Published on: 2014-05-19T18:39:21+00:00
Participants in discussions about the use of paper money in Bitcoin highlighted the importance of usability and maintaining high standards. One suggestion was to use Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) as a solution to protect against unauthorized redemption. These discussions focused on the need for a social contract in Bitcoin, secure and decentralized paper implementations of sidechains, and the potential of paper currency representing bitcoins. The conversations emphasized the ongoing efforts within the Bitcoin community to improve security, usability, and trust in the system.In an email thread, Chris Pacia expressed concerns about the security of using physical bitcoin notes. He pointed out 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. Chris also suggested that Othercoin has better properties for offline transactions. Separately, Cassius encountered regulatory issues with selling physical bitcoin artifacts, especially those that imply redeemable value. The base58 encoding used for the physical bitcoins was criticized for being unfriendly to humans, and the A/B side design may be difficult to educate users about. It was also noted that 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.Chris, a user on the Bitcoin-development mailing list, expressed concern about the viability of using paper currency to transfer bitcoins due to the need for immediate redemption and the potential for fraud. He also mentioned that this method would not work well in areas with poor internet connectivity. On the other hand, Jerry Felix proposed the idea of creating a counterfeit-resistant, inexpensive, internationally recognized, machine-readable paper currency that could be used to transfer bitcoins. He documented his proposed standard in BIP format and shared it on GitHub for discussion. Despite some fear of being laughed at, he submitted his proposal with humility.Jerry Felix wrote an email on May 17, 2014, at 11:31 am stating that he had picked some BIP numbers himself that seemed to be available. However, it was pointed out to him that this action was not allowed.In summary, there is a need for a counterfeit-resistant, inexpensive, internationally recognized, machine-readable paper currency that can fit in a wallet. This idea was presented at the Cincinnati Bitcoin meetup and has been documented into a proposed standard called provisional BIPs numbered BIP-80 to BIP-84. The proposal can be found on GitHub, and the author welcomes discussion about the idea.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T09:17:54.128523+00:00