How do I get a Bitcoin Cash wallet with CoinText?

You get an SMS Bitcoin Cash (BCH) wallet by texting a valid command to CoinText’s number for your region, or when someone else sends BCH to your phone number using CoinText. See valid commands here.

Why am I not getting a response to my valid commands?

In order to minimize unnecessary SMS traffic and provide the absolute lowest fees for our users, certain commands will only function at set intervals. These include:

BALANCE – Once per 10 minutes

RECEIVE / LEGACY – Once per hour

CASH – Only once

CoinText settles all transactions directly on the BCH blockchain and you can view the balance of your address at anytime by entering it into a blockchain explorer such as Blockchair or Blockdozer.

I tried sending BCH, entered the 2FA code, why didn’t it work?

Remove any symbols or spaces from your destination phone number and try again. Also make sure you have enough funds to cover about $.02 cents in fees (CoinText and BCH network) in addition to the amount you’re trying to send. To send your full balance including the fee, use the command: Send ALL PhoneNumber (or BCH address)

I received BCH via SMS but CoinText doesn’t have a local number in my region. How do I move my BCH?

If your phone has received BCH via SMS, say from outside your country, rest assured, the funds are sitting securely in an address only your phone can access. However, you can only move your BCH if your phone can communicate over SMS with a CoinText access number. Therefore, you must either have an international texting plan with your mobile service provider or wait until CoinText establishes a gateway in your region.

We are always adding new regions. Check here to see if your area has been added.

If I am in another country, can I use that local number?

Technically you can use any CoinText access number if your telecom provider allows international texting. But your communication will likely cost more to a foreign number, and CoinText will route the response back through the local number where your phone service originates.

How does it work?

Your full phone number (country code + area code + number) is used as a unique identifier to create the seed to generate a new Bitcoin Cash wallet. Once a wallet is seeded by your phone, CoinText provides an API server that communicates with a global Tier-1+ SMS gateway provider to give you access to the Bitcoin Cash network without Internet.

Why don’t I get a text notification when I add BCH to my SMS wallet?

Text notifications only work when BCH is transferred phone-to-phone using CoinText’s SMS gateway. Even though you don’t get an SMS notification when BCH is sent from outside addresses to your CoinText BCH address, the funds still arrive nearly instantly to your address directly on chain. You can confirm receipt by texting BALANCE to CoinText.

What happens if I lose or change my phone number?

If you lose or change your number, CoinText cannot recover your funds. If you are planning to change numbers, it’s best to withdraw funds to another BCH address that you control before you cancel your old number.

If your phone service is shut off temporarily (because perhaps you’re late on your bill), your BCH will remain safely in your address. You can even still receive BCH to your number while it’s suspended or out of range because the sender moves BCH to your BCH address whether or not your phone is active or in SMS service range.

Is CoinText Private?

Like Bitcoin Cash itself, CoinText is as private as you want it to be, but it is not anonymous because the blockchain is a public record. Like all Bitcoin wallets, once you send funds to another wallet, both you and the recipient can see each other’s addresses on the blockchain.

Unlike smartphone wallet apps which display to the world that you have cryptocurrency on your phone, if you delete your chat history with CoinText, no one can tell that you have access to cryptocurrency by inspecting your phone.

Is CoinText Secure?

CoinText is private and secure for casual use. CoinText never holds funds. The system does not write data to disk and stores no information about phone numbers, keypairs, or transactions pushed through the system. There’s no database layer. All transactions are settled immediately on-chain.

CoinText has multiple safeguards against number spoofing (faking caller ID on SMS messages) like using the originating number as the seed and two-factor authentication (2FA) for SEND commands that a spoofer can’t receive.

Because CoinText relies on some third-party services, it is recommended to treat it the same as cash in your physical wallet and export your private key. CoinText is for casual spending and spreading adoption. Use cold storage for your long-term BCH hodlings.

Where is my private key?

CoinText doesn’t store your keypair together. It uses a proprietary algorithm to generate your keypair on the fly when you use the SEND command to securely sign the requested function and then split the keys again. This entire process takes only a fraction of a second and, once the action has completed, all trace of the private key is wiped from memory. At no time are private keys, addresses, or any record of a transaction written to disk.

If you prefer more sovereignty, CoinText enables you to retrieve the private key to your SMS wallet. However, it’s much safer not to broadcast your private key over SMS. But, for security, CoinText will have two separate 2FA checks before releasing private keys to you.

Why Bitcoin Cash?

Why not BTC, LTC or some other coin? The usability and security of the CoinText depends on being able to settle transactions directly on the blockchain, quickly and inexpensively. CoinText never holds funds. It merely provides an SMS communication gateway for users to access the Bitcoin Cash blockchain.

In order to be viable, the CoinText application requires a cryptocurrency that is committed to 0-confirmation speed and on-chain scaling to keep network fees low. Bitcoin Cash is the only cryptocurrency dedicated to that vision. Additionally, the Bitcoin Cash community is the most vibrant and dedicated in the entire space.

Why are SMS transactions important?

In 2016, African financial services provider Mpesa processed 6 billion transactions (mostly over SMS) in Kenya and surrounding markets. For the first time, Mpesa brought financial services to the poor with feature phones (dumbphones). This was a huge advancement. CoinText aims to take that to the next level by delivering global financial services to anyone with a mobile phone.

Is there a fee to use CoinText?

Yes. CoinText collects a small fee of 10 Satoshi (.0000001 BCH) per byte to broadcast a SEND message through its API. In US Dollars, the fee is about $.02 (two cents). This cost is fixed no matter how much perceived value of BCH is moved on the network. This fee may differ by region due to varying costs of SMS gateways.

Does CoinText send unsolicited SMS messages?

No. CoinText will never send you unsolicited messages. BEWARE of any incoming messages that request sending funds to an unfamiliar address.