[ANN] Coinapult SMS wallet - no internet required

[bearbones]

I would like to suggest making SMS.coinapult.com with all the instructions and information about this service.

The service won't be any good if no one knows about it.

Great suggestion. Have an instruction page set up already, thought it needs a little work. Will put it up now, and do some editing. See it at: https://coinapult.com/sms-wallet.

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[bearbones]

Coinapult does send out the message immediately, on 0/unconfirmed.

This is usually the case. Only large or otherwise risky transactions are delayed for confirmation. This is very rare, though. Most of our large transactions go through the API, and are from trusted senders.

[Stephen Gornick]

Have an instruction page set up already, thought it needs a little work. Will put it up now, and do some editing. See it at: https://coinapult.com/sms-wallet.

Needs examples, of message and response.

Like this:

me: send 777-333-4444 5btc
Coinapult: Send 5btc to 777-333-4444? Respond 'yes 1wh5er' to confirm.
me: yes 1wh5er
Coinapult: Funds sent. Balance: 10btc

And examples of formats.

To any bitcoin address:
send 15ArtCgi3wmpQAAfYx4riaFmo4prJA4VsK 0.1

To any e-mail address:
send satoshi@nakamoto.com 0.1btc

To any mobile number:
send 123-456-7890 0.123 0.1
send 1234567890 0.1

And it needs a FAQ maybe?

Q.) Can I send to any number?
A.) Any number that can accept text messages.

Q.) Can I keep a balance in my SMS wallet?  Is it secure?
A.) Yes.  The funds can only be spent after you acknowledge a spend request.

Q.) I received the message "Confirmation code not found."  Why?
A.) Either you entered the wrong confirmation code, or you waited too long to respond.  You can send the message again.

Q.) I didn't get a response after sending a text.
A.) Coinapult uses Twilio.  [Not sure why no response ... ??]?

Q.) Can I see transaction history?
A.) ??

etc.

[Stephen Gornick]

Bug (I think):

I tried sending using a "1" country code, without the "+" (e.g., "1nnnnnnnnn" and not "+1nnnnnnnnn") and though the response was that Funds sent  and my balance decreased (Edit: I now think there was no amount subtracted from the balance), the recipient never got a message.

I then tried sending using a +1 country code, and that too sent but the balance did not decrease, and the recipient never got a message.

[Stephen Gornick]

Another bug (I think):

I had made a send request, but then I didn't confirm.  Then I made a second request and did confirm and it sent.

I then sent a confirm on the first request but I didn't have enough funds (just to test to see what would happen).  The response was "Funds sent".  The balance it showed didn't change from the prior balance value, indicating that the funds were not actually sent.  And the recipient did not receive any message.

So this doesn't let you cheat Coinapult, but it might be confusing to someone and the message should indicate "Insufficient funds." when trying to confirm a send request where the balance isn't high enough.

[Stephen Gornick]

Feature request:

send 15ArtCgi3wmpQAAfYx4riaFmo4prJA4VsK 123mbtc

(millibits)
(mbtcs)
(mbtc)

Right now Coinapult sees that value and thinks I'm trying to send 123 BTC.

[bearbones]

I added a section on SMS to the FAQ page, with a lot of the questions from above. https://coinapult.com/faq Thanks for the Qs!

Another bug (I think):

I had made a send request, but then I didn't confirm.  Then I made a second request and did confirm and it sent.

I then sent a confirm on the first request but I didn't have enough funds (just to test to see what would happen).  The response was "Funds sent".  The balance it showed didn't change from the prior balance value, indicating that the funds were not actually sent.  And the recipient did not receive any message.

So this doesn't let you cheat Coinapult, but it might be confusing to someone and the message should indicate "Insufficient funds." when trying to confirm a send request where the balance isn't high enough.

This is fixed. Now, as soon as you confirm a request, it deletes all pending requests for your account. I don't foresee anyone wanting to make multiple send requests without confirmations in between, so this seems like a fair solution.

Bug (I think):

I tried sending using a "1" country code, without the "+" (e.g., "1nnnnnnnnn" and not "+1nnnnnnnnn") and though the response was that Funds sent  and my balance decreased (Edit: I now think there was no amount subtracted from the balance), the recipient never got a message.

I then tried sending using a +1 country code, and that too sent but the balance did not decrease, and the recipient never got a message.

Interesting! I'll look into this, right away.

Feature request:

send 15ArtCgi3wmpQAAfYx4riaFmo4prJA4VsK 123mbtc

(millibits)
(mbtcs)
(mbtc)

Right now Coinapult sees that value and thinks I'm trying to send 123 BTC.

Personally, I don't like to use these units. I think they're confusing to people, and are not standardized, anyway. Does anyone else want alternate unit support?

[Stephen Gornick]

Personally, I don't like to use these units. I think they're confusing to people, and are not standardized, anyway. Does anyone else want alternate unit support?

If you do consider it, you might want to use BTCTip as an example of how to implement it:

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=68320.0

[paraipan]

Could you please change the text color of the answers on the faq page ? I need to select the text in order to read the text without effort. Thanks

[Stephen Gornick]

I added a section on SMS to the FAQ page, with a lot of the questions from above. https://coinapult.com/faq Thanks for the Qs!

Awesome!

Needs an anchor for SMS (<a name="SMS" /> ) so that an URL can go directly to that section. e.g.,:

 - https://coinapult.com/faq/#FAQ

Typo:

Q.) Can I send to any phone number?
A.) Coinapult works with any U.S. or Canadian phone number that can accept test messages. We're working on expanding support internationally.

text messages

or

SMS text messages

[nimda]

Are the 0.2 still available?
Edit: When I tried to send to my cell phone, I got an entirely blank page at https://coinapult.com/payload/sendrequest . The funds are still available at the URL...
Edit2: apparently you can't send BTC after receiving it by email. However, it worked from the home page.
Idea: allow the use of Firstbits addresses

[bearbones]

Could you please change the text color of the answers on the faq page ? I need to select the text in order to read the text without effort. Thanks

We're working on this. Probably going to just lighten the whole site background.

Are the 0.2 still available?
Edit: When I tried to send to my cell phone, I got an entirely blank page at https://coinapult.com/payload/sendrequest . The funds are still available at the URL...
Edit2: apparently you can't send BTC after receiving it by email. However, it worked from the home page.
Idea: allow the use of Firstbits addresses

Sorry, all sent out.

Regarding the sendrequest page, this is most unusual... You should be able to do the things you just described with no trouble. Do I understand correctly that you saw the blank page when trying to withdraw from an existing payload to your cell phone?

[nimda]

• I sent some BTC to my email address
• I clicked on the link in the email
• I attempted to send coins to my phone
• Blank page. Checked the source, no data was sent.

So I sent the coins to my GLBSE deposit address instead. From the main page (not from the email link) I sent coins to my phone and it worked fine.

[bearbones]

• I sent some BTC to my email address
• I clicked on the link in the email
• I attempted to send coins to my phone
• Blank page. Checked the source, no data was sent.

So I sent the coins to my GLBSE deposit address instead. From the main page (not from the email link) I sent coins to my phone and it worked fine.

I tracked this bug down and fixed it. Thanks for the report!

[bearbones]

If you do consider it, you might want to use BTCTip as an example of how to implement it:

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=68320.0

I've decided not to support this. Since the average transaction costs me about $0.05 in fees, I don't want to encourage people to send micro transactions. No sense paying more in fees than they are sending.

[Jan]

Tried this with my mobile wallet. It just works!
And, now I am mobile x 2 

[cbeast]

Will there soon be an option to send BitInstant deposits to a phone number as well as email?

[bearbones]

Tried this with my mobile wallet. It just works!
And, now I am mobile x 2 

Jan, I did most of the testing by sending in between my BitcoinSpinner wallet and Coinapult. Love your wallet!

Will there soon be an option to send BitInstant deposits to a phone number as well as email?

This already works, but I'm not sure if BitInstant explains it on their site. I'll talk to them about it, and get back to you.

[LightRider]

My first attempt at sending money did not work. I actually waited a few hours to see if my friend would eventually ever get a message on his phone. Only then did I realize that the return message showed my balance unchanged. I suffered from the same lack of + problem that someone else mentioned.

Subsequent uses have been flawless though.

Thanks for your contributions to the "Help LightRider Get A Copy Of Bitcoin Magazine" fund though!

[bearbones]

My first attempt at sending money did not work. I actually waited a few hours to see if my friend would eventually ever get a message on his phone. Only then did I realize that the return message showed my balance unchanged. I suffered from the same lack of + problem that someone else mentioned.

Subsequent uses have been flawless though.

Thanks for your contributions to the "Help LightRider Get A Copy Of Bitcoin Magazine" fund though!

Fixed this. I just got my copy yesterday. It was well worth it!