Author: Mike Hearn 2015-02-05 20:28:37
Published on: 2015-02-05T20:28:37+00:00
BIP70 requests can be sent over Bluetooth, including transactions. Bitcoin Wallet allows for offline money transfers through this method. However, BLE has tight data constraints and is not suitable for data transfer. New APIs have been added to improve Android Beam's UI, which previously required users to tap devices together and then press them. The donation to live performer scenario works well as there is only one recipient and many senders but the issue of confused payments remains in other situations.For a coffee shop scenario, it would be better to use a Square-style UI where a device broadcasts a link to a photo of the user combined with a Bluetooth MAC. The merchant tablet can display faces of people in the shop, push a payment request to the user's device, which can buzz them, show confirmation on their smartwatch, or auto-authorize the payment if the BIP70 signature is from a trusted merchant. Users don't need to touch their phone at all.Paul Puey suggests that the BIP70 protocol does not allow individuals to use the P2P transfer spec. There is also a requirement for senders to have internet connectivity to access payment protocol information. BLE could make payments possible without the internet by transferring the URI from recipient to sender through Bluetooth and signing a Tx to send back to the recipient. NFC is clunky due to Android issues, requiring the URI sender to tap the screen while the two phones are in contact. BLE allows payments at a distance, such as a donation to a live performer. Instead of using "bitcoin:" URIs, Andreas Schildbach suggests publishing BIP70 payment requests to address the copycat problem by signing payment requests. NFC already addresses usability issues and is supported by mobile wallets since 2011.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T16:34:08.591842+00:00