[tech] Portfolio of Bitdinar mobile applications

Une fois n'est pas coutume, this is an up-to-date list of the mobile applications we have built over the years, to test different versions of the Bitdinar mobile wallet.

Please forgive us for the lack of inspiration for some of the designs you will see below.

And of course, none of this could be achieved without our very Belji.  

Summary

By the end of this post you will be familiar with the different iterations of the Bitdinar wallet, as well as the underlying technology or frameworks, on top of which they were built.

For the sake of clarity, we will proceed anti-chronologically.

Taler implementation - 2021

Technical specs:

# Taler Wallet
- Wallet transacting in Kudos
- Protocol: GNU Taler
- Details: Transactions are settled on a central server hosted by the GNU Taler team.
- Currency code: Kudos
- Status: Minimum viable Product

For our latest application version, we have been refactoring the GNU Taler framework, and Belji installed the client software on mobile targets.

Videos

The demonstration consists of a full transaction video, and a Point of Sales view video.

Full Transaction Video

As demonstrated, it is possible to obtain good transactional results with the available stack developed by our friends at GNU Taler.

Alright, alright. We are aware of the quality of the video, but please keep in-mind that the good devices were used for the software itself, and none of us is a professional movie maker.

Payment System - Point of Sale View

In this last video from 2021, we can see the Point of Sales view, where the the cashier might place the orders, or the customer does it directly from an self service point of sales.

Bitdinar Implementation part 2 - 2017

Technical specs

# Bitdinar Wallet
- Wallet transacting in Bitdinar
- Protocol: Bitdinar's proof of work blockchain
- Details: Transactions are settled on a blockchain record hosted by Vink-io team and the Vulpem team.
- Currency code: BTD
- Status: Proof of Concept

During the spring and summer of 2017, we focused with the Vulpem team on a seamless mobile wallet, that embodies the principles of Financial Inclusion in its User Interface.

The motives behind a minimalist approach was to facilitate the usage of digital currency to customers who might not be familiar with smartphones. Not everyone is a Bitcoin Ninja.

Videos

Iteration of the Bitdinar wallet application, running on iPhone 7 and done in June 2017:

Bitdinar mobile wallet

Before this final draft, we have had an earlier Iteration of the Bitdinar(s) wallet application, running on Android, done by April 2017.

Notice that in-between versions, we improved the payment flow, by changing the directions in which the pay/receive button behaves, so it became swipe right to pay, and swipe left to receive.

On a more relaxed note, we were still studying the amount of Bitdinar(s) to include in the logo:

Bitdinars mobile wallet

Vinkoin Implementation - 2017

Technical specs

# Vinkoin Wallet
- Wallet transacting in Vinkoins
- Protocol: Bitcoin colored coins
- Details: Transactions are settled on the Bitcoin blockchain
- Currency code: VNK
- Status: Proof of Concept

This minimal mobile wallet implementation was very interesting, since it relies on the colored coins concept.

It was possible to allocate micro amounts of Bitcoin, and peg them to atomic coins, which were then transmitted on the actual Bitcoin network, when sent between nodes. This would not be viable now, for mutiple reasons, however this technique was a precursor to the actual Lightning Network.

Pictures

Unfortunately we do not have videos of the workflow of this mobile wallet, but we kept a picture with a lot of zeros trailing.

Vinkoin Wallet Specs

This iteration was very fa from being optimal, as we needed toa access the wallet application only via browser, without mentioning the many bugs and failed attempts before getting the Vinkoins right.

However, the underlying principles were here more attractive than usability.

Bitdinar Implementation part 1 - 2016

Finally we get to the original culprit, or the very first implementation of a concept called the Bitdinar.

Technical specs

# Bitdinar Wallet
- Wallet transacting in Bitdinar
- Protocol: Bitdinar's proof of work blockchain
- Details: Transactions are settled on a blockchain record hosted by Vink-io team.
- Currency code: BTND
- Status: Proof of Concept

Technically this is not a mobile wallet application as it comes as binary to set up on a desktop machine, or server. However it is a wallet, that transacts, validates and interacts with mining Bitdinar.

For this very very first iteration of Bitdinar, we have forked a primitive peercoin stack which claimed to provide proof of stake consensus. In truth, it was a bitcoin fork, and we mined the first Bitdinar according to the proof of work.

Pictures

Here too, we just kept a very bad quality image of the first ever Bitdinar mined.

First Bitdinar Mined

This first version helped us understand the dynamics of a crypto-crrency software, and its build dependencies.

The network was composed of 2 machines, one in Berlin and the other one in Tunis. If both machines were off, the network would stall, and if one machine was connected, it was effectively representing 100% of the minimg pool available.

Conclusion

That is the end of this small time travel. During this technical journey we have been able to build software, but most importantly we built, and have been blessed by, a community around the concept of Bitdinar.