4 ms·

Fascinating use case. As I understand it (and I don’t understand much in this space) this would require an “Oracle” to provide someones state (dead or alive) th

by harryf 6y ago

Fascinating use case. As I understand it (and I don’t understand much in this space) this would require an “Oracle” to provide someones state (dead or alive) thereby triggering the contract that releases whatever payload. Curious to see how this system will ensure the Oracle is reporting that correctly.

vinniejames 6y ago
Alternatively, this could be achieved by an affirmative action on the grantor's side. For example, require a signed transaction from a particular wallet every X months, if no transaction occurs, then trigger the switch
- kfichter 6y ago
  My favorite version of this is having a list of beneficiary addresses that can request to have access to the funds; you can cancel the request at any time within some time period. No fancy token required. I built a demo of this a while back: https://github.com/smartcontracts/dead-x-wallet https://github.com/smartcontracts/dead-x-wallet
  - fastball 6y ago
    Yeah, I think the problem with this is that you need some way to store data without anyone being able to read the data on the blockchain. There must be a middle-ground between your solution (dead simple) and the OP, which I find to be overly complex with all the "Curse", "Archeologist", etc. shenanigans.
    - qqii 6y ago
      Public key cryptography and using the same platform (https://www.arweave.org/ https://www.arweave.org/) would do.
      - fastball 6y ago
        But where do you store the private key?
        qqii 6y ago
        The private key is the dead-x-wallet contract.
  - qqii 6y ago
    I wonder what the gas costs are in comparison, contact deployment is reasonable expensive. I wonder if that's why they modeled it this way.
- qqii 6y ago
  This is exactly what is proposed, the signed transaction is just a transaction as all transactions are signed.
kfichter 6y ago
The general issue with this sort of oracle is the potential to create prediction markets based on someone's dead/alive state. I'm sure you can imagine why that could become problematic.
- ForHackernews 6y ago
  Sure, except it's way easier and legally less risky to compromise or co-opt the "oracle" than to murder somebody. This is the same problem every single foo-on-the-blockchain project faces: all the interfaces with the real, actual world are obvious vulnerabilities that obviate the supposed security benefits of this convoluted crypto system.
Jasper_ 6y ago
It won't.
qqii 6y ago
The oracle is the user who's locking up the file. They have to periodically call a smart contact to show they are alive.

by harryf 6y ago

vinniejames 6y ago

Alternatively, this could be achieved by an affirmative action on the grantor's side. For example, require a signed transaction from a particular wallet every X months, if no transaction occurs, then trigger the switch

kfichter 6y ago
My favorite version of this is having a list of beneficiary addresses that can request to have access to the funds; you can cancel the request at any time within some time period. No fancy token required. I built a demo of this a while back: https://github.com/smartcontracts/dead-x-wallet https://github.com/smartcontracts/dead-x-wallet
- fastball 6y ago
  Yeah, I think the problem with this is that you need some way to store data without anyone being able to read the data on the blockchain. There must be a middle-ground between your solution (dead simple) and the OP, which I find to be overly complex with all the "Curse", "Archeologist", etc. shenanigans.
  - qqii 6y ago
    Public key cryptography and using the same platform (https://www.arweave.org/ https://www.arweave.org/) would do.
    - fastball 6y ago
      But where do you store the private key?
      - qqii 6y ago
        The private key is the dead-x-wallet contract.
- qqii 6y ago
  I wonder what the gas costs are in comparison, contact deployment is reasonable expensive. I wonder if that's why they modeled it this way.
qqii 6y ago
This is exactly what is proposed, the signed transaction is just a transaction as all transactions are signed.

kfichter 6y ago

The general issue with this sort of oracle is the potential to create prediction markets based on someone's dead/alive state. I'm sure you can imagine why that could become problematic.

ForHackernews 6y ago
Sure, except it's way easier and legally less risky to compromise or co-opt the "oracle" than to murder somebody. This is the same problem every single foo-on-the-blockchain project faces: all the interfaces with the real, actual world are obvious vulnerabilities that obviate the supposed security benefits of this convoluted crypto system.

Jasper_ 6y ago

It won't.

qqii 6y ago

The oracle is the user who's locking up the file. They have to periodically call a smart contact to show they are alive.