Arguably the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin has attracted everyone from libertarian rebels, to wealthy investors seeing a potentially profitable asset in the making. Yet as a currency, bitcoin has had some problems with purchases and transactions being completed in a timely fashion owing to problems with the Internet-based transaction software and processing.
Looking to change that is Jan Vornberger, who on Jan. 18 was reportedly working on a simple hardware system that would allow bitcoin transactions to be completed without an Internet connection, and would make the transactions between customer and merchant more direct without having to go through the slow, and sometimes insecure, bitcoin network.
The device, known as bitcoin Box, would connect with merchants by using a combination of Bluetooth and NFC technology that reads smartphones loaded with bitcoin wallets. The transactions, according to one test, take about 30 seconds to confirm with the merchant, a shorter time than it would take to feed the transactions through questionable Internet connections that can easily fail. The design, according to Vornberger, who is also developing an Android compatible Hive Wallet, would be made from “off the shelf” components with a Raspberry Pi board at its heart at an initial retail price of $299.
The Bluetooth/NFC hybrid was inspired by Apple Pay’s payment system, which operates along as the same principles, and follows BIP70 protocol on security. At the moment, the Box is only meant for low volume transactions, since the bitcoin market isn’t large enough for custom hardware and the first goal is to get more brick-and-mortar establishments to get comfortable with using bitcoin. Should the initial rollout prove successful, Vornberger believes the technology can become standardized throughout the market, and will become substantially cheaper to access the appropriate hardware for secure bitcoin processing.
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