Bitcoin Wifi Hotspot running on Raspberry Pi.

cp1

hero member

Activity: 616

Merit: 500

Stop using branwallets

Quote from: crazy_rabbit on August 20, 2013, 04:09:20 AM

It would be nice if it were to run a full Bitcoin node at the same time, to support the network. I'm totally interested in one! I was thinking of something similar myself, but would rather buy it from you. Although to be honest- why not open source it? There isn't an enormous amount of money to be made on it, while on the flip side you would be doing a great service for bitcoin. None the less I would be interested!

You'd need a 16GB SD card and the CPU on the pi is really slow to check the blockchain.

TheButterZone

legendary

Activity: 3052

Merit: 1031

RIP Mommy

Would be great if you could claim this 20 BTC bounty: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bounty-20-btc-wi-fi-hotspot-enabled-by-bitcoin-7998

mises

sr. member

Activity: 352

Merit: 250

Nice work! Everyone is giving free wifi these days though haha.

atomium

donator

Activity: 406

Merit: 252

Study the past, if you would divine the future.

this is really cool, would def be interesting in buying one

domob

legendary

Activity: 1135

Merit: 1161

Quote from: TippingPoint on August 20, 2013, 06:44:49 PM

Developing low-cost WiFi hotspots with a Bitcoin time charge is a worthy project. Some people do not have their own dedicated internet provider. Imagine if they could access one of these from home, provided by an entrepreneurial neighbor. Multiply that by hundreds. "Make big money selling internet access to your neighbors!" It remains to be seen if Raspberry Pi is optimal for it, but it makes sense to start with a low-cost method first. Many of the innovations will be applicable to other hardware configurations as well.

I also think this is a great project (in particular if you plan to not only sell at about the parts' costs but also to release the software under a free license!), but I doubt you could earn a lot of money. Isn't the trend rather going towards free WiFi by cities and such? I currently pay about 20 EUR per month for my home broadband connection, so I think for someone to actually "buy" internet access from his/her neighbour instead of getting their own it would have to be less than 10 EUR per month or so, and probably even still less.

Not to mention that my contract would surely be terminated immediately and I possibly even sued by my ISP if they found out that I sold my home connection to strangers - I didn't read the details, but this is guaranteed to be prohibited by the ToS of almost any service I can imagine. (At least for private home owners.)

Mitchell

copper member

Activity: 3892

Merit: 2197

Verified awesomeness ✔

I really like this project. Keep up the good work!

TippingPoint

legendary

Activity: 905

Merit: 1000

Developing low-cost WiFi hotspots with a Bitcoin time charge is a worthy project. Some people do not have their own dedicated internet provider. Imagine if they could access one of these from home, provided by an entrepreneurial neighbor. Multiply that by hundreds. "Make big money selling internet access to your neighbors!" It remains to be seen if Raspberry Pi is optimal for it, but it makes sense to start with a low-cost method first. Many of the innovations will be applicable to other hardware configurations as well.

I wish you well.

MoonShadow

legendary

Activity: 1708

Merit: 1007

Quote from: crazy_rabbit on August 20, 2013, 05:49:19 PM

Quote from: MoonShadow on August 20, 2013, 02:02:14 PM

Quote from: crazy_rabbit on August 20, 2013, 04:09:20 AM

It would be nice if it were to run a full Bitcoin node at the same time, to support the network. I'm totally interested in one! I was thinking of something similar myself, but would rather buy it from you. Although to be honest- why not open source it? There isn't an enormous amount of money to be made on it, while on the flip side you would be doing a great service for bitcoin. None the less I would be interested!

If, by "full" you mean one that can mine/hash, it's not worthwhile.

No, a full node does not mine.

A local copy of the blockchain isn't particularly useful, either. We are well past the point of diminishing returns on the 'multiple copies keeps data safe' method.

P_Shep

legendary

Activity: 1795

Merit: 1198

This is not OK.

Quote from: Kris on August 19, 2013, 05:36:48 PM

Quote from: nimda on August 19, 2013, 04:53:56 PM

Maybe enable access to blockchain.info, mtgox, coinbase, Inputs, et al for those users who don't run full Bitcoin nodes.

Yes, this is part of what I forwarded to OP, the possibility of accessing your "hosted wallet". However there is also the security element to this, since the operator of a "BitcoinWifi" access point could be shady. So there might need to be some way of knowing you connected to a authentic non modified "BitcoinWifi" spot.

I am thinking checksum md5 on a locked firmware, or something. Very exciting project though.

The green 'https://' in the address bar will tell you if your connected securely. Don't need to worry about that.

crazy_rabbit

legendary

Activity: 1204

Merit: 1001

RUM AND CARROTS: A PIRATE LIFE FOR ME

Quote from: MoonShadow on August 20, 2013, 02:02:14 PM

Quote from: crazy_rabbit on August 20, 2013, 04:09:20 AM

It would be nice if it were to run a full Bitcoin node at the same time, to support the network. I'm totally interested in one! I was thinking of something similar myself, but would rather buy it from you. Although to be honest- why not open source it? There isn't an enormous amount of money to be made on it, while on the flip side you would be doing a great service for bitcoin. None the less I would be interested!

If, by "full" you mean one that can mine/hash, it's not worthwhile.

No, a full node does not mine.

qwk

donator

Activity: 3542

Merit: 3411

Shitcoin Minimalist

Quote from: MoonShadow on August 20, 2013, 02:04:26 PM

Quote from: ragmondo on August 20, 2013, 03:59:39 AM

Quote from: qwk on August 19, 2013, 06:10:33 PM

How many packets per second will a pi route?

From professional experience, I can tell you that the average routing hardware (typical OpenWrt routers) will not be sufficient to actually handle the load from only a few dozen users sharing a simple DSL connection.

I've resorted to mikrotik hardware for that reason. You might want to have a look at their stuff, just a suggestion.

Edit: also, maybe if you just setup the pi as a RADIUS server, you could enable bitcoin payments for practically all the generic hotspot solutions on the market.

Not sure what the limit is right now. Will be testing with maybe 5-10 users shortly but .... if it's that busy then I would state that is a sign of success and therefore we can dedicate more time into making a more efficient hotspot.

Guys, if you think that he's doing it wrong, then do it yourself. Otherwise leave him be to make his own discoveries.

I'm not saying he does it wrong. Just giving advice from a few years' practical experience with hotspot solutions in hotel environments.

The longer I think about it, I'd absolutely suggest a bitcoin RADIUS server. That would scale very well with OpenWrt access points and whatever DSL router you might wana use. Could probably become a top-seller when it's combined with a small display, thermal printer and a few buttons to produce hotspot tickets as well.

Edited because I f***ed up the quotes.

MoonShadow

legendary

Activity: 1708

Merit: 1007

Quote from: ragmondo on August 20, 2013, 03:59:39 AM

Quote from: qwk on August 19, 2013, 06:10:33 PM

How many packets per second will a pi route?

From professional experience, I can tell you that the average routing hardware (typical OpenWrt routers) will not be sufficient to actually handle the load from only a few dozen users sharing a simple DSL connection.

I've resorted to mikrotik hardware for that reason. You might want to have a look at their stuff, just a suggestion.

Edit: also, maybe if you just setup the pi as a RADIUS server, you could enable bitcoin payments for practically all the generic hotspot solutions on the market.

Not sure what the limit is right now. Will be testing with maybe 5-10 users shortly but .... if it's that busy then I would state that is a sign of success and therefore we can dedicate more time into making a more efficient hotspot.

Guys, if you think that he's doing it wrong, then do it yourself. Otherwise leave him be to make his own discoveries.

MoonShadow

legendary

Activity: 1708

Merit: 1007

Quote from: crazy_rabbit on August 20, 2013, 04:09:20 AM

It would be nice if it were to run a full Bitcoin node at the same time, to support the network. I'm totally interested in one! I was thinking of something similar myself, but would rather buy it from you. Although to be honest- why not open source it? There isn't an enormous amount of money to be made on it, while on the flip side you would be doing a great service for bitcoin. None the less I would be interested!

If, by "full" you mean one that can mine/hash, it's not worthwhile.

crazy_rabbit

legendary

Activity: 1204

Merit: 1001

RUM AND CARROTS: A PIRATE LIFE FOR ME

It would be nice if it were to run a full Bitcoin node at the same time, to support the network. I'm totally interested in one! I was thinking of something similar myself, but would rather buy it from you. Although to be honest- why not open source it? There isn't an enormous amount of money to be made on it, while on the flip side you would be doing a great service for bitcoin. None the less I would be interested!

ragmondo

member

Activity: 106

Merit: 10

Quote from: nimda on August 19, 2013, 04:53:56 PM

Maybe enable access to blockchain.info, mtgox, coinbase, Inputs, et al for those users who don't run full Bitcoin nodes.

Yes the idea is to have a white list maintained by the owner so they can add their own store site, web site etc etc (as well as having many bitcoin related sites as well).

ragmondo

member

Activity: 106

Merit: 10

Quote from: qwk on August 19, 2013, 06:10:33 PM

How many packets per second will a pi route?

From professional experience, I can tell you that the average routing hardware (typical OpenWrt routers) will not be sufficient to actually handle the load from only a few dozen users sharing a simple DSL connection.

I've resorted to mikrotik hardware for that reason. You might want to have a look at their stuff, just a suggestion.

Edit: also, maybe if you just setup the pi as a RADIUS server, you could enable bitcoin payments for practically all the generic hotspot solutions on the market.

Not sure what the limit is right now. Will be testing with maybe 5-10 users shortly but .... if it's that busy then I would state that is a sign of success and therefore we can dedicate more time into making a more efficient hotspot.

WinVery.com

full member

Activity: 235

Merit: 100

I couldn't even operate on a Raspberry PI.

nimda

hero member

Activity: 784

Merit: 1000

0xFB0D8D1534241423

Quote from: Kris on August 19, 2013, 05:36:48 PM

Quote from: nimda on August 19, 2013, 04:53:56 PM

Maybe enable access to blockchain.info, mtgox, coinbase, Inputs, et al for those users who don't run full Bitcoin nodes.

Yes, this is part of what I forwarded to OP, the possibility of accessing your "hosted wallet". However there is also the security element to this, since the operator of a "BitcoinWifi" access point could be shady. So there might need to be some way of knowing you connected to a authentic non modified "BitcoinWifi" spot.

I am thinking checksum md5 on a locked firmware, or something. Very exciting project though.

In the case of blockchain.info, even the hotspot operator can't steal your coins. Also, I think https (hardened against BREACH) should be sufficient, yes?

qwk

donator

Activity: 3542

Merit: 3411

Shitcoin Minimalist

How many packets per second will a pi route?

From professional experience, I can tell you that the average routing hardware (typical OpenWrt routers) will not be sufficient to actually handle the load from only a few dozen users sharing a simple DSL connection.

I've resorted to mikrotik hardware for that reason. You might want to have a look at their stuff, just a suggestion.

Edit: also, maybe if you just setup the pi as a RADIUS server, you could enable bitcoin payments for practically all the generic hotspot solutions on the market.

Kris

donator

Activity: 640

Merit: 500

Quote from: nimda on August 19, 2013, 04:53:56 PM

Maybe enable access to blockchain.info, mtgox, coinbase, Inputs, et al for those users who don't run full Bitcoin nodes.

Yes, this is part of what I forwarded to OP, the possibility of accessing your "hosted wallet". However there is also the security element to this, since the operator of a "BitcoinWifi" access point could be shady. So there might need to be some way of knowing you connected to a authentic non modified "BitcoinWifi" spot.

I am thinking checksum md5 on a locked firmware, or something. Very exciting project though.

Topic: Bitcoin Wifi Hotspot running on Raspberry Pi. (Read 3725 times)