Each coin from now on will be marked with an epilog laser "BUYER FUNDED" on the hologram.
I understand that. To me, the coin loses some of its magic with a "BUYER FUNDED" marking that really means "This my be empty - go check before accepting". I was hoping you'd consider selling coins that didn't require a "BUYER FUNDED" label because you certified it before it was shipped.
All of my previous coins and all other physical coins would require you to check the balance despite being funded.
I understand that physical attacks are possible (Actually, I was across the hallway in another talk when the Casascius coin was opened with minimal damage at DefCon.), but I'd be comfortable buying small denomination coins based on physical verification. Besides, a sneaky seller that peeked at the key would probably spend it after you verified the balance, anyways.
Don't get me wrong. I think it is great that you're bringing these back! I'm keeping my current ones for the long haul!
If I were to fund coins I would be targeted as "money transmitting", which I do not want to be accused of from the financial regulators, hence my approach.
I could have buyers fund their own coins prior to my shipping to them but that opens up the possibility of a coin getting lost in transit that was funded. Not to mention international customers being subject to paying high taxes for funded coins when going through customs. If the buyer is willing to take on the risk of that happening I may consider not marking the coins and just checking that the coins were funded before I ship them.
I'm going to be scanning all of my coins and much like Mike I will be digitally signing the pdfs for the coins should a buyer request the pdfs to see how they looked when they were sold (as tampering generally will leave some movement of the hologram etc.)
Lasering the edges of the security holograms adds some physical security to the attacks that exist. Mike used a similar approach and had the attackers attempt to crack it and supposedly (don't take my word for it) they were not successful cracking the lasered coin(s). The edges turn very brittle at that point and any small tampering will likely show. Of course nothing is hack-proof.
BTW thanks for the kind words. It is nice to be back producing coins once again!