GoTenna launches a Bitcoin wallet that works without Internet

If James Bond needed to use Bitcoin on a secret jungle mission, he probably could not go through Starbucks to use Wi-Fi.

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Because Internet connections are not always available, users of reliable or private cryptocurrencies need alternative ways to connect to the network.

So the startup goTenna, based in New York, founded in 2012 by Brazilian brothers Daniela and Jorge Perdomo, is partnering with Samourai Wallet to launch an Android application this summer that allows users to send Bitcoin payments without an Internet connection. .

The txTenna application, announced on Monday, will allow users to synchronize their mobile devices with a GoTenna device, which costs 179 USD per pair, to then toggle the configuration of the wallet application to perform offline transactions and send the Bitcoin.

"You need to be able to spend your Bitcoin even in disaster areas," GoNenna engineer Richard Meyers told CoinDesk, citing recent work by the Perdomo brothers in Puerto Rico, where GoTenna devices helped people reconnect after Hurricane Maria. "As long as you have a way to charge your phone, you can stay in touch and communicate."

The signal must be within approximately one mile of another goTenna device to relay the message through the mesh network, a system of decades of Internet use without Wi-Fi or landline. So far, goTenna has sold more than 100,000 devices that allow users to access the mesh network.

If the offline Bitcoin user is within one mile of another active device, the transaction may bounce off the mesh until it reaches a user with an Internet connection.

"It offers an alternative that is more resistant to censorship," Meyers said, adding:

"It will hide who you are and where you are when you make these transactions. So that's a great privacy advantage there. "

This system uses a free and unlicensed radio frequency, and is not the first association to explore that potential for cryptocurrency networks.

You need a town

Taking a step back, a variety of projects since the Cold War have used relatively cheap and mobile radio configurations to transmit through firewalls and oceans.

Last year, renowned cryptographer Nick Szabo and blockchain engineer Elaine Ou published a proposal detailing how weak signal radio transmissions could help boost the security and diversity of connections through the Bitcoin network.

Then, in December, after the US Federal Communications Commission. UU He repealed the "neutrality of the network", the fans of Ethereum, the second most popular block chain in the world, began to meet to meet at online technology meetings.

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When net neutrality rules expire next month, Internet service providers will no longer be banned from favoring or blocking specific websites and communities. It is an opportune moment for censorship-resistant tools for Bitcoin transactions.

Perhaps the most important aspect of txTenna is that the cryptocurrency wallet will be an open source project.

In fact, it was the open source communication tools of Samourai Wallet on Github that first inspired the GoTenna team to reach the bitcoin startup. The same txTenna code could theoretically apply to iOS wallet apps.

As Meyers explained :

"It could work with any software wallet and the Samourai Wallet developers do not write it specifically for Samourai's wallet. It will be something that any wallet provider could send transactions. "

Source: CoinDesk