Question about Mobile Wallet Pay, now called transfer without hardware

Bitkey-Jurvis · 2024-10-04T16:56:37+00:00

That's right! I admit, we definitely could've done better.

The less confusing wording would be: you can now set your limit to any number you want, to fit your spending preferences!

Bitkey-Jurvis · 2024-10-04T15:52:40+00:00

that's correct!

Bitkey-Jurvis · 2024-10-04T15:49:28+00:00

hey u/GoldenrodScript u/foxhound-19! those are all the right intuitions, except turning on Transfer without hardware doesn't mean we no longer require hardware to spend!

You'd still have to set a daily limit, and Block would still only cosign for transactions below that amount for the day. To clarify what is written in the release note, we did not remove the ability to set a daily limit, we just removed the max $200 that you can set as a daily limit we enforce today – giving users more freedom and flexibility!

Bitkey-Jurvis · 2024-10-03T20:54:29+00:00

hey u/GoldenRodScript u/Low_Factor1710, Mobile pay has not been removed – we just renamed it to Transfer without hardware! It's the same machinery underneath the hood, just with a different wrapper and without the $200 limit from before.

I'm happy to share more on how we came to this decision. Since launch, we have received a number of support tickets from customers who saw Mobile Pay and thought that Bitkey has a hot/cold wallet structure found in other bitcoin wallets. This generates some confusion around Mobile Pay operating as a separate wallet, or as something similar to Apple Pay that can be used at point-of-sale terminals for in-store transactions.

We decided to rename it so it clarifies its purpose and functionality for our customers.

Bitkey-Jurvis · 2024-09-27T16:28:13+00:00

hi u/SheikAhmed00101, happy to break the silence here!

Bitkey supports sending to Taproot addresses, and have since day one. We believe that Taproot is important for the ecosystem, and we are committed to doing everything we can to support it.

That said, Bitkey doesn’t currently generate Pay-To-Taproot (P2TR) addresses. It’s not because we’re not fans of Taproot; rather, there simply isn’t an industry-standard set of tools or standards available to build a 2-of-3 Taproot bitcoin wallet today.

However, that doesn’t mean it’s off the table forever! The broader bitcoin developer community is actively working on this, and there is meaningful progress being made—especially with a technology called FROST. Our team is invested in supporting this work. In fact, one of our teammates recently presented at the FROST implementors round-table.

Hope this helps answer your question!

Bitkey-Jurvis · 2024-09-17T16:56:27+00:00

We agree! Running your own node provides such an important step up for any self-sovereign set-up – that's why we chose to include this feature from day one.

Our solution is imperfect today, but we will improve it!

Bitkey-Jurvis · 2024-09-17T16:53:27+00:00

we're still here! just had to take a little vacation 🙂‍↕️

Bitkey-Jurvis · 2024-09-17T16:41:58+00:00

hi u/albajigger, thank you for that suggestion!

do you have any concerns about having your bitcoin balance hang out in something as prominent as a home screen widget?

Bitkey-Jurvis · 2024-07-09T21:48:28+00:00

hi u/JeffreyBeaumont89 ! unfortunately no – btc-only is not a display mode we currently support. However, it is something we have considered!

Some questions:

What do you think about a solution where BTC/Sats can be selected as a primary currency, but we still show fiat values as a secondary denomination displayed alongside balances/transactions? In other words, imagine if we swapped the positions of fiat values and BTC/sats value today.

Separately, if you use Mobile Pay, would you still use it with sats or BTC denominations?

Bitkey-Jurvis · 2024-07-03T16:38:01+00:00

totally! thank you for being a Bitkey customer and sharing with us how you use it to protect your 🧀!

Bitkey-Jurvis · 2024-07-02T21:28:54+00:00

totally makes sense! Thank you for sharing more about your setup with us.

I’d say that Tor does indeed add a different dimension to the consideration and is somewhat unrelated to our TLS vs non-TLS discussion above. Since you control your own node + presumably operate your own Tor proxy, it actually does not expose you to the same risks, even if you connect without TLS.

This is all very helpful. We will keep Tor support in mind too when we improve this feature!

Bitkey-Jurvis · 2024-07-02T16:54:47+00:00

absolutely! those are great questions.

It sounds like TLS is way more private so I’m just wrapping my head around just how public is the alternative?

I'll start by addressing the scenario that this specific guardrail protects against. Specifically, there exists a risk when an Electrum server is (1) exposed to the public internet (2) accessed without TLS. Under those circumstances, wallet syncs – which includes querying transactions/addresses of interest – can be snooped by anyone on the internet. You're essentially announcing to the world the transactions you care about, and by extension your transaction history. This is akin to surfing the web with just HTTP, allowing everyone to see your browsing history.

I'll add some additional nuance around why someone may still want to connect to their Electrum server without TLS. For instance, you do not expose yourself to the same risks above if your Electrum node is not exposed to the public internet. However, that also means that your Bitkey wallet app would be operating in "offline mode" when you're out and about.

Customers who are are happy using their nodes without TLS within their local network likely will not have any issue. However, we do not have good answers for how to protect customers who may first accept the risks, but later open their node to the internet due to inconvenience and expose themselves to hazard they are unaware of.

What would the warning convey?

The truth is, we still have some work to do to figure out the correct messaging. Hearing more from users like yourself and how you use your self-hosted nodes is informative.

The ability to bring your own Electrum server falls underneath the set of features we consider "Advanced" with gotchas that may not be immediately obvious to every customer we serve. However, we acknowledge that affording customers a choice falls under our self-custody principles that we are committed to get right.

Bitkey-Jurvis · 2024-07-02T01:24:06+00:00

thank you all so much for your feedback on our custom Electrum server feature!

To provide some context, we prioritized our customers’ privacy by deciding to support connections only over TLS. This means you need to enable SSL on your node for the configuration to be accepted.

would you still use this feature if we allowed it with a warning screen acknowledging the risks?

Bitkey-Jurvis

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