HN Reader

Show HN: Burner – A low cost wallet to gift crypto

Hi HN! I’m one of the creators of Burner, a low cost Ethereum hardware wallet designed for gifting. After creating various forms of crypto “cash” (https://kong.cash/, https://offline.cash/) we learned that gifting cryptocurrencies was consistently one of the biggest challenges for holders and enthusiasts.

Burner looks and feels like a colorful gift card, but under the hood it incorporates a secure element chip. You can access its wallet with just an NFC tap, and it works entirely through our (soon to be) open source web app.

There is a lot more to share, like USD II (created by https://www.bridge.xyz/), a stablecoin that we designed to work with Burner without gas, but for now we’re excited to push Burner out the door and start getting feedback from users.

Man, looking at the comments it's crazy to me that hn's knowledge of a $3T industry hasn't evolved at all in 7 years. For those not in the know, Bridge, the stablecoin partner here, was just purchased by Stripe for $1.1B because they see future cost savings from using stablecoins for global remittances and forex.

https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/10/22/stripe-announces-1-1-b...

It's cool to have some skepticism, but update your beliefs. Scams and illicit transactions in crypto are actually smaller by proportion in all crypto than in USD or other fiat currencies at .3% last year.

https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/2024-crypto-crime-report-in...

This looks like just a secure enclave that you can deposit any crypto onto, so whether you trust the manufacturer of your smart card or credit card or not is up to you. Seems like there are easier ways to run a crypto scam, imo

8 days agoby cadillion

Bold of you to "Show HN:" a crypto project. As best I can tell, this will be use for all the things scam gift cards are typically used for now but more (because now crypto is involved somehow). Your 'stable-coin' doesn't inspire confidence either. Why can't I just gift someone some BTC or ETH? The only reason to include a coin of your own is for a pump and dump.

Really though, this stuff all sounds quite technically difficult. It's surprising to me that people still work on these projects considering it's rather dense subject matter (fin-tech) _and_ it hasn't really proven to be useful for very much in the West.

9 days agoby throwaway314155

Interesting...the name of this makes it sound like criminals will be using it to transfer cash around the world, like with gift cards?

Genuinely I'm curious, is there really a big market around gifting crypto, or is that market just sort of a front for criminal activity like why some retailers see a spike in gift card sales?

9 days agoby thebiglebrewski

Looks interesting, would suggest going with Solana over Ethereum though, especially in 2024.

8 days agoby ktothe

Spent more than 4x as much on my Ledger, and it's far from perfect and def not ideal for gifting crypto. I'm personally supportive of any company/product that wants to make managing crypto easier, safer, and cheaper. Kudos on the launch!

8 days agoby rdyplayerB

You avoid a seed phrase, but how? I thought it was "not your keys not your coin".

My understanding is someone who wants secure crypto needs to cryptographically safely generate a seed phrase. For signigicant amounts of money you will want that backed up. I guess if this is like a $50 gift card people are treating it like that and might accept if it gets lost then shrug.

8 days agoby usbsea

What’s in it for you? Are there fees involved for the end user to send a gift? If so, how much is it?

5 days agoby throwawayaghas1

Any concern about conceptual namespace collision? The mobile app Burner is a completely different product (not to mention it fits in with the common definition of the term)

8 days agoby bdcravens

I like it and will sign up for one. What funding did you get to launch this? I cannot find the About etc, however I did find the pages slow to load, so maybe I missed it?

8 days agoby anonzzzies

This is a really cool execution of an idea that's been floating out there a while. Next you just need a bitcoin one in the shape of a coin!

8 days agoby pants2

>That’s why we’ve created USD II – the perfect stablecoin to give with Burner. It’s backed 1:1 with U.S. Dollars held in reserve by our partner, Bridge.

Ah shit, here we go again. Why would I use this?

9 days agoby snypher