Digital Bitcoin Giftcards

[goldkingcoiner]

your proposal seems like a lot of mental gymnastics to come to the same result as giving someone the seed phrase to a wallet with the gifted Bitcoin on it?

There's a different risk involved: by giving someone a seed phrase, they may actually start using that wallet, which means you have access to their future deposits. It's much better to teach a new Bitcoin user to create their own wallet, so they know for sure nobody else has access to their seed phrase.

You're right. A pre-loaded wallet is a bad idea. But asking someone to make a wallet and sending coin to that wallet would still be a better teaching experience.
One could argue that it would be better to give them the incentive to learn more about Bitcoin, Blockchain and how to make a wallet and send Bitcoin to that wallet for themselves. It would definitely suit the ultimate goal of adoption of Bitcoin better to have informed coiner newbies rather than coiners who only know how to use Bitcoin through third party apps and third party wallets. It would definitely help them out in the long run and learning by doing is really the best kind of learning.

But yeah, unless they transfer the coin to a new wallet there would be a security risk. Again, something the Bitcoin newbies should learn for themselves. But that's just how I think about it.

[LoyceV]

There is local data stored on the creators computer that would be needed

This sounds like "cookie data". If that's the case: can you add all necessary data to one backup-URL that can be bookmarked? That should even make it possible to restore the data with a fresh installation from Github.

I think that bitcoin should be used by new people not stored on paper in hopes it'll be worth something.

I'd go for both options, but I get where you're coming from

could be worth 1,000 dollar+ in 4 years and a paper wallet should not be used to store that amount (in my opnion).

The encrypted paper wallet that's been in my (physical) wallet for years kindly disagrees

So I will keep the life of the wallet under 30 days. Use it or loose it type deal, but I see how people could want a longer life.

I like that as a slogan: "Use it or lose it!"

I also have a question since you seem to gift bitcoin alot. How do you manage your cards once you give them? Like if give 10 cards and track them for 4 years, do you just have a stack of paper wallets that you check up on periodically?

I've only given paper wallets to a few to people I care about, but tracking is easy: I keep a watch-only wallet with the addresses, and each address is labeled so I know who I gave it to.

[LoyceV]

Average user who don't want bother with KYC or use desktop/mobile wallet is very unlikely to install nodejs and use terminal/command prompt to run the code locally.

If this becomes popular, and if OPs server disappears in the future, someone else can setup a clone where all users can process their gift cards.
Users need to make sure the website is trusted though, and if this becomes popular phishing sites might become a problem.

[NotATether]

You should copy the Casascius coins and what similar collectible coins did by automatically transferring the funds to another private key, which is then BIP38-encrypted and the code in the gift card contains the password for decrypting it, that looks like an actual gift card code (though probably longer to withstand brute-force attacks). Of course, it would also contain the BIP38 itself.

So, only the person who generated the gift card and the recipient can redeem it - which makes sense when you think about it, because a person who gives you a physical gift card could've just redeemed it themselves.

[dgoon]

Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I decided to pause this idea since the path to be profitable was a unclear one for me. I will probably visit it again in the future or maybe someone else who reads this will find the idea interesting. Thank y'all for the great feedback also, this forum has the most informed users I have found across the internet.

[Kakmakr]

It would be nice if you could design an App that would generate a Paper wallet... but it must split the Bitcoin address and the Pass phrase and Private key and send that to different platforms.

Example : Send the Bitcoin address on a Gift card to the receivers Email address. Then send the encrypted Private Key to his mobile phone via an SmS. You can even phone the receiver in person to give them the Pass phrase to split all the information for security purposes.

Something like https://www.bitaddress.org interface .... with a gift card design .... and then you can generate those offline.. and then print the gift card and then send the Private key to a mobile phone and the pass phrase with a phone call.  

[LoyceV]

Something like https://www.bitaddress.org interface .... with a gift card design .... and then you can generate those offline.. and then print the gift card and then send the Private key to a mobile phone and the pass phrase with a phone call.  

Take a look at how Mycelium creates a Single Address Account: it gives you an encrypted PDF that you can email (and print), and shows the 16 character password on the screen. That still requires your device to be secure, but your printer can be in public.

[Lida93]

I have no idea of kyc in owning a bitcoin wallet or is it what am thinking that, just maybe , you're developing a process that will condition people to download your particular app for use. Your proposed solution seem centralized to me and it doesn't look good for bitcoin.

[Fara Chan]

I have no idea of kyc in owning a bitcoin wallet or is it what am thinking that just maybe , you're developing a process that will condition people to download your particular app for use. Your proposed solution seem centralized to me and it doesn't look good for bitcoin.

Whatever suggestion the OP is trying to build on it doesn't matter to me, but the concept of decentralization doesn't require KYC to take place and it is because of this that freedom of choice of Bitcoins is acceptable and makes more sense.

Furthermore, why would someone give bitcoins, if they don't try to download the wallet and don't know how to use it. If indeed you intend to give bitcoin gifts, just download a wallet that doesn't require KYC, it's easier and can be done on the currently available wallet services.

[Mr. Magkaisa]

   - Tried to find out about this on digital bitcoin cards on google, and I didn't find anything exactly what it was saying, instead of this it came up I was given different suggestions. Because I'm not familiar with what you're saying, and I can't see the benefits of users in these apps.

Then if there is a kyc that is required, I think I would be a bit distant from that, because for me, what I know is that when it is decentralized, there is no such aspect as what you are saying OP.

[mendace]

Hi, Bitcoiners I am working a new way to gift bitcoin to no-coiners. I have come up with a landing page so far: https://www.giftbitcoin.app/

I think someone has already recommended opendime and it's certainly the best and safest way to give Bitcoins as long as the person receiving the gift is able to: 1 manage a wallet and a private key 2 is able to understand how opendime works .  Otherwise it becomes very risky to give away Bitcoins in this way.  At the same time creating a wallet, noting a seed and uploading bitcoins is not a good method at all as privacy is lacking.  I like your idea but I don't like the part that you have to manage a web wallet.

[letteredhub]

Hi, Bitcoiners I am working a new way to gift bitcoin to no-coiners. I have come up with a landing page so far: https://www.giftbitcoin.app/

Problem:
The current ways to gift bitcoin are not great. They either require kyc or the gift recipient to download a wallet.

Solution:
I am prototyping a web app that lets a gifter load btc into a local-browser based wallet and send the gift recipient a digital giftcard that lets them then redeem the bitcoin. They would then be able to setup a wallet (if they wish) , buy an amazon giftcard, swap for another crypto etc. It would be a browser based wallet so I will be able to walk the user through whatever they choose to do with the btc with the gui.

What's the need of going through this whole process of yours and still setting up a wallet after the whole procedures.
Why not the individual download a convenient web wallet for use instead of later wishing to do so after receiving your crypto gift.