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1inch Network unveils its hardware wallet (www.blockcast.cc)

Just as the general crypto market stages a recovery after a long bear market, the 1inch Network (1INCH/USD) has unveiled its hardware wallet joining the other hardware crypto wallet providers of Ledger. The 1inch Hardware Wallet offers a cutting-edge solution for cold storage as crypto hacks become rampant. It goes without saying that when it comes […]

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How will the Bitcoin Taproot upgrade improve the user experience of hardware wallets? (www.blockcast.cc)

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We are considering making a hardware wallet for Bitcoin (BTC) – Jack Dorsey (www.blockcast.cc)

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Samsung Adds Support For Hardware Wallets On Galaxy Devices (www.blockcast.cc)

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The global hardware wallet market was valued at USD 202.40 million in 2020, and it is expected to be valued at USD 795.32 million by 2026 and grow at a CAGR of 26.72% over the forecast period (2021-2026) (www.blockcast.cc)

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GRAY® Expands Crypto Hardware Wallet Line, Introduces the CORAZON Aluminum (www.blockcast.cc)

Luxury accessories brand adds bold variant to hardware wallet series powered by Trezor security

SINGAPORE, Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — GRAY®, a Singapore-based luxury brand known for its futuristic and architectural designs, today announces the expansion of its crypto hardware wallet line, the CORAZON, in aluminum variants. The CORAZON is created in partnership with Satoshilabs the creators of Trezor, the first and leading hardware wallet – now available for pre-orders for $599.

The CORAZON is built upon the same open-sourced technology that powers the Trezor Model T allowing users to keep their crypto private keys secure and accessible. Supporting over 1,500 cryptocurrencies, the CORAZON is individually machined from aerospace grade aluminum, sandblasted and anodized into an aerodynamic device that is incredibly strong, obsessively light and undeniably iconic.

“GRAY is excited to expand the CORAZON line to include the aluminum variants allowing us to offer a variety of colors that appeal to a new wave of crypto users globally,” said Kevin Wu, Founder and CEO of GRAY®. “The CORAZON Aluminum provides investors the opportunity to manage their digital currencies securely and stylishly – it’s the perfect blend of function and luxury.”

The CORAZON aluminum will be available in four unique colors:

Additionally, the CORAZON is available in limited Titanium colors:

For more information or to pre-order the CORAZON Aluminum, visit: https://gray.inc/collections/corazon-wallet 

About GRAY®: 
The GRAY® brand, founded and based in Singapore, owes much of its distinctive character to the city that they call home. Inspired by the technologically advanced city-state, GRAY® was born to be the periscope into the future, to inspire those who will shape it. Rebels at heart, GRAY®‘s designs have no history as their heritage is the future, their creations are daring experiments in mechanical artistry, engineered with the most advanced technical materials possible. To date they have created the most exclusive and luxurious tech accessories for the iPhone, Samsung & MacBook, cryptocurrency hardware wallets, and a range of daily accessories such as writing instruments and card wallets.  

About SatoshiLabs: 
SatoshiLabs is a privately held company founded in 2013 and based in the Czech Republic. The first company product was the world’s first cryptocurrency hardware wallet. Its popular flagship product, the Trezor Model T, introduced new measures of security such as its full-color touchscreen. SatoshiLabs is also the creator of more than 22 innovative security standards like Recovery seed, Passphrase, or Shamir Backup, which are significantly improving the whole industry of online security. Present in over 220 countries worldwide, SatoshiLabs remains open-source, making the best security solutions accessible to anyone, anywhere. More information at www.satoshilabs.com and www.trezor.io

Media Contact 
Brenna Byrne
Uproar PR for GRAY® 
bbyrne@uproarpr.com
312-607-8117

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What is a software cold wallet? A brief analysis of the principle and security differences of hardware and software cold wallets (www.blockcast.cc)

Hardware cold wallets are the mainstream in the current market, but software cold wallets are more economical and flexible, and have a higher degree of trustlessness.

Original title: “Hardware cold wallet to the left, software cold wallet to the right”
Written by: Tan Guopeng, founder of Ownbit

In the past two days, the user data leakage of hardware cold wallet manufacturer Ledger has been raging. I took a look at the leaked data, and my name and information are also listed! Obviously, data leakage has caused a violation of the interests of users, but I think it is more worthwhile to discuss the direction of hardware wallets.

Before, I also used Ledger. Later, because of the shortcomings of hardware cold wallets and the rise of software cold wallets, I decided to become Ownbit software cold wallets.

Software cold wallet

Unlike hardware cold wallets, software cold wallets use pure software to implement the cold wallet function. Users need to use two mobile phones , one of which is permanently offline, as a cold wallet to store private keys (mnemonics). The other is connected to the Internet and used as an observation wallet.

Software cold wallets and hardware cold wallets implement the same functions and have similar security levels. But they have some notable differences:

  1. Software cold wallet can use idle mobile phones without additional hardware;
  2. The hardware cold wallet transmits data via a data cable or Bluetooth, while the software cold wallet scans the QR code;

Trusted mnemonic

Software cold wallets can achieve more complete trust-free (that is, no need to trust software developers), and users can prove the absolute security of their wallets by themselves.

In asset security, the first thing to bear is the security of mnemonics. In the security of mnemonics, the first confirmation is the randomness of mnemonic generation. If you use a hardware wallet from a malicious hardware manufacturer (or has a bug), you may have fallen in the first step. Because the mnemonic words you get may not be random, pre-generated, or pseudo-random .

Hardware cold wallets cannot prove to users that they are safe at this point. We continue to use hardware wallets based on trust in the hardware manufacturers, which is fragile in the world of digital currencies. The software cold wallet can give proof.

When using a software cold wallet, you can choose to trust the software and let it help you generate mnemonics. You can also choose not to trust the software and generate mnemonic words elsewhere. Then generate a cold wallet by offline import. Because the cold wallet device is permanently offline, there is no possibility of data transmission to the Internet (the only interaction is through the QR code scanning and the clear text transmission between the observation wallet, which can be reviewed), so the security of the mnemonic phrase has been absolutely Protection.

Therefore, the security of the mnemonic phrase of the software cold wallet is higher than that of the hardware cold wallet .

Bluetooth vs QR code transmission

The data transmission method of hardware cold wallet and software cold wallet is also very different. Generally speaking, the hardware wallet is connected to the mobile phone software via Bluetooth. The software cold wallet uses QR code scanning for data transmission.

The advantage of the Bluetooth transmission scheme is that the amount of data is unlimited . This is the shortcoming of QR code transmission. Because the information that a QR code can contain is limited, this shortcoming is particularly prominent for scenarios with large data transmission. For example: large bitcoin transactions (large number of UTXOs).

The disadvantage of the Bluetooth transmission scheme is that the security is lower than the two-dimensional code transmission . Its weak security mainly comes from two aspects. On the one hand, different Bluetooth protocol versions may have known or unknown bugs, and in certain scenarios, there may be security risks. Another point is that the Bluetooth transmission scheme leaves the possibility of interference and attacks by other devices. Within a short distance (within 10 meters), conduct targeted interference or attack through other Bluetooth devices. This is completely absent in the QR code transmission scheme.

Another weakness of Bluetooth transmission: poor auditability. And this is also a huge advantage of QR code transmission. Users can view all the content transmitted through the QR code in plain text to confirm that any transmitted information is safe. This can allow software cold wallet solution providers to achieve trustlessness, that is, users can ensure that their private keys (mnemonics) are not leaked at the data transmission level, without having to trust the provider or developer of the solution, or even worry Possible bugs in the software itself.

Economy and flexibility

Software cold wallets can use idle mobile phones as cold wallet storage without purchasing additional hardware. Therefore it is more economical.

More importantly, software cold wallets are more flexible than hardware cold wallets. Usually software cold wallets can implement more complex functions than hardware cold wallets, such as multi-sign cold wallets.

The flexibility of the software cold wallet also makes it more advantageous in terms of asset recovery. If your hardware wallet is damaged, you need to purchase hardware from the same manufacturer for hardware recovery. With software cold wallets, there is no such concern.

Closed and open

Software cold wallets are more open than hardware cold wallets. The way of transmitting data through two-dimensional code can define standards in a wider range and realize the interconnection between different software cold wallet manufacturers. However, this cannot be achieved through data cable or Bluetooth transmission.

Two schemes of wallet ecology

At present, although the main cold wallet products are still based on hardware cold wallets, they are being impacted by software cold wallets.

Hardware cold wallet:

  • Ledger is the most well-known hardware cold wallet solution provider;
  • Trezor is another well-known hardware cold wallet provider;

Software cold wallet:

  • Ownbit is the earliest wallet to implement the software cold wallet solution and one of the wallets that supports the most cold wallet currencies;
  • Parity Signer is an Ethereum software cold wallet produced by Parity;

future

The direction of the development of things is always to simplify things. More and more cold wallets are being implemented in software.

Just like most people do not need additional hardware to read (e-books), because the mobile phone itself can also read. It is an inevitable trend to replace professional hardware with more common devices (mobile phones)! Because they are similar in function, or even better!

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How to test and evaluate Filecoin mining hardware? (www.blockcast.cc)

Filecoin mining hardware equipment should be evaluated from three aspects: quality, performance and scalability.

Original title: “Test and Evaluation of Filecoin Mining Hardware”
Author: Zhao Bao

The complicated Filecoin mining program coupled with a severe penalty mechanism means that the current threshold for becoming a Filecoin miner is still not small. Previously, we conducted a more comprehensive science on the entire Filecoin mining process, but if you want to become a real Filecoin miner, you need to conduct in-depth and thorough research in various subdivisions. This time we will talk about hardware.

More, fast, better, and economical testing direction

First of all, the purpose of hardware testing is to pursue the ultimate input-output ratio, just like Jingdong’s slogan “more, faster, better, and less.”

Multi: The special certification system of Filecoin network puts forward high requirements on whether the hardware can run software algorithms efficiently. Whether Filecoin miners can properly adapt the software and hardware to maximize their efficacy will directly affect the mining rewards;

Fast: Filecoin miners quickly complete sector packaging is a necessary process for computing power growth. The packaging speed depends on the algorithm, and the optimization of the algorithm is the improvement of the hardware utilization;

Good: Filecoin’s mining equipment needs to be in high-speed operation 7*24 hours. If the quality of the mining equipment is not up to standard, damage occurs and data is lost during operation, it will face high pledge penalties.

Province: High performance and good quality are not the best choice for Filecoin mining equipment. Efficient matching at the hardware level can not only save costs, but also ensure mining revenue.

How to test and evaluate Filecoin mining hardware?

Evaluation criteria for quality, performance and scalability

If the IDC computer room is compared to a mining farm, the hardware equipment of the software program running carrier is the “shovel” in the hands of the miners. As the saying goes, “Knife sharpening does not cut wood by mistake”, Filecoin hardware equipment testing and evaluation is very important, and we summarize it into three aspects: quality, performance and scalability.

quality

The hardware equipment quality inspection method is the same as the traditional hardware factory inspection method, through various index tests to verify whether the hardware quality meets the requirements. However, based on the strict penalty mechanism of Filecoin mining, it is necessary to carry out more stringent stress tests on the equipment to ensure the long-term stable operation of the equipment.

performance

The hardware performance test focuses on the fit with the software algorithm system. Just like forcing the Windows system into a MAC notebook, various incompatibility problems will occur. If good-quality hardware equipment cannot match the mining software, the production capacity will be low.

How to test and evaluate Filecoin mining hardware?

Take CPU as an example. Filecoin miners used Intel’s CPU in the early testing phase, and later replaced most of them with AMD. The main reason behind this is the SHA256 algorithm. SHA256 is the most used algorithm in Filecoin, and Intel chip does not support it. Early miners have tested and found that AMD, which supports SHA256, runs much faster than Intel. Therefore, while optimizing the algorithm, Filecoin miners must also comprehensively determine the operating efficiency of the hardware.

In addition, in the process of Filecoin mining, the use of different equipment at different stages also plays an important role in improving the overall mining efficiency. For example, in the sector packaging P2 stage, the use of GPU will be more efficient.

Scalability

Scalability is not only a comprehensive consideration based on the reasonable matching of hardware devices and software algorithms, but also hardware devices will be upgraded and updated based on new requirements in the future. The current development of the IT industry still follows Moore’s Law, and the rapid iteration of hardware equipment requires miners to think carefully about scalability and reduce the cost of hardware replacement.

Source link: mp.weixin.qq.com

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How to test and evaluate Filecoin mining hardware? (www.blockcast.cc)

如何测试与评估 Filecoin 挖矿硬件?

Original title: “Test and Evaluation of Filecoin Mining Hardware”

Author: Zhao Bao

The complicated Filecoin mining program coupled with a severe penalty mechanism means that the current threshold for becoming a Filecoin miner is still not small. Previously, we conducted a more comprehensive science on the entire Filecoin mining process, but if you want to become a real Filecoin miner, you need to conduct in-depth and thorough research in various subdivisions. This time we will talk about hardware.

More, fast, better, and economical testing direction

First of all, the purpose of hardware testing is to pursue the ultimate input-output ratio, just like Jingdong’s slogan “more, faster, better, and less.”

Multi: The special certification system of Filecoin network puts forward high requirements on whether the hardware can run software algorithms efficiently. Whether Filecoin miners can properly adapt the software and hardware to maximize their efficacy will directly affect the mining rewards;

Fast: Filecoin miners quickly complete sector packaging is a necessary process for computing power growth. The packaging speed depends on the algorithm, and the optimization of the algorithm is the improvement of the hardware utilization;

Good: Filecoin’s mining equipment needs to be in high-speed operation 7*24 hours. If the quality of the mining equipment is not up to standard, damage occurs and data is lost during operation, it will face high pledge penalties.

Province: High performance and good quality are not the best choice for Filecoin mining equipment. Efficient matching at the hardware level can not only save costs, but also ensure mining revenue.

如何测试与评估 Filecoin 挖矿硬件?

Evaluation criteria for quality, performance and scalability

If the IDC computer room is compared to a mining farm, the hardware equipment of the software program running carrier is the “shovel” in the hands of the miners. As the saying goes, “Knife sharpening does not cut wood by mistake”, Filecoin hardware equipment testing and evaluation is very important, and we summarize it into three aspects: quality, performance and scalability.

quality

The hardware equipment quality inspection method is the same as the traditional hardware factory inspection method, through various index tests to verify whether the hardware quality meets the requirements. However, based on the strict penalty mechanism of Filecoin mining, it is necessary to carry out more stringent stress tests on the equipment to ensure the long-term stable operation of the equipment.

performance

The hardware performance test focuses on the fit with the software algorithm system. Just like forcing the Windows system into a MAC notebook, various incompatibility problems will occur. If good-quality hardware equipment cannot match the mining software, the production capacity will be low.

如何测试与评估 Filecoin 挖矿硬件?

Take CPU as an example. Filecoin miners used Intel’s CPU in the early testing phase, and later replaced most of them with AMD. The main reason behind this is the SHA256 algorithm. SHA256 is the most used algorithm in Filecoin, and Intel chip does not support it. Early miners have tested and found that AMD, which supports SHA256, runs much faster than Intel. Therefore, while optimizing the algorithm, Filecoin miners must also comprehensively determine the operating efficiency of the hardware.

In addition, in the process of Filecoin mining, the use of different equipment at different stages also plays an important role in improving the overall mining efficiency. For example, in the sector packaging P2 stage, the use of GPU will be more efficient.

Scalability

Scalability is not only a comprehensive consideration based on the reasonable matching of hardware devices and software algorithms, but also hardware devices will be upgraded and updated based on new requirements in the future. The current development of the IT industry still follows Moore’s Law, and the rapid iteration of hardware equipment requires miners to think carefully about scalability and reduce the cost of hardware replacement.

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Detailed explanation of digital RMB hardware wallet and dual offline payment (www.blockcast.cc)

On October 30, at the domestic press conference of Huawei’s Mate 40 series mobile phones, Huawei Consumer Business CEO Yu Chengdong announced that the Mate 40 series mobile phones support the “Digital RMB Hardware Wallet” function in accordance with the unified standards of the People’s Bank of China Digital Currency Research Institute. This is the first domestic smartphone that supports digital RMB hardware wallets.

Judging from the currently known pilot information, digital renminbi has two forms: software wallets and hardware wallets. Software wallets are the “digital renminbi” wallets experienced in previous activities, in the form of mobile apps; hardware wallets are based on “chips”. “Wallets that exist in the form of smart cards, mobile eSE, etc.

Therefore, it is certain that for consumers, in addition to being able to exchange and use digital renminbi through mobile apps in the future, digital renminbi can also be used in the form of the above hardware wallets. However, as the R&D and application of digital renminbi are constantly updated and developed, the following descriptions are only extrapolated based on current market conditions and patent descriptions, and do not represent the final specific form of digital renminbi, and are for your reference only.

About “Digital Currency Chip Card”

The mobile payment network summarizes the hardware wallet as a “digital currency chip card” (hereinafter, “digital currency” refers to the central bank’s digital currency, that is, the digital renminbi) based on its recent understanding of industry participants and the patent details previously announced by the central bank. Currency chip cards can specifically include five forms: visual Bluetooth IC cards, IC cards, mobile eSE cards, mobile SD cards, and mobile SIM cards.

The above divisions are summarized in a series of patents such as the central bank “Method and System for Offline Payment Using Digital Currency Chip Cards”. Therefore, in the view of mobile payment networks, the form of hardware wallet means that the carrier carrying digital currency is a physical device that is different from software, whether it is a smart card chip or a mobile phone chip.

From the perspective of the above-mentioned five forms, visible Bluetooth IC cards and IC cards are mainly smart card forms, while mobile eSE cards, mobile SD cards, and mobile SIM cards belong to mobile phone forms.

A visual Bluetooth card generally refers to a smart card with a screen that displays information such as transaction amount and balance, and interacts with the smart phone through Bluetooth and other methods, and can cooperate with the mobile phone App to query and synchronize account information. IC cards include ordinary smart cards, ultra-thin cards and other forms. They have no active interaction capabilities and need to interact with the receiving terminal before they can be used.

Mobile phone eSE card, mobile phone SD card, and mobile phone SIM card usually refer to a solution based on three different modes of NFC, such as the full terminal of the mobile phone, NFC-SD, and NFC-SIM card. The security information is stored in different SE chips, and then passed The mobile phone NFC interacts with the receiving terminal, of course, it may also interact through Bluetooth or other methods.

The hardware wallet supported by Huawei Mate 40 series mobile phones is the aforementioned mobile phone eSE form.

About the transfer and liquidation of funds

The central bank’s digital currency system includes one currency, two banks, and three centers. The digital currency registration center needs to verify the legality of the transaction digital currency, record the transaction flow, correct the new owner of the corresponding digital currency, and register other required information.

The two libraries refer to the central bank’s digital currency issuing library and the digital currency commercial bank library. Commercial banks pay an equal amount of reserve funds to the central bank in exchange for digital currency to be stored in the commercial bank library and recorded in the central bank’s registration center.

When a user opens a digital currency wallet and exchanges a certain amount of digital currency from a commercial bank deposit account, the commercial bank first needs to check whether there is enough digital currency in the digital currency bank library, and provide users with deposits if sufficient The operation of exchanging digital currency. After the commercial bank feeds back the operational information to the central bank, the central bank registration center records the transaction and changes the corresponding digital currency owner from the commercial bank to the user.

When the digital currency in the wallet is used for transactions, taking the carrier as a “digital chip card” as an example, first enter the transaction amount on the acceptance terminal, and the user takes out the card to interact with the acceptance terminal in a non-contact manner, and then obtains the transaction Based on the amount, the transaction information is sent to the acceptance terminal (the transaction information includes the digital chip card information and the digital currency equivalent to the transaction amount).

Subsequently, the acceptance terminal establishes a network connection with the digital currency system of the commercial bank, and the terminal sends the transaction information to the digital currency system of the commercial bank. After receiving the transaction information, the digital currency system of the commercial bank sends a request to change the owner to the digital currency system of the central bank. After the central bank digital currency system receives the owner change request, it changes the owner of the digital currency to the merchant code corresponding to the terminal device.

The above is the basic flow of central bank digital currency in the transaction process learned through patents. In fact, this “change of digital currency owner” method is similar to the form of cash transactions, which is the Token-based UTXO model we discussed earlier. But at the same time, they are also facing the problem of “currency value” and “change”. However, in the previous pilot digital RMB red envelope experience, we did not find this problem, so we can conclude that the central bank’s previous test did not fully adopt the UTXO model, or the central bank’s original “currency value” and “change” The problem has been optimized so that users do not perceive it. Regarding this issue, we will discuss it in detail below.

Regardless of the basic circulation path of digital currency, there is a problem involved in this. If the digital currency wallet account opened by the merchant and the user’s digital currency wallet account are not an operating institution, what about the fund flow behind? For example, user A uses a digital currency wallet opened in the Bank of China and exchanges 100 yuan from an ICBC personal bank account to deposit it, and then pays to merchant B through the digital wallet, and the digital wallet that merchant B receives is opened at ICBC , And was exchanged back to B’s personal bank account in ICBC.

Then the specific fund flow may be that the Bank of China first confirms the fund inventory in its digital currency bank library, and after reporting the information to the central bank registration center, the central bank changes the owner of the 100 yuan digital currency from the Bank of China fund library to user A; user A will When 100 yuan is paid to B, ICBC, the operator of B’s wallet, first confirms its digital currency bank treasury inventory and feeds back information to the central bank registration center. The registration center changes the owner of the 100 yuan digital currency from user A to user B. When B deposits 100 yuan into the ICBC bank account, ICBC feedbacks information to the central bank registration center, and then the central bank cancels and records the 100 yuan digital currency from the ICBC digital currency bank library, and restores ICBC’s 100 yuan digital currency exchange quota.

Due to the cross-bank circulation of digital currencies, there will naturally be “clearing” issues. Judging from the current information, mobile payment networks speculate that this “clearing” role is played by the central bank itself. Of course, judging from the recent signing of strategic cooperation agreements between the Central Bank’s Digital Currency Research Institute and other clearing institutions such as City Bank Clearing and Rural Credit Bank, small and medium-sized banks will not be responsible for exchange operations in the future, but they must participate in the circulation of digital renminbi and subsequent capital development. Circulation may require these clearing institutions to achieve interconnection capabilities.

About dual offline payment?

We have exemplified the payment process of the digital chip card above, but in fact it is only based on the single offline payment under the networked state of the accepting terminal. The accepting terminal needs to interact with the digital currency system of the commercial bank before it can feed back to the central bank and change the digital currency. Owner.

So when the acceptance terminal and the payment device are both offline, how to solve it?

In fact, the entire transaction process has not undergone essential changes, but the networking process has been appropriately delayed. According to the patent, the offline payment defined in the digital renminbi system refers to near-field payment, during which the receiver needs to confirm the payment online afterwards.

Similar to the transaction process above, the receiving terminal accepting the digital currency can verify the authenticity of the received digital currency through the form of “plug-in” and verify the identity of the user, but it cannot verify whether it has made repeated payments. “Flower” problem, so you must wait for it to be verified after going online.

According to the design idea described in the patent, the digital currency that requires repeated payment verification is marked as “Pending Repeat Payment Verification” in the client e-wallet program (such as POS machine). Once the POS machine is connected to the network, it will automatically send it to the digital currency system. Repeat payment verification application. The digital currency system receives the verification application to perform corresponding operations, supplements the transaction flow in the registration center, and updates the owner of the digital currency.

In other words, after the dual offline payment, the transaction funds “to be verified for repeated payments” cannot be circulated to the market before online verification. For example, A transfers 100 yuan to B through digital RMB dual offline payment. Although B receives 100 yuan of transaction information, the 100 yuan will be marked as “Pending Repeat Payment Verification” status and cannot be spent by B again , Can only be restored after the verification is completed on the Internet.

However, according to an industry insider, the secondary transfer in offline state is also possible, and at least local verification must be passed without network verification, so that the secondary transfer can also be achieved. However, it is still unclear how the application of the digital renminbi will be realized.

Based on the above information, the mobile payment network infers that there will be many restrictions on the “dual offline” payment of digital RMB.

First of all, both parties of the dual offline payment transaction must be hardware wallets, and the SE security chip must be built-in to reach a certain level of security encryption. Hardware wallets include smart cards and mobile phones. They are not necessarily used for dual offline payment, but as long as it is dual offline payment, it must be a hardware wallet.

Secondly, since dual offline payment requires a built-in SE, the accepting terminal must also be modified accordingly. According to the mobile payment network, in the previous digital renminbi online payment trial, the acceptance terminal only needs to be supported by software upgrades.

Finally, from the current point of view, dual offline payment only supports NFC form of interaction, but it does not rule out that there will be other solutions.

In addition, according to a person who participated in the internal test of the mobile payment network, the “dual offline” payment will have corresponding “offline transaction time” and “offline transaction times” restrictions. According to the NFC-SIM card mode dual offline payment that it revealed in the internal test, the time limit for offline transactions is 24 hours, and the number of transactions is 10 times. In addition, according to the patent, it is possible to set the dual offline payment as a small payment, such as less than 1,000 yuan, and set it in a range acceptable to individual users.

At the same time, a post-event accountability mechanism must be adopted to record bad records into the credit investigation system for punishment. If the system determines that the hardware wallet has counterfeit coins or double spends during the currency verification process after networking, the wallet can be blacklisted, the wallet status can be set to disabled status, and the hard wallet media can be disabled through emergency processing.

About currency value and change issues

Above we talked about the capital flow and ownership change of the digital renminbi, so that we will face the problems of “currency” and “change”. In fact, the central bank also has related descriptions in the patent.

The digital renminbi is established and issued into circulation by the People’s Bank of China as legal tender, and the People’s Bank of China is the ultimate lender to provide guarantees to participate in the exchange, exchange and consumption within the national standard framework. It is a string of codes that has the same currency meaning as the “face value” in actual circulation. Digital currency simulates the issuance and management process of paper currency in the central bank, and generates digital currency in the digital currency issuance library according to the central bank’s current digital currency issuance.

In the digital currency system design, the currency value can be generated according to the minimum unit denomination, according to the user’s specific withdrawal amount, or according to the actual currency denomination in circulation. The specific method can be generated by the system parameters in the initial process Set up. In order to get closer to reality, the patent description uniformly uses the form of “fixed denomination in circulation” to explain, that is, the digital currency in the issuance library completely simulates the denomination in circulation, and “printing” produces the digital representation of “one yuan, five dollars”. “Yuan, Shi Yuan, Two Shi Yuan, Wu Shi Yuan, One Hundred Yuan” etc., an encrypted text represents a digital currency of denomination.

The digital renminbi generated in this form will inevitably face the problem of “change”, although it can be automatically matched through software tools to optimize the best change method, and even if the merchant cannot make change, it can even connect the digital one after another. The currency system splits and exchanges the change and matches it, but it may be difficult for the user experience to reach the ideal state in this way. Of course, it can also take the form of “currency value based on the smallest unit denomination”, that is, all currency values ​​are 1 point, which can also avoid the problem of change, but whether there will be other problems in the system and experience is unknown.

Therefore, the mobile payment network speculates that the previous Shenzhen digital renminbi red envelope online payment pilot may not adopt the form of “fixed denomination” currency, or even the UTXO model, but directly adopt the Token-based account balance model. The advantage of this is that there is no problem of currency value and change, just change the balance under the corresponding wallet account directly through the digital currency system.

However, “dual offline” payment may be different. Dual offline payment faces higher security requirements, and requires “repetitive payment verification” for each offline payment. In this way, the UTXO-based model seems more Suitable for dual offline payment.

Conclusion

No matter what form or even multiple forms are adopted at the same time, the overall transaction process will not change much. The transaction information of the digital renminbi needs to be recorded through the digital currency registration center of the central bank. The problem is nothing more than a double-spending problem that may be caused by delayed verification.

As described in the patent, in the current case of dual offline transactions, almost all the repeated payment checks performed by electronic cash systems are delayed, that is, the repeated payment checks are performed after the payment process is completed. Therefore, it is only possible to discover and hold accountable through delayed repeated payment inspections, or to limit the form of payment rules to improve the entire process.

Of course, as the mobile Internet is becoming more and more developed today, the Internet is already ubiquitous. “Dual offline” payment will not be a normal payment method, but an indispensable supplement under certain special circumstances and special circumstances. Therefore, I also hope that the industry and the general public can take a calm look and avoid excessive rendering and hype.