Posts made by DerekW

The ring could be a security 'factor' that relies on physical possession, like the Trezor.

Example: You have a bitcoin wallet on your mobile. You want to make a payment. You scan a QR code, Your wallet requests your BIP-38 encrypted key from your ring. You present it and the payment proceeds.

The only difference is that the ring wouldn't sign the transaction, the wallet would still do that, but it wouldn't do it without the ring.

If you lost the ring you would need to turn off 2-factor authentication temporarily until you got another ring. You might get your 'phone snatched, but without the ring the wallet would be useless and you could recover your bitcoin from a backup of your private key.

You should create a blockchain, then distribute the tokens in a way that you think is fair (most to the creator(s), some to the Kickstarter investors, sell some to new investors, reserve a few to give to everyone who buys a ring). Then everyone who has a token would have an incentive to make sure that the tokens went up in value and anyone who had a token/share could buy or sell them on the blockchain in a trustless way for their current market value.

Just a bit of feedback

• DIFFICULT TO ORIENTATE I have a completely black lacquered ring, so it is completely impossible to know which way round it is or whether either of the tags is lined up with anything. This means the only way to use it is to take it off and look for the slight depression where the tags are let into the ring and hold the ring up to the reading device with my fingers. Even then you don't know which tag you are offering up. OK, yes, I could mark the ring myself with enamel paint. That's going to look good.

• SMALL TAG SIZE I couldn't believe that the tags only contain 137 bytes. That's not enough to hold full contact details and, let's face it, it's the long repetitive data that you want to automate. Yes, I know it's on a ring but if you can't miniaturize more than that, you may need to rethink the entire concept. I was expecting the Encylcopaedia Brittanica on my finger. I haven't felt so short of memory since the early 1980s.

• NICE APP This is well-designed and easy to use, I like the hotspot map. Other NFC programming apps also work and have more functionality including enable/disable WiFi, mute etc. but these are more suited to fixed NFC tags that might shut your phone down in the evening, for example.

• IMPRACTICABLE Forget using the ring from the palm side. The natural curvature of your hand means you will never get the ring close enough to the receiver (unless you are grasping a receiver in a doorknob and even then the ring has to be oriented correctly. The only way it can sometimes work is if you hold your fist out (knuckles first) but if you do that, people are more likely to duck than press their mobile 'phone on your knuckles. And when nothing happens, it's embarrassing. This technology should be called 'Touching Field Communication' because 'near' isn't near enough.

But to finish on a positive note, although I probably won't wear it I don't regret ordering it. It's like WiFi—it should be better but it's not.