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It still requires a bank account, just a difference sense of the word. If someone only has a phone, they need to store their bitcoin somewhere, and its unlikely

by georgyo 12y ago

It still requires a bank account, just a difference sense of the word. If someone only has a phone, they need to store their bitcoin somewhere, and its unlikely to be their phone. So whoever is holding their bitcoin is acting as their bank.

cporios 12y ago
I don't think that's true. > If someone only has a phone, they need to store their bitcoin somewhere, and its unlikely to be their phone. Why? Bitcoins do not exist somewhere, bitcoin transactions do, and they are stored in the blockchain. Bitcoins that you own are essentially unspent transactions to your address which is only a few bytes long. A bitcoin wallet/address is not a bank account by any sense of the world.
- georgyo 12y ago
  You are right, they could store their actual wallet addresses on their phone. But would that actually be a good idea? I would sure hate to loose all my money because it rained hard while walking home. And all the other dangers that haunt phones. A counter here of they should be backing up is unacceptable. Many people who are otherwise very knowledgeable don't make backups. Sure, if they have all their money under a mattress then they are venerable to house fire, theft, and the like. But storing all their money on a cheaply made but affordable electronic device has the same problems, while opening up a ton more possibilities of chronic money loss.
w-ll 12y ago
You dont store Bitcoins, you store the private keys to wallets, which are tiny in size and there are many mobile Bitcoin clients.
ikeboy 12y ago
Check out https://mycelium.com/bitcoinwallet https://mycelium.com/bitcoinwallet.
swswsw 12y ago
It does not require a bank account in that sense. What you need is to hold your private key. You could, for example, holds your private key somewhere else, and inject that private key to your phone when you need to use it.
swswsw 12y ago
There is also a way to create a smart contract that locks the fund until a certain time. And you can make it in such a way that the smart contract is executed by the network, not by an entity.

by georgyo 12y ago

cporios 12y ago

I don't think that's true. > If someone only has a phone, they need to store their bitcoin somewhere, and its unlikely to be their phone. Why? Bitcoins do not exist somewhere, bitcoin transactions do, and they are stored in the blockchain. Bitcoins that you own are essentially unspent transactions to your address which is only a few bytes long. A bitcoin wallet/address is not a bank account by any sense of the world.

georgyo 12y ago
You are right, they could store their actual wallet addresses on their phone. But would that actually be a good idea? I would sure hate to loose all my money because it rained hard while walking home. And all the other dangers that haunt phones. A counter here of they should be backing up is unacceptable. Many people who are otherwise very knowledgeable don't make backups. Sure, if they have all their money under a mattress then they are venerable to house fire, theft, and the like. But storing all their money on a cheaply made but affordable electronic device has the same problems, while opening up a ton more possibilities of chronic money loss.

w-ll 12y ago

You dont store Bitcoins, you store the private keys to wallets, which are tiny in size and there are many mobile Bitcoin clients.

ikeboy 12y ago

Check out https://mycelium.com/bitcoinwallet https://mycelium.com/bitcoinwallet.

swswsw 12y ago

It does not require a bank account in that sense. What you need is to hold your private key. You could, for example, holds your private key somewhere else, and inject that private key to your phone when you need to use it.

swswsw 12y ago

There is also a way to create a smart contract that locks the fund until a certain time. And you can make it in such a way that the smart contract is executed by the network, not by an entity.