1. Make a SHA1 hash of your document 2. Convert the hash to a BTC address 3. Send 0.0001 BTC to the address you made 4. There you saved yourself $9.99
Wouldn't it be possible to forge the SHA1 or a document?
Bitstamped
31–40 of 69 posts
Re: Bitstamped
#32I killed almost a year on a similar project and it flopped majestically . I even worked out how to do the whole verification part that it works out of the box without the need for any software or 3rd party service. You just needed a Windows box. Still that made no difference whatsoever, because ultimately selling this sort of service is like selling insurance. You have to force people to think about bad things that c…
I found your project when I was researching to see if anything like Bitstamped.io already existed.
One of the key differences with Bitstamped is that the publicly verifiable time-stamp (the QR code link) is circulated with the printed document.
So as well as the proof, it might also be a deterrent against plagiarism.
I bet a lot of start-up founders go through that anxious "what if someone steals my idea" phase whilst they're pitching it around.. Having some part of the business plan (doesn't have to be all of it) Bitstamped might just help alleviate some of that anxiety. Maybe.
Re: Bitstamped
#33Re: Bitstamped
#34I may be wrong, but I was under the impression most nodes are now opting not to store any "OP_RETURN" transaction.
I once thought about storing information into the Bitcoin blockchain for another use case, but found out that very few nodes would actually store it.
Re: Bitstamped
#35If I have to pay, then why shouldn't I adopt a RFC 3161 or X9.95 timestamp service? Some jurisdictions recognize them as notary-equivalent certified timestamps.
Re: Bitstamped
#36Like others have said, you're gonna have a really hard time getting Googled.
Re: Bitstamped
#37A version of this idea I really like is Crypto Stamp: http://cryptostamp.net/
What kills you with Bitcoin timestamping is transaction costs. It's fine for timestamping that one brilliant screenplay, but not timestamping every photo you ever take, every video created by your security system, every file pushed out to your distributed, decentralized backup network, etc. It doesn't open up any cool applications that aren't served by existing, cheap-but-not-free systems.
So with Crypto Stamp, they combine all the hashes for a given day into a single Merkle tree, and just store the root hash in the blockchain once a day. The tradeoff is, for each timestamp you have to store locally the few hundred bytes representing your branch of the Merkle tree. But in exchange, you can timestamp effectively unlimited files for effectively zero real cost. That opens up the kind of wacky game-changing applications that make Bitcoin interesting in the first place.
Re: Bitstamped
#38If I have to pay, then why shouldn't I adopt a RFC 3161 or X9.95 timestamp service? Some jurisdictions recognize them as notary-equivalent certified timestamps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_timestamping
If what you want is legal protection then indeed there is no reason. Signatures vended by timestamping authorities are good enough for all uses I can think of unless you absolutely need decentralisation, in which case paying $10 to this company defeats the point.
To get this service for free, just print your document to PDF, grab the free Adobe Reader, go to settings, signatures, click "Configure timestamping", then add a TSA server like:
http://timestamp.comodoca.com/rfc3161
or
or one of many others that are available. Then click "Work with certificates" in the sidebar and then Timestamp document.
As long as you can convince a judge that these are neutral third parties (very easy to do and there is much precedent) this should be satisfactory.
Or you could timestamp into the block chain, but then be prepared to spend a lot of time explaining to a confused judge why it's valid.
Re: Bitstamped
#39If I have to pay, then why shouldn't I adopt a RFC 3161 or X9.95 timestamp service? Some jurisdictions recognize them as notary-equivalent certified timestamps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_timestamping
If what you want is legal protection then indeed there is no reason. Signatures vended by timestamping authorities are good enough for all uses I can think of unless you absolutely need decentralisation, in which case paying $10 to this company defeats the point. To get this service for free, just print your document to PDF, grab the free Adobe Reader, go to settings, signatures, click "Configure timestamping", then…
Thanks Mike. Wish I knew about this trick yesterday before I sent out a sensitive document to a third party!
Re: Bitstamped
#40A version of this idea I really like is Crypto Stamp: http://cryptostamp.net/ What kills you with Bitcoin timestamping is transaction costs. It's fine for timestamping that one brilliant screenplay, but not timestamping every photo you ever take, every video created by your security system, every file pushed out to your distributed, decentralized backup network, etc. It doesn't open up any cool applications that aren…
I think you're right about the costs - Bitstamped is definitely better suited to use with a printed document, possibly just for a short period of time until formal legal protection can be secured, or even just for the purpose of quickly assuaging anxiety about an idea being copied..
Of course you could put a load of photos into one ZIP file and upload that, but that's not the intended use of the service.