Quote from: smooth on September 22, 2015, 10:45:24 PM

Quote from: Mikestang on September 22, 2015, 09:12:27 PM

Quote from: brg444 on September 22, 2015, 04:48:09 PM

The possibilities are endless, 21inc is concerned with creating the tools to enable these use cases.

If the possibilities are endless, give me a list of the top 100 uses please.

They don't even know. Their own CEO said something to the effect that they want people to figure out on their own what to do with it.

I also find the pricing incredibly stupid. If they want to encourage people to invent and create an entire industry of they-don't-even-know-what using their chips, they should be selling it at cost or less. Why erect barriers to creative inventors with a high price point?

The only thing that really makes sense to me is what someone suggested earlier: There was a hard deadline to ship something (as a financing term or other contractual obligation) and this product is intended to satisfy that obligation, and not do much else.

Here, someone with a bit more imagination than you both cared enough to put it all in one nice article:

Quote

Heres my take

The idea is to embed the mining chip in smartphones, tablets, routers, everything. (Which is why Qualcomm & Cisco are involved.)

The real target cost for the 21 chip is pennies, not dollars, not hundreds of dollars, certainly not $400.

And then drop the chip, embed the design in SoCs and were talking fractions of a penny.

The computer is not a Bitcoin miner, its a devkit.

Its a devkit for future devices which would have native Bitcoin support (wallets & coin-generation) for identification (private keys), and micro-transactions.

Today, content on the internet is powered by advertising. Because we lack microtransactions. Google & Facebook & Twitter are advertising companies. 21 aims to change that. The internet runs on advertising. 21 aims to change that.

Now, link unforgeable bitcoin private keys with biometric identification.

You just killed:

Passwords
sign-ups
e-mail confirmation
login screens
I bet this would remove a ton of hassle and frustration from your whole online experience. Multiply this utility gain by a billion internet users.

So, give every internet user a source of fresh, unbought, newly generated Bitcoins → enable e-commerce without logins and sign-ups.

Well, no more need to keep customer data on file. Hey! You just killed identity theft in e-commerce. (Corporate and individual victims of identity-theft are grateful.)

You can shop online without revealing your name, address, phone number, birth date, mothers maiden name etc. etc. etc to any and every new retailer.

It would be like buying a newspaper, in cash, no questions asked.

Just give them the money, get the good, and youre done.

No questions. No secret questions. No maiden names.

This is generally impossible on the internet today,

(What is wrong with the world? We need to fix this!)

Why does every online retailer need all your personal data to sell you a digital good?

Because of credit cards & identity theft. And also because of advertising.

In this new simpler internet, they dont need your personal data,

so they shouldnt have your personal data.

This points the way to a simpler and just plain better internet experience.

It points the way to an internet without friction between: I want this digital good and Im enjoying this digital good. Games, books, streams, video, journalism. Any sort of digital content.

Oh, but this is possible today. Maybe it is, but only at a couple of select giant retailers like Amazon, using patented technology, and theyve already made you go through that painful sign-up process and they have all your data on file.

With Bitcoin, we can make all online commerce like one-click shopping at Amazon.

Better for content-producers.

Better for internet users.

Visit a merchant. Click to read this article. Done.

This will reduces the friction between merchants and consumers to unnoticable levels. Boom! Superconductivity for e-commerce.

The 21 Inc. computer is not a mining device, its the Altair 8800 of a new Bitcoin powered internet.

The Altair 8800 was pretty much the shittiest computer.

But it launched that whole personal computer revolution.

That whole Bitcoin powered internet we talked about. It doesnt exist yet.

Its a possible future. And we have to build it.

If it works, it will remove a lot of dysfunctions and ineffieciencies and friction.

Why cant you preload the 21 device? Because you dont kill identity-theft if you bought the micro-bitcoins from someone else, instead of generating them yourself.

In the post-password future, you stop being your password and email address.

Instead, you become your private keys.

https://elux.svbtle.com/the-21-inc-computer-is-the-new-altair-8800