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3D-printed gun maker to launch Bitcoin wallet next

3D-printed gun maker to launch Bitcoin wallet next

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cody wilson wikimedia
cody wilson wikimedia

We haven't heard the last of Cody Wilson, the creator of the controversial 3D printed gun that prompted an intervention by the US State Department. For the past two months, the anarchistic 25-year-old has been working on a piece of software designed to help people circumvent the government using the semi-anonymous virtual currency Bitcoin. "When we are enabled, through alternative means and technologies, to channel our commerce as we will, channel our production as we will, the state simply disappears," Wilson told The New Yorker.

Wilson's new product, made with Bitcoin entrepreneur Amir Taaki, is tentatively called Dark Wallet. Bitcoin users rely on digital "wallets" to store their coins, but many wallets are confusing to use. Dark Wallet, which Wilson hopes to launch by February of 2014, will be a browser plug-in that is free, easy to install, and accessible even to non-technical users. Wilson is creating a video and crowdfunding campaign to raise money and awareness for the tool, while Taaki is writing the code.

Wilson is working on a video and crowdfunding campaign

Lately, the advocates of the Bitcoin movement have been lobbying the US government to formally sanction the virtual currency. Some even celebrated news that Bitcoin businesses must register with the Treasury Department, calling it a sign of acceptance by authorities (and an indication that the feds won't try to crush Bitcoin the way it squashed similar libertarian private currencies in the past).

These advocates say Bitcoin is a complementary currency capable of utopian feats such as enabling entrepreneurs in the developing world to sell to Americans, and their voices have been loudest of late. In Wilson, the movement now has a high-profile spokesperson for the other side.