Bounty for QR Code LTC Payment Processor

[crazy_rabbit]

UPDATE: I'm going to try and keep track of the bounties and the rules as we work on it:

Crazy_rabbit: 1000LTC
-appended conditions
API implementation (Not critical to me, crazy_rabbit, but others like it as well)

Terrytibbs: 500 LTC
-appended conditions
application must be open-source and at no point may private keys be sent over the air, encrypted or not.

3phase: 1000 LTC
-appended conditions
An RPC implementation which would easily run either with a locally stored blockchain (on the phone) or with a remote RPC server, with SSL support. A configuration menu (host, port, rpcuser, rpcpassword) would enable the user to select what they want.

Freequant: 1500LTC
-appended conditions
- The application should be able to both read and generate Bitcoin, Litecoin and Bitcoin+Litecoin QR codes.
- Bitcoin QR codes generated by the application should be readable by existing Bitcoin QR code readers (so exactly same format).
- Bitcoin QR codes generated by other generators should be readable by the application.
- The application should display both a Litecoin and Bitcoin logo in a neutral fashion.
- The application should be able to run on at least one major breed of smartphones (IPhones or Android phones).
Current Total:
4000LTC!





I haven't seen if others are working on something similar but I wanted to propose putting together a bounty to support the development of a Payment Processor so that LTC can be used as payment in real world situations (IE: buying coffee, or trading money in person)

It seems one of the major roadblocks to the usefulness of LTC (I will speak of LTC, although in general my comments stand for all crypto-currencies) is the difficulty with sending and receiving LTC payments in the real world, especially for non-technical individuals. In particular the LTC addresses are far to long for people to write down, remember, or easily transmit to one another without connecting electronically (IE: sending the code by SMS, or EMAIL)

I propose a QR Code based system to work with Smartphones and tablets.

1.) The program can function both for sending and receiving payments.

2.) When you request payment the program generates a QR Code that it displays on the screen for the Payee to scan. The QR code would contain a unique address for receiving the payment, the amount Requested (as well as perhaps some text string for tracking the payment, IE: Starbucks) on the smart devices screen in the form of a QR Code.

3.) The person who is sending payment uses their smart device to read the QR Code which then displays the total amount requested, the vendor requesting payment (from the text string), and prompts the user to confirm payment.

4.) The user confirms payment, (perhaps through a pin or some simple sanity check) and the program sends the payment to the address embedded in the QR code.

5.) The receiver then receives a confirmation of the payment, and a perhaps can produce a receipt if necessary.

Such a system would support the adoption of LTC in real world transactions, and does not seem very difficult to implement. It would enable small businesses to accept LTC as well as let individuals accept payment.

I am not a programmer myself and not up to the task, so I propose putting together a bounty to support development. What does everyone think? This thread could also be a good place to talk ideas about what else such a system would need to function well.

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[crazy_rabbit]

The idea is really to make spending LTC in a real world situation as simple as using a debit or credit card. To prevent human error in transcribing addresses.

Of course, I'm sure someone would be tempted to charge a percentage of the sale (Big Bank Style) to earn money of the design. How do people feel about that? Does it go against the ethos of cryptocurrency, or would the small percentage be warranted as you could technically still send the money on your own for free?

[kjlimo]

1) What's the bounty?

2) Are you familiary with the Bitcoin Wallet App?

Do you just want something like that for Litecoin?

https://market.android.com/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet&hl=en

[crazy_rabbit]

1) I have 1000LTC that I'll put up, (not much, but I'd hope others would help as well to make it worth someones while)

2) Yes I have seen the bitcoin wallet app, and it looks nice! The idea behind this is the same, although there are some things I think could be improved upon eventually.

For example, it seems difficult to keep the whole block chain in the phones memory. After the dust Spam on LTC my wallet was over 1 gig in size. I'm not sure if there is a practical way around this, (cloud hosting the block chain?)

Perhaps it's impractical for the phone wallet to act as a full Coin client, after all consumers don't really use their credit cards for anything other then paying with them. Perhaps the phone app should be kept dead simple- Apple style, rather then act as a full coin client where you can manage and track everything.

I'm thinking dead simple, just a few options, so it doesn't get bloated with feature clutter.

But otherwise, yes- this is exactly the sort of project I'm talking about.

1) What's the bounty?

2) Are you familiary with the Bitcoin Wallet App?

Do you just want something like that for Litecoin?

https://market.android.com/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet&hl=en

[terrytibbs]

Make that 1500LTC.

[crazy_rabbit]

Are you adding 500LTC to my offer of 1000LTC, offering 1500LTC in addition to my 1000LTC or asking me to raise my bounty to 1500LTC?

Just to clarify.

Make that 1500LTC.

[terrytibbs]

Are you adding 500LTC to my offer of 1000LTC, offering 1500LTC in addition to my 1000LTC or asking me to raise my bounty to 1500LTC?

Just to clarify.

Make that 1500LTC.

I'm adding 500, making the total 1500LTC.

I would like to add that for my part of the bounty to go to the developer, the application must be open-source and at no point may private keys be sent over the air, encrypted or not.

[crazy_rabbit]

I think those are pretty good terms, I'll stick by those as well. Seems like a good starting point.

Are you adding 500LTC to my offer of 1000LTC, offering 1500LTC in addition to my 1000LTC or asking me to raise my bounty to 1500LTC?

Just to clarify.

Make that 1500LTC.

I'm adding 500, making the total 1500LTC.

I would like to add that for my part of the bounty to go to the developer, the application must be open-source and at no point may private keys be sent over the air, encrypted or not.

[kjlimo]

1) I have 1000LTC that I'll put up, (not much, but I'd hope others would help as well to make it worth someones while)

2) Yes I have seen the bitcoin wallet app, and it looks nice! The idea behind this is the same, although there are some things I think could be improved upon eventually.

For example, it seems difficult to keep the whole block chain in the phones memory. After the dust Spam on LTC my wallet was over 1 gig in size. I'm not sure if there is a practical way around this, (cloud hosting the block chain?)

Perhaps it's impractical for the phone wallet to act as a full Coin client, after all consumers don't really use their credit cards for anything other then paying with them. Perhaps the phone app should be kept dead simple- Apple style, rather then act as a full coin client where you can manage and track everything.

I'm thinking dead simple, just a few options, so it doesn't get bloated with feature clutter.

But otherwise, yes- this is exactly the sort of project I'm talking about.

1) What's the bounty?

2) Are you familiary with the Bitcoin Wallet App?

Do you just want something like that for Litecoin?

https://market.android.com/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet&hl=en

I've downloaded the bitcoin wallet app, and it takes less than 30-40 megabytes from what I remember.  I don't understand how it works, but I'm sure that's what the developers are working on. 

So I imagine the developer would be able to make the phone app require very minimal (50 mb?) room rather than a whole gb.

[Vanderbleek]

If I didn't already have an LTC related project I'd jump on this. I have some experience doing just about the same thing on Android, although it would take some work to have it function with LTC. Good to see someone jumping on the ball for this.

[crazy_rabbit]

Perhaps to expand on the idea a bit- it would be interesting if someone could bundle the QR <-> LTC client as an API or some sort of stand alone program so that others could build transferring LTC via QR codes into their application.

For example games could allow real world interaction with other people via allowing people to transfer money in-game in-real life by scanning each others QR code.

It goes against the idea of keeping it dead simple, but It's good to throw ideas out there. Anyone else interested in contributing to the bounty? We are at 1500LTC so far.

[Vanderbleek]

My GF and I might work on this over break. If you have any features you'd like to see, post them so we can get a better idea of what this'll entail.

[3phase]

I want to pledge another 1000 (one thousand) LTC to the bounty. And one more feature which I think would be valuable:

An RPC implementation which would easily run either with a locally stored blockchain (on the phone) or with a remote RPC server, with SSL support. A configuration menu (host, port, rpcuser, rpcpassword) would enable the user to select what they want.

Crazy_rabbit, you might want to update the first post every few days with the total bounty so far, and the list of features. Terry's comments above (open-source and no private keys circulating) and your recent addition (API implementation) are very important to me as well.

[freequant]

I pledge another 1500 LTC provided that the QR code encoding allows to embed a BTC address, a LTC address or both and that the application allows to pay either with Bitcoin or Litecoin at the choice of the user. That way, a merchant needs to display a single QR code to accept payment in both currencies.
I believe that Litecoin and Bitcoin are truly complementary, and Litecoin owes a lot to Bitcoin (actually, it IS another embodiment of Bitcoin). Litecoin should grow in symbiosis with Bitcoin and support its growth.
Also, the user should not get confused by the proliferation of QR codes.

[crazy_rabbit]

I pledge another 1500 LTC provided that the QR code encoding allows to embed a BTC address, a LTC address or both and that the application allows to pay either with Bitcoin or Litecoin at the choice of the user. That way, a merchant needs to display a single QR code to accept payment in both currencies.
I believe that Litecoin and Bitcoin are truly complementary, and Litecoin owes a lot to Bitcoin (actually, it IS another embodiment of Bitcoin). Litecoin should grow in symbiosis with Bitcoin and support its growth.
Also, the user should not get confused by the proliferation of QR codes.

That's not so critical to me, but you are probably right on the idea that it's not necessary to proliferate QR codes. Maybe we can see how the bitcoin wallet software produces the QR codes so it can be interoperable with the already existing software for the bitcoiners.

[crazy_rabbit]

Bounty up to 4000LTC! 

[terrytibbs]

Excellent article and accompanying dicussion:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/URI_Scheme
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Talk:URI_Scheme

[Vanderbleek]

Really, outside of a couple things (what the address is) BTC and LTC are pretty much the same, as far as using them goes. The easiest thing would be to have the payer's app detect if it's an LTC address (starts with L) and act accordingly.

[crazy_rabbit]

Really, outside of a couple things (what the address is) BTC and LTC are pretty much the same, as far as using them goes. The easiest thing would be to have the payer's app detect if it's an LTC address (starts with L) and act accordingly.

True, but the price might be different in the future, or one might be more or less stable, or the user might have only one coin and not both. Are you suggesting that the app convert based on the autodetection of the address? Or that it should just be smart enough to know what coin is being used without having to manually select it?

[Vanderbleek]

Yeah, I was just suggesting that:

Seller could display BTC, LTC, or both

Buyer scans.
If it's BTC, app defaults to BTC. LTC, it defaults to LTC. Both, the app would decide, based on balance/address, which to use. Or it could manually ask.

I'm really not sure about having one app manage both, but I'm not a fan of "catch all" apps anyway. Obv. if the bounty is there for it, it's worth looking into.