A really cool experiment that made me think. Thanks for making this, very cool!
Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency
121–130 of 395 posts
Re: Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're handing off physically then just use cash. How is this any better? The exit to real currency will always reveal Kong transactions at some point. Real cash is more anonymous because it's seamlessly transacted everywhere.
Current cash instruments are centralized.
Hmmmm and where do you get the machinery to create said Kong bills?
Seems more convoluted than connecting a gaming pc to a network (please don’t say bitcoin can’t do that now, you could initially)
Re: Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do they hold up in a saltwater environment? My feitan/yubikey U2F physical tokens are developing rust/corrosion just being on my keychain and being thrown in a drawer on my boat for a couple hours at a time. I2C leads + saltwater environment seems like it may cause some problems.
I doubt this version would hold up well in a salt water environment. The chips will ultimately have a conformal coating leaving only gold contacts which should fare better. We have considered more robust variants that would fully seal all the components, but this is a v2 problem. I should add that even a corroded chip should ultimately still be accessible; you might have to pull it off of the bill and decap it.
Do v1 people just not get to redeem their value in x years since they become unreadable?
Re: Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency
#124> Kong is the first crypto-cash No it's not. - https://casascius.com/ - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Casascius_physical_bitcoins It looks like Kong might be the first crypto-cash with an issuer that hasn't seen its private keys. And that's cool, but it'd be good not to exaggerate what this is.
I think their statement is accurate. The link you referenced is a physical implementation of Bitcoin. This seems to be "strictly" physical.
Are you implying that it must be "strictly" physical in order to be called cash?
Dollars aren't strictly physical. They also exist digitally. And they are cash.
Re: Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency
#125I see so many people here frustrated with the fact that the creators are giving nonsense answers. It's important to remember that this is a money-making scam. Asking them how their technology provides any value to users is like asking a Nigerian prince about the philosophy behind constitutional monarchies.
This is the right response. I'm surprised people are even entertaining the idea.
Re: Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency
#126> Kong is the first crypto-cash No it's not. - https://casascius.com/ - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Casascius_physical_bitcoins It looks like Kong might be the first crypto-cash with an issuer that hasn't seen its private keys. And that's cool, but it'd be good not to exaggerate what this is.
Also, why not apply this to an existing coin, like Bitcoin, rather than inventing yet another freaking asset? Oh yeah, because then the founders can't get rich in the ICO. Yuck.
There is no ICO. There is no token sale. Bitcoin script does not give us enough operations to do the validation. Using the EVM was the next best candidate. We're selling an extremely limited number of packs to validate the concept and cover manufacturing costs. Section 4.1 of the paper goes into details of why a purpose built token is more suitable than one designed for other purposes[1].
[1] https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmRNRCocj4PwKMXrd1jeUGw7ASQSuEk7BDJu5Ks...
Re: Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency
#127I don't get it. Is it some sort of concept art? What's the point? Sure, it can be used as money (assuming what authors say is correct). Virtually any physical items that are hard to fake can be used as money, as long as people believe it's worth something. And if we are okay with complicated and rather expensive manufacturing process (since Kong isn't something you find in the forest), it really is a non-problem to c…
Kong has the useful property of peer-to-peer validation. Most paper currencies printed in your basement don't. Tokens loaded onto Kong Cash instruments and exchanged ephemerally in person between party A and party B are more anonymous than tokens sent directly from party A to party B electronically which will be recorded for everyone to see forever. It's programmable money. It's cooler than non-programmable money. We…
> peer-to-peer validation
Maybe kind of a valid point, but... I don't know, maybe that varies from place to place a lot, but fake money doesn't feel like a huge problem around here. I mean, unless I am a tax-paying entity with a cashier machine, I don't even really care if a bill is fake or not: it is not fake, if somebody else accepts it. And I'm pretty sure somebody will, if I accepted it after looking at it. It doesn't only concern how bill was actually printed: it happened more than once that I had to worry about a bill because of its condition (tears, dirt, etc.)
> more anonymous than tokens sent directly
Yeah, as much as dollar bills are. That's why Monero is better than Ethereum, BTW.
> It's cooler
... Oh, come on.
Re: Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency
#128Unless this is going to transfer ethercoins, this is a SCAM. They are trying to build a bank on top of smartcoins. The functionality seems like that of a promissory note. As they keep the kong coins in their kong bang ... they will try to make money using the volatility or something.
Re: Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency
#129IMO this breaks the entire security model of cryptocurrency. If these bills are intended to be spent hand-to-hand in meatspace without cryptographic validation on a computer, then it is no longer a cryptocurrency. It is another paper currency like the U.S. Treasury's. The innovation of Bitcoin was money as a purely digital artifact that cannot be double spent. As a merchant accepting Kong bucks, I have no idea how ma…
I've been working in crypto for 10 years (well, the only "crypto" that existed back then was Bitcoin) and I agree with zelly's criticism. Another simple flaw of Kong is that when I receive a Kong note, someone could have intentionally fried it with, for example, high voltage on the I2C contacts to damage the secure element without leaving any visible defects. So I need to verify each Kong note I receive by reading th…
"Another simple flaw of Kong is that when I receive a Kong note, someone could have intentionally fried it with, for example, high voltage on the I2C contacts to damage the secure element without leaving any visible defects."
That would "fry" the secure element chip entirely, thus destroying it precluding anyone from accessing the token in the future (NFC would fail as well).
Re: Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s more like selling stock to buy a sandwich. If you bought the stock for $100, and now it’s worth $200, and you sell $10 worth to buy a sandwich, you have $5 of income to be reported.
Would that be the case if you were to buy that sandwich with, say, euros instead? They too could appreciate between purchases.
If you're in the US and pay with euros then yes it would technically be the same.