Topic: Loaded Aluminum Casascius Coins [50 mBTC] [sold out] (Read 2515 times)

Hey btceic, I'm hoping to have more soon.  I've had to work on other projects recently but I plan to have some more by next week sometime.

Im itching to buy more, any new updates?

Thanks Raize and thanks for the feedback.  I'll be sure and address these things in the next set.

I received my coins as well. They are in great shape.

Just as an FYI, the difference between a "g" and "q" is hard to tell as the lower portion is cut off. Something to keep in mind for the next batch run might be to exclude all "j", "g", "q", "p", "y", etc. characters. Also might want to avoid h and b, because the cutoff makes it hard to tell which is which.

Even with this handicap I was still able to identify and confirm all of the addresses had been loaded, though.

wow, they look nice !!


I would want some 100mBTC

Hey OgNasty, I will likely have another set in a few weeks but I have not decided what the denomination will be yet.  It will be somewhere between 10 and 100 millibitcoin.

What other coins do you have planned?

Great btceic.  Glad you like them.

Just got my second shipment in today and as usual they are great, thanks again serp I really appreciate the prompt and courteous service.

The holograms are generic ones.  It would not have been feasible to pay a lot for custom ones for cheaper coins.  They are available from many locations.  I know I've ordered from two different places and got the same ones.  I wrote custom scripts to create the labels with the qr code included so I was able to size the qr code to whatever size I wanted.  I chose as big as I could get them and still have them fit underneath the hologram.  Everything took a lot of trial and error and wasted mats to get right but I think it turned out well.  I think most of the process is documented in either this thread or my other thread with the original coins.

Each time I go through this I think of ways to make the process and code a little better.  I hope to release a howto and the code after a few more runs.  I know there are people out there with the aluminum coins.

looking good.
may I ask where you got the holograms?
are the QR codes really THAT small?
how did you get the QR code printed on the coin?

I just got my bag of alu coins yesterday, was wondering what to do with it.
This seems like an awesome idea.

since I am in the EU, we'd not even cross businesses.

please tell! :-D

Thanks TheLordOfTime  
I'll get yours and the rest of the orders out tomorrow morning.

I had two of these coins on hold.  I had requested the hold privately.  This is the official "Buying them" order.  Two of these coins, please! (totals BTC0.16 without shipping costs, read on for details)

The stated BTC0.05 shipping cost is, I assume, for first-class mail.  I'm going to request that you ship it as Priority mail, which is a bit more expensive, but personally I've had more mail get to me when it's shipped as Priority mail than when sent first-class.  (It's also not as expensive as Express mail, but still more expensive than first class).

Let me know what the final cost is with shipping, as we discussed privately, and send me a BTC address to send to, and I'll send the BTC your way.  

(I sent you the shipping address privately, as well)

(Retroactive edit: With shipping costs based on gox last at the time, total BTC sent to serp was 0.219.)

ok, let me know, thanks again!

Sure, a couple people have asked me to keep on hold but whatever is left tonight when I make it home is fair game.  Really the 10/customer rule was for the first day or two to make sure that those that were waiting on new coins all got to order some and I believe that to be the case now.

I might be in if you lift the 10 per customer rule.

Just a quick update.  There are only 10 coins remaining now.

Thanks BitAddict!

They look great for low cost physical coins! Nice job 

don't worry about it 

I'm think I'm just gonna buy some BTC soon 

How much does he need?

Hey miffman, I know that shipping is a killer for you   Best I can do is offer to refund some if it's cheaper when I go to mail it (or the btc/usd rate is higher).  This turned out to be the case for some of the outside US ones I sent last time around so I was able to refund a little bit to some people.

these look great! 

one day I will have enough BTC to buy one 

I have certainly considered it.  The fear there is that the time it takes to obtain the firstbit addresses from the time of funding.  And the firstbits need to go along with the qr code in the creation process which translates to the private key.  Unfortunately, confirmations are needed before you can do the firstbit address and those take time.  If for some reason during that 1-2 hours I lost power then I would have just funded 48 addresses I could not use or access.

It's great to talk these details out.  My hope is to do a few rounds of these coins and continue to improve the process/code and then release it.

Okay yes that answers my questions. If you could hold 10 coins for 30 hours I would appreciate it. No longer then 30 hours as that would not be fair to you. Have some things to take care of, I probably will buy these but not 100% positive on that. If you cannot I completely understand.

Thank you sir!

######################################
Status: 0/unconfirmed, broadcast through 6 nodes
Date: 7/9/2013 22:41
To: Serp - 10 Aluminum .05 Coins 1EKVoBVXsvLX3KRDUbWNj3Vzx9JG79F7vH
Debit: -0.85 BTC
Transaction fee: -0.00000001 BTC
Net amount: -0.85000001 BTC
Transaction ID: 537d454538143c434e4501dab8aec123b777049a6a3e0a6b6fc655c7445c52cc
######################################

Have a great day!

You got it.
Your total is 0.85
Your address to send to is 1EKVoBVXsvLX3KRDUbWNj3Vzx9JG79F7vH

I will get them ready tonight and can mail them out tomorrow.

Also my trip went well thank you for asking

Could you put those files on a volatile drive or only in ram instead of to disk?

Hey KingOfSports, as with any loaded coin you will buy I had to create the private addresses in the beginning.  Once the labels are finished I have a script which shreds all the cache files I used during the creation process.  This removes the private keys from my drive.  I do keep the public bitcoin address/firstbits addresses for verification purposes but I do not keep the private addresses.  As with any such coins though, this is a matter of trust.

The file system used is ext4.  So I use a shred then sync then another shred which should help with the shredding on a journaled file system.  More specifically I do the following:

This should mean that not only are the files deleted but should not be recoverable in case someone were to steal my hard drive.  As always though, if anyone has any suggestions on a more secure method I would love to hear it.


As for how you scan the codes, a QR code is a method of turning text into an image.  There are different formats which translate to different things such as address book entries, website urls, wifi passwords, or in this case just a string of text.  Most QR code scanners should be able to just scan in the image and then translate it to a string of text.  That text would be the private key.  As mentioned above, there are some phone apps which make this process easier but they are not necessary.

One last note that is related to both your questions is that at least some (perhaps most now?) wallet apps give you the option to SWEEP the keys instead of importing them.  This allows you to take the value on the imported key and put it on addresses you already have in your wallet.

10 please, same address as last time, please post the purchase btc address.

P.S.
How was your trip?

Do you personally know the private keys for these addresses? Also, how does just scanning the code give me access to the address? I don't know how that works but I do have a scanner on my smartphone.

The first set proved very popular so I've made another set.  This time they are loaded with 0.05 BTC (50 millibitcoin).
To see some of the first set and an example of how a scratched off coin looks, see previous thread: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/aluminum-casascius-coins-sold-out-240768

Price: 0.08 BTC/coin.
Shipping: US: 0.05 BTC, Outside US: 0.2 BTC
Maximum Order: 10 coins or less.

WARNING:  All shipments will come with a tracking address which I will give to you quickly. However, USPS tracking with first class is hit or miss within the US and pretty awful outside the US.  Unfortunately, the cost for better options is a LOT higher.  If you want these I can accommodate but they will cost >0.2 btc in the US and >0.5 btc outside the US. If you want it then ask me and I'll price it.  USPS estimates 2-3 days shipping time on first class within the US and 10-12 days outside the US.  I have had shipments take much less time than this and much longer.


Specs:
 - Labeled FIFTY MILLIBITCOIN at top.
 - Labeled sc v1 (first version was sc v0.1) on left.
 - Labeled #/48 on right (there are 48 total coins).
 - Labeled with firstbits address on bottom for verification.
 - The coins are the 1.25" aluminum coins from Casascius.
 - Weatherproof silver foil labels (laser printed).
 - Hologram scratch off covering private key qr code.
 - Loaded with 0.05 BTC (50 millibitcoin).

Images:




How do you redeem these?
Each coin has a qr code which can be scanned in to read a private key of a bitcoin address.  A few phone bitcoin wallet apps make this easy such as the blockchain.info app.  If you are unable or unwilling to use one of these apps you can always use any qr code scanner application which will turn the code into text which can then be entered into any bitcoin wallet as a private key.  Redeeming these keys does not rely on any one website or app.  For a more technical answer, the qr code is of a private key in WIP format which I believe is the most widely supported format for bitcoin wallets.

How big/heavy are the coins?
They are 1.25" in diameter and made of aluminum.  Slightly larger than a US 50 cent piece but since they are aluminum they are fairly light weight.

How do you do this?
I have written scripts for the address creation, funding, label pdf creation.  The rest is just a very manual process using precision tweezers.  That's why I only do 48 at a time.

Why the limit of 10 coins?
Mostly due to the amount of people who have asked for them and the limited amount I can make at a time.