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A special type of Bitcoin wallet that works as a bearer instrument that can be used to store bitcoins more safely or for trade offline.
A type of Bitcoin wallet that works as a bearer instrument that can be used to store bitcoins in a physical novelty item.


A physical bitcoin holds the coin's public address and a hidden private address.  The intention with a physical bitcoin is that the value of the coin has not and cannot be spent as long as the private address remains hidden, which is likely achieved through the use of a tamper-evident seal.
A physical bitcoin holds the coin's public address and a hidden [[private key]].  The intention with a physical bitcoin is that the value of the coin has not and cannot be spent as long as the private key remains hidden.


The earliest physical bitcoin, the [[Bitbills|Bitbill]], was shaped liked a credit card but that was then followed by the [[Casascius physical bitcoins|Casascius physical bitcoin]] which was affixed to a round medal.
The security of physical bitcoins depends on the tamper-evident seal, and is usually not very strong. At hackathons and bitcoin meetups it has been demonstrated that the tamper-evident seal can be carefully replaced after obtaining the private key.


==See Also==
==See Also==

Latest revision as of 14:30, 13 June 2018

A type of Bitcoin wallet that works as a bearer instrument that can be used to store bitcoins in a physical novelty item.

A physical bitcoin holds the coin's public address and a hidden private key. The intention with a physical bitcoin is that the value of the coin has not and cannot be spent as long as the private key remains hidden.

The security of physical bitcoins depends on the tamper-evident seal, and is usually not very strong. At hackathons and bitcoin meetups it has been demonstrated that the tamper-evident seal can be carefully replaced after obtaining the private key.

See Also