When buying an engagement ring, many men are inclined to follow traditions and expectation. There’s an unwritten rule that one should spend three times his monthly salary on a ring, so if things don’t go as planned, he can always get a some money back for it. But he also has to consider her style – what kind of jewelry does she prefer, and will it go with the majority of clothes in her closet? Some consider a woman’s birth stone or favorite color, and of course, diamond always look nice, right?

Well, perhaps now you can have something even more valuable in your ring. One company thinks diamonds should be left in the rough and women should be able to see exactly how much was really spent on the ring.

The BTCring looks like something you might pull out from a Christmas cracker, as it’s made using a 3D printer. The face of the ring is a QR code, which when scanned, reveals a Bitcoin address and the value of the ring. The QR code can also be customized to reflect a personal sweet message just for your girl.

The ring looks cheap and tacky to be fair. It’s made out of plastic, but the point is not that you spend so much on the ring, but rather you choose to invest in Bitcoin on behalf of your lifelong partner. Later, you and your fiancé can use the Bitcoin, either to pay for the wedding, or to save for the future (you can add more Bitcoins to your ring later, if you so desire).

The BTCring also features ‘split keys’ which allow for mutual control over the Bitcoins embedded in it, so spending it would require that both husband and wide approve the transaction. It’s like a joint bank account, but with Bitcoins and a special ring.

If ever your fiancé loses the ring, or the relationship is ended, you don’t have to ask for the ring back to get your Bitcoins, as everything is stored in the blockchain. Which means it’s easy to replicate the ring, or if your girl grows tired of the design and wants a new ring, you can simply design her a new ring without spending thousands of dollars.

The QR code serves as a way to easily check your Bitcoin balance, but it also has other potential uses. Imagine walking in a restaurant or retail store that has QR code scanners specifically for processing BTC payments? All you have to do is scan with your ring to pay – which means transactions would go faster and more people will be interested in using BTC for their everyday needs.

The BTCring could potentially start a new trend that would make BTCs more easy to use.

Already, thousands of restaurants and retail stores allow credit card payments via NFC. All you have to do is tap your card onto the machine to make your purchase. In the future we could see something similar with Bitcoin – for example clothes, different forms of jewelry, smart bands, keychains or even stickers embedded with NFC tags that facilitate BTC transactions. You just tap your NFC-enabled device to the store’s machine to finish your transaction in a quick manner.

Image credit: BTCring.com