From the
"hey, wait a minute" department comes this report from CoinDesk, an
online media outlet covering the virtual currency industry. According to the
March 4 report, two bitcoin developers who also hold ham licenses successfully
transmitted a bitcoin lightning payment via amateur radio. The payment was sent
to developer and Bloomberg columnist Elaine Ou, KM6NCF, in California
by Rodolfo Novak, VE3NAK, co-founder of CoinKite, a bitcoin hardware startup,
in Ontario.
After successfully receiving the payment, Ou reportedly tweeted that
"Bitcoin is making ham radio cool again!"
The idea is to
have an RF backup in the event of cyberattacks on bitcoin transactions over the
internet. There's just one problem: in the US
(and most likely in Canada
as well), using ham radio to complete financial transactions is blatantly
illegal. FCC rules define amateur radio as a "noncommercial radio
service" used by "duly authorized persons … solely with a personal
aim and without pecuniary interest," and section 97.113 of the rules
specifically prohibit "(c)ommunications in which the station licensee or
control operator has a pecuniary interest…"
