Amazon, the online retail giant, has started to ship 21 Inc’s mini bitcoin miner, the 21 Bitcoin Computer.The company announced on 28th of September that it will accept pre- order for the bitcoin computer.Retailing for $400, the bitcoin computer will include a custom mining clip, a data center backend and a custom Linux- based operating system.The co- founder and the chief executive officer of 21 Inc, Balaji S. Srinivasan stated, “It [21 bitcoin computer] is an integrated hardware/software device that is built to connect to other devices of its kind, to be updated in sync at the network level, and to integrate with an online developer community.
It provides a stream of bitcoin to buy digital goods and services, the tools to quickly set up simple micropayment servers to sell these goods, and a set of demonstration apps along with the libraries to build your own.”The bitcoin computer comes with a Wi-Fi adapter, a Raspberry Pi 2, a power supply, a USB- to- laptop cable, and a 128 GB SD card load with a full copy of the blockchain. It also comes with a suite of pre- configured Bitcoin- dependent software.The first generation computer can be used for various applications that include the following:Set up a bitcoin- payable HTTP proxy serverBuild games of skill that allow people to win bitcoinSell files for bitcoin with your own simple iTunes- like digital goods storeCreate APIs that can be bought for bitcoinDo a mashup that composes multiple bitcoin- payable APIsPermit people to SMS text messages for bitcoin, without revealing phone numbersAccelerate local computations by outsourcing them for bitcoinCode intelligent agents that search for the item with the lowest bitcoin price.Srinivasan further stated, “We want to make clear that this is absolutely a first generation product, and it is meant for developers comfortable with the command line.But we think that by setting up a 21 Bitcoin Computer and joining our developer community, you’ll be able to explore what a future internet might look like if every node was constantly generating bitcoin and using it to engage in automated bitcoin- denominated machine commerce with its peers”.
The computer is the first consumer product of the company. 21 Inc orientates the device as a vehicle to purchase digital goods through a constant stream of bitcoin that it mines. Generally, the amount will be small: its hashing power id 50 GH/s.At the moment, the company is shipping on- chain and off- chain transactions and the next update will enable support for an important third form of peer- to peer micropayments: payment channels.
