Private Textcoins

Today is a big day for blackbytes: now they can be sent to anyone, even if they are not in Byteball yet, no pairing required.

Last December we released textcoins which allow Bytes to be sent to email addresses.

Better still, textcoins can be sent over any medium where words can be displayed. This includes popular chat apps such as Whatsapp, Telegram as well as on physical printed birthday cards etc. The only limit for sending Bytes using textcoins is your imagination.

Bytes are the main currency of the Byteball platform and by design, are not private, just like Bitcoin transactions. For privacy, Byteball uses another currency, Blackbytes.

With the release of version 2.3 of Byteball wallet, Blackbytes can now be sent as textcoins too. In simple terms, this means that you can now send an anonymous currency to pretty much anyone in the world, even if the recipient does not yet have a crypto wallet address.

Blackbytes sent as textcoins function in a similar way as Bytes sent as textcoins. Send them via email, over Whatsapp, Signal, Telegram, WeChat or be more creative and think up your own ways to send them.

There is however, a slight difference.

To maintain privacy, Blackbytes are sent peer-to-peer and contain the entire history of the coin, that’s why they carry a lot more information than public textcoins and have to be delivered as digital files.

So unlike regular textcoins sent as Bytes, Blackbyte textcoins must be transferred via a medium which permits the sending of digital files.

These files are money, and should be sent over encrypted communication channels only.

Major usability improvement — no need to pair devices

The release of private textcoins includes a feature that will make Blackbytes much more convenient to use in the real world.

Before private textcoins, people that wanted to exchange Blackbytes needed to first pair their devices. For example, if John wanted to send Blackbytes to Sara, John would first need to ask Sara for her device ‘pairing code’ to connect their Byteball wallets (or Sara could ask John for his pairing code).

Private textcoins enable people to exchange Blackbytes with each other without the need for pairing codes. John can now send Blackbytes to Sara directly via WhatsApp, Telegram, email etc. without first pairing his device with hers.

This is a major improvement in the usability of Blackbytes. Want to send Blackbytes anonymously, peer-to-peer and over the TOR network without knowing your recipient’s wallet address or pairing devices?

You can now do that.

Blackbytes recap

Blackbytes is the privacy coin of Byteball. The Blackbytes balance of the Byteball wallet can be viewed by clicking the right arrow from the main wallet screen. Blackbytes are displayed as GBB.

Blackbytes are currently under the radar as they are not traded on any large centralized crypto exchange (they are sent peer to peer to maximize privacy) nor listed on Coinmarketcap. The crypto market is still immature and most trading is done on centralized exchanges.

However some governments have shown signs of hostility towards other privacy focused crypto currencies, for example the recent delistings of Monero, Zcash and Dash from the centralized Coincheck exchange in Japan.

How to buy and sell Blackbytes

One way to buy and sell Blackbytes is by using the Freebe or Beeb exchange. The exchanges operate in a slightly different manner. The Freebe exchange uses Byteball powered smart contracts, but the Beeb exchange does not. Both exchanges can be found in the Bot Store in the wallet.

If the buyer is not on Byteball yet, or if you’d like to bypass any exchanges altogether, just send the Blackbytes directly — as a file.