Topic: Kong Cash & Offline Cash Notes- something doesn't seem right here, help needed! (Read 292 times)

That is what I am talking about... it should not take the understand of code or wondering about a central server to have trust in your cryptocurrency storage device.

I used the notes in typical fashion and surprisingly didn't have any issues. I just don't know enough about coding to be able to figure out if the source code will do what it actually says. It's a skill issue on my end Figured I'd post it up in here though for any gurus who might know better.

Questions like this lead me to believe these items should not be used for storage of any bitcoin or other cryptos

Hope ya'll don't mind my bump, but finally managed to get the source code from offlinecash a few weeks back. No idea how to read through all of this myself, but hopefully someone on here would be able to provide some insight, a couple of questions I have would be:

Are the notes reliant on the server in the event they pull their app down? Could we still redeem?
Is the re-key function actually legit? Does it work as they stated and send coins to newly generated address that is time locked or able to be used once the note is unsealed?

github: https://github.com/offline-cash/OfflineCashClient

Figure I'd post a little update in here since I initially thought this whole thing was pretty shady and had made some comments on discord about it:

First, they took months and months to even release their app for iphone, then rolled it out for android devices.

To this day, when you scan the QR code it still shows a page on their website that show both apps as "pending approval"

I had reached out previously to them on twitter and had decent response times up until end of last year/ start of this year, at which point I sent them 3-4 messages over the course of 3-4 months and didn't get a response. They have since resumed responding to me.

I found the Offline Cash app in the play store in spite of this (0 reviews and shows no downloads yet).

I noticed the Kong cash connection when I found the offline cash app in the app store and had clicked the developer to see what other apps they had made and saw "KONG" listed as well.

I haven't looked into Kong as heavily but did message the team on twitter and confirmed it was the same group that has created both sets of notes.

I had a similar issue to Mopar in that I couldn't get the notes to work and the app would keep spitting out random errors during address creation, however once I restarted the app and rescanned the note I noticed it did in fact create a wallet on the paper.

So far I have managed to add funds, withdraw funds, and can confirm the wallet does show the NFC as being "Unsealed" once the piece on the back is cut. I was able to withdraw no problems after the note was cut as well. The only mystery here is whether or not re-keying the note will work as intended and make you force hodl til the date specified or until you decide to cut the note as marked on the back.

Re-key function:
It generates a new key between your entropy and entropy from the app and then initiates a transaction to send the BTC from the old address to a new address, the new address is a p2sh.
^ This is the part that's more or less an unknown so far, whether it will work as intended. The note would have to report to the "server" as "unsealed" in order to get the rest of the keys. The idea behind the time lock is that in the event their server goes down, You should still be able to access your coins after that time. At least that's my understanding of it, though I'm not the most tech savy person and may be missing something here.

Source code:
We haven’t released the source yet, plan is to with the update.



I may have jumped the gun with calling it shady, but it definitely wasn't a smooth roll out. At the very least I can confirm that for now the notes do work as intended, however months of more or less radio silence and a non-working app definitely isn't a good look to launch a product with.

Edited edit: Got the customized entropy to work. It seems there must be a specific amount of characters that need to be used in order to generate enough bits. Had tried with a few shorter phrases and it didn't work but got it working just fine using a longer custom phrase.

  Thanks for doing this Ty...our forum Sherlock Holmes!

   I have bought the notes some on my own and also IIRC thru a group buy.

   Of course I never loaded them and wouldn't trust them for sure regardless.

   But you have a nose about these things and thanks for looking into these and others that are suspect.

   Our crypto world is full of these cockroaches...and you my friend are the exterminator~!

I could never get the app to work so never tested funding/redemption though I did get a few extra notes to do this. However, broken app = no loading.

Reserved

I saw Kong Cash and Offline Cash notes pop up somewhere maybe a year ago or so, but didn't really look in to.  I spoke with a fellow forum collector who notified a discord group about this company. He owns some of the Offline notes, and they refuse to respond to him for help (it's been several months).  They seem to have abandoned this project (app is not working), and continued on with their other product (with a different website) Kong Cash.  

Having multiple websites for the same thing essentially has been a common theme among makers who are looking to be netherious. This absolutely doesn't guarantee that, it's speculation here..but I've seen this many times, and it's been done so for a reason, and not a good one.

Both of these notes seem to have some sort of time lock smart contract ( of course they claiim they were first, which they weren't, Yogg was).  

So these offline cash notes have this time-lock, and both parties must work together to redeem if you're doing so before the time lock is up.  So what if they go mia?.. "If we stop supporting the Bitcoin Note or refuse to release the decryption key for the manufacturer key, you can use the source code of the mobile applications to build the app and claim funds after the “claim before” date printed on the note".   Great, but your app doesn't work so...
So if you've got a funded Offline Cash note right now and want to redeem...YOU CANT. (This is like the Titan 2FA deal).  

As for Kong Cash..I've never seen a more convoluted nonsensical word salad white paper like theirs.  I've read many WPs, and there's takes the cake.  Their WP is 16 pages of an almost guaranteed brain aneurysm.  Here's where things lie with this..I NEED HELP!  As many of you know, I'm not Mr Robot.  This WP is convoluted with technical cryptographic, coding, programmer language type stuff that I just can't understand.  It seems to me that with Kong there is some level of them being needed to be involved for redemption as well...but again..I can't understand it.  What I do know, and I'm sure you Mr Robots would agree with me..there's so much unnecessary world salad nonsense going on here..and I believe it might be on purpose.  Why ? When people get confused they will often simply give up, and its no different here in this space..that could potentially be a way for them to keep funds for down the road of those who gave up trying to redeem. Here's that WP - https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmbHnwBuM7Y41Q1DqnMDRx8yQ1aCMtqVka9biPY6cjWogq

Kong's site- https://kong.cash/
Offline Cash- https://offline.cash/

Again, I really need some help here. I'm going to finish reading the WP and digging in both websites further as well as try to find out who exactly owns both these companies and how they are established (is this an LLC company?) and where are they are registered (is it in Europe, the US..or perhaps Dubai or the British Virgin Islands..if the latter...massive red flag).  

The forum member with some of these notes it going to try and fund and redeem one of his Offline Cash notes, doing so to help me out with looking in to all this.  Of course I don't think it's possible,but we are going to test nonetheless..so stay tuned for that.

There's red flags galore around this company and it's notes. So that's why I wanted to make this thread before finishing my final "review"..people need to know ASAP.   Of course I would never ever recommend funding these, and if you have either and somehow can redeem your notes..do it.  

I will be working more on the Kong stuff..that note is 100x more convoluted and confusing..plus they seem to have some token attached to it.  

Really appreciate anyone willing to help me here!

Here's their Apple apps and review.  If you have an android and could share reviews there, would be appreciated!



From Offline Cash


From Kong ( why was there no developer response given here?!)