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Exactly the same thing can and is achieved with a distributed log (append-only database, distributed) controlled by different legal entities. No need for ETH t

Exactly the same thing can and is achieved with a distributed log (append-only database, distributed) controlled by different legal entities. No need for ETH there.

mananaysiempre 4y ago
No ETH or smart-contracty stuff is used by OpenTimestamps either, FWIW, they just periodically publish tree (log) hashes in a Bitcoin transaction. But yes, a Certificate Transparency-style system works too, provided you can get someone to run it. The problem is not even really the compute, which without proof of work should be negligible, but the durability (CT logs intentionally have limited lifetimes) and availability (CT logs are publicly accessible... for now, most of the time[1]). People have even talked about literally piggybacking on top of CT[2]. I’m not saying Bitcoin is an efficient solution here. Keybase had most of the technical side figured out[3], for example, and had it succeeded (or had a business model at all besides the geek appeal) I’d happily used it instead. But it is what we have right now. There are other efforts underway to build a CT-like design[4,5], and one is even running as long as Google is feeling like it[6]. [1] https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/tech/TLSCertTransLogsAndLoad https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/tech/TLSCertTransLo... [2] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Binary_Transparency https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Binary_Transparency [3] https://book.keybase.io/docs/server https://book.keybase.io/docs/server, see also https://book.keybase.io/docs/server/merkle-root-in-bitcoin-blockchain https://book.keybase.io/docs/server/merkle-root-in-bitcoin-b... [4] https://transparency.dev/ https://transparency.dev/ [5] https://www.sigsum.org/ https://www.sigsum.org/ [6] https://go.dev/blog/module-mirror-launch https://go.dev/blog/module-mirror-launch

Exactly the same thing can and is achieved with a distributed log (append-only database, distributed) controlled by different legal entities. No need for ETH there.

mananaysiempre 4y ago

No ETH or smart-contracty stuff is used by OpenTimestamps either, FWIW, they just periodically publish tree (log) hashes in a Bitcoin transaction. But yes, a Certificate Transparency-style system works too, provided you can get someone to run it. The problem is not even really the compute, which without proof of work should be negligible, but the durability (CT logs intentionally have limited lifetimes) and availability (CT logs are publicly accessible... for now, most of the time[1]). People have even talked about literally piggybacking on top of CT[2]. I’m not saying Bitcoin is an efficient solution here. Keybase had most of the technical side figured out[3], for example, and had it succeeded (or had a business model at all besides the geek appeal) I’d happily used it instead. But it is what we have right now. There are other efforts underway to build a CT-like design[4,5], and one is even running as long as Google is feeling like it[6]. [1] https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/tech/TLSCertTransLogsAndLoad https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/tech/TLSCertTransLo... [2] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Binary_Transparency https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Binary_Transparency [3] https://book.keybase.io/docs/server https://book.keybase.io/docs/server, see also https://book.keybase.io/docs/server/merkle-root-in-bitcoin-blockchain https://book.keybase.io/docs/server/merkle-root-in-bitcoin-b... [4] https://transparency.dev/ https://transparency.dev/ [5] https://www.sigsum.org/ https://www.sigsum.org/ [6] https://go.dev/blog/module-mirror-launch https://go.dev/blog/module-mirror-launch