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21.co

41 pointsmrb18 comments

Why a 21 Bitcoin Computer? It doesn't take a whole lot of horsepower to run a wallet.

Second - I've read through the article a couple of times, and I'm just not seeing why said computer would need to have 'built-in mining' to implement this.

Kind of tempting to throw together an implementation that shows this, or at least leads me to discover why it would be needed :/

I think it's mainly meant to be convenient to start developing services at some point and messing around with the minor amount of satoshis that the chip can provide.

$400 might be a bit much for people on this, I feel like they'll need to modify the price and/or the machine in order for people to fully embrace the idea.

The 21 Bitcoin Computer is meant to be a general purpose "dev kit" for Bitcoin, it's not just a wallet. Think of it like a microcontroller dev kit: they are large PCBs, with I/O pins, LEDs, flash, ram, and all the peripherals to cover most needs for most projects. The 21 Bitcoin Computer is the equivalent: it has hardware for mining, for just acting as a Bitcoin relay node, and for acting as a wallet.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but what is the benefit of using the "21 Bitcoin Computer" here (versus a $400 equivalent computer)?

From what I gather it's a hardware wallet, which grants you access to the 21.co Bitcoin API?

> what is the benefit of using the "21 Bitcoin Computer" here

Well, so they can advertise it.

I don't see why using it is any better than using any other Bitcoin API, e.g. Coinbase. A simple proxy library that would allow users after they paid a cent or so would be interesting, although I guess it's pretty much the same as all the wifi hotspots.

it probably strives to be a "simple setup Bitcoin box"

The setup guide involves a serial console and not putting it on a metal surface because the exposed bottom of the raspberry pi will short out.

https://21.co/setup

You are serious - wow! Is there a reason they left out $1-5 worth of a basic case for it? 121MM, good times lmao

Oh man, didn't see that metal surface bit before... I feel like they launched before they were entirely ready for it. The next gen of these devices might be pretty cool once you are able to sell/host your own services, however it seems like $400 is going to be a stretch for most people when it looks like a slightly modified raspberry pi.

Regardless, I'll be watching 21.co to see what all they end up doing with these things, if nothing else I'm intrigued.

Remember HN, this blog post was brought to you by 121 MILLION in VC funding!

Lol, that number is the main reason I'm so interested. Some very wealthy people seem to think that 21.co knows something that the rest of us don't.

"Do you realize it's tens of millions of dollars to spin an 18nm ASIC? They're not doing additional revisions, the (at their websites admission) loss-producing miner is as good as it gets." @steckerbrett There could be updates to the design in the future. 21.co is such a mystery for the most part, who knows what their plans are?

Yay, an example of a useful service!

21.co seems to be confusing the crap out of people, so I'm hoping that some examples of actual services will maybe cool out some of the more extreme criticisms. The whole marketplace for digital goods thing sounds great to me, I just don't know how they're going to make that $400 price tag tenable.

Pity there's absolutely no documentation for any of it.

Yeah, I think it's going to be a while before this is well developed. For now, it's kind of like an alpha/beta product as far as I can tell.

They went to all the effort of getting it FCC certified and had injection molds made at considerable expense, this is the final product.

It's all about the miner! Which is useless.

It's all about the software! Which is closed source, and has no documentation.

You'll need one to develop with us! Why?

You can buy and sell services with our network! Only to other people who have $400 to drop on a Raspberry Pi.

Eh, it's a version of their final product. If I remember right this is the gen2 chip already.

Do you realize it's tens of millions of dollars to spin an 18nm ASIC? They're not doing additional revisions, the (at their websites admission) loss-producing miner is as good as it gets.

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