The 21 Inc. Computer is the new Altair 8800

So, 21 Inc. finally unveiled their first product yesterday.

A $400 glorified Raspberry Pi with a shitty mining chip glued on top.

The idea is to embed the mining chip in smartphones, tablets, routers, everything. (Which is why Qualcomm & Cisco are involved.)

The real target cost for the 21 chip is pennies, not dollars, not hundreds of dollars, certainly not $400.

Drop the chip, embed the design in SoC’s and we’re talking fractions of a penny.

The “computer” is not a Bitcoin miner, it’s a devkit.

It’s a devkit for future devices which would have native Bitcoin support (wallets & coin-generation) for identification (private keys), and micro-transactions.

Today, content on the internet is powered by advertising. Because we lack microtransactions. Google & Facebook & Twitter are advertising companies. 21 aims to change that. The internet runs on advertising. 21 aims to change that.

Link unforgeable bitcoin private keys with biometric identification.

You just killed:

• Passwords…
• sign-ups…
• e-mail confirmation…
• login screens

This would remove a ton of hassle and frustration from the whole online experience.

Give every internet user a source of fresh, unbought, newly generated Bitcoins → enable e-commerce without logins and sign-ups.

Well, no more need to keep customer data on file. Hey! You just killed identity theft in e-commerce. (Corporate and individual victims of identity-theft are grateful.)

Shop online without revealing your name, address, phone number, birth date, mothers maiden name etc. etc. etc …to any and every new retailer.

It would be like buying a newspaper, in cash, no questions asked.

This is generally impossible on the internet today,

(What is wrong with the world? We need to fix this!)

Why does every online retailer need all your personal data to sell you a digital good? Because of credit cards & identity theft. (And also because of advertising.)

In this new simpler internet, they don’t need your personal data,

…so they shouldn’t have your personal data.

This points the way to an internet without friction between: “I want this digital good” and “I’m enjoying this digital good.” Games, books, streams, video, journalism. Any sort of digital content.

We can make all online commerce like one-click shopping at Amazon.

Visit a digital-merchant. “Click to read this article.” Done.

Better for content-producers.

Better for internet users.

This is not a mining device, it’s the Altair 8800 of a new Bitcoin powered internet.

The Altair 8800 was pretty much the shittiest computer.

But it launched the whole personal computer revolution.

That whole Bitcoin powered internet we talked about. It doesn’t exist yet.

It’s a possible future. And we have to build it.

If it works, it will remove a lot of dysfunctions and ineffieciencies and friction.

Why can’t you preload the 21 device? Because you don’t kill identity-theft if you bought the micro-bitcoins from someone else, instead of generating them yourself.