For the hardcore bitcoiners: put every file in a zip, hash that zip file and publish the hash on the blockchain. http://www.proofofexistence.com/. This will prove that all your files must have existed before the time your hash makes it to the blockchain.
This is my biggest concern. I am attempting to alleviate this concern by using a cryptographic proof of existence. Basically, you can use this proof to show that the warranty agreement existed at a certain point in time.
From http://gpushack.com/pages/our-warranty:
The text on this page is cryptographically proven to exist, and verified using the Bitcoin blockchain. To check the proof, right click and download a copy of this page (proof.txt) , then drag and drop it into http://www.proofofexistence.com/ to verify that it exists.
I realize that it is all about trust, and I am doing what I can to meet the trust obligations. There really is no way to do except for some people to give gpuShack a chance, leave positive feedback, and enjoy their GPU.
I'm all for competition, but it seems fair to give a shout out to proof of existence since they were around first. Sounds like a very similar service. I think it's a great use of the blockchain btw, so the more the merrier!
You misspelled the address, but still get 1 upvote /u/changetip. Here's a working link. This site is a good choice for a quick solution.
However, OP should be aware that the document IS NOT stored in the blockchain. The document is hashed with SHA-256 and that hash is stored in the blockchain. This means that you can prove the document you have was produced on or before a certain date. You cannot retrieve the document's contents from the blockchain though, so back it up!
> Does "timestamping" imply that the timestamp is backed by very strong evidence it is true?
In short, yes. How strong? Depends on what protocol is being used for the timestamp - e.g. publishing a hash in the New York times is very strong, but pretty annoying to verify, while many trusted signature-based timestamps are somewhat weak, but easy to veryify. Bitcoin is the best of both worlds.
Proof-of-existence is a clever name for a website, but it's not the standard term used in crypto and elsewhere. Call it "timestamped by the Bitcoin blockchain" or "Bitcoin timestamped" instead.
http://www.proofofexistence.com/
Take any data, create a hash of it, timestamp it into the blockchain via OP_RETURN. (Data storage in a txn)
Its a way to verify and link data to a time stamp in a decentralized ledger.
Now build on top of that.
It's already been embedded into the Truth Machine. Presumably to stop regulators tampering with it: http://www.proofofexistence.com/detail/03309a6bf643a33566f8c603361a64970527acdf320cfa80d802a4b05202ad26
The work itself isn't stored on the block chain. Instead, a unique identifier is stored. Your analogy of adding the car registration number is close. The difference is that there is no registrar.
You can get a unique identifier for any digital document through a hash function. A hash function is takes a blob of data as input and produces a number (hash value) within a very large range as output. SHA-256 is an example of a hash function used extensively in Bitcoin.
To make sense of the entry on the block chain, you need a way to see the original document that produced the hash value. Given the document, you can independently get its hash value and verify it exists on the block chain.
Here's a service that conveniently lets you do this:
For future bragging rights:
If and when the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper and architect of the Bitcoin protocol steps forward, or is identified beyond doubt, I will release a plain text document containing a single name; the true name of the person behind the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. The SHA256 digest of that document was embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain on March 6th: http://www.proofofexistence.com/detail/9036d299347c72d29aaba19dfbfbf7a719ca64a7d6fa0a737f20fe6a079e4a8e
Ask not: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Ask: Who invented Bitcoin?
You should scan the paper and use one of those bitcoin timestamping services (like http://www.proofofexistence.com/). Then you can email them that this bet was referenced in the official bitcoin blockchain.
http://www.proofofexistence.com is good if you have a PDF, as it will allow you to prove that the document existed at a specific time, and if you put your real name in the document, it can be linked to you.
You can't store documents themselves in the blockchain (thank goodness) - can you imagine the bloat?
You can do something like you suggested where you keep a file someplace and store a hash of it in the blockchain which secures both its date and contents pretty well.
You mention you are familiar with proofofexistence. They seem to be doing it in a pretty reasonable way.
Their technical summary of their approach seems pretty clear http://www.proofofexistence.com/about and so I see no compelling reason to do something different. If you want to do it yourself in a complex way vs. relying on a service that could go away, then take a look at https://github.com/maraoz/proofofexistence or https://github.com/coinspark/php-OP_RETURN
>TL;DR There is a provably fair way to prove to all participants before after and during the event
This is an option, yes. I didn't think it necessary because Reddit timestamps posts, and I would trust Reddit itself to not lie.
To be extra secure, though, it would be fairly easy for the mods to use what you describe. It is called "proof of existence" and is made very easy with websites like this: http://www.proofofexistence.com/
The most obvious use is to notarise wills etc. See e.g. http://www.proofofexistence.com/about which indelibly proves the existence of an electronic document (e.g. a will) at a certain time by embedding its hash in the blockchain. Since the hash is basically unique to the document, the document cannot be altered.
The next most obvious use is for indelible chain of title. For example, proof of existence could be used to tie legal title deed to an asset to a coloured coin or counterparty asset (counterparty.co). The blockchain would then record the transfer of that title effectively incorruptibly. Such a decentralised solution would avoid corruption of the chain of title as occurred with MERS for housing in the US (resulting in banks foreclosing on the wrong houses, for example, see http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/homeowners-rebellion-could-62-million-homes-be-foreclosure-proof). Also it would make asset forfeiture through forgery of title impossible, or at least difficult (as happens in some countries with poor rule of law).
If you then marry these functions with the smart contract ideas that are floating around (but not realised) you can generate transactions (such as distribution) that execute based on conditions set by an oracle. But this is a bit further into the future, whereas the other ideas can already be executed.
These are just examples off the top of my head.
Not sure if this is what OP means:
>xg|","protocols":[{"name":"Proof of >Existence","display":"SHA-256 digest: >98c4e43147409ffb1ed435f5c498103607>19cd9de7e4304c3ea2c4da8b78677c","url>":"http:\/\/www.proofofexistence.com\/"}]}
To me this suggests something (possibly named Proof of Existence?) was encrypted with SHA-256 through www.proofofexistence.com.
I dont know anything about these sort of things though so might be wrong.
That's putting the cart before the horse.
First give Bitcoin value as a system and as a currency in its own right, then the merchants will come of their own accord.
What gives Bitcoin its value?
• Grey Markets
• Evading capital controls
• Immutable ledger for storing hashes of contracts, titles, etc. (e.g. proofofexistence )
• Unstoppable/uncensorable transaction ability (e.g. donations to WikiLeaks, picking up the slack when MC/Visa/Amex dropped Backpage).
thanks
and timestamped in the blockchain forever using http://www.proofofexistence.com/ :)
https://insight.bitpay.com/tx/347eda32bbcacb8ada975e32b25c3dcb57255093168457dd0d159d1f2cb10a15
http://www.proofofexistence.com/ proves that you had a document in a particular form at a particular time..
Counterparty and colored coins are worth looking into for that other stuff.. A lot of the contract stuff is pretty cutting edge and prototype, if it working at all. They will get there though.
> So just counting blocks would overestimate coins in circulation by a small amount.
Yes indeed; and also there are bitcoins that are known to have been sent to addresses where the private key is not known or where the transaction outputs are otherwise unspendable. You could choose to exclude these arbitrarily or not. Examples:
https://blockchain.info/address/1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE
Something like this?
> Before signing an NDA, you can keep a trusted proof of the knowledge you had in that field prior to to signing it.
Or
I generally oppose patents as it think the idea of imaginary is ridiculous and only (ab)used by market leaders to keep there position by stopping innovation.
That said http://www.proofofexistence.com/ should be helpful in your case.
When you make a transaction, you're actually locking money with a challenge script, which is a small program written in Bitcoin's built-in programming language.
One of the instructions this language understands is called OP_RETURN. It takes 40 bytes of data (now 80 bytes in Bitcoin Core 0.11.0):
http://bitzuma.com/posts/op-return-and-the-future-of-bitcoin/
You can see the data users have been adding through OP_RETURN here:
Any you can add some of your own data here:
Obviously your will needs to comply with the rules of your local jurisdiction.
If you mean you wish to ensure that the will is not tampered with and is publicly known.... then get a PDF of the signed/witnessed document, and get it notarized....
Usually, that means putting a hash of a file into an output through OP_RETURN:
http://bitzuma.com/posts/op-return-and-the-future-of-bitcoin/
Here's a convenient way to do ti:
You may be confusing two things:
You probably want to just keep the coins with ChangeTip so that fees aren't an issue until you figure out what to do with them. If you have some kind of application which uses a small amount of bitcoin that ChangeTip wallet may come in handy. Forget about the whole aging concept until you move out of changetip...
Here is an example of something you may be able to utilize with that ChangeTip wallet: http://www.proofofexistence.com/
Also, you could use Shapeshift.io to acquire another kind of coin which may open up new functionality. The wormhole goes deep fast. The interesting thing is that all of these applications become more useful as more people use them, so it's like a new world waiting to be colonized. Hop aboard, matey!
That's what startups are for. And free web apps: http://www.proofofexistence.com
There is a ton of opportunity for innovation on the blockchain because it's so complex and different from what we are used to.
I don't think your pitchfork does much against his statement. He's dismissing using Bitcoin as tokens of value, because it's irrelevant for his use case.
The basis of Singer's assertion that bitcoin will end world poverty, is that it facilitates property ownership by means of a decentralized public ledger.
> That means that I can actually record ownership in public, in a digital means...at its very basis, [the blockchain] has the ability to give these individuals the right of ownership to property. And that has more than anything else, the ability to bring them out of poverty.
You can argue until you're blue in the face whether you can have 'secured, distributed consensus without a valued token'. I'd agree, you need a value token as incentive to keep such a network in its purest form.
But Singer doesn't need to care about that, because for his use case of a property ownership ledger, you do not need to use bitcoins as tokens of value. All you need is a a minimal amount of actual bitcoins to write data to the blockchain, as evident by colored coins like Coinprism assets or Proof of Existence. How much value these tokens has is not Singer's problem, as long as its value and (consequently) its network hashrate doesn't go to 0 like some shitcoin. You can say that bitcoin has to have a binary outcome, either $0 or take over world currency, but pretty much anywhere inbetween including where we are at now, is perfectly fine for Singer's idea.
The actual challenges of the world population in poverty actually recording, transferring, and acknowledging property on the blockchain, or if the science even supports the notion that property ownership is the main thing holding the world's population in poverty... that's a separate discussion.
This could be done with a Ethereum DApp quite easily. But If I understand the paper correctly, the practical issue is that if someone manipulates the file (not the timestamp) just slightly, the manipulated file will generate a different hash signature than the one stored in the consensus system. Thus, potentially invalidating the process at least to some extent. While the time stamping and hash storage system is sound, the limitations, at least to my understanding, come from the hash generation and thumb-printing process. Maybe other crypto aficionados could shed more light on this. Also, if I'm not mistaken, this has been around for a while: http://www.proofofexistence.com/ - a similar concept.
Basically, it means its out of my hands. I can no longer "take down" the proof.
I think explaining how the proof works might be beyond the scope of this thread, but there is an excellent explanation about it here: http://www.proofofexistence.com/about
One way is to use http://www.proofofexistence.com/. The hash of the document is on the blockchain, not the information itself. It's a way to prove existence of a document with a time and date stamp without revealing the underlying information to the public. Good luck!
> perhaps because of that very real "universally objective truth" you apparently don't believe in. ;)
Oh, don't get me wrong. I feint, but I do believe in universal objective truth. I simply believe that its pursuit is beyond the ability of a mere mortal in our quotidian chores. And thus the comparison to TempleOS: not actually as a pejorative nor amusement, though it is those too, but because it really is the only example I can think of where such an attempt seems to be made, however incoherently.
Gotcha; I figured/hoped that was the unifying consistency in your view. So just to reiterate your point: Blockstream only transacts on the BTC blockchain to transfer BTC and does not use it for any of its sidechain business. The others use BTC inherently for data-transfer relevant to their sidechains/tasks and 'irrelevant to BTC', neh?
I guess the question to me becomes: if such fields exist and are considered standard in BTC, why shouldn't a person be allowed to use them? But your response, I presume would be "they shouldn't be allowed to operate in that fashion." But it seems a bit circular.
To bring it to another example: I would presume you're opposed to the document proof of existence concept as well then? Since it embeds information not directly relevant to a BTC transaction?
There are services such as ProofOfExistence.com that let you take a cryptographic hash of any computer file and store it in the Bitcoin blockchain.
So you could type your prediction into a text file, then use ProofOfExistence.com to prove that the document with that hash value existed on that date.
Then again, most people wouldn't understand how that proof works, so you'd have to have your nerdiest friend vouch for you that it's legit.
Edit: ProofOfExistence.com is a better example than I had previously used.
I'm super aware of this problem, I just can't make up my mind on what's the best way to structure the verify process. If you have some ideas please send them
You know that it's a seriously marginal use? This is not really giving any intrinsic value to gold imho.
In contrast there are a ton of uses of the blockchain. For instance certifying documents: http://www.proofofexistence.com/
First of all, that's kind of disconcerting for someone who claims/wants/hopes to speak for the bitcoin community. You should definitely try to educate yourself.
As for the hash, go to http://www.proofofexistence.com/ (made by /u/maraoz, @maraoz on twitter) and follow the steps. It's really easy.
I suggest you zip all the files you have together, then go to this website, choose the file (the site will hash the document client-side, meaning it doesn't get uploaded), then follow the steps. You do have to make a nominal payment in btc, and I'm aware you sold all yours, so if you don't have any bitcents floating around I'll give them to you.
When you finish the process, you'll have irrefutable proof that those documents existed on this date because the hash of them will be imbedded in the blockchain, which would be impossible to forge on a later date.
Author: homad
Content:
> http://www.proofofexistence.com comes to mind. Is there anything similar or more developed/ready with real esate in mind?
> 1&2) Kinda. You can prove that you're the first person to have embedded a hash of the finished product into the blockchain. However, this doesn't mean that you're the first one to create it (you may have taken someone else's work and embedded it before they got around to it).
To follow up on this answer, https://blocksign.com and http://www.proofofexistence.com/ are examples of services that allow users to insert the hashes of their files into the blockchain.
Edit: and on (3), maybe this could be done with stealth addresses, but I'm not too familiar with the back-end possibilities.
> It's volatile as shit.
That is historically true but not really any more. Bitcoin hasn't fluctuated more than a few percent in the last couple of months.
> It's no use as a safe haven, since value fluctuates so damn much.
It's better than a currency that is known to be inflating quickly...
> And you can't buy a whole lot of stuff with it, for most things you have to convert your bitcoins to normal currency, which just adds another step to the process.
That's not really a critique of the currency, just the size of the user base.
> It's useless shit
Not really; aside from the currency aspect, the world wide open ledger also allows things like proof of existence or asset tracking. But it's also useful as a currency where government currencies are not; trans-national transactions, e-commerce (without the need for giving away your name, address, DOB and mother's maiden name), small (under $1) transactions, etc.
> and there is no real reason to use it for anything other than illegal purchases.
I think you may need to do a bit more research before you make claims of this nature.
This is a website that does all of that for you, correctly, AND uploads the result to the bitcoin blockchain as a cryptographically verifiable 'public place' (reddit could, theoretically at least, be back-dated. The bitcoin blockchain cannot)
http://www.proofofexistence.com/
Edit: apparently that website requires you to pay them the bitcoin to add it to the blockchain. It's like a nickel, so if you actually want to do it, PM me and I'll pay it for you.
The best demonstration I know of is to do it yourself:
http://www.proofofexistence.com/
The magic part is OP_RETURN, which is 40 bytes of data attached to a transaction output.
http://bitzuma.com/posts/op-return-and-the-future-of-bitcoin/
Coinsecrets is a specialized block explorer that lets you look at various OP_RETURN messages:
Where did I say encryption? Bitcoin does not use encryption in the protocol. It's hashing. But what you can do is sign a message in the blockchain ("proof of existence") enabling you to prove that a certain document or transaction was made in the past.
For example; a bet that X=Y. Signed with my signature. It can be "embedded" in the blockchain and is impossible to fake.
For example this service: http://www.proofofexistence.com
How would you do that without a blockchain? You could simply change the date. I'm honestly interested.
In principle, yes:
http://www.righto.com/2014/02/ascii-bernanke-wikileaks-photographs.html
In practice, the length of the data is limited to 40 bytes:
http://bitzuma.com/posts/op-return-and-the-future-of-bitcoin/
This is more than enough to include a cryptographic hash of any data. You can try it for yourself here:
Cierto. Pero es que además ya existen las herramientas para hacer eso que dices: Es tán sencillo como coger un documento, escanearlo, por ejemplo a pdf, y después se hacen dos cosas:
Se registra aquí: http://www.proofofexistence.com/ o cualquier servicio similar
Se guarda en la red ed2k o en bittorrent.
Y listo. quedará publicado, archivado y catalogado y protegido contra alteración para siempre.
Aunque el coste de proofofexistence es mínimo (5mBTC) se puede reducir a cero usando una aplicación alternativa, o una propia, que es bastante fácil de desarrollar, por cierto..
*Lo que hace proofofexistence es calcular el hash del documento y guardarlo en la cadena de bloques (blockchain) del bitcoin, asociado a una transacción. El hash es un código que identifica a un documento y que será distinto aunque se cambie una sóla coma.
It used http://www.proofofexistence.com to verify digital file created by the author into the blockchain. A signed copy of a real world book both confers its provenance 'and' creates souvenir value. In this case the blockchain acts as an expert in handwriting analysis within a court. Its veracity then makes the file (which is actually mobile and fluid between Kindles) something of value (or not) depending if you think such a rare digital file carries value.
Obviously if your into Bitcoin then you generally find the fact that a digital file can have value palatable. That might not be the case for the general public...)
Pretty much.
Also see http://www.proofofexistence.com/about
As for the size, it's 40 bytes primarily to facilitate storing up to 2 20 byte RIPEMD hashes or a 32 byte SHA256 hash. I believe it used to be 80, and it got changed back to 40 at the last second before the 0.9 release. To increase this is strongly disputed because whether there's a good reason for it is arguable; a hash should suffice, so 40 byte should suffice. To store something greater than that is regarded as no more than blockchain bloat
Check out proof of existence:
http://www.proofofexistence.com/
A hash is a one-way function that reproducibly transforms any digital document into a (large) number. It's impossible to predict the number, but easy to verify that the number is correct - just run the hash function.
Proof of existence lets you write a hash value into the block chain. Because each block contains a time stamp valid to +/- ~2 h, this proves that your exact document existed on or around the block's timestamp. The hash is encoded as OP_RETURN data in a transaction contained in the block:
http://bitzuma.com/posts/op-return-and-the-future-of-bitcoin/
Notice that you can't do much just with the hash value. You need the document so that you can independently find its hash value and compare it with the value contained in the block chain.
Here are some ideas:
http://www.righto.com/2014/02/ascii-bernanke-wikileaks-photographs.html
That said, it's probably not feasible to store the message itself, but a "hash value" of the message. This tool can do it for you:
As others have pointed out, two options might be:
The key to both services is a recently-added Bitcoin feature called OP_RETURN:
http://bitzuma.com/posts/op-return-and-the-future-of-bitcoin/
>Why do almost all altcoins have a token if they aren't Bitcoin competitors? Either it's a marketing ploy, or their creators don't understand digital scarcity.
This Bitcoin Magazine article is 4 months old, so it's not "news" per se.
Yes, scam coins are a problem (which are dying off) but you understand Blocktech (and other companies) utilise the Blockchain paradigm for diverse things such as:
Blockchain proof of date/timestamp: http://www.proofofexistence.com/detail/d684c754ff4117657d51aa93e4c8bbc89f5a6a6a9d7d57fdbd63cf0ed72929b7
Registered: 2014-09-15 05:25:33
Transaction broadcast timestamp: 2014-09-15 06:26:41
Anyone can verify the time of the 7z themselves by dragging and dropping it into: http://www.proofofexistence.com/
Not copyright. Proof of existence http://www.proofofexistence.com/about
in the OP_RETURN you see DOCPROOF , which assumes that on June 4, 2014 they embedded some document to the block chain. although I have a hard time understanding how to decrypt this stuff to actually read it.
Running a hash algorithm over an arbitrary document isn't difficult or time consuming.
So far nobody has come up with a good use for old mining equipment other than space heating.
However, if you're talking about providing proof of existence, there's a service that does that:
I am content to live within society as it is now. I am aware of moral institutions and will either use them to my advantage, when I wish, dismiss them, or do my best to limit any impact they have on me. It is a game I enjoy.
I also like the idea of using warfare tactics to shape new institutions for my ends. The idea is to directly attack established institutions with the goal of weakening the minds of enemy decision makers. This can be done on multiple levels and institutions simultaneously i.e. challenging weak laws while garnering public support and at the same time by-passing the same law with new consensual laws on the blockchain
http://www.proofofexistence.com/
The blockchain is a decentralisated platform first and foremost, I feel too many people get caught up on the useless token that rides on top of the platform.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YHiuZeWyrE
The thinking here is to not champion the idea of decentralisation. Decentralised institutions will always be moral institutions, the idea is to strategically plan to both weaken and/or take down current institutions while building new replacements.
> A bit coin is not a commodity because it has no value outside what it represents
This is incorrect. There is a base value in Bitcoin - the ability to timestamp a hash without trust. Let me introduce you to http://www.proofofexistence.com/about.
This is similar to the base value of gold - if the markets collapse, you can still make gold teeth and gold-plated contacts, that's about it.
Ça peut aussi servir pour garantir l'existence de documents à une date donnée, ce qui a des applications pour certains actes notariés, certaines applications de propriété intellectuelle, etc... Enfin tout ça c'est en THÉORIE, hein. Il faudra de la jurisprudence avant qu'on en arrive là.
Exemple : http://www.proofofexistence.com/
This system is already implemented, albeit in a somewhat inelegant way given the current limitations of the protocol, at http://www.proofofexistence.com/ .
Bitcoin 0.9 with (I think?) provably prune-able outputs should make such implementations (and colored coins, and other things) a lot easier.
If you are interested there are many small applications developed here and there like http://www.proofofexistence.com/ which is a trustless proof of existance of a digital document on the bitcoin blockchain but these provide less value than a trustless asset issuance and exchange... Each of these second layer apps provide some value though..
I think your time would be well spent taking advantage of unused protocol features.
For example, Namecoin has always been 'able' to be used for registering nicknames that point to BTC addresses. But nobody actually did it. Now we have this: https://www.onename.io
Another example is this guy putting proof-of-existence into practice: http://www.proofofexistence.com
Some other untapped things include peer-to-peer gambling contracts, futures contracts on the Counterparty protocol, and inheritance wallets using a combination of nLockTime dead man's switches and multisignature transactions.
Bitcoin doesn't need to be used as a currency at such an early stage - you can just use it for the superior payment network, or for distributed timestamping (http://www.proofofexistence.com/).
It will be usable as a currency once enough value is pumped into it, making it liquid enough to absorb multimullion dollar exchanges without affecting the price much, but that's years away.
Well, if you were paid in gold, and gold price plummets, the fact that you can use gold in electronics is a poor consolation: if you do not own a factory, all you can do with gold is to sell it. So price is the only thing which matters.
While we are at it, bitcoins are not totally useless: they give one an ability to publish data on Bitcoin blockchain, in such a way that it will be securely timestamped, replicated thousands of times and stored forever. This might be useful, right?
http://www.proofofexistence.com/
> A stock is just a certificate with no other actual use.
Same can be said about bonds: no actual use. And about paper money...
>a system that allows a file to be created that cannot be duplicated
It's pretty much impossible to prevent somebody from copying a computer file on a software level, and Bitcoin most certainly does nothing to help that situation.
>and its ownership confirmed via the blockchain
You can do that though.
To prove that a file existed at some point in time, you can place its hash into the block chain. Check this tool out: http://www.proofofexistence.com/
There's another type of property ownership that you can prove with Bitcoin. Check out colored coins. There's still some development work to be finished, though.