Thanks for all the feedback, and for everyone who read through the docs.
My BIP numbering was a blunder, and I have revised the numbering to be PCP-0
(Paper Currency Proposal Number 0) through PCP-4. I think I was brain-dead on
that, sorry, and I am now on PCP.
Please allow me to walk you through my thought process on Paper Currency, if
you aren't sold that there's merit.
At present time, paper currency undeniably serves a major purpose in society
and has a huge value. Whether all-digital transfers can totally replace paper
is still unknown.
And we citizens currently pay a lot to create paper money that is hard to
counterfeit. That too has tons of value, and it can be measured by looking at
how much is spent to design, print, and protect fiat currencies from
counterfeiting. And you can add to that cost the societal costs of successful
counterfeiting. US Numbers exceed $800M annually, and are a fraction of the
worldwide numbers.
And travelers routinely pay currency exchange fees, to acquire paper currency
that is accepted in particular locales. So a single internationally accepted,
border-less paper currency would have high value, as it could potentially
eliminate exchange fees for travelers.
Add all the above costs together, and you can see that this is a multi-billion
dollar market that Bitcoin could disrupt. We could actually eliminate all of
those costs, while at the same time put Bitcoins into the hands of people in a
form that is more familiar.
That's why this feels like a huge need that can be satisfied by creating a
single standard for hard-to-counterfeit, cheap to print, paper currency. I
think the key is a "single standard" that the public recognizes.
I think that there are things that you can do with paper now that can't be done
with all-digital transfers. Maybe my perspective is too US-centric due to
tipping customs, but it seems much easier to rapidly leave money for someone
without their involvement via paper than digital transfers ever will be.
A recent video showed a stripper/dancer stop dancing and pose to have her QR
Tattoo scanned for payment. (Not that this is all about strippers and PCP,
but...) paper would be a much more practical medium than digital transfer in a
lot of scenarios.
http://blogs-images.forbes.com/kashmirhill/files/2014/05/Bitcoin-stripper-QR-code.jpg
If you think about it, whether you slipped her a Bitcoin Paper note or
digitally transferred payment to her QR code, in neither case is she able to
verify receipt of payment until she steps off stage. But remember, we're
typically talking about a buck or ten or twenty, not 3 bitcoins as shown in the
video!
I saw a Reddit or bitcointalk comment, I believe credited to Mike Caldwell,
saying that the author envisioned transactions where the buyer simply handed
over private keys (paper wallets), and the merchant had all the electronics.
Reducing the electronics necessary for transfers seems to be desirable. Should
I have to carry a $300 cell phone to be able to carry and spend $20? This
would be moot if 100% of people had their electronic devices with them 100% of
the time they need to spend money, and the device is 100% reliable. I know for
me that's not the case.
So, if the currency medium of paper has value, and Bitcoin can make paper
currency more counterfeit-proof, and Bitcoin can eliminate costs, and it's a
huge market, and the public is familiar with the paper paradigm, all that's
left is for the community to come up with a standard. That's why I took a
crack at it, but I certainly welcome improvements!
Questions:
1) Is paper a valuable medium for currency? I contend yes.
2) What's the proper tradeoff between convenience and security for paper
Bitcoin Notes? I opted for splitting the private key over two QR codes on
opposite sides of the page, as opposed to BIP-38, and I explained my rationale
in the documents.
The rest of the technical details (the splitting algorithm, for instance) need
to be resolved. But I took a crack at it.
And the marketing details (note size, shape, color, layout, text, do we call
them "Bits", etc.) all need to be resolved. again, I gave it my best effort,
but I'm quite certain the community can do better than me!
First step, though, is to determine whether there's consensus to define a
standard for paper bitcoin currency.
Thanks for hearing me out!
Docs are here:
https://github.com/jerfelix/provisional_bips/blob/master/README.mediawiki
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