What you would want to do is act as a bitcoin reserve. You print paper money which promises to be redeemable for bitcoins by you. And you promise to keep those bitcoins reserved. If the person spending and accepting the paper money trust you, it would work fine.

I see problems already.

First, there are no crypto-objects in your wallet that could actually be called coins.  You could, at best, print out a 2d scancode that represents the signed transfer chain, but you would still need an address first.  You would need some kind of bitcoin bank reserve willing to issue traditional banknotes or checks. 

Maybe this has future, who knows.

But I really think that using smartphones to make payments with bitcoin is a more comfortable way of doing things. Printing paper is a thing of the past.

My idea too, just type in the amount on your smartphone, type in the adress, cashier can see instantly the payment and done.
I don't see why we need paper bitcoins and deal with al the troubles involved with it, printing, scanning, trust,... and it isn't eco friendly.

So I go for smartphone or maybe card, paper bitcoins doesn't have a future imho, but I can be wrong offcourse.

The problem with a smartphone or some other gadget is that there is overhead involved in trying to get the device to carry out the transaction.  Yes, it could be done, but what happens when the networks are shut down temporarily, or you are in a situation where access to electronics is limited.  Not everybody has 24/7 access to a network even in industrialized western nations.

I would also have to be convinced on the eco-friendly aspect of this too.  You can print out quite a bit of paper for it to have the same environmental impact as the production of an iPhone.  You are also burning up a fair bit of coal for simply operating that device, or causing other sorts of environmental damage.

Also, all trade of any kind is a matter of trust between the customer and the merchant.  The question is how to reduce the threshold where distrust prevents a trade from happening.  If you are in a situation where large numbers of Bitcoins (in terms of value) need to be transferred or if you really don't trust either the merchant or the customer, you would need something a bit more complex for the transfer.  That is where cashier's checks and other more secure fiscal instruments are used even in today's business world.

If you have the smartphone, I would say go for it, but this idea of "paper bitcoins" and variations on the theme have a niche application where a smartphone isn't strictly needed.  Dismissing completely out of hand the idea that you could make paper bitcoins doesn't really resolve the issue as to if it is is possible or practical.

I think that Bitcoin has to add a new way to sign coins, something like "without-owner". ( a new sign in the protocol )

1) An user ( A ) ask the Bitcoin client to make a QR-code ( or a like ) of 100 Bitcoins ( it's an example )
2) Bitcoin client cut 100 Bitcoins from the A user's wallet, and signs them ( 100 bitcoins  ) with the new sign "without-owner", and generate the QR-Code of this operation.
3) User B will be able to check the QR-Code to see if these 100 bitcoins ( he will also find that they are "100" bitcoins ) are still signed "without-owner" or not, and he can chose to own them or not.

No.  Imagine if you have a kid mowing your lawn.  In that case I think it would be much easier to hand him a bitcoin certificate for his work than trying to demand that he has bluetooth or a wireless device to receive the payment for services rendered.  

The idea of a web front-end with password protection is even less secure (by a huge degree... and opening up the potential for that merchant to wipe out all of the money you now or in the near future will have) than simply handing over a cryptographically secure "wallet" or "wallets" with a predetermined and small amount of bitcoins of roughly the amount needed to conduct the transaction.

Mind you, this doesn't necessarily have to be done with physical objects.  You could "e-mail" bitcoins in this manner to somebody who doesn't even have a Bitcoin node running, where they could even "redeem" the bitcoins for government-issued money straight away without even getting directly involved with Bitcoins.  As an alternative, the bitcoins could simply be in a thumb drive instead where you could transfer over the files to the merchant representing the bitcoins you wish to use for the purchase, and they could even return the "change" to you in a similar fashion.

All in all, what you are suggesting here is far and away more complex than this paper currency system I'm suggesting here, and has been originally discussed at the start of this thread.  This is a very lightweight bitcoin transfer system that has electronics of any kind as an optional aspect, and can enable purchases even if network access is unavailable on a temporary basis.

What keeps people honest here is that the values can be verified, and double spending is minimized through the verification process.  Somebody who is double spending is committing fraud, which has existing legal implications.  If they obtained those bitcoin certifications from a 3rd party, a legal investigation of fraud would then target that person who created those bogus bitcoin certificates in the first place.

Also, don't get caught up in the technical details.  A 3-D bar code is there only to enable a higher density of information, not necessarily that it is superior to a 2-D or even 1-D (like a UPC symbol) bar code.


That is handwaving off the idea.  I'm just saying that the environmental friendly aspect is not nearly as clear-cut as was previously indicated and shouldn't be a rationale for dismissing this idea.  It shouldn't even really play a part in this discussion, and to me is more of a wash in terms of potential environmental damage rather than a reason not to use this system.


This is more than just a middle man, and this system doesn't require a 3rd party to be involved in the first place.  You create the "bitcoin certificate" from BTC you already have, and present that to a merchant or whomever you need to pay in terms of services or products rendered.  The purpose here is to provide a very simple and technologically lightweight system for payments using bitcoins.


For you, I think this would take a very direct and physical demonstration of the concept to convince you that it could work.  It would never be something that I would be comfortable in terms of a purchase of an automobile or a house, but if I went to a local farmer's market and handed over a 5 BTC note to buy a bag of apples, that would be an almost ideal application of this "technology".

As I also hinted at above, this would also be a way to expand the number of Bitcoin users in a rather substantive way where they wouldn't necessarily have to be generating coins to join into the network, or even have a need to generate the coins.  A bitcoin certificate would be a great way to advertise the project at say a convention or a conference, where you could "give away" bitcoins for people to try out the system.... sort of like how the bitcoin faucet currently works but on a larger scale.

This is a very interesting idea. The more I read about it, the better it sounds. As RHorning has said, implementing this would give a huge boost to "outside" people and let them know about the project. Using a "wallet escrow" system would make this as secure as normal wallets and prohibit double spending just as we do now. Very nice idea!

The ability to use simple "BitCoin notes" just like everyday paper currency has HUGE advantages for building the system and ease of access for even small business. I would assume that eventually bitcoin will be allowed to use with automated checkout systems IRL like at grocery stores etc. Until then, this definitely gets your foot in the door to those willing to accept it.

Coupling this with an "elevator pitch" would build recognition and acceptance very quickly.

It all comes down to how much you trust the entitiy you are transacting with.

If I'm paying the kid mowing my lawn in Bitcoin 'notes' I know I'm honest. If there is some problem we can sort it out when he comes back next month.
If I'm buying my groceries from 'Big Grocery Store' (BGS) they will be doing online transaction processing to verify my Bitcoin notes are valid before I leave the store, and I can trust that the notes they are printing me for my change will be valid.
If I'm borrowing 10BTC from my friend, he can pass a note from the BGS to me because I can trust he he's not double spending it. The note can proceed down the chain of trust.

If I'm buying a DVD from a guy on a street corner, he might not be inclined to take my bitcoin note (unless he has an iPhone to check the transaction is valid) and I'll probably want to use exact change, because I'm not going to trust any notes he gives me in return.

Bitcoin notes are a great solution when you are:

a) Offline
b) Dealing with someone you trust.

It also doesn't prevent you choosing to use some other method.
It just provides you with an extra option. Which is a Good Thing.

If you mean Bitcoin address, you shouldn't even need this.

Exactly.