Author: Gregory Maxwell 2014-05-17 16:40:17
Published on: 2014-05-17T16:40:17+00:00
In an email thread, Chris Pacia expresses concern about the security of using physical bitcoin notes. He notes that simply scanning the note is not enough to ensure validity, as it must be successfully swept to avoid double-spending. This creates a vulnerability for any prior bearer to record private keys and perform a double-spend race later on. Additionally, he suggests that Othercoin has better properties in the space of offline transactions. Separately, Cassius has encountered regulatory issues with selling physical bitcoin artifacts, particularly those that imply redeemable value. The base58 encoding used for the physical bitcoins is also criticized for being unfriendly to humans, and the A/B side design may be difficult to educate users about. Finally, there is no way to check txouts without recovering the private key, but this may not be necessary since no one should rely on such a measurement without sweeping.
Updated on: 2023-05-19T18:53:39.570057+00:00