Today I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve finally released Pine on the App Store! I’ve been working on Pine for almost two years and it’s been in alpha and then beta for the past year. Pine is a bitcoin app for sending and receiving money among your friends and family. It looks like a messaging app but instead of sending messages you are sending bitcoin.
Please give it a try and tell me what you think - I'm excited to hear your thoughts
* Familiar design
Pine’s messenger-like design makes it instantly familiar to use for anyone who has used a messaging app such as WhatsApp or Messenger.
* Easy-to-use addresses
Add your friends using their Pine addresses, which are similar to email addresses. Get a pine.pm address or host your own Pine server with your own domain.
* Natively global
Bitcoin does not have any borders. Transact freely with anyone anywhere in the world – they don't even need to have Pine, as long as it's bitcoin.
* Full control and ownership
Your keys, your bitcoin. Only you are in control of your funds stored with Pine.
* Decentralized and open
Just like bitcoin, Pine is designed to be open and decentralized. The app and server software are open-source and you can host your own Pine server with your own domain if you prefer.
* Protected using your biometrics
By signing transactions with Touch/Face ID, you are the only one who can spend your funds. This prevents unauthorized payments if your phone would end up in the wrong hands.
* Recovery
A recovery key is used to generate your account. By safely storing this key you can recover your account in case you would lose or break your phone. By default, the recovery key is stored in your iCloud account.
* Connect your own bitcoin node
You can run your own bitcoin node so you can broadcast and validate transactions without having to trust anyone. Running your own node can also improve your privacy by not revealing what transactions you are interested in.
️* Lightning support (soon)
Pine will soon get non-custodial lightning support without the need of running your own lightning node.
When the Mozilla Foundation launched their open source web browser they initially called it "Phoenix" (an apt name considering it was rising from the ashes of Netscape Navigator) but changed the name to "Firefox" because in software the name Phoenix is a database.
Just because Pine is "done" it's not dead. I hold the Pine email client in esteem and don't want to have to suffix it with "email client" just because someone else wanted to name their app with the same noun.
And after all, "pine" has always been the name of a tree.
