[57north-discuss] Fw: bitcoin

[Aidan Karley]

This didn't go to the list originally. 

Bitcoin addresses (public keys, really). If someone wants to pay you, you show them a QR code of an address at which you can receive Bitcoin.
That would be the 34-hexadecimal digit strings that Electrum (I just chose a tool at random ; experimenting) generated 5 of when I went through it's set up. 5 strings for "receiving" and 3 for "change". Use a QR code, or any other way of transmitting 34 hex-digits, up to and including RFC-1149 compatible Avian Carriers.I looked at QR codes for geological sample tracking. Decided that they wouldn't be worth the hassle. We'd still have to buggered around with specialist printers (polythene-dissolving oil-based mud was the "next big thing" at the time; did horrible things to skin too, unsurprisingly), So plain old graphite won out. Never actually had a need to use one. 
So, someone plugs one of my public keys, and amount, and the public key of an existing bitcoin into their application, and that spits out another public key which represents the transaction? 
Which still leaves the question of how the bitcoin gets split into the value of the transaction and the value of the change. How does that happen? I'll guess that it is something to do with the 3 "change" codes Electrum has generated. There are several other cryptographic code-like numbers associated with the account, including a master key (128 hex-digits), a series of plain-English words (about 36 hex-digits, I estimate) and a password which seems to be an Electrum-specific thing.  Another guess is that the "receiving" and "change" codes, as well as the other cryptographic detritus can be derived from the master key?

Sheesh, it's a learning curve for paying a paper-accessing service. Put it's still a learning curve worth climbing. Whether it's worth the 20-odd quid for round-tripping to the ATM in Glasgow is a distinct question. Probably. The question of whether anyone in the group actually has practical experience (or for that matter, bitcoin for sale) remains open. 

-- Aidan Karley, Scotland 

    On Friday, 26 February 2016, 16:30, Andrea Faulds <ajf at ajf.me> wrote:
 

 
> On 26 Feb 2016, at 12:51, tj <tj at enoti.me> wrote:
> 
> On Fri, Feb 26, 2016 at 12:39:57PM +0000, Aidan Karley wrote:
>> 
>>> The current situation with academic papers is ridiculous. It seems to be
>>> that firewalled paper just don't get read, no one is benefitting in this
>>> scenario.
>> Publishing companies benefit, most egregiously Elsevier, though there are many others only slightly less egregious.
>> It probably involves a smart phone app and a qr code.
>> Not going to happen. I had my phone pick-pocketed only a few months ago. Anything that requires more than phone numbers (which are duplicates of my "little black book") on my phone isn't going to happen. I appreciate "smart phones for unimportant things like Twitter and the occasional 16x16 sudoku, but anything that involves finance simply is not going to happen on my phone. 
>> 
>> Money is something that happens at home, or in cash. Or at the cash machine.
>> 
> 
> You understand bitcoin is a digital currency?
> 
> The next option is a laptop, honestly I have no idea how this particular
> machine works. Or any of the bitcoin machines.
> 
> You probably just need a qr code, but without a computer you
> control(smartphones are computers too) you won't be able to verify the
> transaction has worked.

With Bitcoin, QR codes are just used for the Bitcoin addresses (public keys, really). If someone wants to pay you, you show them a QR code of an address at which you can receive Bitcoin. If you want to pay someone, you scan their QR code and send Bitcoin to that address.
--
Andrea Faulds
https://ajf.me/






   

  
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