If you're looking for a bitcoin devkit to hack on this is a great device. It's not quiet, but with wifi it means it can be stashed somewhere else.
This product lets you play with the blockchain and micro payments in a way you just cannot do with a regular full node.
Great product, I don't have a programming background, but it's super easy to set up, and the tutorials are really helpful and clearly explained, even for people like me, with zero experience in coding.
The 21 Bitcoin Computer version 1 (aka 21BC1) is a really interesting piece of technology.
TL;DR: If you're a software developer interested in bitcoin then you should definitely buy one of these machines to play with. If you're not, then this is probably too early stage for you.
# What it is:
* A hardware gateway to spending and receiving bitcoin for software services.
* A development environment for bitcoin-powered applications
* An access point into the 21 p2p network
* A Raspberry Pi with a 50GH/s mining chip attached, which grants you membership in the 21co network and mining pool
# What it isn't:
* It is definitely *not* a mining chip. Yes, it includes a small ASIC but, as many people have observed, operating the ASIC is a net loss when you factor in the cost of the device and the cost of electricity.
# The good:
* This is, without a doubt, the easiest way to put API requests behind a bitcoin payment gateway. I can't overstate how easy it is.
* To write a toy program that downloads a youtube video and returns an mp4 for a cost of 4000 satoshi took about 30 minutes, most of which was spent learning how to use youtube_dl. The actual payment gateway part took less than 5 minutes.
* They have an off-chain micropayments infrastructure, making micropayments economically viable for the first time
* The soon-to-be-launched 21 p2p marketplace will provide an easy way to look up services which you can buy for bitcoin.
* One of their stated goals is re-decentralizing mining by putting a cheap miner in every device. That's a noble goal, but I'm not sure if the economics will work out for it.
# The bad:
* It sure is expensive, but I think of the 21BC1 as more of a developer device than a consumer device. Nobody was that upset when the Oculus developer kit was $350, or the Google Glass dev kit was $1500. And those devices are way less useful than this. I figure $100 for the RPi & the mining chip, $200 for the convenience of not having to write your own integrations with the blockchain, and $50 for access to the 21 marketplace, and a $50 retail markup. (The 21BC1 was $399 at the time of writing)
* Currently you must run your api on the 21BC1 itself. I assume this will change in the future. There's already plenty of talk about it in the 21.co community slack channel.
* Part of the 21 network is off-chain (note that this is also a good thing!), which may upset bitcoin purists.
# Why four stars?
The device is really cool, and the things that it allows people to do are really interesting, but it is still in development and has some rough edges. The ease of use accepting and sending bitcoin is worth three stars alone, and everything else combined easily puts it at four stars.
# The future
This is the first public release from 21.co, so I think they're still trying to figure out a business model and a consumer device that people will want. I don't think this is it (as so few first products are), but it's a great first step. Their sights are set far into the future, and the things they're pursuing now are about how to get as many people as possible spending bitcoin.
I think 21.co's objective is to bootstrap a bitcoin economy. Their long term goal must be getting machines spending bitcoin for services. A robust machine-to-machine economy will enable amazing things and I think 21.co wants to have their chip and library in every device to make that possible. I believe something similar to this device will be in every computer and phone within 5 years.
While I am familiar with Bitcoin, I know little about Bitcoin payment processing. I have several purpose-built computers, but I preferred to buy this device instead of building one. In terms of time saved, I think I made a good choice.
In less than an hour after I received the 21 computer, it was up and mining and using the APIs. The configuration and use of this device and the APIs are well-documented in tutorials on the 21.co website. I think it will be useful for my purpose.
The 21 computer is not a purpose-built miner, but it does mine enough Satoshis to experiment with the APIs. Which is what I require. Since I booted the 21 computer last night, it has mined … 39546 Satoshis.
Feature Product
- The 21 Bitcoin Computer is the first computer with native hardware and software support for the Bitcoin protocol
- It is designed for developers to easily build Bitcoin-payable apps, services and devices
- Operate it as a standalone computer, or connect it to any Mac, Windows, or Linux machine
- Has a suite of pre-configured Bitcoin-dependent software, and includes a 128 GB SD card loaded with a full copy of the Blockchain
- Includes all the items you need to get started - including a WiFI adapter, laptop-to-device cable, Raspberry Pi 2, and power supply
Description
The 21 Bitcoin Computer is the first computer with native hardware and software support for the Bitcoin Protocol.
It allows you to:
- Buy digital goods and services with a stream of bitcoin mined by a 21 Bitcoin Chip
- Sell your digital goods and services for bitcoin with the built-in 21 Micropayments Server
- Easily build bitcoin-payable apps, services, and devices
- Operate it as a standalone computer, or connect it to any Mac, Windows, or Linux machine
- Mine small amounts of bitcoin to facilitate development of Bitcoin applications and to purchase digital goods. See "What is the 21 Bitcoin Computer" below for more details
It includes:
- A command line interface and Python 3 library
- A 128 GB SD card loaded with a full copy of the Blockchain
- A suite of pre-configured Bitcoin-dependent software
- All the items you need to get started - including a WiFi adapter, USB-to-laptop cable, and power supply
The 21 Bitcoin Computer was produced with funding from Qualcomm, Cisco, and Andreessen Horowitz.
Mine Bitcoin on demand with the 21 Bitcoin Computer.
Then buy and sell digital goods and services at the command line.
Describe your product in 3 words.
First Bitcoin Computer
Where did you get the inspiration for your product?
We're all about the individual entrepreneur. The Internet meant that everyone became a publisher, even if their full time job title wasn't "reporter". Bitcoin will similarly mean that everyone becomes an entrepreneur, even if they don't quit their day job. The 21 Bitcoin Computer is our contribution to this transformation.
What differentiates your product from similar products out there?
The 21 Bitcoin Computer allows anyone to sell anything over the internet for bitcoin just by plugging a device into the wall and typing a few commands. We think that is fairly unique.
Tell us about the best and most challenging parts of the creation process.
It is hard to identify a single most challenging part as this kind of product is just inherently difficult to build. We redefine the concept of a full stack startup as we go all the way down to the silicon layer and build our own chips. As for the best part, we'd be happy if the concepts embodied in this device - including native hardware and software support for the Bitcoin protocol, but extending to the concept of buying and selling digital goods and services for bitcoin - do end up empowering a new generation of entrepreneurs, especially in the developing world.
This is revolutionary. This device cracks open the world of Bitcoin and makes it easy for any beginner to jump into the Bitcoin ecosystem, and not only mine it, but build things with it. I'm looking forward to the exciting updates that 21 will come out with following this. This is only the beginning.
The setup was a breeze, and it took 15 minutes to get from my front door to mining with a wallet and all the APIs set up. They've truly done a great job creating an environment in which even new people looking to explore can get comfortable in. Their customer support is very unique. One can talk to the engineers, evangelists, and even Balaji on Slack. It's transparent and open.
The tutorials at 21.co/learn are very well-written, and the number of examples and cases they consider is plentiful. It was a very good idea to get pioneers and professionals in the Bitcoin space to help write these, and it shows how much faith the community also has in this product. I built my first app in 10 minutes, and completely understood everything, because of the clarity of the explanations.
Their CLI interface is very straightforward and easy-to-use, despite having a couple of bugs which I'm positive they will fix in the coming weeks. You can also get detailed information about the ASIC on the Bitcoin Computer such as temperatures, currents, and efficiency!
The marketplace they will create will be very unique and interesting to see as it slowly build up with new apps from great developers. The community that will build around this product will be very similar to that of the Raspberry Pi's, which is one of the best in the world. A few apps have already started popping up, like Youtube video downloaders, secure databases, and bulletin boards. It's exciting to be one of the first ones on board.
Overall I am very satisfied with this device, and would recommend it to anyone. Thanks 21 Inc for such a great product, and I'm excited to see what you come up with in the near future.
the technology is all captured in this box and it saves learning a bunch of unix-style admin functions to get this up and running but when you do (it took me about an hour to boot it and update all the software from windows PC running a session over wifi) you are on the bitcoin grid, so to speak, and you can begin experimenting with how it can be used with lots of pre-built code blocks, etc. (they provide good instructions on how to do with mac, pc, linux machine, etc -- they have through thru and documented things very well)
I'm thrilled I ordered this (got my yesterday so have 24 hrs experience with it) and now instead of hunting around a lot of bitcoin arcane tech docs and whatnot I'm getting a pre-cooked platform to use the technology, something I couldn't find the time to do if I had to integrate it myself.
Getting this up and running makes me feel I'm doing my part to support the bitcoin evolving potential without taking risks beyond a few hundred dollars to learn more.
With this I can perhaps find a way to harness it in the entire bitcoin ecosystem and the tutorials and code snippets/apps they provide give me a chance to master the finer points as I explore the potential and learn what bitcoin really is, not what other people say it is.
Really easy to set up, good documentation and helpful support. Will add more context as my project evolves.
It was very easy to set up. The included USB cable allows setting up without the use of monitor and keyboard, or lan and ethernet cable.
Let the development begin!
I have mined in one day 35665 satoshis which is enough to pay for about 3 normal blockchain transactions. Not too shabby, though this rate will probably decrease by one tenth in a year.
As someone with a scientific coding background, but little full stack experience, I was nervous about whether I could use the 21 Bitcoin Computer. It was incredibly easy to set up, mine satoshi, and incorporate buying and selling Bitcoin methods into my programs. This is an awesome portal into the world of Bitcoin for those just getting started. The tutorials and community are great too. Some other reviews here are quite negative about the hardware and price. The point of the mining chip is not to mine significant amounts of bitcoin, but to make it easy to immediately work at the command line and interact with the Bitcoin protocol. I'm sure there are cheaper ways to do the same for experienced devs, but a simple user interface that accelerates learning is easily worth 5 stars for me. 21 is trying to make it easy for developers of all level to enter the world of Bitcoin and start exploring micropayments in applications. This is a terrific way to get started.
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