The Royal Canadian Mint just announced a new alternative to BitCoin

[Raoul Duke]

uhoh...

http://developer.mintchipchallenge.com/

HN discussion on the matter: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3797977

[DeathAndTaxes]

Interesting.

Looks like coin generation is through trusted brokers.

Looking through the limited information I am not sure how they prevent a double spend.

[Raoul Duke]

This only 2 days after the reuters article that cointained the following quote makes me think if we haven't been taken for a ride by the one that Phinnaeus Gage so dearly calls "Our Girl" by using Bitcoin to advertise a competing system backed by The Royal Canadian Mint...
From "exploring how to issue digital currency in the future" to launching it in a couple days...

The Royal Canadian Mint, for example, is exploring how to issue digital currency in the future. Its chief financial officer Marc Brule said Bitcoin's biggest problem was that it is not backed by anything.

"The system we would bring in would be backed by a fund," he told Reuters. "Bitcoin may work for the small group of people that believe in its value, but that could change very suddenly."

Without that backing or a similar power base, Bitcoin lives with the ever-present risk of failure.

[ribuck]

MintChip is inflatacoin. The system imposes no limit to how much "cash" the issuer can magically create.

[jimbobway]

So how long before this is hacked?  Place your bets!

[BitcoinAndie]

The Royal Canadian Mint, for example, is exploring how to issue digital currency in the future. Its chief financial officer Marc Brule said Bitcoin's biggest problem was that it is not backed by anything.

"The system we would bring in would be backed by a fund," he told Reuters. "Bitcoin may work for the small group of people that believe in its value, but that could change very suddenly."

Without that backing or a similar power base, Bitcoin lives with the ever-present risk of failure.

I think I'm seeing a thinly veiled threat or maybe I hearing a dog whistle?

"but that could change very suddenly... Without that backing or a similar power base, Bitcoin lives with the ever-present risk of failure."

[DeathAndTaxes]

So how long before this is hacked?  Place your bets!

I think not very long.  The details are very limited but it seems like all tx validation is done locally on the smartcard chip.  Hack that and you should be able to double spend at will.

[jimbobway]

There is also a central authority which is the Royal Canadian Mint.  Kudos to them for taking this effort unlike other mints around the world.  But at this point I am skeptical.

[finway]

Intesting! So fast!

[Raoul Duke]

Intesting! So fast!

Makes you think about it, doesn't it?

[ineededausername]

Replace "MintChip" with "bitcoin" in the video, add a part about decentralization and an analogy to gold, and you get a bitcoin ad.

[jimbobway]

Replace "MintChip" with "bitcoin" in the video, add a part about decentralization and an analogy to gold, and you get a bitcoin ad.

This is a great idea...who wants to do it?

[EuSouBitcoin]

With regard to currencies, fiat or crypto, I see 2 issues: 1) the currency itself 2) how to make payments with the currency. In this case this will help to make new ways to pay with Canadian dollars which is good. But since it's still using the Canadian Dollar, the currency itself has the disadvantages of fiat currencies, namely the tendency of the central bank to increase the money supply over time and reduce the purchasing power of the currency. That's where fiat currencies are not doing a good job and where bitcoin could really shine, as a store of value and preserving its purchasing power over time.

[Raoul Duke]

Replace "MintChip" with "bitcoin" in the video, add a part about decentralization and an analogy to gold, and you get a bitcoin ad.

This is a great idea...who wants to do it?

Code:

http://d7crl4pt83mg5.cloudfront.net/mintchip_dev_eng_x264_004.mp4

https://s3.amazonaws.com/rcmvideos/mintchip_dev_eng_x264_004.mp4

Have fun...

[jimbobway]

So you can buy drugs with MintChip and send MintChips across borders.  If the gov't of Canada can do this then U.S. politicians must give into bitcoin.  I see this as a bitcoin win.

[Matthew N. Wright]

This is a clear sign that Bitcoin is ahead of it's time and we should be stressing this point (and pointing out the clear difference that MintChip still requires trust in a government).

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

So you can buy drugs with MintChip and send MintChips across borders.  If the gov't of Canada can do this then U.S. politicians must give into bitcoin.  I see this as a bitcoin win.

+1 for double standards!!

[Raoul Duke]

So you can buy drugs with MintChip and send MintChips across borders.  If the gov't of Canada can do this then U.S. politicians must give into bitcoin.  I see this as a bitcoin win.

+1 for double standards!!

Standards are like testicles: Every dick has 2.

[herzmeister]

This is a clear sign that Bitcoin is ahead of it's time

yup, way ahead i'm afraid. There will come lots of centralized versions of digital currencies by powerful players first that probably also have the resources to provide a strong network effect. People will have to get burnt time and time again until they learn the value of decentralization.

[Matthew N. Wright]

This is a clear sign that Bitcoin is ahead of it's time

yup, way ahead i'm afraid. There will come lots of centralized versions of digital currencies by powerful players first that probably also have the resources to provide a strong network effect. People will have to get burnt time and time again until they learn the value of decentralization.

Ironically, they're getting burned and burned time and time again with decentralization too.