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I'm confused as to what problem you are solving. If this is to recover a centralized account like FB, having them add 2FA is far simpler in every way. FB is alr

I'm confused as to what problem you are solving. If this is to recover a centralized account like FB, having them add 2FA is far simpler in every way. FB is already centralized and not anonymous so making its recovery decentralized and anonymous makes no sense. You specifically call out that Bitcoin has no account recovery and > 20% are lost forever. You never talk about how someone might recover a bitcoin private key. So how does this work for Bitcoin or any other crypto? Even if it did work, it doesn't solve the issue of the initial person being able to set a value on their account and the price a challenge you must offer. If there is a $1B account, someone can easily just make $0.01 challenges all day long. Now that this is luckily decentralized, I can run a node and catch an unsophisticated user's IP after a bit of monitoring. Now I only need to physically locate them and EMP their house and the $1B is mine. There is far too much hand waving in this idea and paper to be taken seriously.

jrpt 7y ago
I actually said in the paper that accounts can enable/disable it, and customize their price and duration depending on their use case. Also, I said that it's not secure against kidnapping, jailing, etc. but if someone's willing to physically attack you, they may also be willing to steal your laptop or beat you up to get your keys already: https://www.xkcd.com/538/ https://www.xkcd.com/538/
- quickthrower2 7y ago
  Can you answer to this point? > You never talk about how someone might recover a bitcoin private key. I skimmed the paper and it sounds like this doesn’t help with bitcoin but requires its own blockchain or smart contract.
  - jrpt 7y ago
    You don't actually recover the key, which is cryptographically impossible. You just get ownership of the account. Perhaps you can do it with Bitcoin's scriptSig, but it's easier to do it with a cryptocurrency like Ethereum. Or if you're designing a new system you might consider making it a part of the system.
    - Drdrdrq 7y ago
      An easier solution would be for challenger to supply a new account id, and if claim is successful, all the funds are transferred there. This can all be done via smart contract. Brilliant idea, love it!
      - snarf21 7y ago
        How can the funds be transferred if I still have the private key? Again, the question is who controls the keys? How can I still have my keys but the smart contract can transfer the "account" to a claimant that may or may not be me?
        dllthomas 7y ago
        You don't need to know the private key to move money if the network agrees that you don't need to know the private key to move money.
    - nybble41 7y ago
      Ownership of the account is determined by possession of the private key. Only the one with the key can spend from the account. In Bitcoin the way to implement this would be by transferring any funds in the account first to a time-locked escrow account and then to a new account for which the challenger possesses the key. It's doable but probably not worthwhile; IMHO the effort would be better spent on ensuring that you don't lose the key in the first place.
- snarf21 7y ago
  The difference is that crypto is somewhat pseudonymous. This scheme forces me to connect to this system constantly or lose my "account". I can never go cold storage. I have to put out a homing beacon at a high frequency which creates a new attack vector.

jrpt 7y ago

I actually said in the paper that accounts can enable/disable it, and customize their price and duration depending on their use case. Also, I said that it's not secure against kidnapping, jailing, etc. but if someone's willing to physically attack you, they may also be willing to steal your laptop or beat you up to get your keys already: https://www.xkcd.com/538/ https://www.xkcd.com/538/

quickthrower2 7y ago
Can you answer to this point? > You never talk about how someone might recover a bitcoin private key. I skimmed the paper and it sounds like this doesn’t help with bitcoin but requires its own blockchain or smart contract.
- jrpt 7y ago
  You don't actually recover the key, which is cryptographically impossible. You just get ownership of the account. Perhaps you can do it with Bitcoin's scriptSig, but it's easier to do it with a cryptocurrency like Ethereum. Or if you're designing a new system you might consider making it a part of the system.
  - Drdrdrq 7y ago
    An easier solution would be for challenger to supply a new account id, and if claim is successful, all the funds are transferred there. This can all be done via smart contract. Brilliant idea, love it!
    - snarf21 7y ago
      How can the funds be transferred if I still have the private key? Again, the question is who controls the keys? How can I still have my keys but the smart contract can transfer the "account" to a claimant that may or may not be me?
      - dllthomas 7y ago
        You don't need to know the private key to move money if the network agrees that you don't need to know the private key to move money.
  - nybble41 7y ago
    Ownership of the account is determined by possession of the private key. Only the one with the key can spend from the account. In Bitcoin the way to implement this would be by transferring any funds in the account first to a time-locked escrow account and then to a new account for which the challenger possesses the key. It's doable but probably not worthwhile; IMHO the effort would be better spent on ensuring that you don't lose the key in the first place.
snarf21 7y ago
The difference is that crypto is somewhat pseudonymous. This scheme forces me to connect to this system constantly or lose my "account". I can never go cold storage. I have to put out a homing beacon at a high frequency which creates a new attack vector.