Introducing Physical Crypto

General Intros
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Hey everyone. I’m Alex, a developer and absolute ICP enthusiast. I’ve been building something that solves one of the biggest blockers in crypto adoption: the technical barrier to entry

It’s called Claino, and it lets you send and receive crypto without wallets, logins, or seed phrases - just by scanning a voucher.

Each voucher is a secure claim on funds stored in a Canister. You scan it in a browser, hit redeem, and the crypto is transferred to your wallet. Or you don’t redeem it - you just pass it on.

It’s like handing someone cash. But programmable. And decentralized.

Why I’m Building This

Crypto has so much potential - but most people I talk to feel like they’re locked out of it. There’s too much setup, too many things to understand just to try it out.

I wanted to build something that gets out of the way - something people can use without needing to learn how it all works first.

With Claino, you can:

• Send someone crypto as a birthday gift with a link or QR code

• Get paid for a service with a voucher you can redeem later

• Print a reward and hand it out at a meetup

• Trade vouchers for cash or goods in person, peer-to-peer

It’s crypto you can hold - and hand over - like a physical object.

How Does It Work?

When you send crypto (ICP, ckBTC, or any ICRC-1 token) to the Claino canister, you get a voucher in return. This is just a hash that represents the right to redeem, but a Web Interface will embed it something more user-friendly like a QR code.

That voucher:

• Isn’t tied to a wallet

• Can be a QR code or a link, and even printed on paper

• Can be redeemed later, or passed on again

Whoever holds the voucher, holds the value.

When you send crypto (ICP, ckBTC, or any ICRC-1 token) to the Claino canister, you get a voucher in return.

That voucher:

• Isn’t tied to a wallet

• Can be a QR code, a link, a word - even printed on paper

• Can be redeemed later, or passed on again

Whoever holds the voucher, holds the value.

When they’re ready, they can scan it, connect a wallet, and redeem the funds. No setup was needed to hold the value - just to claim it.

I’m also building a simple UI that works for both ends of the spectrum - whether you’re crypto-native and just want to plug in Plug or Bitfinity, or brand new and need clear, step-by-step guidance. The goal is to make the whole experience feel easy and familiar, no matter who’s using it.

What You Can Do With Vouchers

Vouchers aren’t just blank checks. They’re programmable - you can set rules and conditions like:

• Expiration - Auto-refund if unused by a set date

• Unlock Time - Only redeemable after a future date

• Password Protection - Add a secret to unlock

• Identity Lock - Redeemable only by a specific principal

• Multi-Approval - Require 2-of-3 or similar before release

• Designated Beneficiary - Locked to someone from the start

• Fragmentable (and Private) - Split into new vouchers without touching a wallet

That last one is really exciting: it lets you transfer value privately, without ever showing who held it before. It’s like passing an envelope of cash - except it’s on-chain and secure.

A Quick Example

Let’s say Alice wants to send Bob 0.01 ckBTC for his birthday.

  1. She sends ckBTC to the Claino canister.

  2. She gets a QR code and sends it to Bob.

  3. Bob scans it and redeems the ckBTC - done.

No wallet needed to receive. No extension needed to hold it. Just value, handed over.

Another Example: Privacy in Practice

Imagine you’re using a crypto-enabled app that knows your identity - maybe due to KYC - and it can see your wallet balance. If you’re holding large amounts, that can become a personal security risk.

Instead of transferring tokens directly, you create a voucher worth 100 ICP. When you want to pay someone - say, Bob - you don’t make a direct transfer. You just “redeem part” of the voucher, telling the system to transfer 50 ICP to Bob’s principal.

Bob gets the funds, but there’s no way to link the payment back to your personal wallet or full balance. Your exposure is limited. Your privacy is preserved.

This isn’t just a feature - it’s a different way to think about holding and sending value.

Why I Think This Matters

This makes crypto feel real - like something you can use, gift, or trade without explaining Metamask or what a seed phrase is.

It opens up:

• Gifting and promotions with built-in conditions

• Peer-to-peer payments, no apps or accounts

• Escrow and team-based approvals with no third party

• Fully anonymous crypto transfer

• In-person exchange - without phones or logins

And most importantly - it’s usable even if you know nothing about crypto. That’s the whole point.

What’s Working Now, and What’s Next

Right now, I’m actively building support for ICP and all ICRC-1 tokens (like ckBTC, ckETH, etc.). The core system - issuing, redeeming, and managing vouchers - is under development and being tested in parts.

Next, I’ll focus on:

• Polishing the UX so non-technical users can get it immediately
• Adding native support for Bitcoin and Ethereum using Chain Fusion
• Building a decentralized marketplace where people can trade crypto for fiat leveraging Claino safety features like confirmations.

A Few Technical Things I’m Still Working Out

• Canister Memory

Vouchers live in stable memory, but volume adds up. I’m exploring data partitioning and archiving to stay under the heap memory limit.

• USD Pricing

I use the Exchange Rate Canister to get token prices in USD - but it costs around 1B cycles per request. If you’ve got ideas for making that cheaper or more efficient, I’d love to hear them.

Looking for Feedback

• What features would be useful in a system like this?

• Are there redemption conditions or edge cases I haven’t thought of?

• Got any creative use cases you’d like to see supported?

• Tips for scaling or pricing are also very welcome.

I’m especially curious what other IC builders think - or anyone trying to make crypto easier for everyday people.

Feel free to comment here or DM me - and I’d love to talk more on Discord too.

Let’s make crypto something you can actually hand someone.

Let’s make it real.

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Sounds like a money launderers dream product. How do you ensure your system isn’t abused by crime?

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That’s a totally fair concern, and I appreciate you bringing it up.

The truth is, privacy tools always walk a fine line. They can absolutely be misused, but they also protect countless people doing legitimate things. In my view, blockchains should offer privacy as a default, just like messaging apps offer end-to-end encryption today. That doesn’t make them “for criminals”, it makes them usable for normal people.

That said, most people won’t interact directly with the Claino canister. They’ll use apps and services that integrate with it. For example, the first integration I’m working on will index public voucher data like who issued it, when it was redeemed, what address it was redeemed to, etc. This indexed data could help with transparency or audits, depending on local regulations and how the integration handles storage.

The base canister is designed to be composable and privacy-respecting, but integrations can absolutely add extra layers of compliance or transparency, if that’s needed in a particular context or jurisdiction. I’m very open to community feedback here - if there are ways to make the system more resistant to abuse without compromising the useful parts, I’d love to explore them.

As for fiat exchange, that would happen through a separate on-chain escrow mechanism that uses Claino vouchers. But in that case, it’s up to users to understand and follow the regulations in their own countries. If you’re acting like an exchange, doing this repeatedly or as a business, then yes, regulation usually applies. But the system itself is peer-to-peer and doesn’t custody funds.

I’m not pretending to have all the answers, but I do believe that we can build systems that give people more control and offer paths toward responsible usage. This is something I genuinely care about and want to get right, with help from the community.

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I really like the concept behind Claino, @adpopescu338. Personally I would expand it with an app for easier storage so in case a lot of those vouchers are collected by someone, they don’t have to worry it will all be lost.

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@vavram that’s a nice idea. As a user, you probably want to see and manage all the vouchers you possess in an app or web page.

While the canister itself won’t care who you are and won’t group vouchers by principals, the integration should offer that as an UX enhancement.

Thanks for the suggestion!

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I also agree it’s a good idea. However don’t underestimate the regulatory scrutiny your idea will come under. Don’t think that governments of the world don’t matter or that due to decentralisation you will be able to avoid them, or even tout it as a benefit. The reality is that for many reasons (mostly related to tax collection) the control of the money supply will never be relinquished and as such you’ll need to maintain records. I don’t think it’s just a case of “we are peer to peer so the rules won’t apply to us.”

I think it’s better to pitch this as a super useful use case for payment providers like XRP. They designed their system to be centralised IN ORDER that it can be tracked and become a viable SWIFT replacement. They could be taken over by the FED and just operated as a one stop payments shop. Your idea which as I said is excellent, could bolt on to their product as a serious feature, utilising all of the positive aspects that you outline above but in a massive environment where it would be truly useful and instantly get widespread adoption.

I think going it alone with a banking product is not a good idea. You should pitch it to one or several of the bigger players once built.

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Thanks a lot for the reply.
It gave me a lot to think about. The regulatory side is something I’m still learning about, and I can see now how serious it gets, especially when real money or fiat conversions are involved. I appreciate you pointing that out.

The idea of working with existing players like XRP is interesting. I hadn’t considered that angle as seriously before, but it makes a lot of sense, especially as a way to get adoption without taking on the full weight of compliance from day one.

I’d love your opinion on a possible middle-ground approach:

The canister itself would stay private by default - no public ledger or permanent logs - and just handle voucher logic. Then integrations (like P2P platforms or user-friendly Apps that extend the canister functionality) would take care of the compliance side - KYC, activity logging, etc.

Do you think that kind of setup would work in practice, or would regulators still expect tracking at the protocol level too?

Thanks again for the input - it’s really helpful.

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If its done in conjunction with a big player then yes that will remove all the barriers you will otherwise face as their legal teams will handle these problems.

As a one man band with a great idea you face interesting challenges. I’ll send you my background offline as it is relevant to this debate but not relevant for everyone here. With any small business 80% of the challenge is to come up with a unique idea, and you are over that hurdle so congrats on that. The other issue is raising sufficient funding to make it work, and realising that you can’t do this all yourself.

When you step into the finance space, as you are here, then you are into a world of regulations (different in every country) and just realise that fiat (or better stated control over fiat) is not going to change no matter what you create. Society runs on laws and needs taxpayers for services, so creating something that could break that will not be allowed.

I think partnering with a bigger player is essential for you. Won’t make you any less successful, on the contrary you’ll get widespread adoption much quicker than you would on your own. It also has to be executed in a way that doesn’t put you in jail. I don’t know how you reach out to the appropriate people but I’d recommend start a conversation with someone from DFINITY as they are well connected (if not particularly customer facing) and if you get nowhere with them I would reach out to Ripple. I have contacts there that maybe could help.

You have a great idea - don’t be put off by any of the points I’m making. It’s just important that you understand that you’ll have massive barriers as a one man band.

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This feels like a new idea that could actually unlock a new kind of behaviour for crypto users that actually improves usability. If you can deliver a simple and intuitive redemption flow then I think this could be a great tool for promotion and onboarding. Looking forward to seeing your progress with this, good luck!

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