Topic: bitcoincard.org the killer app we have been waiting for? (Read 5767 times)

I was thinking along with this device they should have a usb stick. One that acts like a node in the network also. This could give access to the block chain while increasing the size of the service area. It would be a rather large project but a server could link them all together that way as well.

I think that you got that from me.  I said, if this card is based upon Dash7, a line of sight range of 2km is possible.  At least it's possible with a true line of sight and the owner holding the card above his head like shown in the video.

So?

It's neither 'retarded' nor deceptive.  The video advertises 'no supporting infrastructure' with a collapsing cell tower in the background.  Although it's not technically true, since a usb dongle attached to the back of a POS terminal or internet router is 'supporting infrastructure', the reality is that it doesn't depend upon commercial communications infrastructure.  It can mesh to extend it's practical communications ranges, although that's much more likely to involve privately owned dongles and the internet than not.  Still, your cell phone can't mesh at all, unless you have a rooted android phone with a running Serval client, and even then can't mesh more than 70 meters with no obstacles.  (I should know, I have actually done this)  If your city has a power outage, your cell towers' batteries die in three or less hours.  So not only can't you make a regular phone call, even though your cell phone is fine, you can't spend bitcoin with the guy standing next to you.  With a device that's capable of directly communicating with other devices sans infrastructure support would at least open up the possibility of bitcoin business transactions in meatspace where internet access is not a given.  Someone is going to do this, and if done well, the radio standard is going to stick, and more capable devices are going to come into existance that can act like a bitcoincard, a bitcoincard server, etc. 

Bottom line folks, advertising this as a stand-alone device but in reality requiring the operation of another physical node is downright retarded.

Thats not my point. Im going by their claimed performance. They say 100-300m, and Ive generously been using 300m. Are you saying in reality its 3Km?


That is my point. Its not going to be bitcoin users paying for these cards and creating a mesh. If this ever takes off, it will be those kinds of companies creating the infrastructure and giving out those cards for free.

The 2m band the cards operate on have much better propagation effects than the bands mobile phones operate on.  Also you are missing the point this is not just about BTC users and there will also be LOTS of stationary nodes too once the likes of Wall-Mart, Tesco and most other chains start issuing them as store/loyalty cards.  

I live 6 KM from the nearest mast, but Im sure you are the expert.
That said,  you asked me to back up my claim of 1% chance to find another bitcoin user within 300m range, it turns out to be an average of 0,00051%  assuming ideal circumstances. I might be ignorant about radio technology, I do have a basic grasp of arithmetic. Do you?

That would permanently break my forum autonomy, so I'm going to decline.

That is interesting if the device was specifically designed to work with community currencies.  The P2P comm does seem like a good model for a farmers market.

This card looks insanely great in theory... hope to see it work in practice...

Of course its illegal, but everyone does it, Hell, its hard not to accidently and its never enforced up here in Canada..  I use to fool around with the 2 metre band, and the local repeaters when I was much younger..





Whats your call sign ?

Nowadays the only reason real reason I can see in running the full client is to use P2Pool.  Also 11m Freebanding rocks  I've Tx'd to Italy a few times from northern England but have now sold my widebanded HF rig. 

We could have a lot more running clients than that, since some of us have 'quite' clients, myself included, that won't show up in those scans.  Those are usually based upon the ip addresses that show up in the bitcoin IRC bootstrapping channels, and there are many clients now that don't use those channels anymore.

40 meters, just after dark.  No I don't do it often, and intentionally skipping in the CB band is illegal.  I have a ham radio license.

You're displaying your ignorance on the topic.  GSM is a wideband commercial product not intended to mesh.  GSM cell phones have a practical range of about two kilometers, but that is to a very senitive celltower tranceiver.  If you tried to mesh two handsets, your range is unlikely to be any better that wifi.  Basicly, if you can see the whoites of their eyes or be heard yelling, then it would work.  There are many variables that effect range; including effective radiated power, receiver senitivity & bandwidth, mode of transmission, error correction algos, etc.  Comparing a mesh tech to that of GSM isn't even comparing apples to oranges, it's comparing apples to pencils.  And the goal of such a mesh isn't to connect two cell phones together with a high enough quality to support a voice codec, it's to transmit a data file of half a kilobyte within a few seconds so that device cound forward it again until the transaction finds an internet router.

That graph is better, but is still only a lower bound on bitcoin users.  It only shows those who run a full client 24-7.  I know I don't fit that requirement, but yet I spend 3+ hours a day doing bitcoin related activity.

Surely this would be the relevant chart? http://bitcoinstatus.rowit.co.uk/hostsStart.png

Yours is listening hosts, ie those with open ports I think.

Anyway, surely we have more users than last September (60,000), most probably can't be bothered to keep th chain up to date anymore.

QRP For the win!

You work skip a lot ?

Are you working in the 11 metre band ?  

The sun is near maximum, a lot happening on skywave proprogation

If your using 2 watts though, Im guessing your lower mhz than the 11 metre band ?

I've spoken with the creator via phone this morning. I do not believe the device is vaporware. Pricing is in the range of "extremely low."

They've been working on this thing for about 5 years, long before Bitcoin. When Bitcoin came around, it made some of the card's former features obsolete so they've retooled it to be heavily Bitcoin-focused. They said they found Bitcoin to be "far superior" to any of the community currencies the device was intended to be used with.

I'll be talking with the creators more and I can say perhaps in a month or so there may be some more solid information/news/review of this thing. In the mean time, just stay tuned and remain appropriately skeptical

The key point of the device was that it needed no support infrastructure. But hey, go ahead and add an "access point" for each and every bitcoin user in the world, and still assume theoretical perfect geographic spreading,   and the above numbers.. well,  guess what, they only double.

Dont get me wrong, Im not entirely dismissing the concept. It has some merit assuming they can produce them dirt cheap, and ship them by the hundreds of thousands or at least get them in to the hands of people in targeted geographic locations so you get a meaningful chance of being able to connect. And that essentially means giving them away. I can see business models for that, but bitcoin users buying them isnt one of them.