NB: Disclaimer "This is not financial advice. Please consult your financial advisor to associate the risks involved"
A digital asset smart banknote manufacturer has launched bitcoin banknotes at a store in Singapore(May 2017). Designed to make owning and circulating cryptocurrencies as easy as using paper money, they are currently available in denominations of 0.01 and 0.05 BTC.
Bitcoin Banknotes Debut in Singapore
Digital asset banknote manufacturer Tangem announced the launch of smart bitcoin banknotes at the Megafash Suntec City store in Singapore on Thursday.
The announcement states:
Available immediately in denominations of 0.01 and 0.05 BTC, Tangem Notes radically improve the simplicity and security of acquiring, owning, and circulating cryptocurrencies for both sophisticated and incoming users.
With headquarters in Switzerland’s crypto valley Zug and Hong Kong, Tangem also has offices in Singapore, Moscow, and China, according to its website.
The company says it “is delivering the first shipment of 10,000 production notes to prospective partners and distributors around the world for commercial pilots.”
How Tangem’s Smart Banknotes Work
Tangem explains that their bitcoin smart banknotes are “Comparable to a well-protected paper banknote” and “Cheap enough to hand over.” Citing their ease of use, the company says there is “No special infrastructure, no complicated applications – just touch the banknote with an NFC-capable smartphone to be 100% sure it has valid assets.”
Transferring ownership of the notes is anonymous and instant, Tangem claims. “Physically hand over the whole wallet together with the blockchain private key. No transaction fees, no need to await confirmation blockchain.” Moreover, the company says that its banknotes are equipped with “high-grade EAL6+ protection for all cryptocurrencies. Irretrievable private keys prohibit replication of wallet and its assets.”
Competitor Opendime has long offered a physical product with a similar purpose but shaped more like a USB thumb drive and without any amount printed on them.
Security Questions
Tangem’s hardware is based on Samsung Semiconductor’s S3D350A chip. The company claims to offer “the first hardware storage solution on the market with its entire electronics and cryptography certified to the Common Criteria EAL6+ and EMVCo security standards.”
As with any embedded firmware-based product in the cryptocurrency space, security audits and open-source code are paramount to earning users’ trust to ensure that the company does not have access to the funds stored on their product. At the time of this writing, Tangem’s only publicly available code is for its iOS and Android apps on Github.
However, the company claims that it has shared the full source code of its proprietary chip firmware with a Swiss security firm, Kudelski Group, adding that this firm has completed an in-depth review and comprehensive security audit of its product’s architecture.
