Bitcoin Forum

I would like to announce my service called TimeScramble.com. What it does is allow you to create a message today that cannot be read until a date in the future.

For example I have time scrambled the private key to bitcoin address 1QE1FUsBZ3PHW5KoZpdH5Gk18UhwvZj2yz to be unreadable until 2013-03-15, GMT.

The vital information to get this bitcoin is here:

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
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=53LI
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----

To get the free bitcoin you need to go here: http://www.timescramble.com/2013-03-15

This website that is hosted entirely from Amazon S3 and Cloudfront provides a public key for each day for 30 years but only reveals the private key on its day. Now you can leave a message that simply cannot be read until the day you want it read.

Whoever fetches the private key and decodes the message first can import the bitcoin private key and transfer the bitcoin to the place of their choosing.

If anyone figures out how to get the bitcoin before it is supposed to be unlocked then show me how and I will give you 5 bitcoins.

I am also looking for someone with enough knowledge of html and javascript to improve the appearance of my site, which is really not that pretty at the moment.

One use of this is that you could encode the private key to your savings for 1 year in the future and give it to a loved one. Then as the time approaches and you are still alive you can move the funds to another address and give your loved one a key scrambled for another year.

This way you can keep a fund available in case of accidental or unexpected demise.

You can also create a trust fund that will reveal fixed amounts as time passes.

It can be used for making a prediction that you don't want revealed until after the fact, or even a "By the time you have read this I will be gone" note.

The idea is fine, but the implementation is bad, because it depends on system time of your Amazon instance I suppose. If I am an attacker and I gain root access on your machine, I can change the system time and reveal the secret.

Also why would anyone want to use this to postpone some bitcoin transaction to future? You can create a transaction that checks current block number in its script and when it is higher than some particular number (which you are able to calculate) it will transfer funds from one address to another.

There is no Amazon instance.

This using the Amazon Cloudfront CDN which allows uris with signed time restrictions. You would have to hack Amazon themselves. I have done as much as I could to make sure Amazon handled the security and uptime. Because I don't pay for an instance and host it off S3 and Cloudfront it is cheap and easy for me to keep this up for decades.

It was not invented for bitcoins, I am using bitcoins to promote it a bit by encoding the private key.

I've heard about this, can you link me to more info? would appreciate it a lot.

I think he is talking about this https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Script but I think it isn't enabled in any clients yet, the information about it is very rare.

I don't think Bitcoin has an operator that pushes the blockchain height onto the stack. Could you briefly describe how would you implement that check?

Bitcoin is an opensource effort. If there is the real need for this functionality, it will be added.

Well, this stuff was discussed already a couple of times. It is my understanding that the consensus is that it would create more problems that it would solve. It creates a circular dependency: a transaction is valid/not-valid depending on the block in which it was included.

It was my impression that while building a block you use data from previous block as well (so you can build the new one "on top" of it). These data contains not only the block number but also a timestamp.

This is getting way off topic.

This is not about sending bitcoins into the future, it is about sending information into the future. I am just using bitcoins as a prize to get people to check it out.

What future? It is about sending information to Mr. TimeScramble. Mr. TimeScramble is in posession of special snake-oil that somehow obscures the information for the pre-selected amount of time.

Serve a subpoena on you or on Amazon and boom! instant travel to the future.

What is the point of this exercise? Besides the obvious: snagging the private keys from the unsuspecting public?

And of course you will be alive and continue to run the website for the next say 50 years?

Clearly you have not looked at how it works. I don't get anyones private keys and nobody sends me information. It is a read only time delayed archive. Like a time capsule.

I thought people here might be into this but damn this community is cynical.

The website is automated, it runs off S3 and Cloudfront. Yes, I intend to be alive in 50 years, but the project as it stands ends in 2031. It will continue to run without any maintenance at all.

Your version of this idea is a very cool one. I hope you continue with this line of thinking. And yes, this is a cynical community. We've been scammed, ripped off, lied to, cheated, deceived, burnt, gypped, swindled and bamboozled. And that was before Bitcoin was developed. :)

Take the constructive criticism seriously and just ignore the obvious trolls and rageroids.

Only the cynical survive in the Bitcoin milieu. And your project just basically shows that you've neglected to consider side-channel attacks. How is anybody knowledgeable in cryptography supposed to believe that the random-looking text on your page is actually random?

I'm very curious where this project is going. I expect to learn a new way of harvesting the unsuspecting users of cryptography once the final site will be deployed.

ROFL, the 1 bitcoin didn't survive until 10th March - http://blockchain.info/address/1QE1FUsBZ3PHW5KoZpdH5Gk18UhwvZj2yz

LOL. So the Amazon instance got rooted, or OP removed the coins. Not really reassuring for potential users I guess.

Since you clearly did not read what I have already said, there is no amazon instance to get rooted. It runs off of S3 and Cloudfront.

I am not sure how they bypassed cloudfront's signed uris but whoever managed to take the bitcoin early I will pay 5BTC if you explain how you did it.

Nevermind, it looks like I did it to my self by accident. I thought I deleted the private key from my wallet but I left it in and then spent it.

Bone head move, will try this again later.