Topic: Bitcoin NFC payment / cold storage cards (Demand survey,Preordes,Fundraising) (Read 5088 times)

Hi,

so we are moving on with this project. Account opening available soon. Sifro.co

This project is quite large but is possible making a few open source volunteers to join in a few specialised teams, the POS can be a standalone terminal or a PC/Laptop with a CC reader connected to the internet, it will also need a gateway to channel data from the internet to the bitcoin network, the ATM depends on the existence of fisical bitcoins which is an unknown.

I think Marcus has a good point, but he is the wrong person to talk about it because it sounds like he is protecting his job and his company. He could be right when everybody has a smartphone, payments with CC and bitcoins will be made using the 3G network, making POS payments obsolete.

If this project is succesfull Custommers will have the option of queing to swipe their bitcoin card or pay anywhere in the shop with their smartphone. Retailers will have to choose whether they provide both systems or the most cost effective.

@Rodyland: thanks for support... it is also good motivation to go on with this

@Rawted: You are focusing at completely wrong point. This is Bitcoin payment card (and cold storage) project. Not NFC card project. Yes we chose NFC as one of the technologies for communication with the card and we chose it for convenience and spread of the technology.

Your hatred about NFC is your personal thing. If you say NFC is bad technology because A,B,C,D and there is technology CFN which is much better and it is also as available then you are making contribution to this discussion and project. Otherwise it is just flame war.

What we try to do here is Bitcoin payment card and allow Bitcoin to spread to everyone by making its use as easy as using Credit/Debit card. If you choose to not use NFC you are free to do so.

We need to solve chicken/egg problem here: You are not able to persuade retailers to use BitcoinCard enabled terminal because nobody have BitcoinCards. And you are not able to persuade Bitcoin users/customers to buy BitcoinCard if they are not able to pay with it anywhere.

To solve this problem we are including Cold Storage/physical wallet functionality so that this cards have value to the people even before retailers start accepting it.
NFC is then included to allow payments between users and between user/retailer before POS terminals are available. And lets face the truth NFC is only choice here.
This way cards are usable and have value for users before retailer network/ATM/POS places are spread. After lot of people have our cards then retailers will gladly jump in.

I don't see how an NFC/Bitcoin implementation is a bad idea.

For the right price, it could replace the smartphone as the Bitcoin tool of choice for day-to-day use.  Given that everyone with an iPhone has trouble using Bitcoin today, this can only be a good thing.

Add encryption, and a safe private-key backup so you can take back the funds as soon as you realise the NFC card is lost and I think you have something that could be quite useful.

Food for thought.

""It's technology for the sake of technology or for the sake of pushing the agenda of the companies supporting it, versus solving real people's problems," Marcus said of NFC.
"Instead swiping or using a PIN pad, they're tapping. How is that really better? How is that changing your life? People don't want that," he said. It's not a question of whether people at a payment terminal would prefer to tap or swipe, he said, but a reality that people don't want to go to a payment terminal at all."

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57615080-93/paypal-president-david-marcus-bitcoin-is-good-nfc-is-bad/

Well here it is popular. But this is subjective and is not the main or most important point for use/not use NFC.

NFC is there because --> we want safe storage for private key. This could be done on chip and we are considering option of including both chip and NFC. Problem with chip is how do you read it when you want as user want to get your private key out of the card. In case of chip you will need specialized HW reader which adds to cost and have many usability problems (will you drag chip reader around with you?). So NFC is there for convenience ... many of us have NFC enabled phones and thus don't need buy/get additional/costly equipment. There is an bitcoin trezor project that is basically an USB key so you could use usb interface ---> but how do you stuck USB on a card? So this is why mainly NFC, "everybody" has reader.

If chip will be included too it will be there mainly for POS terminals. For other users and also for NFC enabled terminals you will have NFC interface.

Why merge bitcoin with NFC? NFC is the complete opposite of convenience. Everybody hates NFC.

If you are interested in getting Cold Storage wallet cards PM me. Those will be available in following weeks.

I am skilled developer with many years of practice. Worked many years in company that actually was in regular banking card business so I have overview of technologies and processes from piece of plastic to chip/NFC technologies used.
First cold storage cards will be actually available in January for first testers/reviewers. What is still work-in-progress is android application and full NFC payment card.

In team i have skilled developers all fans of Bitcoins and elektronics designer with whom i worked on projects like TV transmission truck auto satellite dish open and satelite align system and others (full custom pcb designs...). I count on him for POS/ATM work later if the cards catch on.

Project is backed by regular real world company based in Slovakia.

I love the idea.

What proof do you have that you and your team are capable of delivering such a project?

So guys

there is new project of Bitcoin NFC payment and cold storage card.
Cards are standard Visa/MasterCard format and material with Magstripe on the back side and NFC (wireless) chip inside.
Manufactured on professional equipment (same machines that produce regular debit/credit cards)

Two types:
Cold storage only:
Public address of your wallet will be printed on the card (qr code) which will be also encoded on mag-stripe. Private key will be stored only inside NFC chip encrypted with customer requested password. Android application will be provided to allow to extract private key from card (after supplying password with which it is encrypted). The same application will be able to change encryption password of private key on card or load new private key (if you desire backup more wallets on this card).

Full NFC payment card:
There will be additional wallet on the card and chip capable of signing transactions so that private key never leaves card and is only used to sign transactions (in the bitcoin tresor fashion). Android application will be provided that able to make secure transactions. All functions of first type will be included in Full NFC card too

Later if the project catches on we are set to manufature ATMs and POS terminals for those cards.

What we hope to do is enable easy and fast day-to-day payments with Bitcoin in the same fashion as you use regular banking card.

Please help raise the funds if you are interested. If you are not able to provide financial help at least spread the word. Thank you for supporting us.
Indiegogo campaign: http://igg.me/at/bitcoin-card/x/5713465
Bitcoin fundraising: 1N8HNfHf9YaX9RKAVT5HSzcz4DqeyeCPjw