How would you like to design a bitcoin banknote?

[Al the Alpaca]

thank you I'm glad my work is finally gaining traction in this community. I appreciate your contribution, but I ask that in the future all donations be made in amounts evenly divisible by 420 Satoshis, for my convenience and yours

I'm probably going to regret this, but what do you call a unit of 420 Satoshis?

a Bushel.

Being such a small amount, how about "shake" as in "saké" but without the "h"?

[1714574886]

1714574886

[casascius]

casascius, I think you got a winner here.

I am looking for creative visually-appealing artwork (a drawing), not a form design. 

I recommend using just regular printer checks. You can even print the public key where the bank routing numbers would go.

I am looking for an image to go into a freeware program or website that enables anyone to print nice-looking bitcoin cash on plain paper on their own home printer whenever they want.  I am not trying to create physical bills myself.

[unclemantis]

casascius, I think you got a winner here.

I am looking for creative visually-appealing artwork (a drawing), not a form design. 

I recommend using just regular printer checks. You can even print the public key where the bank routing numbers would go.

I am looking for an image to go into a freeware program or website that enables anyone to print nice-looking bitcoin cash on plain paper on their own home printer whenever they want.  I am not trying to create physical bills myself.

Upon printout at home would someone be able to use ANY type of paper or would check paper be used? Would be cool to print on parchment or construction paper :-D

[casascius]

Upon printout at home would someone be able to use ANY type of paper or would check paper be used? Would be cool to print on parchment or construction paper :-D

That would be up to the person printing it, but most people would printing it for utility value, not for a show piece.  It is a throwaway item.

From the user's perspective:  "as a user of this program, I want to be able to print a single-use throwaway bank note so I can put small amounts of bitcoin cash in my wallet, and I want it to look prettier than a plain white piece of paper with two bar codes and the word bitcoin on it, but not to the point it uses excessive ink like a photo, and not to the point where I have to buy anything in advance for it to look right."

I want this to look more like CASH than a check.  Look at the artistic features on a dollar or euro - the lines, the adorned text - what I want resembles that.

[Dice]

Hi,

Just took a lil time to put this together what do you guys think?

Im not the greatest at photoshop but though i'd give it a spin.

[rxw]

Because my original submission did not get the credit I believe it DESERVES, I've decided to submit a second entry :]

http://imgur.com/Px75p

I'm rather tired at the moment of designing this so I may revise in the future. I tried to fit within the boundaries of your requirements to the best of my abilities- unfortunately I'm not a vector artist (or a regular artist), so I'll have to settle for a high resolution, and maybe somebody else would vector trace it if necessary. Although I prefer colorful foreign currencies (I'm glad I still have a few notes from Costa Rica), I understand the need to be monochromatic. What to decorate the note with is somewhat of a hard choice. Bitcoin doesn't really have a lot of historical faces attached to it- even its founder is anonymous. There are no buildings dedicated to bitcoin. I decided two good figures would be Jean-Baptiste Colbert or Alan Turing- Colbert was said to have founded the phrase laissez-faire, which reflects Bitcoin's deregulated nature. However, I went with Alan Turing, because he is not only said to be the father of computer science, but also an important figure in cryptography (and a personal hero). I'm not sure if he would have supported the ideas behind Bitcoin, and I'm sure many outside our community would be upset with me "plastering" his face on our money, but I do it only out of respect for his accomplishments.

I think a lot of people's perception of cash is based on the way it feels, due to what it's printed on. It's rather distinct- for my USD it's some combination of cloth-y and paper-y, while my Costa Rica notes have a more plastic-y feel. Any design posted here I'm sure could serve it's purpose on printer paper, but maybe somebody could look into printing on something more... authentic? It could help the idea of bitcoin seem less strange to those unfamiliar with if they could hold a bitcoin bill in their hand that felt like a dollar bill. (Other people ITT have mentioned posted on some exotic materials)

This design should be the same dimensions as USD when printed at 300 PPI. This is only an initial mockup- I'd like to put the bitcoin logo in the top corners but I'm too tired to figure it out right now. I linked to the image so as to not stretch the forum page. I'll upload the PSD file later if anyone is interested in modifying it. The QR codes should be crisper if put in there by a program- I fiddled around with them in photoshop to make them the right size and now they're sort of blurry. I'm not sure what exactly they're supposed to be QR codes of. Also you said they should be on opposite sides- front and back OR left and right of one face of the bill? I'm not sure if the amount is supposed to be on the bill, even if not a specific denomination.

[ShireSilver]

Why not make the checks credit card sized? More per sheet and you could fit more in a wallet - even put them in their own slot.

[phelix]

would be nice if it was possible to comfortably cut it in half and stick it back together.

[World]

what about to make open source app or website(casasciuscheck) and a Customized bitcoin check online?
-Personal Check
-Business Check
-Easy to use Drag and Drop Builder.
-Design templates to make it easier and faster.
-QR code
-Public+Private key
-Social Widgets
-Secure SSL
-Custom Business Logos
-Distinctive Type Styles
-Colored Ink
-Add an icon or monogram
-etc

for example:
http://www.colorfulimages.com/~Checks~New+Check+Designs.html?page=3

[Boussac]

Great idea!
This could be the opportunity to pay tribute to cryptographers who made bitcoin possible like Ralf Merkle, Adam Back, Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir, Wei Dai, Neal Koblitz or even Fermat for his (almost involuntary) contribution to elliptic curve cryptography (Note: elliptic curve theory was developped in the search for a proof of Fermat's theorem)



What I like about the stamp is the "dual currency display" that accompanied the launch of the euro in 2002

[Daily Anarchist]

thank you I'm glad my work is finally gaining traction in this community. I appreciate your contribution, but I ask that in the future all donations be made in amounts evenly divisible by 420 Satoshis, for my convenience and yours

I'm probably going to regret this, but what do you call a unit of 420 Satoshis?

A nugget.

[memvola]

Why not make the checks credit card sized? More per sheet and you could fit more in a wallet - even put them in their own slot.

So, what's the scenario? I go to a restaurant, but I don't have my bitcoin wallet with me, or I don't have wireless Internet connection nor a way to create offline transactions. I take out my real wallet and give the waitress a 2x 1BTC and 3x 0.1BTC sheets for my 2.3BTC bill, they happily sweep the keys.

That's not a bad idea. I could print them on a standard sheet and fold it up without slicing. I'd still have a back-up strategy to instantly move the money stored on those keys if my wallet ever gets stolen. P2SH with SMS confirmation would effectively remove the need though.

I'd also like to have a method for concealing the private key from plain sight. As an option, the site could print two separate sheets for me. One is printed directly on a standard sized envelope (ticket sized small ones would be great but I don't know how easy they're to find and print on), and the other one (private key) goes in the envelope. At least I'll know the money is safe if the seal isn't broken. I could optionally print it on a normal sheet so that the private keys would remain on the back, and put it in a sealed PVC case.

[Mushroomized]

see-

[casascius]

So, what's the scenario? I go to a restaurant, but I don't have my bitcoin wallet with me, or I don't have wireless Internet connection nor a way to create offline transactions. I take out my real wallet and give the waitress a 2x 1BTC and 3x 0.1BTC sheets for my 2.3BTC bill, they happily sweep the keys.

Let me illustrate the scenario with change: suppose you have ten 1BTC bills in your wallet.  Waitress hands you a ticket for 2.3BTC.  You hand her 3 of your bills and are owed 0.7BTC in change.  She comes back and gives you 0.7BTC on one of your own bills as change.  Actually, with this being a restaurant, it's more likely that she brings you back seven 0.1BTC bills that the restaurant had custom-printed, to make it easier for you to give a tip.

In all cases, either party could screw the other, but the risks and likelihood are mitigated just by the amounts in question being so low.  Compare that to the risk faced every day by leaving cash tips on the table, or the risk that someone could just grab the cash and not come back, or could come back and pretend it was never given to them.

I'd also like to have a method for concealing the private key from plain sight. As an option, the site could print two separate sheets for me. One is printed directly on a standard sized envelope (ticket sized small ones would be great but I don't know how easy they're to find and print on), and the other one (private key) goes in the envelope. At least I'll know the money is safe if the seal isn't broken. I could optionally print it on a normal sheet so that the private keys would remain on the back, and put it in a sealed PVC case.

For me, my security needs would be met just by folding the bill in half, since I'm thinking about how to use it for casual purchases like a hot dog and a drink.

[Mushroomized]

why not just let people put whatever they want on them. Like I could put pictures of bananas wearing tophats on mine, and you could put pictures of what you had for breakfast on yours. That way if you get scammed you can warn others "Don't take any money with pictures of bananas on it that guy is weird" or something. Just have the application/webapp allow you to upload backgrounds.

[Bro]

payments for genius art can be directed to: 1RXWrxw3JBVv4AKy9UGSrXnQefwzWJUmM

LMAO!! Ron Pauuuul!!

[Bro]

Because my original submission did not get the credit I believe it DESERVES, I've decided to submit a second entry :]

http://imgur.com/Px75p

I'm rather tired at the moment of designing this so I may revise in the future. I tried to fit within the boundaries of your requirements to the best of my abilities- unfortunately I'm not a vector artist (or a regular artist), so I'll have to settle for a high resolution, and maybe somebody else would vector trace it if necessary. Although I prefer colorful foreign currencies (I'm glad I still have a few notes from Costa Rica), I understand the need to be monochromatic. What to decorate the note with is somewhat of a hard choice. Bitcoin doesn't really have a lot of historical faces attached to it- even its founder is anonymous. There are no buildings dedicated to bitcoin. I decided two good figures would be Jean-Baptiste Colbert or Alan Turing- Colbert was said to have founded the phrase laissez-faire, which reflects Bitcoin's deregulated nature. However, I went with Alan Turing, because he is not only said to be the father of computer science, but also an important figure in cryptography (and a personal hero). I'm not sure if he would have supported the ideas behind Bitcoin, and I'm sure many outside our community would be upset with me "plastering" his face on our money, but I do it only out of respect for his accomplishments.

I think a lot of people's perception of cash is based on the way it feels, due to what it's printed on. It's rather distinct- for my USD it's some combination of cloth-y and paper-y, while my Costa Rica notes have a more plastic-y feel. Any design posted here I'm sure could serve it's purpose on printer paper, but maybe somebody could look into printing on something more... authentic? It could help the idea of bitcoin seem less strange to those unfamiliar with if they could hold a bitcoin bill in their hand that felt like a dollar bill. (Other people ITT have mentioned posted on some exotic materials)

This design should be the same dimensions as USD when printed at 300 PPI. This is only an initial mockup- I'd like to put the bitcoin logo in the top corners but I'm too tired to figure it out right now. I linked to the image so as to not stretch the forum page. I'll upload the PSD file later if anyone is interested in modifying it. The QR codes should be crisper if put in there by a program- I fiddled around with them in photoshop to make them the right size and now they're sort of blurry. I'm not sure what exactly they're supposed to be QR codes of. Also you said they should be on opposite sides- front and back OR left and right of one face of the bill? I'm not sure if the amount is supposed to be on the bill, even if not a specific denomination.

I re-used rxw's layout:

[ErebusBat]

or if anyone, it ought to honor famous scientists or engineers that brought about fundamental advances in the science of computing.

Or pictures of the LHC, Cern, ISS, Apollo rockets, internet, fire, electricity, light, bridges and other similar great advancements in science/engineering.

I nominate Al Gore... for without him we would have no internetz.

[MoreCowbell]

Great idea.  Casascius coins are awesome, but the minting premium is an issue for large scale use.

With bitcoin you are your own bank.  Now you can even withDRAW your own bitcash!


My .02BTC:

*If it has any colors, it should have BTC-orange on it in a fashion that looks good if printed in black and white.  I'm a big fan of the current standard logo and the "ubuntu" font, so these would be good.

*I think we should steer clear of putting people on it.  Even though we are talking about using scientists and engineers, the portrait theme has a government/central bank feel to it.  No portrait is simpler to print and fits with the "every-man" idea of bitcoin.

*Think outside the box, such as ShireSilver's idea below.  After all, we are re-inventing currency here!  If it wasn't for the size of govt cash, wallets could be a lot smaller.  I'm not necessarily against the full-size note, but that size does seem more fiat-fluff than utility. 

Why not make the checks credit card sized? More per sheet and you could fit more in a wallet - even put them in their own slot.

[unclemantis]

Could even go as far as selling advertising space on the these bills!