Make Physical Bitcoin Transactions With OpenDime
Hey Jessatsohis
When I speak about Bitcoin to normies, no-coiners and pre-coiners, one of the major objections are that there is no physical version of the unit of measure that they can transfer in the real world.
I've heard the argument that without the internet, there would be no Bitcoin. While correct, it would mean ALOT would be lost, even fiat money with the vast majority, over 90% of fiat being a digital representation. So if there was no internet, there's no fiat money either, or well the majority of fiat.
Ask yourself how much cash you have on you right now? Probably not a lot; I know I barely have enough on me to buy a bottle of water. We rely on banking and electronic services, so regardless of Bitcoin, there's no internet, the amount of commerce plummets too.
So I don't buy that argument as a starter; if we had no internet or electricity, we'd have bigger societal problems than storing value long term.
Bringing the digital into the physical world
Everyone is different; the younger generation seems to adapt to the idea that digital objects have value quickly. However, the older generation and more sceptics prefer something they can hold in their hand.
I think this is an important part of the user experience of Bitcoin that's clearly lacking. While some can understand the thought abstraction of Bitcoin's value, others will need that physical manifestation that can be traded.
The reason digital cash was easy to transition to is that there was a base of physical cash and a history of commerce for these piece of paper.
I think while eCommerce will be Bitcoins primary transaction base, physical economy transactions shouldn't be discounted.
Paper wallets
Sure we've had paper wallets for some time now, where you could generate a QR code on a piece of paper that could access Bitcoin funds. A user could then add funds to a wallet, add the QR code to a piece of paper and hand it to someone as means of payment.
The recipient can scan the code and gain access to the wallet and the funds inside it. This does work, but it requires a lot of technical knowledge on the side of both parties and does leave you open to attack vectors such as people accessing your printer or the service you use to create the paper wallet.
People would also make backups and recover the funds before you do and a host of other trust issues.
Paper wallets are cool experimentations and a fun way to transfer Bitcoin between trusted parties, but I don't see this as a good method for commerce.
Single-use hardware wallets
Bitcoin hardware wallets aren't a new concept, there are devices such as Trezor, Cold Card and Ledger (which I personally use), and they're great for long term secure storage.
But why isn't there a device for short term storage? Well, there is now.
Opendime is a small USB stick that allows you to spend Bitcoin as you would physical cash. You can load up Bitcoin and pass it along multiple times.
If you approached a merchant or a friend and wanted to part with some Bitcoin, you could connect to any USB to check balance.
Then unseal the money and spend it.
The Opendime device is a read-only USB flash drive. Works with any computer, laptop, or phone. A QR Image and Text files inside contain Bitcoin address and helpful information.
The private key is generated inside the device and is never known to any human, not even you, making it far better than a paper wallet!
This means you can give an Opendime to anyone, and they don't need to worry that you can take back the funds later since the private key is strictly in the device itself.
This is physical Bitcoin in its early form, and I am sure it will be refined in the future. It's that simple as handing it over, No miner fees, no confirmation delays.
You can check out Opendime here no shilling or affiliations, just sharing my findings.
Source: The Bitcoin Manual
Have your say
What do you good people of HIVE think?
So have at it, my Jessies! If you don't have something to comment, "I am a Jessie."
Let's connect
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Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
@tipu curate 2
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 52/78) Liquid rewards.
Thanks for the tip
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✌😉✌
This is a good progress but I prefer online/virtual wallets , maybe because I am not that old yet. Is this true that you will loose all amount in wallet if someone steals the device ? I know Fiat money wallet can also be stolen but they usually have a lot less value in it.
5 dollar wrench attacks will always exist, if someone wants your Bitcoin and they willing to beat your knees in you're probably going to give it up. It's just important to not be walking around with access to a lot of Bitcoin at anytime
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
tell them that if there were no people, there would be no money 😁
Lol I hate these stupid arguments like oh no internet oh no electricity okay so Bitcoin doesn't work when an atom bomb is dropped like really? You wish for a dystopian world just so Bitcoin can't survive!
I like the idea of it being thinking mans money
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that's ok, more money for people that like to use their brains ,,, crypto up !!
Sounds interesting but I don't know many physical stores that really accept BTC at all let alone physically. I think it would be tough for it to take off but I do like the idea for other cryptos as well in the future.
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BTC is still going through the motions of infiltrating the economic system, as soon as it becomes a premium store of value and the volitlity or rather perceived volatility is reduced it will have a medium of exchange viability.
Things like open dime might be a gimmick now as well as the lightning network but I can see it becoming an everyday tool in the future.
I honestly don't see how other cryptos really survive in the next decade, once they reach their TAM's and BTC continues to grow and they break down against BTC as other asset classes have, that's just my theory on it
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That's pretty cool. Once you buy real stuff with crypto you know that it is no longer just 'magic internet money'.
Shamefully, I've never bought anything with crypto yet lol, I don't want to be the bitcoin pizza guy. I might do it with an alt coin hopefully soon if we get a big pump come this bull run I might just blow a few coins on frivolous expenses
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The innovation in the blockchain world is alarming. The paper wallet thing looks so complex.
Nice idea by the creators of opendime.
In terms if price range, is it as expensive as the ledger wallet?
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they are sold in packs of 3 for $49.94 so around $17 each and you can load any amount you want on there and then pass it on or spend it from there whenever you need it
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I was just thinking about the need for physical bitcoin the other day.
Another reason it is important is privacy. Any on-chain transaction can be subject to chain analysis which is increasing sophisticated and can compromise privacy.
But physical transfer of value (ie cash) can be traced electronically and breaks the on-chain analysis.
If physical exchange of BTC on devices like this becomes popular then it will undermine government's attempt to destroy our financial privacy.
I didn’t think of that but it sure is a use case and for governments that want to limit their citizens to BTC sure they could block certain sites and such but with physical it’s hard if not impossible if options like this become popular
I also think with taproot and shnoor coming and being able to batch transactions, coin joins, confidential transactions on liquid and lightning BTC is providing options to get around just about anything
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As soon as I finished reading your post the first thing I thought was: ok, you are very right and the truth is that the device you advertise is quite practical for the safekeeping of our cryptos, but, it seems to me that BTC is very valuable and the commissions very expensive to squander them in small transactions, for me BTC should be for very expensive things like real estate or footballers contracts, the other altcoins should assume the retail trade, with the support of these small and useful devices I guess it's possible.
On the other hand, it is true that electricity is an important part of everything related to BTC, but for now most of the electricity required to generate one of these cryptos comes from centralized entities, i.e. governments. 70% of the world's BTC comes from Chinese mining, hence centralized, state-funded electricity. Someday most of the BTC and cryptos will come from more independent energy such as solar. Regards, I like your posts.
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Oh I completely see it going that way that you either borrow against your BTC or you settle massive transactions. Many of us won't even use the base chain because it will be unaffordable and if we want to do transactions of a certain size, we may have to do it offline with the help of paper wallets or like opendime and simply hand over ownership.
Lightning and liquid are trying to help the situation and I am sure that they will find ways to improve it that we have better transaction management in the future.
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Boom !
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Wow thanks for shooting this post into the stratosphere
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This is an interesting development.
So I could carry around ten thumb drives with 0.01 BTC each, thus representing 500$ USD and buy stuff with it, by giving them the thumb drive, and they could give me the change in fiat!
Cool in a way, it turns Bitcon into a pseudoanonymous currency, almost. FIat is still the ultimate anonymous, untraceable currency, but this is very close and very cool.
I will look more into this, as the price of Bitcoin rises and adoption increases.
I never thought of this exact use case but in theory sure that makes a lot of sense, especially if you have retailers or friends willing to accept BTC for goods and services.
It would also make a lot of commerce of BTC become "dark" commerce since nothing is happening on chain but BTC is still changing hands and goods and services provided, which makes for an interesting development on a secondary economy for Bitcoin.
What would make it really interesting is if it could be combined with second layers like liquid and lightning Bitcoin
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That’s a good point. Lightening has both Microtransactions and micro-transaction fees. So it is suitable for small ticket item commerce.