Bitcoin phone company Bitphone is about to be launched, and it may become a competitor to Skype

The invention of Skype was a great leap forward for communications services, but this great leap forward may be surpassed by a new communications innovation. This new service is called "Bitphone", which will try to reshape or improve the way we communicate now by using Bitcoin as a low-cost infrastructure and payment method for encrypted phone calls.

Bitphone is designed to combine the best of existing communication technologies into a web-based application. Bitphone is currently in the testing phase. It is a web-based real-time communication (RTC) phone that can dial SIP (Conference Invitation Protocol) addresses, PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) phones, and conduct peer-to-peer communications. It is an anonymous phone and you don't need to register to use it. You can browse the Bitphone website on your phone, at an Internet cafe or local library, and then deposit some Bitcoins, and then you can make calls anywhere in the world. Bitcoin can easily handle all this with its low-cost micropayments.

Gavin Stevens, founder of Bitphone and founder of Solid Cloud LLC, said:

"Skype is indeed a great peer-to-peer communication technology for you to communicate with your family and friends. However, to use Skype, you must install the software on your computer, and many companies and public computers cannot install Skype software. In addition, Skype's call charges are very high, and Skype also requires users to top up a minimum credit deposit of $10, which will not be returned to the user."

"Bitphone's portability makes it an ideal means of communication, it requires no installation, and calls are much cheaper than Skype. In addition, when you finish the call, the system will return any extra money you deposited to you."

Users who register on Bitphone.net can get a dedicated SIP address, phone number and WebRTC URL. Bitphone.net is the first new communication service that combines WebRTC, Bitcoin, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), Session Invitation Protocol (SIP), peer-to-peer and SMS into one service. You can make calls anywhere with just an Internet connection and a microphone. Bitphone can turn any web browser into a public phone, allowing you to make encrypted calls as you wish.

Stevens said:

"Bitphone uses 2048-bit RSA public key encryption to protect users (registered or unregistered) using the site. To break a 2048-bit SSL certificate (Secure Sockets Layer certificate) would take 6.4 trillion years at computer processing speeds. The WebRTC protocol also includes DTLS (Datagram Transport Layer Security) encryption. DTLS is a derivative of SSL, which means your data can be secure using any standard SSL-based connection."

“WebRTC media streams are encrypted via SRTP (Secure Real-time Transport Protocol), with SRTP keys exchanged end-to-end with DTLS-SRTP. This ensures that any man-in-the-middle attackers can be detected and the two WebRTC endpoints can ensure that no one can eavesdrop on the user’s conversation. DTLS is standardized and built into all browsers that support WebRTC. Our plan is to add video portal functionality in future versions of Bitphone to take advantage of more features offered by WebRTC.”

Users can change the "Caller ID" as they wish. No prior commitment or contract is required, and users can also use prepaid phones. Anonymous calls can hide your caller ID. This is possible with most devices and smartphones. In addition, your Bitcoin balance can be refunded to you at any time, and there is no need to pay with a credit card, as Bitphone only accepts digital currencies. Bitphone accepts Bitcoin, Dash, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ripple, MasterCard, Namecoin and many other digital currencies. You can also use the Bitphone website without registration, but registered users can get a 15-25% discount on their calls.

First Test

However, Bitphone is still in beta, so there are still some bugs when using it. I personally tried to deposit Bitcoin into an account, which was easy, but when I first tried to make a call, it didn't work. I found that the problem was that I was using a Mac with Chrome, which requires a specific Flash device. So after I switched to Safari, I not only successfully made the call, but I also called someone I hadn't been able to contact for six months!

I was attracted by the concept and the simple and friendly nature of Bitphone. After using it, I feel that this new service has the potential to become a popular option for the target market, where people are looking for a more secure means of P2P communication than Skype.

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