GoTenna Launches a Bitcoin Wallet That Works Without the Internet

So the New York-based startup goTenna, founded in 2012 by Brazilian siblings Daniela and Jorge Perdomo, is partnering with Samourai Wallet to launch an Android app this summer that allows users to send bitcoin payments without an internet connection.

Announced Monday, the txTenna app will enable users to sync up their mobile with a goTenna device, which costs $179 per pair, then toggle the wallet app's settings to transact offline and send the bitcoin.

"You need to be able to spend your bitcoin even in disaster areas," goTenna engineer Richard Meyers told CoinDesk, citing the Perdomo siblings' recent work in Puerto Rico, where goTenna devices helped people reconnect after Hurricane Maria.

The signal needs to be within roughly a mile of another goTenna device to relay the message across the mesh network, a decades-old system for using the internet without wifi or a landline.

GoTenna has sold more than 100,000 devices that let users tap into the mesh network.

If the offline bitcoin user is within a mile of another active device, the transaction could bounce across the mesh until it reaches a user with an internet connection.

Last year, renowned cryptographer Nick Szabo and blockchain engineer Elaine Ou published a proposal detailing how weak-signal radio transmissions could help boost security and the diversity of connections across the bitcoin network.

Perhaps the most important aspect of txTenna is that the cryptocurrency wallet will be an open source project.

"It absolutely could work with any software wallet and they are not writing it specifically for the Samourai wallet anyway. It will be something any wallet provider could send transactions through."

Image of Daniela and Jorge Perdomo with goTenna devices via goTenna.