The BitcoinCard : Vienna, Austria Workshop

[hazek]

From what I've heard I believe he isn't, but I don't know if I can say more.

[EhVedadoOAnonimato]

In the future will everything be open source exclusive for bitcoin network?
Can the USB dongle work on all cross-platform ?

If they're asking for NDAs, I don't believe it's going to be open source. But it would be interesting, for them and for their customers, if they make at least the protocol open, so that different implementations can talk with it.

[Jan]

All in all this sounds pretty amazing!
Alex Squared, as Charlie calls them, should join our forum so we can pick their brains directly 

[cbeast]

I've been emailing with with Mr. Ioscko. I don't think you're going to get much from them, but I have a feeling they will have some big things planned soon.

[2112]

The device can run 1 month on 1 full solar charge.
The device has a 100-200 meter range outdoors and 50-100 indoors.

Oh, the warm smell of the claims of extrardinary radio performance. It is almost as seductive as the warm smell of colitas.

For the people interested in other claims of extraordiary radio performance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_minimum-shift_keying
http://www.vmsk.org/
http://www.ka9q.net/vmsk/

Too bad all the good links about Pixelon are gone from the Internet.

[cbeast]

The device can run 1 month on 1 full solar charge.
The device has a 100-200 meter range outdoors and 50-100 indoors.

Oh, the warm smell of the claims of extrardinary radio performance. It is almost as seductive as the warm smell of colitas.

For the people interested in other claims of extraordiary radio performance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_minimum-shift_keying
http://www.vmsk.org/
http://www.ka9q.net/vmsk/

Too bad all the good links about Pixelon are gone from the Internet.

The protocol is very noise resistant and very low bandwidth.

[Bitcoin Oz]

If I can use it to txt my kids at school and send them lunch money at the same time that would be awesome 

[sethsethseth]

The website doesn't say much about the business model.  Who do they want to market this to, and how will it be marketed?  The features of this product are fantastic.  I am just having trouble figuring out which groups of people benefit the most from it.

[Bitcoin Oz]

The website doesn't say much about the business model.  Who do they want to market this to, and how will it be marketed?  The features of this product are fantastic.  I am just having trouble figuring out which groups of people benefit the most from it.

What could go wrong with a crazy russian oligarch funding a bitcoin device ?

[Bitcoin Oz]

Hopefully the Ellet and the bitcoincard can communicate...now that would be an interesting market dynamic...

[apetersson]

What could go wrong with a crazy russian oligarch funding a bitcoin device ?

The way I understand it, is he is really fed up with Banks and Central Banks behaving badly. He is realizing Fiat currencies purchasing power is going to 0. He wants to spur Bitcoin adoption by bringing Bitcoin to retail. Plus he had this great hardware device developed for a long time which fits the Bitcoin usecase very well.

[Bitcoin Oz]

What could go wrong with a crazy russian oligarch funding a bitcoin device ?

The way I understand it, is he is really fed up with Banks and Central Banks behaving badly. He is realizing Fiat currencies purchasing power is going to 0. He wants to spur Bitcoin adoption by bringing Bitcoin to retail. Plus he had this great hardware device developed for a long time which fits the Bitcoin usecase very well.

The bitcoincard and the ellet is like watching the space race all over again 

[LightRider]

What could go wrong with a crazy russian oligarch funding a bitcoin device ?

The way I understand it, is he is really fed up with Banks and Central Banks behaving badly. He is realizing Fiat currencies purchasing power is going to 0. He wants to spur Bitcoin adoption by bringing Bitcoin to retail. Plus he had this great hardware device developed for a long time which fits the Bitcoin usecase very well.

The bitcoincard and the ellet is like watching the space race all over again 

I think exploring meatspace this soon is kind of jumping the gun. Bitcoin is a digital currency, and wants to live in the digital world. I don't think we have a digital ecosystem robust enough to support it in real world transactions just yet. I'm glad that the work is at least being started, but there is still a lot of work to be done on the protocol, the clients, security and usecase exploration.

[MoonShadow]

If I can use it to txt my kids at school and send them lunch money at the same time that would be awesome 

Amen, brother.  I had decided long ago that a meshable device for texting is worth much just for that.  Give them to my daughter and her friends, and let them go at it.  100meters is kinda poor for the purpose, though.  Definately not a Dash7 device.

[sethsethseth]

The website doesn't say much about the business model.  Who do they want to market this to, and how will it be marketed?  The features of this product are fantastic.  I am just having trouble figuring out which groups of people benefit the most from it.

What could go wrong with a crazy russian oligarch funding a bitcoin device ?

Is Alex² really Russian, or is that entirely a joke?

[cbeast]

What could go wrong with a crazy russian oligarch funding a bitcoin device ?

The way I understand it, is he is really fed up with Banks and Central Banks behaving badly. He is realizing Fiat currencies purchasing power is going to 0. He wants to spur Bitcoin adoption by bringing Bitcoin to retail. Plus he had this great hardware device developed for a long time which fits the Bitcoin usecase very well.

The bitcoincard and the ellet is like watching the space race all over again 

I think exploring meatspace this soon is kind of jumping the gun. Bitcoin is a digital currency, and wants to live in the digital world. I don't think we have a digital ecosystem robust enough to support it in real world transactions just yet. I'm glad that the work is at least being started, but there is still a lot of work to be done on the protocol, the clients, security and usecase exploration.

I agree, we still haven't really developed smartphone apps enough to really show what Bitcoin can do. Web and smartphone apps should be the main priority for awhile. Bitcoincard is awesome, but maybe too soon to bring to market.

[MoonShadow]

What could go wrong with a crazy russian oligarch funding a bitcoin device ?

The way I understand it, is he is really fed up with Banks and Central Banks behaving badly. He is realizing Fiat currencies purchasing power is going to 0. He wants to spur Bitcoin adoption by bringing Bitcoin to retail. Plus he had this great hardware device developed for a long time which fits the Bitcoin usecase very well.

The bitcoincard and the ellet is like watching the space race all over again 

I think exploring meatspace this soon is kind of jumping the gun. Bitcoin is a digital currency, and wants to live in the digital world. I don't think we have a digital ecosystem robust enough to support it in real world transactions just yet. I'm glad that the work is at least being started, but there is still a lot of work to be done on the protocol, the clients, security and usecase exploration.

I agree, we still haven't really developed smartphone apps enough to really show what Bitcoin can do. Web and smartphone apps should be the main priority for awhile. Bitcoincard is awesome, but maybe too soon to bring to market.

Those can be your priorities.  Let others focus on their priorities.  I have a lot of personal reasons to want a secure offline bitcoin device, and I have a lot of personal reasons to want a meshable & service free practial means of near-space texting.  Again, 100 meters isn't enough, but imagine if I had a dozen of these devices & gave each of them to people that I was traveling to a concert with.  Or a ball game.  Just the ability to send a text to my kids headed to the conessions stand "cancel the chips, I want a hot dog" or "cancel the entire order, halftime is over, get back" or using the location features, after one child telss me that his sister's purse was snatched, I could potentially track it up to a point.

[galambo]

The device can run 1 month on 1 full solar charge.
The device has a 100-200 meter range outdoors and 50-100 indoors.

Oh, the warm smell of the claims of extrardinary radio performance. It is almost as seductive as the warm smell of colitas.

For the people interested in other claims of extraordiary radio performance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_minimum-shift_keying
http://www.vmsk.org/
http://www.ka9q.net/vmsk/

Too bad all the good links about Pixelon are gone from the Internet.

Perhaps its something like IEEE 802.15.4. And running 1 month with the radio/display/etc off. If you see pictures of the actual device its a lot simpler than presented in the video.

[REF]

If I can use it to txt my kids at school and send them lunch money at the same time that would be awesome 

Amen, brother.  I had decided long ago that a meshable device for texting is worth much just for that.  Give them to my daughter and her friends, and let them go at it.  100meters is kinda poor for the purpose, though.  Definately not a Dash7 device.

I wonder how good they weather. I work a mile from where I live I wonder if I could tap them to trees to reach from my office to my house. Making a mesh around my house would be great & cool to experiment with.

I could see kids in schools using the texting feature 6-10 kids would be enough to create a mesh in the entire building.

[MoonShadow]

I could see kids in schools using the texting feature 6-10 kids would be enough to create a mesh in the entire building.

Not unless it's a small school, and the kids are evenly spaced and don't move.  Something closer to 30 would be required to maintain a mesh network for any school that I've attended, with a radio radius of 100 meters.  Wifi can get 100 meters in open air space, but 2.45 Ghz is a crappy frequency choice for a mesh.  Without changing the protocol or peak-power, just switching to 433 Mhz would double the effective range due to the lower background noise level & reduced sensitivity to attenuation by hydrogen containing mass.  Wifi doesn't use 433mhz mostly because the band is too narrow for such wideband tech.

I wish, at least, I knew what frequency this device used.  That would tell me much about how well I could extend ranges.  A single dongle may only have a radius of 100 meters, but three of them using 120 degree wide panel antennas on a pole can cover 2-3 times that radius under ideal conditions.  2.45 Ghz would not be an ideal condition, however.