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Coders Used Ham Radio To Send Bitcoin From Canada To San Francisco (coindesk.com)
"In what appears to be a first-of-its-kind transaction, two developers working in separate countries have successfully sent a bitcoin lightning payment over radio waves," writes CoinBase.
An anonymous reader quotes their report: The completed payment effectively moved real bitcoin from Toronto, Canada, to San Francisco, California... But sending bitcoin over radio isn't just fun. Some researchers argue it actually has a necessary use case... The idea is that, while the internet can potentially be censored, it's not the only form of technology that can be used to send data from one part of the world to another, "in case China decides to censor bitcoin via the Great Firewall, or places like North Korea where there is no internet at all," as Bloomberg columnist Elaine Ou put it in an email to CoinDesk.
Technology infrastructure startup Blockstream licensed satellites that beam bitcoin to users around the world for similar reasons.
An anonymous reader quotes their report: The completed payment effectively moved real bitcoin from Toronto, Canada, to San Francisco, California... But sending bitcoin over radio isn't just fun. Some researchers argue it actually has a necessary use case... The idea is that, while the internet can potentially be censored, it's not the only form of technology that can be used to send data from one part of the world to another, "in case China decides to censor bitcoin via the Great Firewall, or places like North Korea where there is no internet at all," as Bloomberg columnist Elaine Ou put it in an email to CoinDesk.
Technology infrastructure startup Blockstream licensed satellites that beam bitcoin to users around the world for similar reasons.
Radio waves exist, can be used to send information! May have potential uses, to be determined.
Also, Wi-Fi uses radio waves. So many, if not most, past bitcoin transactions have used radio waves.
Cellphones also relay on radio waves.
Wait until someone does this via moon-bounce. I can see the headline now: "Bitcoin coming from the Moon."
Also since this is Lightning network aka off-blockchain, I'm wondering if the ham transmissions work with transaction disputing (which causes the Lightning transactions up to that point to go on-blockchain).
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
See RFC 1149 or RFC 2549
TFA is experimenting with using radios to transmit information long distances because they fear repressive regimes censoring data passed through the interwebs.
This makes me wonder about why repressive regimes would allow the use of a communications mechanism that can't be censored in the first place.
TFS mentions North Korea, well the magic interwebs have this to say about North Korea Licensing of Ham Radios:
Only North Korea and Yemen do not issue amateur radio licenses to their citizens, although in both cases a limited number of foreign visitors have been permitted to obtain amateur licenses in the past. HamCall.Net lists 19 amateur stations in North Korea assigned in the P5 series, although the specific call signs themselves remain unknown.[6] A Serbian amateur writes that he was "licensed" as P5A, but that he was not allowed to operate on either occasion he was in the country.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Smoke Signal
or Jungle Drums
At least these would be interesting and somewhat novel ways to convey wireless data. It
Wireless digital data is old hat, look at your cell phone, or just about anything else.
Ham radio has access to 2.4, 3.4, and 5.8-5.9 GHz, as well as many other bands. 2.4 and 5.8-5.9 are overlapping and adjacent to traditional wifi, but 3.4 is exclusive to ham use in the US (and can "recycle" International WISP gear operating on that band).
https://www.arednmesh.org/
"But sending bitcoin over radio isn’t just fun. Some researchers argue it actually has a necessary use case." Fun it may be, even 'necessary', but sorry, it isn't legal. FCC rules (97.3) forbid using amateur radio for pecuniary interests. Probably illegal in Canada and most other countries too.
... as a "shadow," Internet.
We need a do-over. The current Internet sucks tater toes.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
That kind of violates 2 legal requirements for amateur radio... The FCC regulations for amateur radio, part 97 specifies amateur (HAM) radio must be Non-commercial & encrypted. Sending money is inherently commercial which is prohibited on amateur frequencies & is pretty clearly a violation. Encryption vs signing arguments could be made, but it's a bit murky at best.
Section 97.113 (4) “messages in codes or ciphers intended to obscure the meaning thereof, except as otherwise provided herein”
Part 97.3 (4):
(4) Amateur service. A radiocommunication service for the purpose of self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations carried out by amateurs, that is, duly authorized persons interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest.
Part 97.113 (3) about explicitly prohibited activities:
(2) Communications for hire or for material compensation, direct or indirect, paid or promised, except as otherwise provided in these rules;
US Hams aren't allowed to conduct business with their amateur licenses. They can sell ham gear, but it's not for advertising or other business like activities.
I sending bitcoin via amateur radio actually legal? Probably not. Does exporting money over international boundaries violate US Treasury Dept rules? Maybe.
While an interesting proof-of-concept, there are also RFCs involving data-over-carrier-pigeons, and other slower than electricity methods, like mail.
Nice headline, but otherwise contextually meaningless in international bitcoin transactions.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Ham Radio is USA and Canada does not permit communications that are encrypted. Can't use Ham Radio for this application as the laws are written.
You would have to send it encrypted which isn't allowed over amateur radio. You're also not allowed to use amateur radio for commercial purposes either and each station in the contact must identify themselves at the start and end of the "conversation" and periodically usually every 10-15 minutes. So you'd not be able to send it encrypted nor be able to send it anonymously without BOTH parties breaking the terms of their licence. Depending on how well the respective country enforcement is it could mean fines or worse. Certainly the FCC would investigate.
I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
Perfect, now the sneaky tax auditors won't have a clue when I move my money out of the high taxed state of NY! They've been auditing me and have asked for my boarding records for my dog, since I boarded her while I was in Florida for 7 months. They told me I'm still a primary NY resident since I boarded her here in Long Island. What a bunch of crap to steal my money.
Probably because Florida doesn't have state tax. If you had paid taxes there, NY would have given you credit for them, but since you didn't they want that money. (Virginia pulled this on me after my first year of college in Florida and then moving back to VA.)
Also, my future condolences about your pet dying in that Long Island kennel after NYC lays off an inspector or two due to decreased tax revenues because you snuck your money out of state and didn't pay your fair share of taxes.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Like writing a wallet address on a piece of paper and sending it in an envelope?
Without independent access to the blockchain however, you can't verify your transaction. You'd have to trust the other party is being honest.
The use-case of being in a country where your internet access is cut off, you need to put your trust in someone else to verify transactions.
North Korea wouldn't murder you until they get your btc wallet password, as that's how they're getting past economic sanctions at the moment.
direct or indirect
I sending bitcoin via amateur radio actually legal? Probably not. Does exporting money over international boundaries violate US Treasury Dept rules? Maybe.
Bitcoin is regulated by the treasury?
First, thanks for calling me a dumbfuck and a hand-wringer. I'm neither of those. I'm also not a farmer, and a vegetarian, so your cows can do what they like.
My meaningful message is that one ham radio transmission of a bitcoin across international boundaries is neither a test of crypto or especially interesting. No laws will be tested because they're not being tested now, or in that context. Mighty libertarians may rejoice for a moment, because another boundary has been "breached" and how sweet that might be to them.
This test won't be even snorted at by those that might litigate it because it's not useful as a test for anything, which was my point.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Good question! I have no answer. I doubt they have an answer, either, except that money crossing international boundaries might be of interest to them, usually in the context of money laundering.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Before people start getting amateur licenses to transmit blockchain information, please note that doing so almost certainly violates FCC regulations in the U.S.
The FCC is very specific with respect to ham radio: transmissions must not involve "pecuniary interests" for any of the parties involved in the message. That includes parties that may indirectly benefit from the message.
Note the following from http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-s...:
There are a very few instances where transmissions of "pecuniary interest" are permitted (e.g. teachers with ham licenses can demonstrate amateur radio to students while being paid their salaries, and hams can advertise sales of personal radio equipment on local nets), but I can just about guarantee that sending blockchain information would not be one of them.
About the censored network use case: radio can be triangulated, If you use it for an activity that upsets a totalitarian regime, they will find you to make it stop. It may be an unpleasant exprience.
47 CFR Â97.113(a)(2) prohibits American amateurs' use of amateur radio for communications related to pecuniary interest. You can't even order a pizza via #hamradio. @eiaine KM6NCF may find herself in hot water if FCC are paying attention.
It really is illegal to send a message with encryption intended to obscure the meaning on Amateur Radio.
Bruce Perens.
The FCC dictates one mustn'ttrade via ham radio
The frequency shown on the bandscope is not within authorized ham radio frequencies. The people mentioned are not licensed radio amateurs. The communication would have been illegal under two different Amateur Radio rules, one regarding encryption for the purpose of obscuring the meaning of a communication, and one regarding communications for remuneration.
Bruce Perens.
That would make it harder to get caught, but no less illegal.
Encryption, on amateur radio, is completely forbidden except for a few times where it’s completely mandatory.
Controlling remote hardware, for one - especially model aircraft! There’s also some compelling arguments to be made about control of remote radios, such as repeaters. In this case, encryption isn’t being used to obscure the content of the message, but to authenticate the message and prevent spoofing.
Participating in a search-and-rescue operation, or any other time you have cause to transmit someone’s medical records or other PII. In radio, rules tend to (formally, even!) stop mattering, being enforced, etc. Even statute and regulation says they have to stop being enforced, when violating rules is necessary to protect life, limb, or property.
It's almost as if packet radio has been used by amateurs for about 40 years now....
Another hint for the report writer, the internet is a network of networks. If you use a radio network to transmit and receive information on your computer and your computer is connected to a network which is also part of the internet and uses it to transmit and receive some more information related to that first information, that radio network is also technically part of the internet...
As you say, next they'll write an article about how your mobile phone can communicate with your desktop on the other side of the world, instead of using the internet!
This story reminds me of when Slate claimed a famous politician doesn't use computers (instead he uses an iPad!) with a photo of the politician sitting at his desk with a laptop open and obviously being used, and then went on to explain about all the other computers he uses, the writer apparently not knowing what a computer is.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
Has been used. I'm a ham, and aside from APRS (Primarily a position-reporting protocol that runs over packet as a L2 transport) there's practically no use of packet radio at all any more. It was completely displaced by the internet. In part because it got left behind technologically - high-speed operation still means 1200bps.
Afaik you can't censor ham radio, but you can definitely track down the people sending signals and disappear them, and if you're really desperate you can jam the signal. How long until China determines ham is the devil and needs gone?
Bitcoin transactions are not encrypted. Coding is permitted as long as it does not obscure the message. Look it up yourself.
If you are intent on using this particular medium, then it should be trivial to add steganography to the equation and get past the "no encryption (as far as anyone could prove)" part. There are way to do that, where it would be impossible to prove stego was being used--as long as they don't have access to the software at either end.
Not to mention the fact that while the article pretends that sending Bitcoin via radio somehow removes government's ability to censor you, in order to legally use that spectrum, you need to first obtain a license from same government, which is revocable at any time. This is true in more countries than just the US.
You can also send it with flag signals, smoke signals and torches, it's data!
and aside from APRS (Primarily a position-reporting protocol that runs over packet as a L2 transport) there's practically no use of packet radio at all any more.
Winlink is in use in a lot of places.
high-speed operation still means 1200bps.
Actually, high-speed packet is 9600, but it cannot be used below 220. Standard packet is 1200.
That's a major fine at the least, if not a revoked license.
Beware of Sales Reps bearing gifts.
The frequency IS within amateur radio frequencies: 20 Meters (14.0-14.35 MHz), the screenshot shows them at 14.200Mhz, USB.
The people mentioned ARE licensed amateur radio operators: Elaine Ou, KM6NCF; Rodolfo Novak, VE3NAK.