Standalone Dedicated Bitcoin Device

[Uhlbelk]

You should check out this thread about creating a Bootable USB Wallet.  Basically, you plug it into your computer and you boot up into a different operating system which is isolated from the normal one the machine runs (read: secure).  You can plug this USB into any machine, yours or a friends, or a public terminal, restart, and it works the same.  I haven't used it, but it looks like a step in the right direction.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=36663.0

Right! I actually have an offline wallet using a similar method (different distro though) I have linuxcoin on my list of things to check out.

Now what would be needed is a micro computer about the size of a thumbdrive that runs the software dedicated to sending bitcoins. It would need wifi or bluetooth and a method of input to tell how many to send (and password entry). Voice activation would be the bees knees.

Long story short we take a smart phone and make it dedicated.

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[deepceleron]

Somebody needs to develop a hardware device whose only purpose in life is to connect to a network and send/receive/store bitcoins.  Don't cha think?

Something that has 1GB of storage, internet connectivity, a CPU, input device and display, but can only do one thing? Can I carry it around along with my phone, day planner, calculator, alarm clock, gameboy, CD player, camera, camcorder, GPS, and dictation machine? Wait, that's the 90's.

[Uhlbelk]

Something that has 1GB of storage, internet connectivity, a CPU, input device and display, but can only do one thing? Can I carry it around along with my phone, day planner, calculator, alarm clock, gameboy, CD player, camera, camcorder, GPS, and dictation machine? Wait, that's the 90's.
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If only we could find a way to slip it under our skin...

[ElectricMucus]

Something that has 1GB of storage,

microsdcards are cheap

internet connectivity

gprs, wlan or even bluetooth while probably the most expensive part still doesn't cost enough to make it invalueable.

a CPU

A cortex-m3 is like 3$

input device and display

Doesn't have to be fancy, the cheapest option would suffice. Look at those cashless supermarket terminal boxes. Something like that in a smaller formfactor would be appropriate.

Wait, that's the 90's.

You are dealing with a device which would need to provide security, smartphones, tablets and the like are all prone to the same security risk you have on a desktop machine, in magnitude possibly between a windows box and *nix desktop.
That's not good enough.

[Mjbmonetarymetals]

[ElectricMucus]

Mjbmonetarymetals, that looks awesome  


But I just had an inspiration of how such a device should rather work and much easier.

Imagine a tiny, fast, but very efficient microprocessor consuming only 10-20 milliwatt. Provide it with a rfid antenna and one button.
Lets say you want to use bitcoins for instant payments. You get your bill and hold your device against the rfidterminal, the chip powers up, connects to the bitcoin network and sends the required amount provided by the host.

Such a device would cost only cents when mass produced and would be as simple to operate as it can get while providing the most security possible. The only hurdle would be to get the machine to be efficient enough to run as a passive rfid client and a mechanism to rapidly send bitcoins in such a way to get some form of instant confirmations.

[Boyne7]

what exactly is stopping someone from stealing the so-called mobile bitcoin wallet?

@electricmucus, and how per se would such a device "connect to the bitcoin network"? you're adding in some type of network connectivity now

[ElectricMucus]

what exactly is stopping someone from stealing the so-called mobile bitcoin wallet?

@electricmucus, and how per se would such a device "connect to the bitcoin network"? you're adding in some type of network connectivity now

network connectivity would be provided by the shop, I think there is some extension to the rfid specification which makes 2-way communication possible. SSL could be used for additional security (would increase the power usage of the device though)

About theft of such a device, well as it would be a replacement for cash you would need to take care of it and never keep all your savings in it. A pin code could be employed but wouldn't stop a skilled and well equipped thief.

[NothinG]

Where are we at with this?

Any dedicated bitcoin storage hardware yet?

We are at stand-alone hardware that doesn't reline on a local blockchain. ( http://ecdsa.org/electrum/ )

[NothinG]

Any dedicated bitcoin storage hardware yet?

I meant software.