We recently wrote about a company which melded Bitcoin and 3D printing, Polychemy, to create personalized jewelry which includes a function to transfer funds via Bitcoin. Their 3D printed Bitcoin necklace includes a QR code describing a Bitcoin wallet address – the address used when one Bitcoin user needs to send funds to another user.
Now The BTC Ring says the real value of a wedding or gift ring lies in “knowing exactly how much this ring is worth.”
They call it decoupling design, and the company says a ring can be reprinted to keep up with the latest styles and “upgraded” in value because “the bling is in the code.”
The idea is that by using what are called “Blockchain Inscriptions,” the user can look up the value of the BTC ring using an Android app that reads the value associated with your special address in the blockchain.
The company says using this system, a user can “see how much you are really cared for.”
The BTC Ring says a personalized, “blockchain inscripted” piece of jewelry makes the ring more sentimental and also prevents what they call “relationship double spends.” That feature basically prevents a user from handing over a loaded up ring with an incorrect blockchain inscription to the wrong lady or gent.
The rings are loaded and inscribed by sending some Bitcoin from a user’s special address to the address represented by the BASE58 encoding of your message – and a header and checksum. The process is aided by tools from Crypto Graffiti to make sure your private keys stay private.
“Until you look up the value of your BTC Ring bitcoin address, you are not going to know the meaning of love,” says “a wise man” BTCRing.com.
You can get your hands on a 3D printer file to build your own BTC ring by downloading an OpenSCAD file, changing the first line of the file to reflect the Bitcoin address you want on the ring, and then compiling and rendering the data. Export the .STL file for 3D printing the components, and you’re ready to go. The silver ring shown in the video below was made using the 3D printable files by Shapeways, and once the ring has been printed and loaded, anyone can scan the ring to determine how much “value” it has – at least in terms of Bitcoin.
What do you think of the idea that a ring has value in relation to the amount of money it represents? Can you see yourself giving this kind of gift to your significant other? Let us know in the BTCRing forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the video below to see BTCRing’s gimmick in action.
