4 ms·

This idea is generally called "trusted timestamping": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_timestamping http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_timestamping One e

This idea is generally called "trusted timestamping": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_timestamping http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_timestamping One example would be to take a photo of a rental car showing damage at the time you rented it and be able to prove it was taken at that time. Then the rental company cannot later claim you caused the damage. This is a pretty clever use of the blockchain as a publicly-visible and authenticated timestamp. This way, the site's owners do not have to establish themselves as a legal authority on timekeeping in order for this to be a trusted service.

diminish 13y ago
I was developing a similar online notary. My idea is to timestamp open code, docs etc create a prior case database against patent trolls and goliaths.
- AsymetricCom 13y ago
  Now I just have to trust their hashing algorithm..
  - emhs 13y ago
    Hashing is performed locally, probably via crypto.js, so you can verify it, I'd wager.
- nl 13y ago
  Are there any documented cases where that would help? It seems to me that the real problem is convincing a jury that a prior piece of work is related to a patented piece of work.
  - diminish 13y ago
    yes you might be right, NIST standardized timestamping methods are themselves full of patents. And I believe Jury would accept only those + a certified authority which would want to be testify in front of Jury.
    - nl 13y ago
      NIST standardized timestamping methods are themselves full of patents hu? And I believe Jury would accept only those + a certified authority which would want to be testify in front of Jury. I think you've missed my point. I'm saying that the problem isn't the TIME of the prior art, it is proving to a civilian jury that prior art relates to a patent.
arjunnarayan 13y ago
It turns out you can build a surprisingly wide variety of secure application with just a trusted timestamp (or even simpler, a trusted incrementing counter). This paper, published at NSDI 2009, (and won the best paper award) is a pretty good read: http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/78369/trinc_nsdi09.pdf http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/78369/trinc_nsdi09.pdf
DanielRibeiro 13y ago
Naval, founder of Angel List, has described[1] this and many other excitign usages of Bitcoin, going beyond basic money transfer: Everyone has a copy of the Bitcoin block chain, so anyone can verify your transactions. You can write software that will crawl the block chain and generate automatic accounting histories for tax and verification purposes. You can engaged in “Trusted Timestamping” – take a cryptographic signature of any document, timestamp it, and put it into the block chain. Anyone can verify that the document existed at a given time. If you sign the document with your private key and another party signs it with theirs, it becomes an undeniable mutually-signed contract. This entirely eliminates notaries and websites like https://www.proofofexistence.com/ https://www.proofofexistence.com/ are showing the concept. The Namecoin project is building a distributed Domain Name System that allocates and resolve Domain Names without needing ICANN or Verisign, by using the block chain to establish proof-of-ownership. Really worth a read. [1] http://startupboy.com/2013/11/07/bitcoin-the-internet-of-money/ http://startupboy.com/2013/11/07/bitcoin-the-internet-of-mon...

diminish 13y ago

I was developing a similar online notary. My idea is to timestamp open code, docs etc create a prior case database against patent trolls and goliaths.

AsymetricCom 13y ago
Now I just have to trust their hashing algorithm..
- emhs 13y ago
  Hashing is performed locally, probably via crypto.js, so you can verify it, I'd wager.
nl 13y ago
Are there any documented cases where that would help? It seems to me that the real problem is convincing a jury that a prior piece of work is related to a patented piece of work.
- diminish 13y ago
  yes you might be right, NIST standardized timestamping methods are themselves full of patents. And I believe Jury would accept only those + a certified authority which would want to be testify in front of Jury.
  - nl 13y ago
    NIST standardized timestamping methods are themselves full of patents hu? And I believe Jury would accept only those + a certified authority which would want to be testify in front of Jury. I think you've missed my point. I'm saying that the problem isn't the TIME of the prior art, it is proving to a civilian jury that prior art relates to a patent.

arjunnarayan 13y ago

It turns out you can build a surprisingly wide variety of secure application with just a trusted timestamp (or even simpler, a trusted incrementing counter). This paper, published at NSDI 2009, (and won the best paper award) is a pretty good read: http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/78369/trinc_nsdi09.pdf http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/78369/trinc_nsdi09.pdf

DanielRibeiro 13y ago

Naval, founder of Angel List, has described[1] this and many other excitign usages of Bitcoin, going beyond basic money transfer: Everyone has a copy of the Bitcoin block chain, so anyone can verify your transactions. You can write software that will crawl the block chain and generate automatic accounting histories for tax and verification purposes. You can engaged in “Trusted Timestamping” – take a cryptographic signature of any document, timestamp it, and put it into the block chain. Anyone can verify that the document existed at a given time. If you sign the document with your private key and another party signs it with theirs, it becomes an undeniable mutually-signed contract. This entirely eliminates notaries and websites like https://www.proofofexistence.com/ https://www.proofofexistence.com/ are showing the concept. The Namecoin project is building a distributed Domain Name System that allocates and resolve Domain Names without needing ICANN or Verisign, by using the block chain to establish proof-of-ownership. Really worth a read. [1] http://startupboy.com/2013/11/07/bitcoin-the-internet-of-money/ http://startupboy.com/2013/11/07/bitcoin-the-internet-of-mon...