Bitcoin startup 21 Inc. unveils ‘Bitcoin Computer’

21 Inc., a bitcoin startup, has recently announced its first product, the 21 Bitcoin Computer, the first computer with native hardware and software support for the Bitcoin protocol.

The CEO of 21.co, Balaji S. Srinivasan, explained in a Medium post, “With this pocket-sized device, if you are an entrepreneur or developer, you can now instantly buy or sell digital goods and services at the command line using Bitcoin.”

The 21 Bitcoin Computer will enable users to instantly mine Bitcoin from the command line, sell API calls for Bitcoin, like English-to-Chinese translation or file conversion, set up personal iTunes-like digital goods store, reward peers for posting their links on social media, make any IoT hardware Bitcoin-rentable, from smart locks to 3D printers.

With this computer, Srinivasan explained, users can build a service or site in which conceivably every page view can be monetized, reports The Wall Street Journal.

“The utility of bitcoin up until this point has been the speculation value,” Mr. Srinivasan said. “We have a new, pretty strong use case for bitcoin.”

It includes a built-in 21 mining chip and a built-in 21 micropayments server, all accessible from the 21 command line interface. Moreover, everything required by a user to get started has been bundled with it, including a WiFi adapter, RPi 2, power supply, USB-to-laptop cable, and 128GB SD card. 

“I’m very excited about it,” said Ben Horowitz, a co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, which led the startup’s funding earlier this year, reports the WSJ. “The thing that’s completely missing that I think would make the Internet better would be machine-to-machine payments. It’s just amazingly hard to do right now.”

The device, priced at $399, has been listed on Amazon for sale. The description says that it was produced with funding from Qualcomm, Cisco, and Andreessen Horowitz.