Bitcoin Banknotes Now Available in Singapore

As cryptocurrency gains mainstream acceptance we have seen Bitcoin take on many of the mediums of fiat money – ATMs, debit cards, financial derivatives, and even cryptocurrencies whose value is tethered to assets.

Now, in an interesting new development, a firm in Singapore has begun to sell Bitcoin banknotes. Or rather, smart banknotes.

These notes are not really made of paper; they are hardware storage units with a S3D350A chip manufactured by Samsung. What they have in common with banknotes is that they represent one set value and can be physically given as payment at an outlet. In essence these notes are self-contained wallets with their own private key. Tangem refers to them as “uncopiable cold wallet[s]”.

According to a Tangem post in Medium, the chip technology is tamper-proof, addressing “all known attack vectors on hardware and software levels.” It says that years of chip development via credit cards, SIM cards and ID cards have led to a product secure enough that…