Bitcoin sent over national borders via shortwave radio

(Source: cryptovibes.com via Jesse C.)

Bitcoin Sent Offline from Toronto to Michigan Through Shortwave Radio

The protocol used is identified as JS8Call which enables users to connect a shortwave radio to a computer.

Although the crypto winter seems to have prolonged into 2019, it has not stopped various inventions and developments to take place. In January, a cryptocurrency enthusiast in an unknown location in Eastern Europe paid with bitcoin (via lightning network) to broadcast strange messages from blockstream satellite high up in the sky.

In the most recent case, one user sent bitcoin to another user using shortwave radio. He used a free protocol for the shortwave communications to do the transaction. The protocol used is identified as JS8Call which enables users to connect a shortwave radio to a computer. Once they are connected, they can basically send and receive shortwave-transmitted text messages to other JS8Call users without any special license.

[…]The sender never prepared any signed transaction and then sent it to the recipient for them to broadcast it to the blockchain. On the contrary, he sent his recipient a private key that enabled the recipient to transfer the funds to his wallet using only that private key.[…]

Click here to read the full article.

Thanks for the tip, Jesse!

I must say, this is a fascinating concept and, I suppose, I’m not terribly surprised someone made it happen.  I’m pretty sure this shouldn’t have been done in the amateur radio 40 meter band.

Spread the radio love

4 thoughts on “Bitcoin sent over national borders via shortwave radio

  1. DL4NO

    According to the article, the tranmission was made in the 40m amateur band.

    “Without any special license” is definitely wrong: You need to have a amateur radio license to operate any transmitter in this band.

    The US might have some relaxed rulings about the contents of amateur radio transmission. But on my map Toronto is in Canada.

    Reply
  2. Mario

    Ah, another utility station to monitor for, wonder what it sounds like and looks like on a spectrum monitor? Time to fire up the SDR dongle hi hi.

    Reply
  3. Dave B

    Without any special License? Thats Piracy then. To use HF, a licence is needed. ESPECIALLY if an amateur allocation is used!

    Reply

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