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I built a Bitcoin app you may find useful (coingram.co)

20 points by battani ↗ HN
A few weeks ago, a friend and I had the idea to build an app to send and receive bitcoin over social networks. There have been many times in the past where we wanted to send bitcoin to people on Facebook or Twitter (to tip, or as a gift, or to pay back friends), but could never do it easily. The recipient has to set up a wallet, understand how it all works, and send me their address, among other things.

The entire bitcoin experience seemed to be a real pain for average users. We thought they would be more at ease transacting on platforms they’re familiar with, with people they can identify and trust, as opposed to anonymous addresses.

So we built Coingram: https://coingram.co

It’s quite straightforward: you can send bitcoin to anyone on Facebook or Twitter. You can also receive bitcoin from anyone by sharing a link: coingram.co/[your-username]. And you can send very tiny amounts (as little as 1 micro-bitcoin). Everything is free.

We have many features planned (mobile app, embeddable buttons, attaching media to your transaction) but we think it's reached a point where we want to see if anyone's actually going to use the darn thing.

We think it has some potential. What do you guys think?

21 comments

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battani
A few weeks ago, a friend and I had the idea to build an app to send and receive bitcoin over social networks. There have been many times in the past where we wanted to send bitcoin to people on Facebook or Twitter (to tip, or as a gift, or to pay back friends), but could never do it easily. The recipient has to set up a wallet, understand how it all works, and send me their address, among other things.

The entire bitcoin experience seemed to be a real pain for average users. We thought they would be more at ease transacting on platforms they’re familiar with, with people they can identify and trust, as opposed to anonymous addresses.

So we built Coingram: https://coingram.co

It’s quite straightforward: you can send bitcoin to anyone on Facebook or Twitter. You can also receive bitcoin from anyone by sharing a link: coingram.co/[your-username]. And you can send very tiny amounts (as little as 1 micro-bitcoin). Everything is free.

We have many features planned (mobile app, embeddable buttons, attaching media to your transaction) but we think it's reached a point where we want to see if anyone's actually going to use the darn thing.

We think it has some potential. What do you guys think?

otisfunkmeyer
how does someone send fiat? are you using stripe? i signed up but couldn't tell without setting up 2 accounts :)

looks good overall.. i think as an MVP it's impressive

dholowiski
So, I assume you're storing the bitcoin in transit, right? What happens if I send bitcoin to someone and they don't claim it? Will you give it back to me, store it forever, or keep it for yourself? Are you ever converting it to fiat, or keeping it all in bitcoin?

If you're storing bitcoin, will it be stored in internet connected servers, or will you be using cold storage (and can you talk about what type of cold storage you're using)? and will you be acting as a fractional reserve or not?

What security precautions have you taken?

LyndsySimon
Let me be perfectly honest with you:

I will not, under any circumstances, recommend a service that is not 100% open source to new Bitcoin users. This is not an ideological stance, but a practical one - if I don't know what you're doing with their money, I can't advise them to trust you.

Seeing as your service caters almost exclusively to new or unsophisticated users, that means it has no value to me.

wyager
Thank you for using uB as the default unit!

The fact that Bitcoin is "so expensive" is a huge psychological barrier for people who don't understand that it's divisible.

iamsalman
Looks like something I may use but financial transactions have never been social. If I have to send someone money (friend or someone I owe), I'll use PayPal or something which they can recognize. With bitcoin, a lot of people want to "get in the game" as an investment. Maybe it's just me but I can't relate to a situation where I'll have to send a friend or someone I owe bitcoin through his/her facebook handle.
[dead] koussa
A friend sent me a link to this and I thought it was a great idea. Kudos.
[dead] gcoin
Awesome site! This could really open up bitcoin to a lot of people… Wish I had thought of it :)
[dead] rosa-susa
wow - how is it possible to send such tiny amounts?
[dead] roberto_c
This is really awesome. I see this bringing the social/community aspect to bitcoin like dogecoin has. Any plans on adding gmail support?
[dead] tucoine
that s pretty cool! do you plan to add up any features?
[dead] monkey0808
Hi, this is good - can we make it appear on facebook news feed that we send bitcoin to a specific friend?
rglullis
6 new accounts created in 15 minutes with comments that amount to nothing but "this is awesome"?! Your astroturfing is showing...
gamblor956
Agreed, and there's even more than that now...

Flagged as spam.

jkozera
Hmm, seems a bit similar to social transactions at https://greenaddress.it/

You can send from GreenAddress.it's wallets to anyone over Facebook, email, and Reddit (Twitter coming soon). Then they receive an encrypted private key which can be redeemed on GreenAddress.it, or other wallets.

Also you can receive funds by sharing a 'Receive' link.

GreenAddress.it is maybe not as polished for this particular use case, but I think might be worth checking out as well.

sbd
What's your monetization plan?
atmosx
That's all nice and well, any way to turn USD/EU to bitcoin instantly (without paying 5-10% commission)?

I mean if we don't solve this problem first (which not entirely technical), all these prototypes are futile.

sodastream
I'm sorry but .. where are the keys ?

Do I have to trust you are not going to get hacked ? Because that's just not going to work and we both know it.