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Bitcoin Smart Banknote Launched In Singapore Is New Tool for Mass Adoption

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A new smart banknote platform has launched pilot sales of physical bitcoin notes in Singapore. The Bitcoin smart banknotes are available in denominations of 0.01 and 0.05 BTC and have the potential to improve the simplicity and security of acquiring, owning, and circulating cryptocurrencies.

Tangem Launches Smart Banknote to Facilitate Offline Use of Digital Tokens

Tangem, a Switzerland-based hardware-software platform developer that aims to foster mass adoption of blockchain technologies, has launched ‘the first smart banknote digital assets’ at the Megafash Suntec City store in Singapore. The technology will allow blockchain-based cryptocurrencies to be issued as smart physical banknotes with embedded near-field communication (NFC).

The company, operating out of Switzerland and Singapore, is manufacturing the Tangem Note based on a recently developed S3D350A chip from Samsung Semiconductor. Its entire electronics and cryptography are certified to the Common Criteria EAL6+ and EMVCo security standards.

Tangem Note may be useful to boost adoption of cryptocurrencies as means of exchange in the offline world as the Bitcoin smart banknote allows brick-and-mortar transactions with an uncopiable cold wallet. The company claims the card can store digital assets for over 20 years and guarantees protection against cloning, counterfeiting, and double spending.

The card allows users to load digital assets from blockchain to Tangem and ‘offload it back from Tangem to the host blockchain.’ The company takes no transaction fees, which may prompt consumers to use cryptocurrencies as means of payment in an offline setting and lead to mainstream adoption.

The company also announced the appointment of Vijay Sondhi as Senior Strategic Advisor to help expand the platform to new markets and verticals. Vijay’s executive experience includes five years as Senior Vice President and Head of Innovation at VISA.

Jean-Philippe Aumasson, Principal Research Engineer at Kudelski Group, led an in-depth review of Tangem security architecture, which includes the full source code of its proprietary chip firmware.

The first shipment of 10,000 production notes are to be delivered to prospective partners and distributors around the world for commercial pilots, but Tangem plans on putting the first million cards into circulation this year.

While operating out of Switzerland and Singapore, the company has its manufacturing located in South Korea and Southern China and R&D in Taiwan, Russia, and Israel. Tangem also plans to attract third-party developers to create new products and new use cases with its open platform.

Tangem’s trial with its pioneer market of Singapore should provide sufficient feedback to prepare mass production and marketing of these banknote-like hardware wallets.