Hacker News Reader

So I only see two major downsides: 1) I basically I have to verify/transact every "printed" money the moment I get it - preferably using a smartphone - in case someone else has a copy of it and "takes" it first. Copies could be made with any high-resolution camera. 2) If the money travels from A to B to C in paper shape and the digital transaction will be from A to C then A will know that B has done business with C.

View on HN

Yeah. Right now, it is largely based on trust. We're hoping to implement some kind of one-time "seal" and new token that a user can verify after receiving a bill to ensure that someone else can't activate it with a picture or by saving the token. That obviously comes with the downside of making it more difficult to transfer.

As a proof of concept, and being based on Venmo, I think it is and will be largely based on user trust as long as the bill creator keeps the funds (Venmo allows no bot accounts).

Unless the note changes hands additional times between B and C.

Point taken. It then just becomes a statistical probability of how many steps between A and N. Considering that everybody using this system better have 0 steps (former point made) 1 step is about the furthest I would hope. But you are right: there could be more steps.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com