{"id":8148,"date":"2018-06-26T17:41:03","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T17:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=8148"},"modified":"2018-06-28T13:17:36","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T13:17:36","slug":"battbump-wireless-phone-to-phone-charging-on-the-blockchain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/06\/26\/battbump-wireless-phone-to-phone-charging-on-the-blockchain\/","title":{"rendered":"BattBump \u2014 wireless phone-to-phone charging, on the blockchain"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><video controls=\"controls\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\"><source src=\"http:\/\/ksr-video.imgix.net\/projects\/3329604\/video-891162-h264_high.mp4\" type=\"video\/mp4\" \/><\/video><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>BattBump is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/1749849235\/battbump-an-app-to-share-and-receive-phone-battery\">Kickstarter<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/OLMJ5\">archive<\/a>) to launch &#8220;the world&#8217;s first battery sharing app to share charge wirelessly. No charger. No worries.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The idea is that you can find people in your BattBump social network \u2014 and who <em>doesn&#8217;t<\/em> want yet another social network? \u2014 and get some phone charge off them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The transfer of the battery between smart phones occurs via Near-Field Communication (NFC). This technology is currently available and the app utilises this technology.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s also tokens on a blockchain, for some reason.<\/p>\n<h3>How we do phone-to-phone charging now<\/h3>\n<p>You can charge a phone from a phone already \u2014 with a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/USB_On-The-Go\">USB On-The-Go cable.<\/a> These do data and power. The typical use case is topping up your phone from your tablet.<\/p>\n<p>The main hassle is the connectors\u00a0\u2014 USB Micro-B, versus USB-C, versus Lightning.<\/p>\n<h3>The BattBump Kickstarter<\/h3>\n<p>The Kickstarter says: &#8220;This technology is currently available and the app utilises this technology.&#8221; That&#8217;s it for technical detail.<\/p>\n<p>The Kickstarter rewards are an &#8220;I&#8217;m a top bumper&#8221; T-shirt, a BattBump logo zip-up hoody, a BattBump beanie and a sticker pack \u2014 not the future app itself, nor even their planned blockchain &#8220;BB&#8221; tokens.<\/p>\n<p>The home page is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.battbump.com\/\">BattBump.com<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/a9KqW\">archive<\/a>). There&#8217;s no details at all \u2014 about the technology, the people or the blockchain offering. It also says &#8220;\u00a9 2015 by BattBump.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The initial video clip of a woman looking up from her phone is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.videoblocks.com\/video\/portrait-young-woman-using-smart-phone-heghp1i-uzje4chcfx\">stock footage<\/a> \u2014 I haven&#8217;t sourced the rest of their video, but the shakycam user-interface mockups suggest this was all put together quite quickly.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/06\/26\/battbump-wireless-phone-to-phone-charging-on-the-blockchain\/battbump-stock-image\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8160\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8160\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/battbump-stock-image.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"410\" height=\"365\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/battbump-stock-image.jpg 410w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/battbump-stock-image-300x267.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 410px) 100vw, 410px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>How could this possibly work?<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/06\/26\/battbump-wireless-phone-to-phone-charging-on-the-blockchain\/battbump\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8212\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8212\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/battbump.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"184\" height=\"183\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/battbump.png 184w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/battbump-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 184px) 100vw, 184px\" \/><\/a>The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Near-field_communication\">NFC<\/a> that you use for touch-and-pay is an <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Electromagnetic_induction\">induction<\/a> loop \u2014 the wire loop in the touch pad and the wire loop in your phone form the two halves of a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Transformer\">transformer.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>NFC is low-powered and optimised for data\u00a0\u2014 and it has no way to put power back into the battery.<\/p>\n<p>But wireless phone charging exists and works \u2014 it&#8217;s called <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Qi_(standard)\">Qi,<\/a> and it&#8217;s standard in all recent phones. Instead of plugging your phone in, you put it on a charging pad.<\/p>\n<p>Qi also uses paired induction loops to form a transformer. This transmits power reasonably efficiently \u2014 if slower than a cable. It&#8217;s the same principle as NFC \u2014 so casually calling Qi &#8220;NFC&#8221; isn&#8217;t completely wrong.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is that a phone&#8217;s only a Qi receiver \u2014 it only has the loop, then an AC-to-DC rectifier, then the battery. To use Qi phone-to-phone, you&#8217;d need new hardware\u00a0\u2014 to pump AC power into the loop.<\/p>\n<p>The other problem is that apps don&#8217;t have access to the lower layers of the NFC or Qi software stacks.<\/p>\n<p>(And the third problem is that Sony already <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/article\/sony-wireless-phone-charging\">patented something very like this<\/a> in 2017.)<\/p>\n<p>And even if this worked &#8230; it&#8217;d be slow. You&#8217;d have to hold your phones flat against each other for half an hour. You know how long a charge takes on a cable? Qi is slower.<\/p>\n<h3>Blockchain Technology<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/06\/26\/battbump-wireless-phone-to-phone-charging-on-the-blockchain\/battbump-user-gallery\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8165\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8165\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/battbump-user-gallery-148x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"148\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/battbump-user-gallery-148x300.png 148w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/battbump-user-gallery.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 148px) 100vw, 148px\" \/><\/a>There are blockchain tokens involved, because of course there are:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>BattBump utilises Blockchain technology so every time you bump battery you&#8217;ll earn BB tokens. These tokens will accumulate in your crypto wallet, which you can use to pay for everyday purchases. You&#8217;ll also be able to trade BB Tokens with other users.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The blockchain guy appears to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/gensonglier\/\">Genson Glier<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/blocktoken.ai\/\">BlockToken.ai<\/a> \u2014 and he&#8217;s one of the faces in the promotional video at 0:10.<\/p>\n<p>There are no further details, except a user interface that shows a &#8220;Cash-In&#8221; button. Not even an <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/06\/26\/battbump-wireless-phone-to-phone-charging-on-the-blockchain\/\">ICO white paper.<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>People<\/h3>\n<p>The named contact is <!--a href=\"https:\/\/www.catclark.co\/bio-contact\"-->Cat Clark. <!--,<\/a> a TV producer and creative in Sydney, Australia. She works on technology shows, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/cbnmedia.com.au\/work-with-us\/\">CBN<\/a>'s gadget show <a href=\"http:\/\/cbnmedia.com.au\/cybershack\/\">CyberShack<\/a> on Channel 9, though she's not a technologist herself.\n\n-->I called Cat last night to ask about the project. She said there&#8217;s been quite a lot of media interest. I sent a followup email asking how this actually works with 2018 phone hardware, and I&#8217;ll update with any response.<\/p>\n<h3>How can Kickstarter allow this sort of thing?<\/h3>\n<p>There&#8217;s been no press coverage as yet. What there\u00a0<em>has<\/em> been is people who think this must be a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/shittykickstarters\/comments\/8tfx1w\/battbump_sharing_app_to_share_charge_wirelessly\/\">scam\u00a0\u2014 or a media stunt<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and are appalled Kickstarter could allow such a thing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I really hope this is some kind of troll to see how many people will back complete snake oil.<\/p>\n<p>Check out BattBump &#8211; A Mobile App to Share and Receive Phone Battery by Cat Clark on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kickstarter?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Kickstarter<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1M5xGjaPBz\">https:\/\/t.co\/1M5xGjaPBz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; MegaZone (@megazone) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/megazone\/status\/1011345943462072321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 25, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/lapinesque\/status\/1011373311002054657<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Kickstarter has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/rules\">policies<\/a> against impossible projects, and requires a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/rules\/prototypes?ref=rules\">prototype<\/a> for physical gadgets. Software is trickier, obviously.<\/p>\n<p>After social media got stuck into Kickstarter for the <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/this-kickstarter-is-clearly-just-a-marketing-scam-from-1689640209\">laundry ball scam<\/a> (this scam <a href=\"https:\/\/rationalwiki.org\/wiki\/Laundry_ball\">explained<\/a>) and then an <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/5-crowdfunded-projects-that-defy-all-logic-and-reason-1541715259\">antigravity crank,<\/a> they even hired an <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/kickstarter-is-hiring-a-common-sense-specialist-1689403081\">&#8220;integrity specialist&#8221;<\/a> to try to keep things sane.<\/p>\n<p>Remember that when you pledge to a Kickstarter, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/trust\">you&#8217;re not buying a product<\/a> \u2014 you&#8217;re donating to a vision, hoping to make it happen. Even competent teams who know their stuff can mess up. And there&#8217;s no shortage of ambitious Kickstarters who are completely out of their depth.<\/p>\n<p>You can&#8217;t even trust how confident a project itself is. BattBump says:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"normal mb4\"><strong>Risks and challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We predict app development will go smoothly.<\/p>\n<p>With new and flagship models we&#8217;ll need to test the NFC charging.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is the only possible issue they can see\u00a0\u2014 and not such minor issues as their proposal being literally impossible on 2018 phone hardware.<\/p>\n<p>Pledge carefully.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Update: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/06\/27\/battbump-update-the-project-backs-down-on-its-claims-then-cancels-and-vanishes\/\">BattBump backs down on its claims, then cancels and vanishes.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Beg cycle<\/strong> \u2014 Hello, new readers! This blog runs on sponsorship \u2014 if you can spare even $1\/mo, it all helps! Click the button below!<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A good Kickstarter can&#8217;t be stopped by mere laws of physics. Also, it utilises <i>Blockchain technology.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[750,752,753,751],"class_list":["post-8148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-battbump","tag-cat-clark","tag-genson-glier","tag-kickstarter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8148"}],"version-history":[{"count":73,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8381,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8148\/revisions\/8381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}