Soundwallet: Create Bitcoin Private Keys With Audio Files

Bitcoin technology allows us to experience multiple new aspects of life and is also a great source for other technological innovations, especially where Bitcoin wallets are concerned.  There is still a lot of progress to be made in terms of security but what if you could create a Bitcoin wallet out of pure sound? Soundwallet is trying to achieve exactly that.

How Does it Work?

Creating a layer of security out of music is not a straightforward task by any means.  Music is played through a spectrograph and is then recorded to be used as the private key for your Bitcoin wallet.  As you will know by now, every Bitcoin wallet has two keys;  the public key and the private key.

But how do you go about generating a Bitcoin wallet’s private key out of pure sound?  For starters, you can use any type of raw audio format, except MP3s, as the compression used in MP3 files does not generate the high fidelity quality that is required to create a unique private key from a sound sample.  WAV files would be the best solution in terms of digital sound files.

It is important to note that Soundwallet offers other functions besides “just” generating a private key out of sound.  It also uses the playback of that specific sound file in order to sign transactions, which means that people can steal your Bitcoin wallet or .DAT file, but won’t have access to the private key unless they obtain the source of sound as well.

Bitcoin High Tech. vs Security High Tech

The reason why it is so important to create a truly unique private key for your Bitcoin wallet is because that key proves the digital ownerships of a certain number of coins on the blockchain. Because bitcoins are not physical and tangible coins, they only exist in a virtual form, and a Bitcoin user needs a private key to confirm his/her “digital ownership” of these coins.

However, that is not the only reason for creating a private key based on sound.  Most people store a copy of their Bitcoin wallet’s private key on disposable media, such as an SD card or USB drive.  Physical backups can always be damaged, get lost, or in the worst case scenario, be stolen and whilst providing an excellent solution for “short term” backup storage, they should never be seen as a perfect solution in the long term.

This is where Soundwallet is totally different from any other private key mechanism you have ever encountered to date.   By using sound to generate and store your private key, you are effectively using a long term storage solution to protect your Bitcoin wallet.  After all, older technology is far superior in terms of security and protection compared to most of the technology we use these days, which is all focused on convenience.

Even though Bitcoin is looked at as a “high tech” advancement – which it is, don’t get me wrong– that doesn’t mean it’s very secure.  In fact, did you know that most governments around the world still use the oldest model of floppy drives to store data regarding missile launches?  This just goes to show you that new technology doesn’t mean it is secure by any means, unless people come up with proper solutions.

Website: http://soundwallet.net/

All images courtesy of DollarPhotoClub