Schroder built the machine from scratch, integrating components that would handle Bitcoin’s specific requirements, offer solid uptime and work within the national standards for dispensing fuel commercially.

From a distance, Schroder’s fuel pump looks like one you would find at a mom and pop style gas station; the size is a bit shorter than what you’d normally see at a 76 station today. But the small-town sentiment ends when you walk up to the machine.

The digital display on the front shows the current milli-Bitcoin-based market-rate for fuel at the time of purchase. Getting a fill-up is easy if you have a Bitcoin wallet app that can scan QR codes, (though this may be a hurdle for some folks). Once you’ve deposited Bitcoin and begun fueling, you’ll get real-time fueling status just like you would on any other pump.

This commercially-viable Bitcoin fuel pump is actually Schroder’s second attempt at integrating a Bitcoin payment-controlled liquid dispensing system. His first pump was intended to be mobile: it used a wireless internet connection and mounted to the back of a pickup truck.

The display on the front of the fuel pump allows the receiving wallet address to be scanned using a QR code.

Schroder’s mobile project demonstrated the potential to deliver fuel or other valuable liquids to rural areas. For example, a driver could supply cooking oil to remote villages in a nation that has ubiquitous internet connectivity but lacks a reliable banking system. This (perhaps unusual) scenario today may become a more frequent occurrence if Google and Facebook are successful in delivering internet access across the globe before basic services.

A video screenshot shows the real-time readout of the pump as Andy fills up his car.

As he says in his self-produced demo video, his new pump “doesn’t accept cash, doesn’t accept credit cards, just Bitcoin.” But in an email exchange, he acknowledged the need to meet some market realities, such as accepting credit cards alongside Bitcoin: “You need backwards compatibility in order for anyone to want to use your product (particularly a large expensive piece of industrial equipment that takes up prime store real estate).”

A video screenshot from Andy Schroder’s first Project, a mobile Bitcoin payment-enabled liquid dispensor.

Schroder has a variety of improvements planned for his newest fuel pump including compatibility with Biodisel (B100) fuel, offering a built-in Wi-Fi access point and alternatives to QR codes.

And while he sees some additional considerations that stand in the way of mass adoption of the Bitcoin fuel pump in its current state, Schroder believes this version is ready for a pilot today. If you’re an owner of an independent, privately owned fuel station in the greater-Cincinnati area for and interested in a  test run, Schroder wants to hear from you.

In the video demo of his mobile project, Schroder describes the value of his work with a powerful point: “I think it is one step towards anchoring the purchasing power of Bitcoin to a range of physical commodities that are consumed by society regularly.”

Taking Bitcoin mainstream will require the community to ease Bitcoin into the devices people interact with every day, so Andy Schroder’s fuel pump seems like a great place to start.

Kudos to Andy for his continued work to research, design and implement real-world demonstrations of Bitcoin. You can learn learn more about Andy’s work and get in contact by visiting his Bitcoin Fluid Dispenser project page.

Gliph Co-Founder Nicholas Asch and Gliph iOS Developer Joakim Fernstad in our freshly laid out booth at Bitcoin 2013. (It featured beanbag chairs and foliage)

The company first got involved when your blogger and co-founder (Rob Banagale) accepted a panelist spot on the Law Enforcement and Financial Privacy track at the conference. At this time our development team was working feverishly on the first release of the Bitcoin integration into Gliph.

Wanting to do something special for the earliest and most core Bitcoin adopters, we created custom Bitcoin branded merchandise for the event. This included hats and hooded sweatshirts embroidered with a great looking Bitcoin logo. We sold these for Bitcoin at our booth.

We did our release on Friday, May 17th, which included a feature article in PandoDaily. That article was written by Erin Griffith and included our news of joining the Boost VC startup accelerator.

We had a few media events scheduled for the conference as well. On Friday morning, Rob did an interview with Adam Levine of the Let’s Talk Bitcoin podcast. The discussion covered a wide range of topics, and if you’re a fan of Gliph you will probably appreciate some of the details shared in the interview.

Rob was on a media blitz of sorts and also had a chance to sit with Scott Morgan of BTC Journal on Saturday morning. A portion of that interview, which covers “The Future of Bitcoin,” includes our take on what Bitcoin needs to do to be successful:

You can view a variety of other media from the conference, including video of many of the panels and speakers on Youtube.

We decided to expand our involvement in the conference when it became clear we would be able to launch the first Bitcoin-ready Gliph feature set on the first day of the conference. We did this in two ways: we secured an exhibitor’s booth and also planned for one of our iOS developers, Joakim, to participate in the Bitcoin hackathon.

Joakim’s project was focused on using low-power bluetooth as a discovery mechanism for people around you who are capable of trading bitcoin. He went up on-stage and demo’d his work on Sunday under the guise of “Gliph Labs.”  It was really cool to see what he was able to get going in such a short period of time. We see some great applications for his hack in Gliph’s future. Sourcecode from this hack is currently available in our Github.

One of the funnier things that happened for our team was the delivery of a nearly naked mannequin to our exhibitors booth. We had rented only the torso to show off the Bitcoin jackets, but were instead treated to a full-sized athletic looking dude wearing only underwear. We hastily got a pair of shorts from our hotel room and got them on before many conference attendees had showed up.

Another interesting thing about the Bitcoin 2013 conference was the Comic Wow! convention going on at the venue at the same time. There were many people dressed up in cosplay costumes, including a full sized, highly detailed Iron Man costume, an Alien costume and many, many more. Seeing them run up next to Bitcoin enthusiasts was pretty funny. @thebitcoinwife got up close to the mannequin before we got the shorts on.

Overall, the team had a great time at the event and we hope to attend next year as well. It was a terrific place to launch the first version of Gliph with Bitcoin!

Gliph was featured on Televisa’s FOROtv Fr@tal television show. Fractal is “a television blog with information for young people, addressing the latest news on technology, environment, art, gadgets, design and all the news you can find on the net.”

We’ve already heard from a number of new folks who learned about Gliph from seeing the show in Mexico City and beyond. Bienvenidos a Gliph y gracias por su consideración! This news comes on the heals of our initial outreach to Gliph users around the world.

]]> https://blog.gli.ph/2012/09/08/gliph-featured-on-mexicos-televisa-frtal-technology-program/feed/ 0 https://blog.gli.ph/2012/08/14/delivering-privacy-gliph-cloaked-email/ https://blog.gli.ph/2012/08/14/delivering-privacy-gliph-cloaked-email/#comments Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:12:11 +0000 http://blog.gli.ph/?p=157 We’re excited to announce a new privacy tool we’ve built into Gliph called Cloaked Email. Cloaked Email lets you send and receive email using your normal inbox while keeping your real email address a secret.

Click hear for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Cloaked Email

Please note: Cloaked Email does not encrypt your email. It hides your real email address from the other user and allows you to block email from unwanted senders.

How Gliph Cloaked Email Works
Cloaked Email works in any client, including Gmail and Outlook. It works with Microsoft Exchange Server mail, and with Blackberry devices.

Getting Started
1.  Begin by claiming a Gliph. If you haven’t claimed a Gliph yet, here’s a video that explains how to do so. If you have one and forgot either your password or your Gliph, tap Help Me on this page.

2.  Tap the Cloaked Email button in the top left corner of the Activity View.

3.  Confirm your account’s email address facet by tapping the Confirm button.  You’ll need to go to your email inbox and click the confirmation link.  Once you’ve done that, your complimentary first cloak is unlocked as shown.    

4.  Tap Get New Cloak. You can tap the circular arrow to refresh the cloak until you get one that you like. There are roughly 2000 nouns, so it’s a little like “door number one, door number two or door number three,” isn’t it?  Fun times!

Next, add a label to your cloak.  For example, if you wanted to isolate your eBay account you might label it as shown in this screenshot.  If you want to protect your privacy on Craigslist, call it “Craigslist Cloak.” Tap Create.

Using Your Cloak
Each cloak you create will have its own page that lets you change the label, send new email from the cloak, administer conversations and discard the cloak.

• Give out your cloak – You can now give out your cloak to websites, services or even to retailers like Nordstrom who offer to “email you a receipt.”
• Send a new email from your Cloak – There are three ways to send new email from a cloak:
  1. Use the Gliph browser extension for Chrome or Firefox.  (Desktop only)
  2. Use the Mobile Web, (Desktop, Android, and iPhone)
  3. Use the iPhone app.
• Get More Cloaks and Enable Attachments
  If you want more cloaks, you can purchase them on the web and in the iPhone app. Read more about buying cloaks here. You can earn free cloaks by inviting people to Gliph. Your account is upgraded after after you’ve successfully invited five people.

                    

• Administer Your Cloak –  As you use your cloak more and more, you’ll interact with a lot of people who are not on Gliph.  Your cloak keeps track of who you’ve emailed with and lets you both block them (if you don’t want email from them anymore) or invite them to Gliph (if you want to keep talking over Gliph Messaging).
• Discard Your Cloak – Once you’re ready to get rid of a cloak, you can discard it.  All new email will simply not be delivered to your account.  The email will not bounce, it just goes into a black hole.  Note that discarded cloaks are not recoverable.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to learn about Cloaked Email.  We hope you find it as useful as we do!   You can email me (Rob, co-founder of Gliph) at revolve70@cloak.gli.ph.

You can download the Gliph iPhone app here.  And the Gliph Android App here.