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.

Comments

Re:News flash

[ShanghaiBill]

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.

Moon Bitcoin

[mentil]

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).

Let me think this through

[OzPeter]

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.

Re:Let me think this through

[dougmc]

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.

Ham radio operators need to be very careful when they're visiting "oppressive" regimes and trying to get those really rare contacts.

Alas, what often happens is that people see their gear -- people being the police, customs, or just ordinary citizens -- and they assume that this person is a spy. The reality is that these people just want to operate in some rarely operated in area, but ... the locals aren't having it, and that's exactly what a spy would say.

The hams may end up with their equipment confiscated or destroyed, and may even end up being grilled by the police or even incarcerated for some time.

Sorry, not legal

[Anonymous Coward]

"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.

Re:Sorry, not legal

[Bruce Perens]

He doesn't need to be a lawyer. The rules are really clear in prohibiting encryption and use for remuneration.

Almost interesting, but actually ilegal

[Fallon]

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;

Re:News flash

[postbigbang]

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.

Re:Wrong.

[Bruce Perens]

It really is illegal to send a message with encryption intended to obscure the meaning on Amateur Radio.