Altcoin News: Canadian Sends Bitcoin (BTC) for the First Time via Radio Waves

February 16, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

For the first time, Bitcoin (BTC) was sent via amateur radio. Seed phrases from a brain wallet were transferred from Canada to the USA. The method is independent of the Internet but has security holes.

Recently, a new method was tested to send Bitcoin (BTC) independently of the Internet. Canadian crypto entrepreneur Rodolfo Novak is a first man who sent a small amount of BTC over amateur radio. He reported it on Twitter.

The recipient of the transaction was Samuel Patterson, an employee of the decentralized trading platform Open Bazaar. The shortwave signal was sent from Canadian Toronto to Michigan in the US in the midst of a blizzard.

No safe method

In fact, the seed phrases have been transferred to a brain wallet, a few English words that can be used to recover a private key. Patterson, using his username CC_EF_JTF on Reddit, said he would not use this method for serious transactions.

He himself had immediately lifted the content of the Wallet, but in principle, anyone could hear the radio message and grab the digital money in front of him. Other Reddit users told him to encrypt messages, but according to Patterson, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would ban this.

A second Lightning Torch?

Novak’s action could evolve into a long chain of transactions similar to the Lightning Torch on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. Patterson successfully directed the Bitcoins to Adam Curry, the co-host of the No Agenda podcasts. Novak also jokingly urged Jack Dorsey to get his stand ready. The Twitter CEO recently participated in the Lightning Torch campaign.

Bitcoin independent of the internet

Nick Szabo, the inventor of the bitcoin predecessor Bit Gold, also became aware of the action and congratulated Novak on the success of his experiment. Szabo gave a talk at the Scaling Bitcoin conference in November 2017 on how the Bitcoin network could be made more robust through radio communication.

Probably the largest project to distribute Bitcoin independently of the Internet is Blockstream Satellite. Since 2017, satellites from Bitcoin developer Blockstream have been sending the BTC blockchain to almost every corner of the world. In December, an additional satellite was purchased and customers were given the opportunity to send messages via the Lightning Network themselves.

Already in 2014, there was a project called Kryptoradio in Finland. Data on the Bitcoin blockchain was broadcast via the national TV broadcasting network. However, the operator lost interest in the action at the beginning of 2015.

Author: Marko Vidrih