Introduction
I stumbled upon Offline Cash randomly on Twitter. I can’t remember how exactly but it was on Twitter.
I remember being intrigued about the possibility of having Bitcoin be in a cash like form factor. Having lived in poor and rural areas with no reliable internet access, Bitcoin in these locations will have no or very low adoption.
But if it can be passed around in cash like manner maybe areas with poor internet infrastructure can possess and transact in Bitcoin like those with reliable internet.
So I jumped at the opportunity to try this product out. Since this is the first edition they had limited supply which I was able to be part of even though my number was outside the number allotted (2100 I was number 2556).
Below is my experience with Offline Cash! Enjoy!
Where to find it?
Search for Offline Cash on Twitter and you will come to their profile page:
Then you click on the website link bitcoinnote.com. Which takes you to the landing page below:
When you click reserve now the following screen pops up:
Once here you can scroll up and see the limited first edition only has 2100 packs. If there are slots available you may still be able to get your hands on some Offline Cash today. The cost of the notes is $49 and was due to release late August 2022. My order did not fill until late October 2022.
Now with the Notes in my hand let the review begin:
Getting Started
Packaging
The notes were shipped in your standard shipping sleeve and then in an orange envelope with a warning on the back saying the notes must be loaded with Bitcoin before use.
In the envelope is 4 notes (as seen above in the cover photo) and an insert giving instructions on how to load Bitcoin to the notes an 3 steps.
The Notes
Offline Cash comes in 4 denominations. The creators of Offline Cash decided to use milibitcoin for notational value. One milibitcoin is equal to 100,000 sats or 0.001 BTC. Odd selection in my opinion.
True bitconers know that SATS are the STANDARD.
The notes are very high quality. Feels heavier than a US dollar with beautiful artwork. The come in a variety of colors. The Offline Cash team really nailed the aesthetics. Each note is pictured below
1 millbitcoin (100,000 sats)
2 millibitcoin (200,000 sats)
5 milibitcoin (500,000 sats)
10 milibitcoin (1,000,000 sats)
Now with the notes out we can load them up with Bitcoin now.
Loading up the notes
To load the notes with bitcoin you need to install the Offline Cash app. While I got the notes in October 2022 the app did not show up in Apple’s App store until December 2022. Search the Apple Store for Offline Cash.
Once you click open the app you are greeted with this home screen
To load the notes you must select Scan Note. Once clicked you see the following screen:
To my surprise these notes are loaded with an NFC chip. I was expecting a QR Code. The iPhone 12 is equipped to read NFC chips thus allowing me to upload Bitcoin to the Notes.
Once the NFC tag is located (near the WiFi signal on the note) the following screen pops open
Here it has all the details for the one milibitcoin note. Once you click the load note button the following screen pops open
Here you are asked to load up the note with some bitcoin. And a user to generate a user key. Not sure what the user generated key does. When you click Personalize Note button the following screen comes up
The load note ribbon turns yellow and now says pending load. With a details button. Once you click the details button you see the following Load Note screen with a Bitcoin address to send the Bitcoin to.
Using my Bitcoin wallet I sent 100,000 sats plus mining fee to the address showed to load the note.
After the transaction confirmed the note is loaded up with 1o0,000 sats. To see the screen below select the Scan Note button and put the note next to the iPhone NFC reader
As you can see the note now has 100,000 stats loaded on to it.
And with that loading up the Offline Cash is complete! Also note the key is sealed. This tells the owner the private key has yet to be exposed thus safe from being stolen.
Bitcoin in paper form. While it is not 100% trust-less like cash it is in a form factor that is common to people and with just a few steps more they can withdraw this Bitcoin to their wallet of choice. Now lets try to withdrawal.
Withdrawls
To test if this really works I am going to attempt to use the Offline Scan first to see if I am able to withdraw this Bitcoin without internet. I will put my phone on airplane mode to see if it works.
When WiFi is off the app gives an error of not being able to communicate with the server. Thus Wifi is needed.
After clicking Offline Scan and brining the note to the iphone NFC reader the following screen is shown:
After clicking withdraw (offline) button a screen shows up asking for a bitcoin address to withdraw the funds.
Once I entered my address and hit withdraw scanned my note on the iphone NFC reader I got the following advice
It appears I will need to cut on the dotted line to claim. My guess that cut will unlock the private key and then allow you to claim the funds.
After making the cut when scanning the note I noticed one of the status items turned red and now labeled unsealed
When I try to withdraw I get the following error message
Thus killing my chance of doing an offline withdrawal. With this information I go back to the Scan Note button on the main home screen to complete my withdrawal there.
Once I click I see the following:
Two buttons one for Withdraw and another for Rotate Key. When I select Rotate Key I see the following
I am not 100% sure what this is supposed to do. My guess is if you wanted to switch the private key you can send this note to another address on the note?? Maybe Offline Cash will explain what exactly is going on here once the product is in full production.
Now to complete the withdrawal I go back to the pervious screen click Withdraw complete the same flow as with the offline scan enter my Bitcoin address , scan the NFC chip with my iPhone and boom just like that the sats show up in my wallet.
And with that I completed the full gambit. I loaded the note with sats and I withdrew the sats to a wallet.
Issues and Support
Support
The support from the Offline Cash team has been pretty good. Every time I direct message them on Twitter they are responsive with the response time fairly quick. The first issue I had was their site not accepting Apple Pay. I switched my payment method to Paypal and the order processed.
Next, I asked the team about the shipping date on Sept 30. They give reason for the delay which was stamping the serial number which took more time than expected.
Lastly, I asked them about the app to load my notes on December 5th. They responded with an Apple Store link to download the app and mentioned the Android version will be released soon.
Issues
Issues I noticed thus far
- The offline scan doesn’t work without Wifi. If this is truly going to be Offline Cash the off line button has to work .
- Finding the sweet spot for the NFC tag. Sometimes it can be hit or miss if the Iphone NFC chip reader can sense the NFC chip in the Offline Note. I often found myself rubbing the note on my phone in many ways to get it to sense and once it does it takes the app a while to load the information from the note. If you break that link the app gives an error.
- The load amount says 1 mBTC and 0.005 mBTC to load the note but once you send the BTC it just asks for the 1mBTC. Offline Cash should make that first screen more clear that the extra mBTC is needed for miner fees. This can cause confusion especially if the fees become very high.
- I see the all the transactions are on chain. This works now but this can be an issue down the road. The Offline Cash team will need to work on other solutions to get BTC on to the note.
- I wish the notes were in smaller denominations. As price rises these notes will appreciate in value you.
- The time line to claim. Why does a bearer asset have a timeline to withdraw? This defeats the purpose of having offline cash. Once the bitcoin is loaded it should be valid forever unless the bill is destroyed. The Offline Team should explain this.
- It appears this depends on a server. Nothing about this is truly offline. After you load you need the app to get the bitcoin off. To use the offline withdrawal you have to wait validity date to expire. I am assuming this is the Jan 2nd 2029 date?
- These notes are a one time use. Once you cut to claim and unseal the private key its over.
- Having to use a close source app to function with the notes are a big downer. I know this might bite into Offline Cash’s business model but they should open this up and allow other wallets with NFC capabilities load up funds and extract funds. Like it would be cool if this works with nunchuck like Coinkite’s Satscard does.
Final Thoughts and Ranking
While the goal is to have an offline bearer instrument similar to fiat cash I think this misses the mark. I like the attempt but I can’t see this working in a poor or rural setting. Offline Cash didn’t release any instructions or how t0 videos on youtube on how to use their product. I know this is very new and they are still working out the details but so far it misses the mark to be true cash.
With that said as a Bitcoin product this is pretty cool. The form factor is nice and the app is very intuitive. It’s clean and pretty straight forward.
One gripe I do have is the fee estimation. They should clear that up because a 500 sat fee might work one day and will get you stuck in the mempool on another day. Offline Cash should clean the fee stuff up when making transactions to and from the note. Which also they should make clear when withdrawing that some of your sats will be lost to pay miner fees. If the issuer wants to make sure the recipient will no doubt get 100,000 sats they should be given the opportunity to add extra sats on top of the note denomination to cover miner fees when extracting.
I can see this being a strong competitor to Coinkite products like the OpenDime, and their more recent Satscard. Also this Offline Cash should also compete with the Bolt Card if they could add Lightning capabilities to it.
Here are my early rankings of Offline Cash
(A = Outstanding, B = Very Good, C =Satisfactory, D = Poor, F = Fail)
Easy to Locate — — — — — — — — — — — — — -> A
User Interface — — — — — — — — — — — — — -> B+
Stability — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — - > A
Relevance — — — — — — — — — — — — — — > D
Tech Support — — — — — — — — — — — — -> B
Overall — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ->B+
As fiat cash this would grade as an F.
But as Bitcoin product it is very cool. Hardcore bitcoiners like my self can take this product and figure it out. I am pretty sure if I went to a bitdevs or a Bitcoin meetup and handed someone this bill they would be able to figure out how to pull the sats out but a normie no way!! But it is a start and I commend the Offline Cash team trying to bring Bitcoin into a physical form that more of the masses can use.
Thanks for reading. If you made it this far you can help yourself to some Sats. Have 2,000 sats on me! After 30 days these sats will disappear! so withdraw quickly
or click the link here.
Hobbyist out!
