Show HN: Pine – A Bitcoin wallet with a messenger-like UI

7 points by gitmagic 5 years ago | 5 comments
  • gitmagic 5 years ago
    Hey!

    Today I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve finally released Pine on the App Store! I’ve been working on Pine for almost two years and it’s been in alpha and then beta for the past year. Pine is a bitcoin app for sending and receiving money among your friends and family. It looks like a messaging app but instead of sending messages you are sending bitcoin.

    Please give it a try and tell me what you think - I'm excited to hear your thoughts

    * Familiar design

    Pine’s messenger-like design makes it instantly familiar to use for anyone who has used a messaging app such as WhatsApp or Messenger.

    * Easy-to-use addresses

    Add your friends using their Pine addresses, which are similar to email addresses. Get a pine.pm address or host your own Pine server with your own domain.

    * Natively global

    Bitcoin does not have any borders. Transact freely with anyone anywhere in the world – they don't even need to have Pine, as long as it's bitcoin.

    * Full control and ownership

    Your keys, your bitcoin. Only you are in control of your funds stored with Pine.

    * Decentralized and open

    Just like bitcoin, Pine is designed to be open and decentralized. The app and server software are open-source and you can host your own Pine server with your own domain if you prefer.

    * Protected using your biometrics

    By signing transactions with Touch/Face ID, you are the only one who can spend your funds. This prevents unauthorized payments if your phone would end up in the wrong hands.

    * Recovery

    A recovery key is used to generate your account. By safely storing this key you can recover your account in case you would lose or break your phone. By default, the recovery key is stored in your iCloud account.

    * Connect your own bitcoin node

    You can run your own bitcoin node so you can broadcast and validate transactions without having to trust anyone. Running your own node can also improve your privacy by not revealing what transactions you are interested in.

    ️* Lightning support (soon)

    Pine will soon get non-custodial lightning support without the need of running your own lightning node.

    • oropolo 5 years ago
      At what point does the name of an application or project become available to be re-used? I'm not trying to troll but "Pine" in terms of applications is, and will always be to me, an email client: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_(email_client)

      When the Mozilla Foundation launched their open source web browser they initially called it "Phoenix" (an apt name considering it was rising from the ashes of Netscape Navigator) but changed the name to "Firefox" because in software the name Phoenix is a database.

      Just because Pine is "done" it's not dead. I hold the Pine email client in esteem and don't want to have to suffix it with "email client" just because someone else wanted to name their app with the same noun.

      • gitmagic 5 years ago
        I understand your concern, but it is very hard nowadays to find a totally unique name that's any good. I did a lot of research on many different names before settling with "Pine". "Pine" was not used by any competing payments or cryptocurrency apps and didn't yield any well-known products or services at the time when I searched for it. However, there are a hand full of apps using the name "Pine" on the App Store, and there's also the Pine64 project and so on. Googling "Pine" now will bring up a new game on kickstarter. But none has made "Pine" into a big trademark yet.

        And after all, "pine" has always been the name of a tree.

      • Glosster 5 years ago
        It would be cool to have this for Ethereum as well...
        • jan6 5 years ago
          and Litecoin and Monero and...Dogecoin? Hey, let's just add ALL the coins! ;P