flypig.co.uk

A while ago I traded my first Bitcoins, and now the purchased product has arrived, all the way from Switzerland. What did I buy with my Bitcoins? Well, a Bitcoin of course! Except this one is a Cacasius physical Bitcoin. It's an interesting idea: create a physical coin that contains the private key to access an "actual" (virtual!) Bitcoin. The private key is printed on the coin under an opaque tamper-proof cover, so that anyone can easily ensure that the coin is worth the valid amount by checking the seal. Consequently it can be passed between people like a normal coin. With a real coin if you want the government to make good on its promise to pay the bearer you're out of luck. With this coin, to redeem the amount just pull off the cover to reveal the key. In practice you'd never want to do this, and the virtual Bitcoin you'd get wouldn't necessarily be worth any more (or less) than the government's promise, but it's still a neat idea.