Samourai and goTenna Enable Bitcoin Transactions Without Internet Access
Samourai Wallet is collaborating with goTenna , a Brooklyn-based company specializing in off-grid communications, to produce txTenna, an Android app that combines mesh networking with Bitcoin transactions. The app will allow users to pair their phones with goTenna’s portable antennas in order to broadcast transactions. goTenna produces consumer-grade hardware to facilitate mesh networking — a concept that echoes much of the decentralization ethos that we see across the cryptocurrency domain — which operates by allowing peers to connect directly to one another for the purpose of routing packets, sidestepping the need to rely on an ISP or cell tower. “What will happen when these massive centralized networks fail due to natural disasters, as they did after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, or due to some kind of outside cybersecurity attack? What will happen when providers decide to crank up prices just because they can?” said Rich Myers, goTenna’s Decentralized Applications Engineer. “Mesh ...