With a greater number of merchants trying to accomodate Bitcoin enthusiasts and let them pay for merchandise or services using their favorite cryptocurrency, it’s becoming clear that payments aren’t always so reliable. One of the main problems with Bitcoin is the point-of-sale systems used by retailers rely on an Internet connection. If this connection is unstable, Bitcoin transactions can take ages to process, or fail to go through at all.

Jan Vornberger, a developer for cryptocurrency wallet Hive, has now created Bitcoin Box to address this problem. Bitcoin Box is a point-of-sale system for cryptocurrencies that can process transactions offline. Instead of relying on an Internet connection for transactions to go through, it utilizes Near-Field Communications (NFC) and Bluetooth technologies for faster transactions.

“So far, most bitcoin POS solutions rely on simply having the customer broadcast the bitcoin transaction over the bitcoin network. This can be unreliable, as sometimes the shop system does not see the transaction immediately, resulting in delays,” Vornberger stated.

Vornberger said Bitcoin Box was inspired by Apple Pay and uses the BIP70 bitcoin payment protocol to directly transmit cryptocurrency from the user’s wallet to a merchant’s server. Bitcoin Box is said to be compatible with all existing wallets and seamlessly upgrades to the updated BIP70 mechanism. The hardware uses off the shelf components and a Raspberry Pi board, and will be priced at $299 once it becomes available in three to six months time.

Here’s a video showing the Bitcoin Box in action:

Most Bitcoin POS are software-only, thus Vornberger sees his product as something that could help to make Bitcoin faster and easier to use, and hopefully accelerate its adoption.

Image credit: Bitcoin Box via Coindesk.com