Bitcoin in your pocket: Singapore startup brings cryptocurrency into the physical realm

Cryptocurrency has come full circle, with Singapore startup Tangem creating a physical manifestation of bitcoin that you can carry in your pocket.

Speaking on blockchain and cryptocurrency podcast Decrypt Asia, in partnership with Tech in Asia, Tangem founder and chief Andrew Pantyukhin explained how digital currencies can be stored, exchanged and even spent in everyday life outside of cyberspace.

He described the startup as a hardware company, building microelectronic technology based on a particular type of secure chip — the same kind found in many smartphones, and that’s responsible for Apple Pay — which is “designed to be unhackable”.

The chips also “have enough power to do elliptic curve cryptography in real time”, Pantyukhin said.

Tangem builds these secure chips into tiny cards — thinner and smaller than credit cards — which can create their own private keys, and effectively become cryptocurrency wallets in a physical form.

Pantyukhin coins the cards…