Gritcoin

Get started with Gritcoin

Gritcoin is used peer-to-peer. and works with a minimum of requirements for hardware, power consumption and communication networks. Everyone can take part, the start-up costs are minimal. Transaction protocols are uncomplicated and transactions are handled entirely by the parties involved. The Gritcoin system has a resilience and uptime that is in a class of its own. Through many of its unique properties, Gritcoin covers the users needs, that cannot be covered by any other existing payment system.

Fast peer-to-peer
transactions

Low processing
fees

Payments with
full privacy

Offline payments

Gritcoins are better known as cash.

It can be difficult to see such a familiar thing in a new light. Especially after more than two decades of campaigning by banks and other powerful players, to abolish them. But let us try if we can break away from that. Let us, for a change, take a look at the good properties they have..

Cash is a means of payment that works on its own. Two users can make a transaction, without any supporting systems. Sif at eight years old can get her pocket money in cash, she can buy a packet of chewing gum for cash, she can sell her Barbie doll at a flea market for cash, and so on. Cash does not discriminate. Everyone can use it.

Cash is physical, so it gives the owner sensory input that no electronic system does. With electronic payment systems information first needs to be understood rationally, before it is realized by other parts of the mind. The sensory input of cash, on the other hand, speaks directly to those other parts, so the user gets a feeling for amounts and deposits, right away.

Transactions are handled decoupled from the authority behind the cash. That means that transactions are private by nature. The system does not leak any information about the transactions, they are only known to the degree that other systems inform about them. It is also in the nature of the system, that transactions are not controlled by the authority, so it is not possible to debank select users.

Cash works offline. No infrastructure is needed. It is only important that the value of cash is guaranteed by an authority, and that counterfeiting is prevented. History even shows, that when these preconditions disappear, cash still continues to work for some time. Many parts of Europe prepare for serious crisis these years, and as part of this the authorities in many countries urge their citizens to store some cash. Exactly for this reason.

Gritcoin 2.0

It is an interresting exercise to imagine how an electronic payment system, that matches all the good properties of cash, would work. So let os play designers, and see what we end up with.

We might as well start with the property that will shape our solution the most, namely offline payments.

Electronic payment systems that are offline has a problem that is called double spending. That is when you pay with the same money twice. It is quite simple to exploit.

The only thing it takes, is to copy the payment application and all its data, then you can spend your money two times. Because of that our Gritcoin 2.0 cannot be a pure software solution. It has to use tamperproof hardware. Like a TPM chip.

Let us take the next property that we need to live up to. Gritcoin 2.0 must be a self-contained system.

So we cannot require that the user has a computer or mobile device. Gritcoin 2.0 has to run on its own dedicated hardware.

So what we have now, is a tamperproof roaming hardware unit. Let us give it solar cells and NFC read and write.

The tamperproofing needs to be particularly thorough in this case, because it is the owner that would gain by tampering with the unit. The unit also needs to be unusually robust. Recall that it is not possible to back it up, so your money is gone if it breaks down.

With that we now have a tamperproof unit with epoxy potted electronics.

Because we use roaming hardware, there is not that much reason to dive into the encryption and the communication protocols. The existing technologies for this, could be mixed together into a good solution.

Next property, Gritcoin 2.0 has to be sensory.

Our unit needs to have a display. The interface must show how much is on the unit, also when you dont request to see it.

Theres not much idea in going on designing, as we have the general picture of the solution now. What we have resembles a small mobile phone dedicated to payments. A bit thicker than a payment card, and likely also a bit bigger than one. You would only be able to get such units from the authority that would back the design, and guarantee that deposits on them have value. If we think this solution as an alternative to cash, that authority would be the state.