There are a number of bitcoin wallets on the market, but none made out of wood – until now.
Based in Ottawa, Canada, Charley Lazaro is a man with a penchant for woodworking. “I came up with the idea of a wood wallet while playing with my laser engraver machine,” he told CoinDesk.
“I founded the startup The Woody Co here in Ottawa a few months ago, so I am already involved in crafting wood products and using laser etching machines and technology.”
Lazaro is leveraging his laser tools to build personalized wallets for bitcoin enthusiasts. He said: “I realized it would be a great idea to create one of the world’s first wood bitcoin wallet, for receive only transactions.”
It’s the QR codes made by the laser etchings that make the wallets receive-only. However, it’s the wallets’ personal touches that Lazaro believes will entice bitcoin fans.
“I hand craft lovely pieces of wood, hand-selected and hand-sanded. After that, I laser etch the user’s public wallet key, name/alias, optional company name and QR code.”
There are a number of unique and interesting bitcoin wallets already on the market. There’s the brain wallet, which allows a user to retain his or her private key in their brain alone. Then there is startup Kryptokit, which provides wallet functionality in the form of a Chrome browser plug-in.
Another interesting concept to pop up recently was the nio Card, a contactless wallet that allows its users to send and receive bitcoin using near field communications (NFC).
Lazaro’s wooden wallet tags, which users can wear around their neck.Even though Lazaro had known about bitcoin for years, the figurative lightbulb in his head switched on early this year.
“I’ve been following bitcoin since it first started in 2009, but I didn’t realize its potential until it hit about $13 a coin, roughly 11 months ago,” he said. “I’ve heard economists like Max Keiser talk about it a lot, and that made me stay interested.”
Keiser has been a proponent of bitcoin for some time – recently partnering with Simon Dixon to build the crowfunding platform BankToTheFuture.
With more wooden designs in the pipeline, Lazaro claims this product is just the beginning.
“I am currently designing over five other forms of this wood wallet concept, and will release it to the bitcoin community and world in the next few days.”
Lazaro thinks that his product is unique enough to be considered desirable by bitcoin’s supporters. “I believe the low price point, unique design and ‘Made in Canada’ craftsmanship is enough for people to accept this great product,” he said.
The Woody Co’s bitcoin wallet tags are available here. They are priced at $9.99 with shipping to North America included.
Lazaro accepts bitcoin as a method of payment, of course.