Sending crypto without an address: on paper, via email, chats, and more

Crypto addresses aren’t very user-friendly by themselves. A long string of numbers and letters could be a bit intimidating for anyone. Besides, the knowledge that your transaction will be irreversible could be unnerving as well. What if you mistype the address? What if you want your funds back when sent to the wrong person? A refundable crypto without an address would be nice to solve those two issues.

Of course, we’re here to talk about it, because it actually exists. They’re the textcoins in Obyte, available to use just by texting or sharing on paper. And yes, they can also be refundable. Let’s look into them.

Classical wallet addresses

Let’s recall first what a crypto address is. From the average user’s point of view, it’s a unique identifier that you can share to receive crypto funds. It’s composed of a long string of alphanumeric characters. Just like this Obyte (GBYTE) address to donate via Kivach:

D3B42CWMY3A6I6GHC6KUJJSUKOCBE77U

Or this Bitcoin (BTC) address to donate to VLC Player:

bc1q27wp4frlsckghy3vgdjg4rnlsxztxca0f2r4a7

Or this Monero (XMR) address to donate to WikiLeaks:

453VWT5GEkXGc2J9asRpXpRkjoCGKCJr96rndm2VMe5yECiAcUB3h8pFxZ8YGbmbGmVefwWHPXmLR69Vw1sVNWz5TsFqYbK

As you can see, these addresses vary in length and format depending on the cryptocurrency. Beyond what you can see (complex enough), those long strings are the result of something dubbed “asymmetric cryptography,” also known as public/private key cryptography. This is a mathematical process to protect private data and authorize transactions, in our case.

You must have a public and private key pair to use cryptocurrencies. They let you use your digital assets, and can be easily handled from a common crypto wallet. The public key (from which the address is derived) is like an email address to share with others, and the private key would be like your password to access that email. A private key is derived from a “seed”, formed by random words.

It could look like this in Obyte, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other platforms:

together orange pelican tooth fox lucky half cup window coil radar pen

The system is pretty secure and suitable for cryptocurrency transactions. But what if we could make it easier? The nature of most distributed ledgers doesn’t let them reverse transactions, and they rarely offer something more “normal” or “easier” than a crypto address to receive funds. It’s possible to offer it, though.

Crypto offline and in physical world

Besides the wallet (public and private keys), you’ll need the Internet to use cryptocurrencies. Cryptos belong exclusively to the digital realm. It’s not possible to use them offline, right…? Well, that doesn’t apply to all cases. Usually, you would need the Internet and a digital wallet to send and receive coins, but we still have some tricks up our sleeve.

Not every potential crypto user has the Internet at hand all the time, and not every potential user could be willing to learn something that looks so intimidating from the start. For example, we can imagine that we’re trying to teach someone during a public event. It’s difficult for them to stay long enough to create a wallet, back up a seed, generate a crypto address, send or receive funds, etc.

It’d be convenient if they only need something familiar to begin with: an email address, an instant chat, a QR code, and/or a piece of paper.

A piece of paper could contain a small treasure, indeed. Someone could carry it around until they find a device and Internet, even temporarily, just to claim the funds. They could also agree to hand over this “paper” to someone else as payment for something. Then, the last recipient would be able to claim the funds on the Internet, at any moment. That’s something an Obyte textcoin can do.

Refundable textcoins for chats, email, and paper

You don’t need any crypto address to send textcoins, and it’s okay if you want them back. In practice, textcoins are a string of twelve random words containing funds (like a wallet seed) or a simple link in the email or chat. Someone with an Obyte personal wallet can create and give away textcoins to anyone, even if they don’t have any crypto wallet or Internet.

Textcoins look like this:

together-orange-pelican-tooth-fox-lucky-half-cup-window-coil-radar-pen

Or like this (in your email or chat):

“Obyte user beamed you money. Here is your link to receive 0.1 GB (≈1.53 USD): https://obyte.org/#textcoin?over-arrive-together-great-fold-comic-jeans-dice-soon-corn-steel-damage.”

If the other party can receive messages over chats/emails or on paper, then they are a perfect candidate to have a textcoin. The sender only needs to enter the section “Send” in their Obyte wallet, choose the asset to send (usually GBYTEs), set the amount, and pick “To Obyte address/email /username” or “Share via message”.

After creation, you can also keep the textcoin for yourself, as a form of a paper wallet for savings or anything else. It’ll be out of the reach of online hackers this way. All you need to do is write down the twelve secret words and erase them from your transaction history in the wallet, and that’s it.

Claiming and recovering textcoins

If you’re wondering about it, the linked website looks like this:

The funds can stay in a textcoin indefinitely, but it’s necessary to use an electronic device and access the Internet to claim and/or exchange the funds in your own Obyte wallet. It’s also important for the recipient to know that these are “refundable” coins. The sender knows the seed (private key) too. Therefore, they can claim the coins back if the recipient hasn’t already claimed them.

For instance, someone can prepare a bunch of paper cards as textcoins for $10 each and give them away at a conference. They could look like this:

Maybe not every card (textcoin) will be claimed after a reasonable period, like a month, for whatever reason. Perhaps the recipient(s) lost or damaged them. In this case, the funds aren’t lost forever. The original distributor can recover the unclaimed funds by searching in the “History” of their Obyte wallet. They can check which textcoins are still unclaimed, and simply click on “Claim back”. The funds will immediately reappear in their wallet.

Another option, of course, is to write down manually the original seed (the twelve secret words). It’ll only work on unclaimed textcoins, though. We can say that they’re like temporary wallets, only meant to exist until someone empties the amount on them.

A bonus: private crypto via chat and email

Remember when we mentioned that you can choose the asset to send? This asset is usually GBYTEs, indeed, but they can also be any other token on the Obyte DAG. That includes the private coin Blackbytes (GBB). When using GBBs, the data of the recipient and the amount won’t be displayed in the ledger. Instead, only the hashes (identifiers) of the transactions will be publicly available for verification.

To send Blackbytes as textcoins, it’s necessary to use an electronic device and Internet. They aren’t available on physical media unfortunately, because one needs to send a large digital file that contains the private data — so that information stays only with the involved users. But you still can send GBBs to anyone with an email or chat account, without needing a specific crypto address.

The process is the same as sending GBYTEs, but you need to change to Blackbytes in the “What to send” section. Once created, these private textcoins can be sent via any digital communication platform, including email and chats (like WhatsApp or Telegram). Encrypted chats are preferred as that would improve the security of the sent coins.

Exchanging Blackbytes to GBYTEs is easy and trustless as well. The recipient only needs to claim the textcoin as usual and add the Blackbytes Exchange bot in the Obyte wallet chat. Following the bot’s instructions and typing the commands is another simple step.

And that’s it! Ready to make some textcoins?

Featured vector image by pikisuperstar / Freepik