins?

We were actually registered with FinCen before they ever bothered Mike and we're going through the process of determining our state by state registration requirements.

[haploid23]

So that means if I order from you, my personal info is kept in case you need to hand them over to FINCEN? If you comply with the KYC and AML laws, that's what you must do, no?

[bmoconno]

These coins look great, my friend sent me a picture of them while he was at the NYC Bitcoin convention a week or so again and I've been mulling over picking up a tenth, half and one BTC coin in silver.  Does anyone know if there are any coupon codes floating around?  

Edit:  Just read the thread, any news on the possible implementation of your 2FA scheme on the block chain itself?  I've got my order sitting in the cart, but I'm worried that what if something happens and Titan has to shutdown. What would be the protocol for making sure everyone with 2FA gets their private keys?

[LavaWave]

@bmoconno,

I've actually thought the same thing when it comes to the coins but if your really concerned about it you could always empty the value into your personal wallet. Anyway, the coin itself is worth the purchase imo! Great looking coins!

[odolvlobo]

Has anyone redeemed any of these coins? Can anyone verify that they are actually funded?

[nwfella]

Has anyone redeemed any of these coins? Can anyone verify that they are actually funded?

Also wanting to know if anybody has redeemed yet.

Great looking coin...hats off.

[Blazed]

I have redeemed a few of them...bought them when BTC was $400ish and then we spiked to 1k+ so I cashed some out.  The coins were funded with no issues when I redeemed them.  I only purchase the private key versions...not tried the 2 factor.

[odolvlobo]

I have redeemed a few of them...bought them when BTC was $400ish and then we spiked to 1k+ so I cashed some out.  The coins were funded with no issues when I redeemed them.  I only purchase the private key versions...not tried the 2 factor.

Thanks for the info.

[Stevenrm87]

Has anyone redeemed any of these coins? Can anyone verify that they are actually funded?

I redeemed about 6 Titan coins recently so I could jump into the Litecoin / Bitcoin low ratio. All 6 of my coins were private key versions and all were fully funded as expected. I used blockchain.info to import and transfer to btce.

[GoombaParty]

I acquired one of these coins and I will not buy another one.  There is no way to reference the public key on the coin itself.  There is a code on the coin that is associated in their proprietary database using their website.  I have a private key version and the only way I can confirm the funds is to look up a code on the coin itself using their website and by doing that, I can get the public key.  The whole reason to order a private key version is to not have to rely on titanbtc.com.  If they go out of business, there is no way to reference the coin on the blockchain unless you saved the information previously.
  
This makes it sketchy as hell to sell since it introduces more need to trust than is usually there with other physical coins.  Total deal breaker.

[haploid23]

Bad news indeed. Private keys will last forever, but no business or website will last FOREVER, and once that goes down, your coins go down with them. Or if you're in a pinch and need to access the keys during the small chance their servers are offline or their hosting is down, you're shit out of luck too.

That's quite a shame, otherwise the coin/design is beautiful.

[Stevenrm87]

Bad news indeed. Private keys will last forever, but no business or website will last FOREVER, and once that goes down, your coins go down with them. Or if you're in a pinch and need to access the keys during the small chance their servers are offline or their hosting is down, you're shit out of luck too.

That's quite a shame, otherwise the coin/design is beautiful.

The private keys are underneath the holograms so even if the site goes down you can access the information nessessary to import the BTC directly but I get the concern becasue one would essentially have to crack the coin in order to do this.

[GoombaParty]

Bad news indeed. Private keys will last forever, but no business or website will last FOREVER, and once that goes down, your coins go down with them. Or if you're in a pinch and need to access the keys during the small chance their servers are offline or their hosting is down, you're shit out of luck too.

That's quite a shame, otherwise the coin/design is beautiful.

I have a private key version, so theoretically, I can claim the funds at any time.  It's not being able to reference the coin on the blockchain using the information on the coin itself that kills me.  With any other physical coin I've purchased, I can derive the public key using the first bits on my own.
 
You're right though, if they go out of business, their 2 Factor coins are useless.

[Stevenrm87]

Bad news indeed. Private keys will last forever, but no business or website will last FOREVER, and once that goes down, your coins go down with them. Or if you're in a pinch and need to access the keys during the small chance their servers are offline or their hosting is down, you're shit out of luck too.

That's quite a shame, otherwise the coin/design is beautiful.

I have a private key version, so theoretically, I can claim the funds at any time.  It's not being able to reference the coin on the blockchain using the information on the coin itself that kills me.  With any other physical coin I've purchased, I can derive the public key using the first bits on my own.
 
You're right though, if they go out of business, their 2 Factor coins are useless.

Thats why I never bought any 2 factor coins , just private key versions, but I get the concerns here . Im sure TitanBTC will think of somthing different for the LTC versions (hopefully)

[TitanBTC]

Bad news indeed. Private keys will last forever, but no business or website will last FOREVER, and once that goes down, your coins go down with them. Or if you're in a pinch and need to access the keys during the small chance their servers are offline or their hosting is down, you're shit out of luck too.

That's quite a shame, otherwise the coin/design is beautiful.

I have a private key version, so theoretically, I can claim the funds at any time.  It's not being able to reference the coin on the blockchain using the information on the coin itself that kills me.  With any other physical coin I've purchased, I can derive the public key using the first bits on my own.
 
You're right though, if they go out of business, their 2 Factor coins are useless.

There's lots of reasons why we chose to centralize the coin database and use our own coin ID, but I think they're probably all in the thread above.  Having fewer steps to verify that the coin's address is funded is the big one.  Anyone can pick up one of our coins and scan the back with a smartphone, regardless of whether they know what a bitcoin is or not. 

The 2-factor coins have less of a learning curve for people who are just getting into bitcoins.  They typically like the fact that they can redeem them on our website.  For people that understand bitcoins, we proudly sell the exact same coins with private keys.  We're not running any kind of fractional reserve, so if we need to shut down the business, we'll be emailing out links to download an encrypted version of the private keys for all our 2FA coins.  We'll also be keeping the site running for many years after we shut down.  The hosting and maintenance is already bought and paid for.  Nobody is getting screwed when we shut down. 

[TitanBTC]

For those that were waiting for it, Here's the thread for our 1 oz. gold coins.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=675359.0

[mudget]

I need your help. I have a 2013 Titan Bitcoin, fully funded. I can look it up on the site and it confirms the value. I cannot move it to a wallet and I cannot find Tim Fillmore. He does not answer LinkedIn messages and did not respond to a certified letter asking for his help. Apparently he sent some sort of email confirmation that I need, but I never got it or it was lost en route. Do you have any suggestions?
My email is ted_mudge@yahoo.com