CASASCIUS PHYSICAL BITCOIN - In Stock Now! (pic)

[joecooin]

I see that Memory Dealers is selling the 100btc bars now. Do they have the full-length private key affixed, or do they also use a mini version?

+1 Casascius for having made another nice and shining piece, that allows people who don't understand the concept of cryptocurrency to be able to _see_ and _touch_ Bitcoins!

And for having provided a workaround to be able to purchase Bitcoins with old fashioned ways of payment like Master and Paypal!

Joe

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[cbeast]

100 BTC bars. Hmmm. I suppose it would be a good way to hide your bitcoin treasure in you pile of someday worthless gold bars. 

[molecular]

100 BTC bars. Hmmm. I suppose it would be a good way to hide your bitcoin treasure in you pile of someday worthless gold bars. 

Haha.

You make a very good point. I wouldn't use this as savings wallet myself, there's better ways to hide your virtual treasure chest.

[Stephen Gornick]

Today I handed a Casascius physical bitcoin (1 BTC denomination) to presidential candidate (and former governor of New Mexico) Gary Johnson and described in brief how a decentralized digital currency works.

To add to the moment, this is the mural that stood behind me as I spoke:

[molecular]

Today I handed a Casascius physical bitcoin (1 BTC denomination) to presidential candidate (and former governor of New Mexico) Gary Johnson and described in brief how a decentralized digital currency works.  To add to the moment, this is the mural that stood behind me as I spoke:

Awesome!

[btc_artist]

Today I handed a Casascius physical bitcoin (1 BTC denomination) to presidential candidate (and former governor of New Mexico) Gary Johnson and described in brief how a decentralized digital currency works.

What was his reaction?

[btc_artist]

That doesn't satisfy me. Another address could've been generated intentionally using a vanity address generator or by chance.

Chance alone is very unlikely, but I'm willing to pgp sign a list of all the Bitcoin addresses used in this project.

suggestion add a option on the webpage to check the short address and get the long address and lick this  directly to blockexplorer

This.

Why not keep an up-to-date, searchable database of short and long addresses on casascius.com and link them to blockexplorer?  This would be much more convenient than looking through the list of addresses posted to pastebin.

This would provide an easy way to check if a casascious coin is counterfeit or not, if counterfeiting becomes a problem.

[joecooin]

Today I handed a Casascius physical bitcoin (1 BTC denomination) to presidential candidate (and former governor of New Mexico) Gary Johnson and described in brief how a decentralized digital currency works.

What was his reaction?

I guess he smiled and looked very interested while thinking 'OMG as soon as I'm in office I need to make that shit illegal and send this guy here to Guantanamo'.

He wants to become a president. Obviously he will oppose anything that threatens to minimize government power which is what Bitcoin has the potential to do.

Or do you guys think you can find _any_ president who would embrace something like Bitcoin?

Joe

[btc_artist]

Or do you guys think you can find _any_ president who would embrace something like Bitcoin?

There are likely people who embrace Bitcoin and would also be up to the challenge of being POTUS. I would be heh.

[cbeast]

Today I handed a Casascius physical bitcoin (1 BTC denomination) to presidential candidate (and former governor of New Mexico) Gary Johnson and described in brief how a decentralized digital currency works.

What was his reaction?

I guess he smiled and looked very interested while thinking 'OMG as soon as I'm in office I need to make that shit illegal and send this guy here to Guantanamo'.

He wants to become a president. Obviously he will oppose anything that threatens to minimize government power which is what Bitcoin has the potential to do.

Or do you guys think you can find _any_ president who would embrace something like Bitcoin?

Joe

I hate to say it, but maybe Ron Paul?

[barbarousrelic]

Today I handed a Casascius physical bitcoin (1 BTC denomination) to presidential candidate (and former governor of New Mexico) Gary Johnson and described in brief how a decentralized digital currency works.

What was his reaction?

I guess he smiled and looked very interested while thinking 'OMG as soon as I'm in office I need to make that shit illegal and send this guy here to Guantanamo'.

He wants to become a president. Obviously he will oppose anything that threatens to minimize government power which is what Bitcoin has the potential to do.

Or do you guys think you can find _any_ president who would embrace something like Bitcoin?

Joe

Ron Paul has sponsored legislation to explicitly legalize competing currencies such as gold and silver, and remove the tax disincentives to their use. Such a law would apply to Bitcoin just as silver/gold.

http://www.ronpaul.com/congress/legislation/111th-congress-200910/legalize-competing-currencies/

edit: Fixed quotation problem. The above unquoted text is mine, not joecooin's

[joecooin]

Today I handed a Casascius physical bitcoin (1 BTC denomination) to presidential candidate (and former governor of New Mexico) Gary Johnson and described in brief how a decentralized digital currency works.

What was his reaction?

I guess he smiled and looked very interested while thinking 'OMG as soon as I'm in office I need to make that shit illegal and send this guy here to Guantanamo'.

He wants to become a president. Obviously he will oppose anything that threatens to minimize government power which is what Bitcoin has the potential to do.

Or do you guys think you can find _any_ president who would embrace something like Bitcoin?

Joe

Ron Paul has sponsored legislation to explicitly legalize competing currencies such as gold and silver, and remove the tax disincentives to their use. Such a law would apply to Bitcoin just as silver/gold.

http://www.ronpaul.com/congress/legislation/111th-congress-200910/legalize-competing-currencies/

I was quoted falsely here. I didn't say that.

As a European and as an anarchist I don't even know anything about Ron Paul.

But what I know is that politicians will say anything that pleases their target groups before elections and that whatever they say has got nothing to do whatsoever with what they intend to do and what they will do.

It is the most basic principle of power politics that these are two completely seperated issues and this has been taught by power politic mentors and advisors from Plato to Machiavelli to Bernays and Strauss.

It is therefore completely irrelevant what these people say and not worth waisting time listening to it, not to mention discussing it.

My 5 Millibitcoins, going completely off topic but something here got me started. 

Joe

[mjcmurfy]

So how long until the new batch of coins are ready? I really want some of these beauties, but I might wait for the corrected holograms. Does anyone know if the 25 btc coin has the same typo on the hologram as the 1btc denominated coins?

Also, I was wondering how the coins feel when sliding them across each other, what with the friction of the plastic hologram covering the metal on one side. Do they feel... right?

[casascius]

Current 25btc has same typo.

There is enough of a metal ring around it that sliding is mostly metal on metal.

[mjcmurfy]

There is enough of a metal ring around it that sliding is mostly metal on metal.

Ok, I'm sold.
Maybe molecular is right and the typo coins will be worth more as a collectors item in the future!

[coblee]

While I trust Mike Caldwell a lot, there is still a possibility that he's keeping the private keys (I'm not suspecting he does, but it's a possibility). So there's still a trust issue involved. I wouldn't confidently use the 100 BTC coins for storage of my wealth.

I don't quite understand why you say it'd be somehow safer to deal in physical bitcoins than in virtual ones. The problem with paypal does not lie in the delivery of the bitcoins, but mainly in the reversibility of paypal transactions and the fact that paypal does not guarantee to keep your account usable. Did I misunderstand something?

The increased perceived risk at 100 BTC is understandable and was anticipated. So this bar comes in 2 versions, a 100 BTC one, and a blank one where you roll your own private key and denominate it yourself.

Normally people aren't going to be transacting the bars face to face so it is less of a concern whether it has a casascius hologram. The main attraction of the bar is how it looks and as a savings wallet.  In my view, if you CAN produce your own private key, you should. There are tons of designs of generic holograms on eBay (diameter 1 inch or 25.4mm, I thought I saw a gold "fireworks" one the other day) or you could just use a regular foil sticker.

As for physical goods, credit cards and PayPal tend to give leverage to sellers who can prove they shipped physical goods to the buyer's confirmed address especially if the buyer had to sign for them.

For the blank one, you should include an unused hologram that we can just stick to the bar to hide our private key. And maybe give us an option to specify a public key to print on the hologram.

[casascius]

There are tons of round holograms on eBay...

If you want to roll your own private key, just pick from any of them. If I give out unused holograms, that compromises all the other coins I have made.  Casascius hologram means only Casascius has seen the private key, it wouldn't mean that anymore if I passed them out freely.

[cbeast]

Casascius designed a sophisticated way to materialize bitcoins for off-line use. This idea will catch on someday and these collectable pieces will be among the first. I don't know what happened to Bitbills. Anyone can roll their own offline bitcoin, but they may not have the acceptability of Casascius coins unless the holos are customized and applied by a mensch like Casascius.

[coblee]

There are tons of round holograms on eBay...

If you want to roll your own private key, just pick from any of them. If I give out unused holograms, that compromises all the other coins I have made.  Casascius hologram means only Casascius has seen the private key, it wouldn't mean that anymore if I passed them out freely.

Yup, forget that suggestion. I'm not sure what I was thinking.
So how much are you selling the blank bars for?

[P4man]

Ive seen this a long time ago, but kinda wondered.. why bother? I dont have enough faith in the "tamper proofness" of the seals and dont like the faith required in the issuer , so I didnt see this could ever become mainstream. (dont get me wrong, Im quite willing to believe the OP, particularly for just a few bitcoins,  I just dont expect the world would, especially not for larger amounts).

But then it hit me: so what?

This is such a great idea as gift!
Not only is it an extremely original gift, it also spreads the word in circles where you otherwise might not even talk about it. And who knows, if bitcoin would ever achieve mainstream status, these coins might become a collectors item. So I just ordered a few. I might even give one to people I know are too PC illiterate to ever use them as bitcoins. Just like you'd give special occasion silver  euro coins (and Im sure dollars have equivalents) that are not intended to be spent.

But Id like to make a suggestion: offer some coins in a fancy gift box or wrapping, along with a "user manual" for someone who's never heard of bitcoin, maybe along with a certificate or something, so that its even easier to give to people and it doesnt just look  like a casino chip. Ill cook up something myself, but I would have gladly purchased a nice looking "gift box"