Shanghai-based digital currency exchange BTCC recently launched their new titanium physical Bitcoins. The 2016 V Series physical Bitcoin contains 1 BTC mined from BTCC’s own mining operation.
BTCC chief executive Bobby Lee, who also founded the Litecoin digital currency, explained that the physical coins are “unique collectibles aimed at exciting public interest in bitcoin.”
The front end the of the coin is stamped with a Bitcoin logo design via hydraulic press, while the back end contains a “tamper-proof hologram sticker” that secures the private keys, which holders can use to access the digital funds. The coins weigh about 20 grams and have a diameter of 43 mm.
According to the press release, the titanium coins are funded with freshly-minted bitcoin that have no prior transaction history. Additionally, physical coins that are manufactured before the Bitcoin block reward halving – which is scheduled to take place sometime in July, where miners will receive 12.5 coins for each block, instead of 25 – have two stars on the back side, but coins manufactured after the halving, will have three stars.
Some skeptics have raised question about the security issues involved in the manufacturing process due to the fact that BTCC has access to the private keys printed on the back of the coins. However, a BTCC representative explained in one of his Reddit posts:
“The private keys are printed on a secure printer once and the soft copy of each private key is immediately destroyed, meaning that the only copy of the private key left is the printed private key under the coin hologram sticker.”
Furthermore, the BTCC representative also stated that Bobby Lee directly oversees the placements of private keys under all coins.
Most of the single physical coins have already sold out, with only 10 “Twin” physical coins still for sale, which are funded with 2 BTC worth of digital currency on each physical coin. The twin coins retail for 3 BTC.
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