By
Chimamanda U. Martha
March 28th, 2024
Now, customers can use their bitcoins to buy the 21 Bitcoin Computer, the tool allowing developers to build various Bitcoin-related apps.
On Thursday, 21 Inc., a bitcoin company known for its intention to “add bitcoin miner in every device and in every hand”, announced that customers could buy the 21 Bitcoin Computer paying for it with Bitcoin.
“The 21 Bitcoin Computer is the fastest way for developers to learn Bitcoin. It has everything you need to build your first app in a weekend: a micropayments server, a full copy of the Blockchain, and a command line interface for programmatically mining, buying, and selling digital goods for bitcoin,” reads the company’s advertisement. Actually, the 21 Bitcoin Computer appeared on Amazon this autumn, but customers couldn’t buy it with Bitcoin.
In fact, when customers add the 21 Bitcoin Computer to their carts, they can make shipping private. Well, literally. Their 21 Bitcoin Computers can be delivered to a post office box, and thanks to that customers don’t need to give their names. However, the company still collects its customers’ email addresses.
“I think we need to move towards a more private Internet over time. It’s not going to happen in one step. Usability is important, and I’m a pragmatist. But if we keep taking steps in the right direction, we can build something better than today,” Bitcoin Magazine quotes the statement of Balaji S. Srinivasan, founder and CEO of 21 Inc.
21 Inc. admits that Bitcoin Computer is only the first step on the way to their goal. “We want to use the success of the 21 Bitcoin Computer to help make Bitcoin the next fundamental system resource, available by default on every new computer. That journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
The 21 Bitcoin Computer is a development tool to allow developers the ability to create Bitcoin-payable apps, services and devices. The idea is that the hardware mines for bitcoin and then uses those mined bitcoin to do things, reads Bitcoin Magazine.
The 21 Bitcoin Computer can operate either as a separate device or can be connected to Mac, Windows or Linux machines. Pocket size of the computer enables bitcoin developers to make bitcoin transactions without taking their mind off daily routine. It includes everything that is needed to start mining – a WiFI adapter, laptop-to-device cable, Raspberry Pi 2 and power supply.
The founders of 21 say that their “long-term goal is to gradually replace advertising with micropayments from mined bitcoin, to build an Internet where you pay with your power rather than your privacy.”