My theory is that the Philippines is dry timber ready for someone to light the Bitcoin fire. It will catch on there more than anywhere else when the focus for Bitcoin is not on speculation, but utility.
Here's a new Bitcoin web wallet that will redefine wallets to come.
http://www.coindesk.com/new-bitcoin-wallet-app-targets-philippines-remittance-market/
Topic: [IDEA] Family Bitcoin Wallets - for Philippines (Read 1008 times)
Good idea. But bitcoin is not known by many people in Philippines yet. The ecosystem and infrastructure don't build up yet. The volatile price and security is still big concern for the most people. It is still long way to implement your excellent theory.
Updated the OP to explain how a Family Wallet can work.
Why not. This way more and more people could be involved with bitcoin community. More members will make our stand strong. Like a happy BTC family.
Backstory:
The Philippines is a unique nation. Partly because these island people are part of the first major human migration and because they learned to use the islands to escape invaders, they have preserved at least some core human traits going back to the dawn of man. Despite invasions from nearly every major empire, they have retained their decentralized social networking that evolved from understanding ocean navigation, because the islands are interconnected like network nodes.
Their sense of family and tribe runs deeper than religion or nationalism. The family hierarchy is firmly supported by the understanding that children take care of their elders. Older siblings help younger siblings so they can in turn share family burdens. While politics has as much corruption as every other nation, it never threatens the deep family connections. Filipino politics will never intentionally undermine the safety and well-being of its people. Sure there are powerful families that monopolize most industries, but that is partly an artifact of whatever deals were made with conquering nations and have little impact on family structure.
Currently, over 60% of Philippine GDP is generated by family members working overseas and sending money home. The remittance system is inefficient and expensive, costing Filipinos up to nearly ten percent in fees just to send money home. Filipinos are arguably the most socially networked global community. Filipinos understand personal security and accountability. They are also the most resourceful people I've met. Every Filipino I've mentioned Bitcoin to has understood its basic tenets. These basic observation make them unique in many respects to having a natural affinity to decentralization.
Most Filipino families have little in liquid reserves for family needs. Most don't have bank accounts because they cannot keep the minimum balance. Because of this, they have not developed a sense of saving money. They depend on overseas working family members to provide liquidity to handle not just emergencies, but also expected needs. Now with modern Western cultural influence, they are becoming addicted to predatory consumerism. This consumerism makes them even more dependent on remittance funds. It's not because they are irresponsible, it's because money comes to them in the form of cash over the counter at a remittance center and not into a bank account. Will banks help families by providing free services? Of course not. Enter Bitcoin.
The Family Wallet:
Bitcoin multisignature transactions are powerful tools for family financial security. For Filipinos they can fulfill a role in the control of family finances and family responsibilities. A wallet can be designed to create addresses requiring multisignatures for access. Family members will agree upon terms for monies deposited into these addresses and how they can be accessed. The family hierarchical structure can demand that signatures act like shares and the oldest family members have more signatures and thus voting shares. The wallet can issue addresses as needed for various amounts based upon how many signatures they will require for accessing the funds. So for instance, if a small amount is needed, then only a few signatures are needed to access them. If a large amount is needed, it will require many signatures and those of the eldest (or most mature and responsible) family members. The more money that is needed, then more transactions will need to occur because the balances will be split into many addresses over time.
I call this concept multisignature nesting. The wallet can generate encrypted keys that create overlapping multisignature accounts. They aggregate small balances into larger balances through voting shares. It will require a sophisticated wallet structure that ensures certain key holders are consistently given a specific number of keys for transactions.
Bitcoins sent from overseas can be separated into many addresses for deposit into the family wallet depending on the family needs. Some can be quickly liquidated and some would require family consensus, depending on which addresses they are sent. They could even choose to use a service similar to Coinbase or Bitpay to transmit some as local currency. The important thing is to keep as much money under family control and not as paper currency.
There are many key management schemes that can be used for additional security. Master keys can be created to provide emergency access and secured with real world measures (like tally sticks, safe deposit boxes, sunken treasure chests, etc.). I will leave these ideas to the resourcefulness of the Philippine people.
This concept can scale. While family bonds help provide some security, it doesn't necessarily offer enough liquidity. Family wallets can overlap if needed into tribal or community wallets, but the concept is already in legal gray areas. It can serve as a credit union, insurance provider, or any other financial institution. It's a powerful use of Bitcoin and needs development.
I would prefer that much of this can be done with hardware based keys or at least secure paper keys. (Pipe dream: I would like to see air-gapped hardware act as secure multisignatory devices that can be used on public computers and networks.) I am looking for feedback and development proposals.
Edit:
How the Family Wallet works.
HD wallets will make this possible, but large multisignature transactions will not be recognised. Instead, the Family Wallet actually signs the transaction as a two of three transaction and issues the keys as Shamir's Secret Sharing Keys and attaches the public addresses to the keys. When all the signatures into the Family Wallet meet the requirements for a transaction, then the three keys are issued to the voting members and anyone can authorize the transaction. It will just alert everyone that a transaction is being made.
Besides a personal Bitcoin Wallet, each individual family member will have an HD watch only wallet that is issued voting keys for Family Wallet addresses. When the balances are spent in the Family Wallet, those voting keys will be useless and new keys will need to be added. Any family member can authorize all family members to generate their share of keys based on agreement. The cryptographic method of key generation is multisignature in nature, but will require a complex algorithm that can handle large M of N key generation and manage large numbers of keys.
Let's say a family has a grandmother and two close siblings, twelve children, eight spouses, thirty grandchildren and three teenage great grandchildren. The siblings of the grandmother would not be key holders, but may have arbitration rights to master private key management for the inheriting children in the event of the grandmother's death. Each head of household would also start their own Family Bitcoin Wallet in addition to a personal one, but would split some of their deposits into the Main Family Wallet and be subject to its voting structure until if or when they choose to break from the Main Family Wallet. The Main Family Wallet would not have Master Private Key access to a Family Wallet, but Main Family Wallet addresses that require few signatures so that a Family Wallet has enough signatures to it can remove the balances. It's a way to integrate multiple Family's Wallets without giving them direct voting shares into another Family Wallet.
The Philippines is a unique nation. Partly because these island people are part of the first major human migration and because they learned to use the islands to escape invaders, they have preserved at least some core human traits going back to the dawn of man. Despite invasions from nearly every major empire, they have retained their decentralized social networking that evolved from understanding ocean navigation, because the islands are interconnected like network nodes.
Their sense of family and tribe runs deeper than religion or nationalism. The family hierarchy is firmly supported by the understanding that children take care of their elders. Older siblings help younger siblings so they can in turn share family burdens. While politics has as much corruption as every other nation, it never threatens the deep family connections. Filipino politics will never intentionally undermine the safety and well-being of its people. Sure there are powerful families that monopolize most industries, but that is partly an artifact of whatever deals were made with conquering nations and have little impact on family structure.
Currently, over 60% of Philippine GDP is generated by family members working overseas and sending money home. The remittance system is inefficient and expensive, costing Filipinos up to nearly ten percent in fees just to send money home. Filipinos are arguably the most socially networked global community. Filipinos understand personal security and accountability. They are also the most resourceful people I've met. Every Filipino I've mentioned Bitcoin to has understood its basic tenets. These basic observation make them unique in many respects to having a natural affinity to decentralization.
Most Filipino families have little in liquid reserves for family needs. Most don't have bank accounts because they cannot keep the minimum balance. Because of this, they have not developed a sense of saving money. They depend on overseas working family members to provide liquidity to handle not just emergencies, but also expected needs. Now with modern Western cultural influence, they are becoming addicted to predatory consumerism. This consumerism makes them even more dependent on remittance funds. It's not because they are irresponsible, it's because money comes to them in the form of cash over the counter at a remittance center and not into a bank account. Will banks help families by providing free services? Of course not. Enter Bitcoin.
The Family Wallet:
Bitcoin multisignature transactions are powerful tools for family financial security. For Filipinos they can fulfill a role in the control of family finances and family responsibilities. A wallet can be designed to create addresses requiring multisignatures for access. Family members will agree upon terms for monies deposited into these addresses and how they can be accessed. The family hierarchical structure can demand that signatures act like shares and the oldest family members have more signatures and thus voting shares. The wallet can issue addresses as needed for various amounts based upon how many signatures they will require for accessing the funds. So for instance, if a small amount is needed, then only a few signatures are needed to access them. If a large amount is needed, it will require many signatures and those of the eldest (or most mature and responsible) family members. The more money that is needed, then more transactions will need to occur because the balances will be split into many addresses over time.
I call this concept multisignature nesting. The wallet can generate encrypted keys that create overlapping multisignature accounts. They aggregate small balances into larger balances through voting shares. It will require a sophisticated wallet structure that ensures certain key holders are consistently given a specific number of keys for transactions.
Bitcoins sent from overseas can be separated into many addresses for deposit into the family wallet depending on the family needs. Some can be quickly liquidated and some would require family consensus, depending on which addresses they are sent. They could even choose to use a service similar to Coinbase or Bitpay to transmit some as local currency. The important thing is to keep as much money under family control and not as paper currency.
There are many key management schemes that can be used for additional security. Master keys can be created to provide emergency access and secured with real world measures (like tally sticks, safe deposit boxes, sunken treasure chests, etc.). I will leave these ideas to the resourcefulness of the Philippine people.
This concept can scale. While family bonds help provide some security, it doesn't necessarily offer enough liquidity. Family wallets can overlap if needed into tribal or community wallets, but the concept is already in legal gray areas. It can serve as a credit union, insurance provider, or any other financial institution. It's a powerful use of Bitcoin and needs development.
I would prefer that much of this can be done with hardware based keys or at least secure paper keys. (Pipe dream: I would like to see air-gapped hardware act as secure multisignatory devices that can be used on public computers and networks.) I am looking for feedback and development proposals.
Edit:
How the Family Wallet works.
HD wallets will make this possible, but large multisignature transactions will not be recognised. Instead, the Family Wallet actually signs the transaction as a two of three transaction and issues the keys as Shamir's Secret Sharing Keys and attaches the public addresses to the keys. When all the signatures into the Family Wallet meet the requirements for a transaction, then the three keys are issued to the voting members and anyone can authorize the transaction. It will just alert everyone that a transaction is being made.
Besides a personal Bitcoin Wallet, each individual family member will have an HD watch only wallet that is issued voting keys for Family Wallet addresses. When the balances are spent in the Family Wallet, those voting keys will be useless and new keys will need to be added. Any family member can authorize all family members to generate their share of keys based on agreement. The cryptographic method of key generation is multisignature in nature, but will require a complex algorithm that can handle large M of N key generation and manage large numbers of keys.
Let's say a family has a grandmother and two close siblings, twelve children, eight spouses, thirty grandchildren and three teenage great grandchildren. The siblings of the grandmother would not be key holders, but may have arbitration rights to master private key management for the inheriting children in the event of the grandmother's death. Each head of household would also start their own Family Bitcoin Wallet in addition to a personal one, but would split some of their deposits into the Main Family Wallet and be subject to its voting structure until if or when they choose to break from the Main Family Wallet. The Main Family Wallet would not have Master Private Key access to a Family Wallet, but Main Family Wallet addresses that require few signatures so that a Family Wallet has enough signatures to it can remove the balances. It's a way to integrate multiple Family's Wallets without giving them direct voting shares into another Family Wallet.
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