Bitcoin to banknotes
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Headline-making BitcoinBitcoin is commonly said to be a cryptocurrency, a digital means of exchange developed by a set of anonymous authors under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, which began operating in 2009 as a community project (Wikipedia type), without the relationship or dependency of any government, state, company or body, and whose value (formed by a complicated system of mathematical algorithms and cryptography) is not supported by any central bank or authority. Bitcoins are essentially accounting entries i... More is now a cryptocurrency-cum-banknote as it moves into a new dimension: the real world. It might sound like an oxymoron, but the digital currencyThe money used in a particular country at a particular time, like dollar, yen, euro, etc., consisting of banknotes and coins, that does not require endorsement as a medium of exchange. More is now available in two denominations, the 0.01 and the 0.05 BTC that can be found in Singapore at the Megafash Suntec City store.
Manufactured by the Swiss startup Tangem, the banknoteA banknote (or ‘bill’ as it is often referred to in the US) is a type of negotiable promissory note, issued by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. More has an integrated hardware system based on one of Samsung’s semiconductor chips. The notes are “cheap enough to hand over” and, according to Bitcoin News, need “no special infrastructure, no complicated applications”. The user simply needs an NFC– capable smartphone to check the note’s assets.
The Zug-based company states that these smart banknotes are “comparable to a well-protected paperSee Banknote paper. More banknote”, a clear acknowledgement that tangible moneyFrom the Latin word moneta, nickname that was given by Romans to the goddess Juno because there was a minting workshop next to her temple. Money is any item that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular region, country or socio-economic context. Its onset dates back to the origins of humanity and its physical representation has taken on very varied forms until the appearance of metal coins. The banknote, a typical representati... More is indeed a secure and practical tool for a number of transactions. The bottom line is that things are coming full circle: from digital to tangible and from crypto to banknote. Even on the Tangem website, the company speaks of a “cash-like” product to promote its digital note.
The message is loud and clear, and certainly the motive behind Tangem’s offer, that cryptocurrencies are generally inaccessible to the majority of the population as they are not well understood and not particularly user-friendly. The advantage of a banknote is that it’s concrete and that any given transaction simply requires an exchangeThe Eurosystem comprises the European Central Bank and the national central banks of those countries that have adopted the euro. More of notes, nothing more. No computer, no fancy infrastructure, no wifi.
Tangem delivered the first 10,000 notes to Singapore early this month after having undergone a comprehensive security audit by Kudelski Group.
Photo credit: PRNewsfoto/Tangem
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