Thursday, March 24, 2011

Point-of-Sale with Bitcoins

I've been thinking a lot about Bitcoins lately. For those of you who are too lazy to click links, Bitcoins are a brand new cryptocurrency. They're backed by some heavy-duty economic theory and secured by modern cryptography. They're entirely digital and decentralized. You don't need any banks or anything to transfer Bitcoins from one person to another, just one of their unique Bitcoin addresses and a handful of IP packets. The last I checked, 1 BTC = $0.84 USD.

So I got to thinking about issues that might occur in the event that Bitcoins catch on. First, they'll need some fancy symbol that you can type with shift and 4. I recommend a B with lines through it.

Secondly, there needs to be a convenient way for Bitcoins to be used out in meatspace. There needs to be a quick, point-of-sale-type way to transfer Bitcoins from one entity to another. I have a couple of thoughts for this.

The obvious solution is smartphones. Anyone with a smartphone running a Bitcoin client could, for example, scan a QR code for the Bitcoin address of an establishment at the register and transfer money that way.

The second thought would be if everyone carried their Bitcoin wallets around on a thumb drive, encrypted with a PIN number or some such. Then a cashier could transfer the money on a computer behind the counter, or, even better, a dedicated PIN-pad-esque device.

Anyway, just a couple of thoughts about Bitcoins in the real world.

2 comments:

BadQuanta said...

Great thoughts. Though from what I understand, the absolute last thing you want is for anyone to have read/write access to your "Wallet". The smartphone way would work and would really just take an app. :)

Scholar said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNpcf9rSBIk

Yah.