2

I'm familiar with the Coinbase and Blockchain.info approaches to this, but both these require registration/login (correct me if I'm wrong). I heard about something called Coinapult, but on visiting their website I don't see much about sending coins, and it says "not available in your country", and I'm in the U.S. I'm pretty sure I saw something for Dogecoin that does this, but not bitcoin.

Wouldn't there be some demand for a simple service that:

  1. Lets you visit it on desktop/mobile web
  2. Has no login or account needed to send or receive coins
  3. Lets you specify a timeout and return to address if the recipient doesn't retrieve the coins in time
  4. Generates and displays a recipient bitcoin address, QR, hyperlink for you to copy/paste, scan or click so that your bitcoin wallet gets the address or payment request.
  5. Saves the private keys for the generated addresses in their own system, but with the idea that recipients of coins will be prompted to transfer funds to their own wallet.
  6. Sends an email to the recipient with a hyperlink to gain access to a web form that lets them transfer the coins to any bitcoin address they choose.
  7. Does not charge fees (maybe ad supported or maybe offers opportunity to download a wallet application) or maybe charges a very minimal transaction fee.

Anyway, does this exist for Bitcoin yet? Or what features above are missing or should get changed?

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

This is technically possible and can be easily implemented, but I see two problems, which may be stopping people from creating such a service:

  1. Trust: how can the service ensure its clients that it will not steal their money?

  2. Security: email is not secure, a man in the middle can access the
    email message on its way before the recipient, and steal the money.

If there is a solution to these two problems, there will be demand and implementations of such service.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Right, the "Trust" issue is valid, but perhaps initially it could be limited to sending small amounts of bitcoins, so maybe <$200 USD at a time, until trust is established. As for the security, well most people have all their password resets going to email anyway. This includes bank accounts, etc. So while not perfect, it should still work. Ideally the email is sent using ssl to the receivers email system.
    – Fraggle
    Jul 14, 2014 at 13:44
0

Blockonomics email service does most of what you describe and doesn't require any login. Its distributed trust model ensures that you don't have to trust it with your private keys

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.